R0BTRAIN's Bad Ass Cinema: Total Bond-age Part 14: A New Beginning For Bond

Even though Die Another Day was one of the most successful Bond films of the entire franchise, its aftermath was one of the most turbulent periods in the history of 007. While Pierce Brosnan’s run as Britain’s greatest secret agent had netted over a billion dollars worldwide, competition for 007’s crown has never been stronger. Arguably the Bourne films and the Mission: Impossible franchise each had as much notoriety as Bond, even with different stars. Spies have even returned to being a major force on Television in the last few years, as Kiefer Sutherland’s Jack Bauer has been lighting up the small screen with 24, not to mention other offerings like Alias and The Unit.

So it appeared that even though he had taken 007 into the new millennium, producers were showing Pierce Brosnan the door. Or were they? Rumors began flying around that Brosnan wanted to fight for his coveted role, as he campaigned in interviews to be able to do at least one more outing. Through decades of court battles over the rights of 007, EON Productions had finally acquired the story rights to Ian Fleming’s first Bond novel, Casino Royale, and when 007 finally had this adventure on the big screen, Brosnan wanted to be the man in the tux.

At one point, the actor had even enlisted the help of Quentin Tarantino, who was also willing to direct the picture and put it in the 1960’s. According to imdb.com Tarantino planned on adapting the adventure to where it took place directly after the events of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Talks took place, but they never went past that. Soon after, Producers announced that Goldeneye Director Martin Campbell would be helming his second Bond outing, and not only that, Casino Royale was going to be a prequel to James Bond’s adventures, only set in modern day. This announcement all but assured that Brosnan would not be returning as 007.

So who would play James Bond? Just as when Sean Connery and Roger Moore left Western cinema’s most enduring role, a huge search for the next 007 took place. Only this time, with the Internet adding fuel to the fire, the revolving door of rumors was nearly overwhelming. A host of actors were considered including Julian McMahon, Hrithik Roshan, Dominic West, Goran Visnjic, Sam Worthington, Alex O’Loughlin, Rupert Friend, Henry Cavill, and Gerard Butler. Finally, there were only two left to be considered, popular choice Clive Owen, and the relatively unknown actor Daniel Craig. When Craig finally won the role, it should have been time to get down to business, but the perils of being James Bond were just starting for Craig.

Even though Craig had already shown amazing acting chops for this type of role in films such as Layer Cake and Munich, Bond fans were not happy. Craig was not your prototypical Bond, with his blonde hair (though Moore’s hair was never really that dark) and his stocky build (is a muscular Bond really a bad idea?), and the internet became a firestorm of complaints and petitions, as websites such as craignotbond.com (which now seems to be on hiatus) and others popped up. In the end, this really amounted to nothing, as Casino Royale still came out and the poster for the movie still had Daniel Craig’s name on it. The theaters would be where this Bond’s ultimate proving would be. Success would mean a new direction for one of our most durable heroes. Failure would mean a place next to Timothy Dalton on the wall of obscurity.


Casino Royale Starring Daniel Craig, Eva Green, and Mads Mikkelsen. Directed by Martin Campbell.

For fickle 007 fans upset about Daniel Craig’s casting, I’m guessing the moment they realized that their fears were completely off-base comes in at about the 45 second mark of the movie. That’s the moment showing Bond at the grittiest point he’s ever been seen, battling a thug in a life and death struggle. Filmed in black and white, the two combatants relentlessly use their surroundings in a bathroom to savage effect, bringing images to the mind of Connery and Robert Shaw beating the living crap out of each other in the train cart in From Russia with Love. By the time the scene is over, we see the familiar gun barrel and blood drip, but we see a brutal side of Bond that has never come to light before “¦ever.

For Daniel Craig, this opportunity must have been irresistible, even with all the negative speculation. On the special edition DVD of The Living Daylights, a documentary gives insights into Ian Fleming’s thoughts on Bond’s background. He is said to have been an orphan, a commoner who had eventually learned to love the high life his job afforded him, but at first this veneer of sophistication simply didn’t take. This Bond was not the refined version that Moore or even Connery offered, but was rough around the edges. In Casino Royale, Judi Denc’s M refers to Bond as a blunt instrument, and this is the 007 that Daniel Craig gets to play.

Not only that, Craig gets to be the man who plays Bond as he develops into the hero he will be. He gets to put on a tux for the first time. He gets his first kills. He’s there when Bond learns about Aston Martin’s, and martinis. For an audience, it’s exciting to see these moments because we know what the future holds. It’s like seeing Anakin put on Vade’s mask for the first time, or seeing Bruce Wayne don the cowl and cape on his inaugural mission. By the time Craig, dressed in a blue version of Connery’s suit from Goldfinger, finally utters the immortal “Bond, James Bond” while the theme from Dr. No plays in the background, the moment is absolute magic.


It’s hard to see what fans could be complaining about as Craig takes the screen by storm as 007. His screen presence may not be that of Connery’s, but who could really match Connery in that department anyway. This Bond seems a little more quick-witted and really gets his hands dirty. Hell, he gets everything dirty, as evidenced by his onslaught on an embassy early on in the film, as guns fire and guards get beaten down. By the end of the sequence, Bond is covered in filth and surrounded by bodies.

What makes me really love this performance, are the subtle things Craig does to make the role his own. For instance, Casino Royale marks the first time in my eyes that Bond “moves” like an agent would. Watching Tomorrow Never Dies recently, I noticed how nonchalant Pierce Brosnan looked when carrying a weapon. Now I know that part of the appeal of Bond is his effluence, but after watching Jack Bauer and Jason Bourne you get this picture in your mind of how an efficient agent moves. With Craig, I get that sort of sense, like he’s deadlier than any version of 007 we’ve ever seen before. This is the hero Ian Fleming was writing about.

Another positive is that Craig never plays Bond for laughs. Now, don’t get me wrong, you’ll NEVER find a bigger Roger Moore fan than me, and I’ll defend his version of 007 till the end, but it was really nice to see this type of change of pace in Craig’s Bond. That isn’t to say that he doesn’t have some great one-liners, which is a Bond staple, especially during the film’s sure to be famous torture scene.


Of course, a 007 movie can’t be all Bond; it’s got to have all the right ingredients to the Bond formula to make it work. First of all, the movie’s got Ian Fleming’s villain, Le Chiffre down pat. Played by Mads Mikkelsen, Le Chiffre isn’t a megalomaniac or fearsome giant. He’s a determined competitor and financier of worldwide terrorists (updated from the KGB connections from the novel). His scarred eye lets him look the part of Bond heavy, but Mikkelsen takes the role seriously. He’s a man who’s lost a ton of his investors’ money, unknowingly due to 007’s interference. He’s desperate and basically on the run, knowing all he has left is his gift of playing cards.

So instead of a huge, underwater fortress or ice palace, our hero and villain meet in a casino, and both have stakes to play for. If Bond wins, he’ll be able to capture Le Chiffre, and hopefully be able extract information about his contacts, saving thousands of lives. Le Chiffre is basically playing for his life, and losing is not an option. I love that Casino Royale’s conflict is more cerebral than any Bond has ever had to face, and that no matter how many gadgets and guns he could have, it won’t help him. That’s not to say that the film doesn’t have enough action, because it definitely does (perhaps even too much at one point), but instead of the absurd, Casino Royale plays its strengths close to the vest.


Another terrific element of the film is its love story, which is one of the most genuine of the entire Bond franchise. The film’s Bond Girl, Eva Green’s Vesper Lynd, is definitely in the top tier of this category, deeper in character than any Bond Girl since Tracy Di Vicenzo in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Green is also deceptively beautiful, not outwardly sexual like so many of her predecessors. As you, and Bond for that matter, gradually warm to her, the effect is mesmerizing, giving you a strong emotional attachment to Vesper as opposed to the usual Bond Girl lust.

The entire package reaches a level the likes of which I thought Martin Campbell not even capable. While Goldeneye was a wonderful return to form for 007, Casino Royale is a reinvention, which I almost thought was impossible at this point in time. In the last decade, 007 has had to keep up using Bond bombast, but Casino Royale went the opposite way, making us feel like we did watching the low key Bond entries like On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, From Russia With Love and For Your Eyes Only. The picture is a taut, emotionally charged Thriller that, while it does go on a little too long, is certainly the most satisfying Bond in decades.


The closing moments of the movie are some of those seminal moments in the history of this franchise, like Connery’s first introduction, Bond’s near execution from Goldfinge’s laser, the cliff jump and parachute in The Spy Who Loved Me and Goldeneye’s tank chase. Perhaps the biggest thing that Casino Royale is able to do, is make us want to see more Bond films and see them right now, which is an energy the movie’s haven’t really had in a long time. Like the best of the series, Casino Royale makes you rethink what a Bond film can be, and makes you hope that they’ll keep up this momentum in the films to come.

Picture Credits: impawards.com, commanderbond.com

Robert Sutton feels the most at home when he's watching some movie scumbag getting blown up, punched in the face, or kung fu'd to death, especially in that order. He's a founding writer for the movies section of Insidepulse.com, featured in his weekly column R0BTRAIN's Badass Cinema as well as a frequent reviewer of DVDs and Blu-rays. Also, he's a proud Sony fanboy, loves everything Star Wars and Superman related and hopes to someday be taken seriously by his friends and family.