Ian Fleming's Classic, Reborn - Collins Perez

Ian Fleming’s Classic, Reborn

         Collins Perez

Perez       2

       Collin Perez

       Dr. Holly Larson

       FIL 2001

       February 24, 2012

                                  Casino Royale
Introduction
       Before marrying his long-time girlfriend in 1953, self-proclaimed bachelor, Ian Fleming,

went off to Jamaica to write, what he deemed, ―the definitive spy novel.‖ In many ways, that

book, Casino Royale, served not only as Fleming‘s mournful farewell to the life of excitement

and frivolities he had enjoyed as an intelligence officer, but would also go on to be the medium

through which many men escaped the realities of everyday life and entered into a universe of

danger, passion, and pleasure. For it was that book that began one of the most well known

franchises in movie history, the James Bond series.

       There has been a long held misconception that the 1962 film, Dr. No, which stars the

distinguished Sean Connery, was James Bond‘s debut appearance on the silver screen. Sadly that

myth proves to be false. It reality, the character first appeared in a television play almost 10 years

earlier. Barry Nelson had played Jimmy Bond in a television adaptation of Casino Royale and

subsequently, the rights to the very first bond novel ever written were tied up, which prevented

Harry Saltzman and ―Cubby‖ Broccoli from acquiring it when they secured the rights to the rest

of the Bond series from Fleming. It wasn‘t until 1997 when MGM sued Sony Pictures for the

rights to Casino Royale that Broccoli‘s Eon Productions, which was responsible for producing

the entirety of the Bond series, was able to do justice the Fleming‘s original work. The New York

Perez        3

Times quoted Frank G. Mancuso, MGM's chairman, as saying, ―‗The end of this case reaffirms

that James Bond resides at one address -- that of MGM and [Eon], his constant home for the

last 37 years’“ (Sterngold, par 3).

         The challenge then came of how to approach the 21st Bond film to producers Michael G.

Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, who now command‘s Eon in her father‘s stead. ―It seemed like

this was the great opportunity. The opportunity had been missed all the way along and we could

finally make Casino Royale the way it should be.‖ (Wilson). The question remained, where to go

now.

       In Casino Royale, Bond takes on a much tougher, much grittier form. Gone are the days

of sour one-liners and fantastic gadgets. The villain‘s lair in a hollowed out volcano and

helicopters with spinning saws have given way to a much more realistic, more believable Bond.

A Bond not born from fantasy, but one we imagine could populate our present world. One we

could envision walking the halls of British MI-6 or the American CIA or the Israeli Mossad. He

is as real as the problems we face to day.

       The story begins with Bond, played by Daniel Craig, at the very beginning of his career,

with the opening scenes showing him earning his ―00‖ status by brutally killing a dirty MI-6

Section Chief suspected of selling secretes and his contact. Bond then travels to Madagascar

where he chases a bomb-maker, Mollaka (played by Sebastian Foucan), from a gambling ring,

through a construction zone, and eventually to the Nambutu Embassy. Cornered by guards, Bond

shoots Mollaka and a fuel canister, which covers his getaway and allows him to steal Mollaka‘s

phone. In the process, however, Bond is caught killing the man by a security camera at the

compound, which quickly circulates through the media with the caption ―MI6 kills unarmed

prisoner‖ and earns Bond a severe tongue lashing from his superior, M (played by Judi Dench).

Perez         4

After tracing a cryptic text message from the suspects phone to the Bahamas, M tells Bond to

―go and stick your head in the sand somewhere and think about your future. Because these

bastards want your head, and I‘m seriously considering feeding you to them.‖

       Bond follows the lead to the Ocean Club in the Bahamas to find out Mollaka‘s employer,

compulsory gambler, Alex Dimitrios (played by Simon Abkarian). After seducing Dimitrios‘

beautiful and estranged wife, he learns Dimitrios is leaving for Miami to arrange a ―job‖ which

turns out to be a terrorist attack at the Miami International Airport. After restoring her faith in

him by foiling the attack, M informs Bond that Dimitrios was working as a middleman for

someone known as Le Chiffre (played by Mads Mikkelsen) who not only is a mathematical

genius but also works as a financier to the world‘s terrorists, investing their money and in return

giving them access to it whenever they want it. After the foiled attack, Le Chiffre loses a large

portion of a key client‘s investment, which leads him to front a high stakes poker game at Casino

Royale in Montenegro. M enters Bond in the contest because he is ―the best player in the

service‖ and if Le Chiffre loses, MI-6 will be able to offer him sanctuary in return for everything

he knows.

       In route to Montenegro, Bond meets the beautiful and illusive Vesper Lynd (played by

Eva Green) who represents the Treasury Department, as he needs the government to front the 10

million dollar buy-in for the tournament. ―I‘m the money,‖ she says as she sits down, later telling

him, ―I suppose you‘ve given some thought to the notion that, if you lose, our government will

have directly financed terrorism?‖

       After an icy first conversation with Vesper, Bond collects a gorgeous Aston Martin DBS

left for him outside the hotel and meets with-up his MI-6 contact, Rene Mathis (played by

Giancarlo Gainnini). ―Does he know we‘ve been watching him?‖ Bond asks.

Perez         5

       ―Who, Le Chiffre? I don‘t think so. Probably because there‘s no we, just me. I‘m afraid if

you get into trouble here, the cavalry wont be coming over the nearest hill.‖

       Bond then enters the tournament, quickly discovering that Le Chiffre has a ―tell‖ when

he‘s bluffing. Bond relays the information to Vesper and Mathis and soon after is forced to go

all-in to call the bluff, but instead of winning, Le Chiffre reveals he has two Jacks, giving him

four Jacks total, which beats Bond‘s full house. ―You must have thought I was bluffing, Mr.

Bond,‖ Le Chiffre tells him. When Vesper refuses to front him the needed 5 million for the re-

buy because she thinks he is arrogant and reckless, Bond becomes senselessly enraged, almost

carrying out a suicide mission to blow his cover and indiscriminately kill Le Chiffre, yelling at

Mathis to, ―get the girl out.‖ But, before he can, he is stopped by another one of the players in

the competition who introduces himself by saying, ―funny game right? Sorry, should have

introduced my self, seeing as how we‘re related. Felix Leiter, a brother from Langley.‖ Leiter,

believing Bond is able to beat Le Chiffre, then offers to personally front him the money under

the condition that when he beats Le Chiffre, the CIA gets to take him in, rather than MI-6.

       ―And what about the winnings?‖ Bond asks.

       ―Does it look like we need the money?‖ Leiter responds.

       Bond then buys back in and attacks Le Chiffre throughout the game relentlessly, and

despite being poisoned by Le Chiffre‘s femme fatale companion, manages to beat him with a

straight flush. By this time, Bond has developed strong feelings for Vesper, saying of his iconic

martini, ―You know, I think I‘ll call that a Vesper.‖

       ―Why, because of the bitter aftertaste?‖ she quips.

       ―No. Because once you tasted it, its all you want to drink.‖

         The two are soon after captured by Le Chiffre who says, ―I‘m afraid that your friend

Perez         6

Mathis is really my friend Mathis,‖ and tortures him in order to gain the password to the account

holding the winnings. But Bond and Vesper are eventually freed when one of the clients breaks

in, the elusive ―Mr. White,‖ and kills Le Chiffre for breaking his trust, leaving the two to be later

found by MI-6. After recovering in a hospital, Mathis is taken into custody, leaving Vesper and

Bond to fall madly in love. Bond tenders his resignation to M and resolves to float around the

world with Vesper, ―until one of us has to get an honest job.‖ The two sail to Venice, where all

is well until Vesper‘s checkered past comes back to haunt her.

                                                      ~

Cultural Phenomenon

       Although the basic Bond-formula of danger and desire remains, Casino Royale takes a

key and drastic turn in relation to previous installments. Perhaps the biggest of these changes

comes from the depiction Daniel Craig gives the character: a Bond who is relentless and ruthless,

cold and calculating. Not the gun bearing Casanova Pierce Brosnan portrayed, but an

unstoppable, righteous force of justice acting on behalf of Her Majesty.

       Part of this drastic change in character came about as a result of the climate in which the

movie was written. In the documentary on the special features DVD, producer Barbara Broccoli

shares that, ―the world has changed a lot. It‘s a more serious world and I think we expect our

heroes to fight the battles with better judgment and more responsibility and with less frivolity.‖

       Casino Royale premiered in 2006, just five short years after the September 11 terrorist

attacks. The images of the falling towers and chaos were still fresh in our minds. In fact the

effects of 9/11 have had such an impact that John Belton created a specific genre for post-9/11

Perez        7

films in his textbook on American Cinema. Belton states that, ―If Hollywood cinema has, over

the years, become extremely adept at staging our unconscious desires, the events of 9/11 have

forced us to confront them in ways we never quite imagined‖ (pg. 417). It becomes obvious that

we as American moviegoers have been fascinated with the ―disaster movie‖ when looking at

films from the 90‘s, which regularly feature scenes of mass chaos and hysteria. Films like Deep

Impact and Armageddon have depictions of comets and meteors slamming into the earth and

wiping out massive population centers in seconds, while in Independence Day alien warships

center themselves over famous landmarks and graphically obliterate buildings such as the White

House and Empire State building.

         It could be argued that these depictions of death on such a widespread scale not only

revealed our inner fascination with disasters, but also numbed us to the emotions associated with

such disasters. But, why should we have felt otherwise? For the last comparable event to the 9/11

attacks we would have to look back the attack Pearl Harbor in the, but in all actuality, the last

full fledge assault on American soil would have occurred in the War of 1812, nearly 190 years

prior.

         The scale and effect of the emotional impact on the populace was incalculable. No longer

were these the inventions of the gilded filmmaker being portrayed on a giant silver screen, these

were tangible, physical events occurring in our proverbial ―backyard.‖ Suddenly, the screams of

fear and agony coming from our televisions weren‘t those of nameless, faceless beings placed

out of sight and out of mind, they were our neighbors, our friends, our fellow countrymen. The

events of 9/11 shattered the crystal façade of safety we had constructed, gashed a hole deep into

the American psyche, and struck a nerve deep with our sense of self. As a collective heart, we

were at a moment of our highest vulnerability, not from outside physical danger, but from the

Perez         8

deep agony of the injustice dealt and innocence lost.

         What we needed in that moment was a hero. Some one who stood for justice, protected

the weak, and avenged the violated, and Hollywood was only happy to oblige us. During this

time the superhero genre was resurrected, with the reviving of DC and Marvel comic franchises

through the installments of Spiderman, Superman Returns, and Batman Begins. According Lisa

Funnell in ―I Know Where You Keep Your Gun‖: Daniel Craig as the Bond—Bond Girl Hybrid

in Casino Royale, ―As a response to the digitization of technology and the fracturing of a post-

9/11 America, these films appear to look back nostalgically to the heroic models and cultural

icons of the 1980s‖ (pg. 461).

         Casino Royale serves two prospective purposes.

         Firstly, it promotes the character of James Bond to that of superhero status. Bond, now

our cold arbiter of justice rather than some flippant dandy, systematically silences the moles in

our system, indiscriminately shoots the bomb-makers execution style, seduces the gunrunners

wife before stabbing him in a crowded exhibition hall, and, just for kicks, foils an attempted

terrorist attack, using the rest of the movie to wage war against the Le Chiffre‘s at the poker

table.

         He is not perfect.

         He has his vices.

         He takes the occasional blow – such as being poisoned.

         But he does his job; he shakes it off and then smokes the villain in the end. ―More

intense, more morose, more independent, Craig's Bond shares more character traits with

Christian Bale's Batman, Hugh Jackman's Wolverine, and Edward Norton's Bruce Banner/Hulk

than he does with the previous James Bond actors,‖ (pg. 11) says Robert Arnett in his ―Casino

Perez        9

Royale and Franchise Remix: James Bond as Superhero.‖ He becomes the hero we need him to

be. Not an element of fiction, but a being who operates within our own reality.

       Secondly, Casino Royale serves to revisit the events of 9/11 in an effort to forge our

affections to the Bond character. Much like the character Jack Bauer from the hit television

show, 24, Bond is called upon to break the rules to thwart terrorism and take on this image of our

―troubled-savior‖. At the airport, there are scenes of terror and panic as the fleeing terrorist

activates the emergency sprinkler system. In a crowded hallway, Bond, while in pursuit and on

the phone with M, stoops to pick up a woman who slips in front of him and would certainly be

trampled in the rush for the exits.

       This extremely uncanny act of selflessness is highly uncommon in Bond‘s of the past,

and like Arnett states, is more inline with an action hero. This scene is poised against the

backdrop of a terrorist at a crowded airport driving a bomb-laden fuel tanker towards a target

while airplanes swoop down from the sky. Bond‘s environment in this scene invokes images of

9/11 in an effort to draw us closer to him. M later reveals to Bond that, after 9/11, some one had

bet the opposite on airline stocks and made a fortune when they hit bottom on 9/12. ―The same

happened with SkyFleet, or was supposed to. With their prototype destroyed the company would

be in bankruptcy. Instead, someone lost nearly 100 million dollars betting the wrong way,‖

further serves to prove the point.

                                                      ~

Chapter Review

Perez      10

       Because of Casino Royale heavily draws from the post 9/11 pallet of emotions to help the

viewer better relate to the bond character, one utilizing the Beltonian mode of characterization

would be tempted to file the film away under the very small, very narrow subheading in

American Cinema/American Culture‘s Chapter 17 on “Hollywood’s Response to September

11.” However, writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, as well as Director Martin Campbell,

painted Casino Royale with a broad brush and incorporated elements found in other chapters of

the book. In fact, rather than being able to fit one sole characterization, there is a general ebb and

flow to the film.

       The starting point for Casino Royale begins in Chapter 17. This section refers mostly to

films such as Oliver Stone‘s World Trade Center, and United 93 that directly address the events

of 9/11. The book states that these movies were not made until 2006, ironically, the same year as

Casino Royale. Due to shear emotional impact, the American audience simply was not ready to

deal with reliving such painful memories. The post 9/11 template is chiefly contained within the

first portion of the movie. Here Bond pursues the bomb-maker Mollaka who utilizes homemade

weaponry, such a crude explosive detonated by a cell phone (Improvised Explosive Device)

reminiscent of devices implemented by many of the world‘s terrorists. He then hunts down the

run runner, pursues the terrorist to the airport, and is briefed on Le Chiffres‘s end-game plan to

use terrorist acts to influence the stock-market.

       However, almost from his first interactions with Vesper Lynd aboard the train to

Montenegro, the mood shifts to that of a Melodrama from Chapter 6. According to Belton, ―the

melodrama, unlike the Western or the detective film, is a modal genre. But there is a genre called

‗the melodrama‘ that features conventional character types, such as heroes, heroines, and

Perez       11

villains, as well as predictable plot elements, such as improbable reversals of fortune, accidents,

and last-minuet rescues‖ (pg. 129). Casino Royale is rich with these thematic elements.

       Bond‘s inexplicable loss to Le Chiffre after he reveals the ―tell‖ to Mathis and Vesper is a

key example of ―improbable reversals of fortune,‖ when considering Bond‘s extreme knack for

playing poker and keen knowledge of the game. His fortune then switches again when Felix

reveals himself to be a CIA agent and agrees to buy Bond back into the game after Vesper

refuses, and yet once more when Bond beats Le Chiffre in the final round with a straight flush.

       There are several ―accidents‖ along the way in Montenegro, chief of which are when Le

Chiffre‘s female companion poisons Bond‘s martini after Felix buys him back in, and Bond‘s

high-speed crash while pursing Vesper‘s abductors in his Aston Martin. The poison incident is

also indicative of the ―last-minuet rescue.‖

       After realizing he‘s been poisoned, Bond hurries to the bathroom to down a glass of salt

water to purge himself of the toxin. He then stumbles out of the Casino to the Aston Martin

parked outside which is equipped with, of all things, an EpiPen and a defibrillator. But just when

he presses the button on the defibrillator to prevent his heart from stopping, as advised by MI-6

doctors directing him over the phone, he realizes just before blacking out that one of the wires to

the leads on his chest is unplugged. And who should come trailing along just before his heart

monitors go flat but Vesper, who quickly attaches the wire and presses the button, shocking our

hero back to life.

       A second instance is after Bond flips the Aston Martin in an effort to dodge a bound

Vesper left in the middle of the road while in pursuit of Le Chiffre. Bond blacks out and when he

comes to is in an abandoned barge where a desperate Le Chiffre tortures him in an effort to gain

a password to the account holding all of the winnings. Just as Le Chiffre is about to relieve Bond

Perez       12

of those appendages that define his masculinity, who would burst into the room but Le Chiffre‘s

disgruntled, gun bearing client, Mr. White.

       ―I‘ll get the money. Tell them I, I‘ll get the money,‖ says a shaken Le Chiffre.

       ―Money is as valuable to our organization as knowing who to trust,‖ says White as he

dispassionately shoots Le Chiffre and walks out, leaving Vesper and Bond free to escape.

       The next genre element is harder to constrain to one specific segment of the film. Rather,

it is an underlying tone carried throughout the entirety of the movie. In the

―Masculine/Feminine‖ segment of Chapter 9, War and Cinema, the chapter insinuates that drill

instructors, such as R. Lee Ermy in Full Metal Jacket (1987) and Gregory Peck in Twelve

O’Clock High (1949) repeatedly challenge the manhood of recruits in an effort to overcome that

which is considered weak. In a similar way, Judi Dench‘s character, M, assumes this role in

shaping and forming the young Bond into the agent he will become. ―Throughout Casino Royale,

M and Bond negotiate what kind of person/agent Bond becomes,‖(pg. 12) states Arnett.

       Judi Dench first assumed the role of Bond‘s superior in Golden Eye (1995), which was

the same film Pierce Brosnan debuted in as Bond. Martin Campbell, who directed Golden Eye,

would also return with Judi to make Casino Royale. This film is unique in that it was the first

time the character M was ever portrayed by a female character, which adds an entirely new range

of dynamics to the franchise. ―M reveals an almost-complete inversion of Fleming's sexism: a

woman superior corrects the male's attitude about his emotional reaction blinding him to the

truth of the situation. Bond's maturity, more accurately the maturity of the franchise, accepts

women as figures of authority‖ (Arnett, pg. 12).

       In Golden Eye, M does not try to conceal her distain for Bond, calling him ―a sexist,

misogynist dinosaur.‖ And yet, according to Tony Garland‘s ―The Coldest Weapon of All‖: The

Perez      13

Bond Girl Villain in James Bond Films, ―M combines condemnation that extends beyond the

criticism of a senior manager with an almost maternal concern: after telling Bond she has no

compunction to send him to his death, she tells him to come back alive‖ (pg. 184-185).

          Dench directs this same attitude of displeasure towards Craig‘s current interpretation of

Bond‘s beginnings at MI-6. ―How the hell could Bond be so stupid? I grant him 00‘ status and he

celebrates by shooting up an embassy, is the man deranged? And where the hell is he? In the old

days if an agent did something that embarrassing, he‘d have the good sense to defect. Christ I

miss the cold war.‖ And again later, when she comes home to find he has broken into her

apartment she accuses him of being a ―blunt instrument,‖ saying, ―I knew it was too early to

promote you.‖

          ―Well I understand 00‘s have a very short life expectancy, so your mistake will be short

lived.‖

          Belton uses examples from films such as Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944), Air Force

(1943), and Hot Shots! (1991) as examples in which the male warrior is reshaped to repress the

feminine and that the emotional element of a man is his greatest vulnerability. Belton frames this

in a negative light, but there is perhaps a piece he has overlooked, which is the necessity for a

man in war to suppress emotions.

          ―You can switch off so easily, cant you? It doesn‘t bother you, killing those people?‖

Vesper asks.

          ―Well I wouldn‘t be very good at my job if it did,‖ he counters.

          Yet, like the drill-instructor motif, success in his mission and the eventual purging of his

emotional vulnerabilities earns M‘s respect and trust. After thwarting the attack in Miami, Bond

says, ―You can stop pretending, you knew I wouldn‘t let this drop, didn‘t you?‖ She replies,

Perez         14

―We‘ll I knew you were you.‖ And again, after Vesper betrays him and kills herself, she asks,

―You don‘t trust anyone, do you, James?‖

       He responds, ―No,‖ saying of Vesper ―the bitch is dead.‖

       ―Then you‘ve learned your lesson,‖ M quietly states.

       The theme of danger represented by the emotionality of the female sex is both prevalent

and justified by Vespers eventual betrayal of Bond at the very end of the film, yet the dynamics

between the two are vastly more intricate than the summary given by Belton affords.

       Belton states that, ―The implicit message of this motif is that relations with a woman

suggest a vulnerability in the hero to that which lies outside the masculine world of war—to the

feminine—and this vulnerability will eventually destroy him.‖ (pg. 200).

       According to Tony Garland, ―The death of Vesper in Casino Royale endorses Bond‘s

character with a justified misogyny, creates Bond‘s desire for monogamy, asserts characteristics

of heroism and self-sacrifice associated with Bond, and extends her beyond his influence through

a film noir ideological system‖ (pg. 185). This segment fits the Beltonian model quite well.

Bond‘s affections for Vesper leave him vulnerable to her betrayal and make the sting that much

more disdainful.

        Though that may be true, Vesper Lynd is different from the rest of Fleming‘s female

characters and therefore cannot be merely reduced to the simple formula of Belton‘s. According

to Barbara Broccoli, ―She is the woman that places the biggest mark upon Bond, the character.‖

Eva Green, who portrays Vesper in Casino Royale, would further that, ―Vesper is an enigma.

She is quite complex and it‘s difficult to see through her.‖ This then ties into the final motif of

Casino Royale; the Femme Fatales of Film Noir.

       In most Bond films, there are typically two distinct types of women with whom our hero

Perez      15

interacts with; Bond girls and the bond girl villain. Typically, in this tired out formula, the bond

girl is a disposable pleasure for Bond, useful only in assisting him in completing his mission.

Bond girl villains, however, are usually in the employment of whichever villain Bond happens to

be fighting at the time and used exclusively to seduce Bond and then destroy him. Bond, of

course, always overpowers these be-jeweled and sensual lionesses and emerges the hero.

       However, Casino Royale broke the formula here as well. As before mentioned, Vesper

Lynd is far more complex than the simple character definition of Bond girl/Bond girl villains in

the previous films. According to Garland, ―Vesper is both a Bond girl and a Bond girl villain,‖

asserting that, ―Vesper‘s relationship with Bond facilitates the progression of a character who

lacks discernible change and reasserts Bond‘s expected characteristics, but Vesper has more in

common with the status a Film noir‘s femme fatale than a Bond girl villain‖(pg. 186). Being in

the employment of the British Treasury and having the power over Bond‘s ability to compete in

the tournament, becoming his love interest after the two were captured and tortured by Le

Chiffre, and eventually being strong-armed by Mr. White to betray Bond in order to save his life,

Garland argues, elevates Vesper to the roles of superior, equal, and enemy. ―The absence of

conflict between Vesper‘s status as Bond‘s love interest and his enemy crates a duality common

to film noir‘s femme fatale‖ (pg. 186).

                                                      ~

Modes of Production

       Despite the fact that Casino Royale has forged new ground for the franchise, the majority

of movie goers do not attend in the hopes of discovering intricately placed plot devices inner-

Perez      16

woven throughout the film. The real reason a Bond fan returns to the theater time after time is

the promise action on a grand scale, and, like many other aspects, the 21st installment of the

Bond series does not disappoint. The stunt sequences reflect the gritty, tougher image of the

series and, as such, had to look much more realistic, which only posed more problems for the

filmmakers.

       The first action sequence features Bond chasing his prey (the ill fated bomb-maker,

Mollaka) from a gambling ring, up through a construction site, all up the girder work, up a pair

of cranes, down the inside of the building, and then back out again. The first challenge came in

finding a suitable location to film the scene. Michael G. Wilson shared in a special features

documentary on the DVD that, ―when we‘re looking for a building under construction, for a film

company, its just about impossible to find because, by the time you go and look at a building –

you have to plan to work there – and by the time you‘re done planning, the building has moved

on and probably finished.‖ Which is why it turned out to be a considerable stroke of luck that an

abandoned hotel Wilson had managed to spot years earlier during the filming of The Spy Who

Loved Me (1977) was still vacant. After empting 44 shipping containers full of construction

equipment and what Art Director, Peter Francis, called a, ―logistical, shipping nightmare,‖ the set

was constructed.

       The actual stunt sequences themselves center on Bond‘s pursuit of Mollaka, who is

played by Sebastian Foucan, the co-inventor of ―free-running‖ or Parkour. In the documentary,

fellow free-runner, John Kirr, stated, ―free-running is the art of moving from ‗A‘ to ‗B‘ as

quickly and as efficiently as possible. If there‘s an obstacle in your way, it‘s about being able to

go over it or find a way around it.‖ For this chase scene, Director Martin Campbell, wanted a

stunt scene that was unusual and different. The end result is a drawn out chase scene where we

Perez      17

watch as Sebastian moves lithely and powerfully, almost like a dancer, across his path of escape

from, Bond who possess all the same power, but compensates finesse with brute strength.

       A lot of the shots for this scene came from cameras mounted to the back of AVT‘s as

there are sections in which the pair strike out into the underbrush. The team also constructed a

gigantic rig that had to be fastened to the underbelly of a towering crane for the action sequences

that took place up there. Since the desire was to focus the film in reality, the actors had to

actually film the shots on top of the cranes, hundreds of fee up. To capture these shots, in

addition to using the rig, the film crew also shot a lot of the scenes from a helicopter.

       Another great action scene the team had to film comes when Bond is in hot pursuit of Le

Chiffre after he abducts Vesper from the hotel parking lot. Bond follows Le Chiffre‘s black

Jaguar in an Aston Martin down a winding back road at speed, but when he rounds a corner, who

has Le Chiffre left tied lying in the middle of the road but Vesper. Bond swerves to miss her,

overcorrects and loses control of the car, sending it flipping into the air, and allowing Le Chiffre

and his men to capture him. The hardest part of this scene came in simply getting the car to flip

in the first place. According to Stunt Driver Adam Kirley and Stunt Coordinator Gary Powell,

the team first tested the stunt with BMW‘s, getting them to flip by turning them into a six-inch

ramp at speed. But after switching to the Aston because of its better handling, they discovered

that just using a ramp wasn‘t enough. Said Powell, ―The Aston‘s obviously are built completely

different. They‘re center of gravity‘s lower, they‘re basically a racecar that‘s allowed on the

road. And when we did the first one on the ramp, it basically went up in the air, corrected itself,

and then came back down again.‖

       This scene was shot in England at the General Motors Proving Grounds in Millbrook,

which is were companies have long pushed their new models to the limits. In order to get the

Perez       18

Aston to flip, the special effects team mounted a ―cannon‖ just behind the driver‘s seat which,

when pressed, uses a cylinder of compressed air to punch down on the road which, in turn, flips

the car over. The result was getting the car to flip and incredible seven times and setting the

current world record, which would later be confirmed by the Guinness World Book of Records.

       As far actually filming went, the hardest part came when it was time to shoot the card

scenes at Casino Royale. Director Martin Campbell stated, ―I have to say, its a proverbial

nightmare because its poker, and there are ten people around a table and they‘ve all got hands

and they‘re all playing cards and its just very difficult.‖ Craig shared that when you filmed one

person, you have to film the other person and it has to look like they‘re looking at each other,

―invariably, at some point somebody will look at each other and it wont look like they‘re looking

at each other. Now add to that the fact that they‘ve got cards in front of them and a pile of chips,

which every time you cut to them on a continuity level has to be accurate.‖ The scenes, then,

were painstaking to make due to the level of intricacy required to make it look accurate.

       On more interesting note, the producers hired nine people to compete against Bond in the

tournament and because of that they then had to teach all of them how to play poker so that they

would appear to be professionals. ―Frankly it feels very natural, it doesn‘t feel like it‘s forced and

its owed to the amount of rehearsal we put in around the poker table, away from set and on set,‖

said Jeffery Wright, who plays Felix Leiter. Wright alludes to a fact later confirmed by Craig and

Michael Wilson that behind the scenes and in between takes a lot of the cast members played

against each other, betting their week‘s wages. ―We‘re basically at the casinos every night now,‖

said Mads Mikkelsen, who played Le Chiffre.

       The last action sequence of the movie comes when Bond discovers Vesper has withdrawn

all of the winnings from the competition at a Venice bank. Bond tails her, watching as she hands

Perez         19

the money over to a man with a patch before being discovered. ―I‘ll kill her!‖ the patched man

shouts as he hauls her into a decrepent building, ―Allow me,‖ Bond states as he slowly screws on

a suppressor to his pistol. Bond fights his way into the building, shooting a pair of air bladders

holding the building up in the water, which not only distracts the patch man and his guards, but

also causes the building to violently begin to sink. He subdues the guards, but just as he reaches

the cage-lift patch man locked Vesper in, it falls forward and sends the elevator car crashing

down into the water. Bond plunges in to water to save her, but she locks the doors, preventing

him access, and places her head in his hands through the cage just before she drowns.

       For this incredibly complicated scene, the production team travelled back to England to

use the massive underwater stage at Pinewood Studios. Costing little over 2 million dollars and

having a depth of 20 feet and a capacity of 318,000 gallons of water, the Pinewood Underwater

Stage has been used by film crews to shoot scenes from movies such as Pirates of the Carribean,

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), K-19: The Widowmaker (2002), as well as

countless other television spots and commercials. The stage offers scaffolding to attach a wide

varity of sets to, has two hydraulic rigs which can pull boats, and even a gigantic green screen to

computer generate different background later.

       For Casino Royale, Special Effects Supervisor, Chris Corbould and his team had to

construct an entire building which sat on a moving gimbal suspended above the tank. Using the

rig, the team could then sink the building to something like 15 feet into the tank.

                                                 ~

Perez         20

Film Critique

       Casino Royal was met with wild praise from critics in both the film as well as the literary

communities, as confirmed by Lisa Funnell in her literary essay where she states, ―Critical

reception of Casino Royale appears to be informed by a hierarchal valuing of the Bond literary

tradition over cinematic franchise and strongly relies on nostalgia to conceptualize, elevate, and

dislocate the prequel from the Bond film canon.‖ Perhaps the biggest accomplishment Casino

Royale achieved was being able to breathe life back into a franchise quickly succumbing to the

realms of fantastical absurdity, and bordering on the comically outrageous. As Rodger Ebert said

in his review of the film, ―Casino Royale has the answers to all my complaints about the 45-year-

old James Bond series, and some I hadn't even thought of. It's not that I didn't love some of the

earlier films, like some, dislike others and so on, as that I was becoming less convinced that I

ever had to see another one‖ (par 1)

       As a kid, I‘d always idolized and emulated the character of James Bond, though I‘d never

actually seen a single film. Growing up, I didn‘t really know what the series was even about

other than cool gadgets, cars that came standard with machinegun turrets and oil slicks, and, of

course Pierce Brosnan with his ridiculous fop of hair – looking like it‘d been spooned out of a jar

– bearing a silenced pistol and uttering the famous catch-phrase, ―the name‘s Bond, James

Bond.‖ It was what every boy dreamed of being. And though I wasn‘t allowed by my parents to

watch the films due to there graphic content, that didn‘t stop be from running around my

backyard at the age of 11 with my father‘s briefcase in hand – containing all the gadgets I could

find – rescuing imaginary damsels and fighting off evil villains. Because of this I tended to

romanticize the series, though I‘d maybe only ever actually seen a handful of the films myself.

Perez         21

       So, like many others, I pass judgment on Daniel Craig when the baton was handed him

from Brosnan. In my mind, he wasn‘t Brosnan, would never be Brosnan, and, as Brosnan was

the only Bond I‘d ever known – or cared to know – I gave little more than a passing glance to

Casino Royale. Of course I went to see it, manly because of the glittering review from, of all

people, Glenn Beck, whose opinion I respected, but I found the card scenes dull, the action not as

captivating, and was beside myself in anger when Craig flipped one of the most beautiful cars I‘d

ever clapped eyes on for some whore who only went on to betray him, steal the money, and kill

herself. I never quite saw beyond the surface. At the tender age of 17, I still had not developed

and honed in the powers of perceptions needed to fully appreciate this film and the benchmark it

set. Neither did I have a suitable foundation of knowledge in other Bond films to draw from and

properly contrast it with.

       That changed soon after I viewed the Jason Bourne series, which drew me into a world of

espionage and intrigue through fast-paced action. As the resurrection of the Bond series can be,

in some respects, credited to the hugely popular Bourne series, I was similarly drawn into Casino

Royale‗s sequel, Quantum of Solace (2008), which picks up right were Casino Royale leaves off.

Having been able to pick out the deeper plot elements in The Bourne Identity (2002), Supremacy

(2004), and Ultimatum (2007) series of films, I was able to do the same in Quantum and soon

needed a refresher in the movie that began the franchise reset.

       However, I don‘t believe I full appreciated the lengths to which Craig, Dench, Campbell,

Broccoli, Wilson and the others who made Casino Royale had propelled the series until I looked

back to were the series had come from. After removing the rose-colored glasses I‘d constructed

in my childhood, I found the Bond‘s of yester year dull and vapid, completely lacking any

substance whatsoever. From Connery, to Moore, to even Brosnan, I could have done with out the

Perez          22

entire lot, and, as far as I am now concerned, Daniel Craig is and forever will be the only Bond I

will ever acknowledge.

       Though some may disagree, such as Roger Moore of the Orlando Sentinel who states,

―It's not as bad as Die Another Day, and not up to the jolly mayhem of the best films in the

series,‖ I think the reason for my attachment is the level of complexity given Bond in the new

series which had been previously lacking. Like Ebert said, ―I never thought I would see a Bond

movie where I cared, actually cared, about the people. But I care about Bond, and about Vesper

Lynd‖ (par 8). Bond is a real person in this story, not just the machine we first see him to be.

During the train ride to Montenegro, when Vesper tries to put together his past, we are afforded a

very brief, very small glimpse into the inner workings of James Bond. He went to Oxford by the

graces of someone else charity, was made to never forget it by his schoolmates, and was an

orphan. Vesper quips, ―and that makes perfect sense, since MI-6 looks for maladjusted young

men who give little thought to sacrificing others in order to protect queen and country. You

know, former SAS types with easy smiles and expensive watches, Rolex?‖ she inquires, looking

at the watch on his arm. ―Omega,‖ Bond replies. ―Beautiful,‖ she responds sarcastically.

       Another reason for my love of this movie comes in the form of the dynamic that exists

between Bond and Vesper. Said Andrew Sarris in the New York Observer, ―What distinguishes

Mr. Craig‘s Bond from all the others, except Mr. Lazenby‘s, is his expression of both passion

and grief after winning and losing Eva Green‘s Vesper Lynd, who seems for a time to have

betrayed him—though, as it turns out, she has saved his life, not once but twice‖ (par. 8).

Almost from their cold first interactions, our hero finds himself with a woman of extreme

dualities. Vesper is neither good nor bad, she, like out hero, is a person of deep inner conflicts.

Perez      23

       Daniel Craig‘s Bond is grittier and darker. He is unafraid of pulling the trigger when

needed. The challenges he faces in Casino Royale seem more realistic than the villains of Bond‘s

before. No plots for world domination. No underwater society or space stations full of beautiful

people. He is human. He feels. He is ―a hard man, wounded by life and his job, who nevertheless

cares about people and right and wrong‖ (Ebert, par 13). We get a precious glimpse of a Bond

before the cold ices of misogyny settle over him like the dykes of Holland in winter. We see him

during of his innocence – if you can truly call it that. We see that during the very dawn of his

career, there is a brief, fiery flash of real, true romance and passion, yet, like the moon must set

so that the sun may rise, so to must Bond‘s emotions and passions fall dormant so that he can

take on the role of our great defender. We see this, and we love him for it. We feel for him, for,

perhaps, the first time because we see that, as Ebert said, ―if you prick him, he bleeds‖ (par 13).

                                                  ~

                      Vesper: “You’re not going to let me in there, are you?

                           You’ve got you’re armor back on. That’s it.”

                     James: ―I have no armor left. You've stripped it from me.

                  Whatever is left of me - whatever is left of me - whatever I am

                                            – I'm yours.‖

                                              The End

Perez   24

                                      Works Cited
Arnett, Robert P. "Casino Royale And Franchise Remix: James Bond As Superhero." Film

       Criticism 33.3 (2009): 1-16. Academic Search Complete. Web. 12 Apr. 2012.

Belton, John. ―American Cinema/American Culture.‖ New York: McGraw- Hill (2005): 227-

       245.

Casino Royal. Dir. Martin Campbell Prod. Barbara Broccoli, Writ. Neal Purvis, Perf. Daniel

       Craig, Eva Green, and Judi Dench. Columbia Pictures, 2006. Film.

Ebert, Rodger. "Casino Royale." Chicago Sun Times. 17 Aug. 2007: n. page. Web. 17 Apr. 2012.

Funnell, Lisa. "'I Know Where You Keep Your Gun': Daniel Craig As The Bond-Bond Girl

       Hybrid In Casino Royale." Journal Of Popular Culture 44.3 (2011): 455-472. Academic

       Search Complete. Web. 12 Apr. 2012.

Garland, Tony W. "―The Coldest Weapon Of All‖: The Bond Girl Villain In James Bond Films."

       Journal Of Popular Film & Television 37.4 (2009): 179-188. Academic Search Complete.

       Web. 12 Apr. 2012.

Moore, Rodger. "Casino Royale." Orlando Sentinel. 17 Nov. 2006: n. page. Web. 17 Apr. 2012.

Sarris, Andrew. "New Bond‘s Stormy Virility Trumps Connery and Moore." New York

       Observer. 27 Nov. 2006: n. page. Web. 17 Apr. 2012.

Sterngold, James. "Sony Pictures, in an accord with MGM, drops its plan to produce new James

       Bond movies." New York Times. 30 Mar. 1999: n. page. Web. 10 Apr. 2012.