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| Daniel Craig in Casino Royale; (below) Eva Green in the film |
The film
First things first. Casino Royale is the best James Bond film ever and yet it is not a James Bond film the way we have known it for the last four decades.
Yes, there is a master spy but only just. At the beginning, his just-earned double-0 status is almost taken away because he is a “blunt instrument”. Somewhere in the middle, he himself resigns the MI-6 job. And it is only at the end that he speaks the words we all wait for: “The name’s Bond, James Bond.” What’s more, the signature tune is played only with the final roll of the credits.
Casino Royale is about how just another 00 agent is battered, bruised and betrayed to blossom into 007, into the James Bond. In that sense, the film remains true to its working title — Bond Begins. For, very much like Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins, Martin Campbell’s film unlearns the rules of the Bond game and lays them out afresh, thus setting the stage (or rather screen) for an-all new franchise.
And, to be honest, 007 did need a rebirth having been reduced in the last few outings to just another gadgety, high-octane action thriller with come-on-say-it-now one-liners and come-on-show-them-now set-pieces.
The magic of Casino Royale lies in the love story at the heart of all the dhoom-dhadaka. The romance between James Bond and Vesper Lynd is so electric and enigmatic that at times you end up hoping that they live happily ever after and flout Ian Fleming’s storyboard.
By returning to the master storyteller’s first Bond book, the makers (the Broccoli family) have been able to take James Bond out of a world of fantasy to a real and relentless ride where blood and sweat blend seamlessly with blondes and style.
So, Bond returns to good old school no-frills film-making. They don’t even allow you to rest your eyes on that stunning Aston Martin DBS (colour: Casino Ice). It’s all rolled over even before you can say WOW!
Directorspeak: “This is Bond’s first 00 mission and he has a lot to learn. He’s thinking more with his heart than with his head, and things go wrong. But by the end of the movie he’s becoming the man we know. This is more realistic and more emotionally involving than previous films” — Martin Campbell.
The man
In Kill Bill, Budd tells Elle: “If you’re gonna compare a Hanzo sword, you compare it to every sword ever made, wasn’t made by Hattori Hanzo.” Taking a cue from QT (Quentin Tarantino) language, when you compare a James Bond, you compare him to every man who ever played and didn’t play James Bond.
Daniel Craig holds his own, and how. Yes, Sean Connery was the popular choice, Roger Moore the favourite of Fleming fans and Pierce Brosnan the coolest one but just a few minutes into Casino Royale you know who the man who wrote Bond would have picked to play Bond — Daniel Wroughton Craig.
So, no offence meant to the Connerys and Brosnans, it’s just that Dan lives 007, rather than wearing the tag on his sleeves.
Tough, thuggish, no-nonsense, spontaneous, vulnerable (and, yes, blond)... Daniel Craig brings a hunger and urgency to James Bond that the franchise badly needed.
Watch him bust the most popular Bond myth when the bartender asks him about his Vodka Martini: “Shaken or stirred?” Our man Craig retorts: “Do I look like I give a damn?” Gulp!
Bondspeak: “I wanted to do as much of the action work as I could, so that the audience can see it’s me and it’s real. If you don’t get bruised playing Bond, you’re not doing it properly” — Daniel Craig.
The women
There’s always more cleavage than character in a Bond film but not so with Casino Royale. And in many ways, Eva Green’s Vesper Lynd is more important to the film than Bond himself, because she makes him what he will become in the (books and) films to follow.
The alluring French actress, discovered by Bernardo Bertolucci, is a real dream. With loud make-up and without it, with killer lines and without them, Eva sets the screen on fire, a fire that can only be doused by Bond’s ice- blue eyes. A Bond lady has never looked or sounded better and there lies a secret to the film’s wholesome flavour.
The other Bond babe is Solange — far more conventional — played by Caterina Murino, has precious little to do other than crawl on Dan’s bare chest and walk the beaches in a bikini. No novelty there!
And what does one even begin to say of Judi Dench? Just watching her play M is like enrolling in an acting workshop. As Bond’s boss, Dench is just brilliant, and thanks to guest screenwriter Paul Haggis, she has more to say and do this time.
Ladyspeak: “Vesper is a complex person. She is full of secrets and I think that is why James Bond is attracted to her. She and Bond spark off each other, they are always bantering and they understand each other on the surface” Eva Green.
“With Bond and Solange the energy is purely sexual; it’s chemistry” — Caterina Murino.
“I’m drunk with power” — Dame Judi Dench.