Casino Royale
So I finally saw 'Casino Royale' this weekend, and I must say, I was originally leaning towards the 'Daniel Craig is too wimpy' camp. Honestly! Vegetarian, hates guns, got injured doing a stunt and halted filming for weeks, I could be making all this stuff up but it certainly didn't seem to fit the debonair, chainsmoking ladykiller assassin character that Pierce Brosnan had left him.
But then I saw the movie. And oh my stars and garters, it was intense. The following is a discussion of the movie (one viewing, and I’d go back for more in a heartbeat) versus my fuzzy recollection of the original novel written by Ian Fleming. Mainly because I am that much of a nerd that I have read every James Bond story and re-read the five that my parents had over and over until I could practically quote them. Casino Royale, Dr. No, Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever, and From Russia With Love. The funny thing is, the lines all sound like Sean Connery in my head.
If there's anything I've gotten wrong, and I'm sure I have because this is almost totally off the top of my head, feel free to correct me (you Bond fans know who you are :P ) A quick, dirty essay, with minimal clarification research - definitely not my best writing. Oh, and many many spoilers below. Why haven't you seen the movie yet?!
The timeline.
Casino Royale may have been the first novel, but it probably wasn't action-packed enough to introduce Bond to the big screen. That honor went to Dr No, he of the bird guano and 'fire-breathing dragon'. In Casino Royale, Bond becomes a double-0 agent at the beginning of the movie, but it is set in present day, and M is played by Judi Dench (who totally holds her own. Awesome) even though she followed Bernard Lee as M of the older films. But who cares about timelines? It's Bond. His 'misogynist dinosaur' character is timeless. Here, though, we see him before he’s complete. He’s rough around the edges at the beginning, but by the end he’s acquired the beginnings of the ruthless 007 persona.
The villain.
Le Chiffre. In the book, he represents SMERSH, short for Smert Shpionam, which means 'death to spies'. It's one of the secret Soviet groups out to destroy Western civilization and take over the world, or something like that. Not entirely sure of the details, but I'm pretty sure they don't mention SMERSH in the movie. In the book, it's also referred to as SPECTRE, and Bond says something like 'I thought I saw the Spectre of bad luck over your head when I sat down' to unnerve Le Chiffre at the baccarat table. They also skip a minor SMERSH-related part of the torture scene, which we'll get to later (and I'm sure you're looking forward to that).
In the movie, he's got several health issues (one eye bleeding bloody tears?), which I don't remember in the book. But Mads Mikkelsen does the character justice with that dark sneer.*
The girl.
Ah, Vesper Lynd. One of my favorites, though she doesn't survive and she's in cahoots with the bad guys. But only to protect her kidnapped boyfriend, and she's unlucky enough to fall for Bond, after which she winds up committing suicide. In the book, she overdoses on pills at the seaside resort where Bond is recuperating from the torture at Le Chiffre’s hands. Bond finds her in her bed, 'white sheet drawn over her body' like a shroud, 'dark hair against the pillow'. She writes him a suicide note that he reads and crumples up and at that point in the text you can see him becoming the cold detached agent of later stories.
But back to Vesper. She's beautiful, she's strong-willed, she’s intelligent, and Bond does fall in love with her. He approves of her style (a black velvet dress one night) and her nails (short and unpainted) and she verbally parries with him much like she does in the movie. Bond girls are generally strong-willed, but he makes much more of an emotional connection with her. He would have proposed to her at the end of the novel, if things had gone differently.
In the movie and in the book, he names his invented drink after her. Ian Fleming did create this drink, though it is never mentioned by name after this novel (forever afterwards simply a "vodka martini, shaken, not stirred"). In the movie, the bartender asks if he wants his martini shaken or stirred, and he replies, "does it look like I give a damn?" Ha!
For reference, The Vesper Martini:
3 oz Gin
1 oz Vodka
0.5 oz Lillet Blanc
Shake with ice and strain into a wine glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.
The plot.
Oh, nefarious SPECTRE, how you plot to overthrow all British and American spies! Le Chiffre must win at baccarat to earn back the money he has lost and avoid being hunted down by his financiers. In the movie, it is a tournament; I believe in the book it is simply a night at the casino tables. Vesper brings the money for Bond in the movie, with extra from Felix Leiter of the CIA. I'm not sure how he gets it in the book but I don't think it was from Vesper - she is assigned to assist him. At any rate, he definitely doesn't keep it in the door number plate of his hotel room in the movie like he does in the book. It's all done by electronic wire.
So Bond's goal is to keep Le Chiffre from winning this money and funding SMERSH’s next terrorist action. Apparently, they changed it from baccarat to Texas Hold'Em in the movie, and though I can’t really tell the two apart, I think I would have liked to see baccarat. The game scenes are rather exciting in the novel and they do a good job of it in the movie, but they did have to add a lot of action to keep the movie up to today's short-attention-span standards. What was I saying? Oh.
In the novel there is no opening sequence of jumping from construction towers, and no fight sequence in a sinking Venice house at the end. But these scenes are fabulous in the movie, and Daniel Craig is fabulously action-packed in them.
The car chase that leads to the torture scene has been slightly altered. In the novel, Le Chiffre's henchmen kidnap Vesper and all Bond sees is her handbag thrown out of the window of their car. They scoop her skirt over her head and tie it up to subdue her. Bond chases them but swerves to avoid a large mirror in the road, which makes it look like he's driving head-on towards another car. He crashes and is knocked unconscious, and they take him to an abandoned building.
This change was made because the writers of the Goldfinger movie had already used the mirror trick**. So instead, Bond swerves to avoid Vesper lying in the road, which results in him flipping the DBS several times. Apparently they actually destroyed three 2007 Aston Martins to film that crash - which is a horrible waste of an awesomely expensive and fabulous car.
The violence.
Before we get to the torture scene, there is a smaller scene in the middle of the baccarat game. In the movie, Bond is poisoned with digitalis and must get to his car and shock his heart to rescue himself from a heart attack. He collapses, but Vesper saves him in time, and he gets up and goes right back to the table. Incredible! In the book, a henchman comes up behind him and jams the business end of a walking-cane gun into his lower spine. Bond kicks his chair over and knocks the cane out of the man's hands. Again, going for the visual effect and the ramped-up danger in the movie. But the scene was very well written in the novel and you can practically feel Bond sweat.
Now! The torture. I mentioned this to a few male friends and they cringed and told me not to be so gleeful about the details. But it's fascinating! In the movie, as well as in the novel, Bond is tied to a cane chair that has had the seat cut out of it. However, the rope cudgel is a movie invention. In the novel, Le Chiffre maims Bond's genitals with a carpet-beater laid under the chair that he wields with a flick of the wrist (leaving a 'ring of blood drops' on the concrete around the chair when he's done). It takes Bond a long time to recover at the hospital in the novel, as you can imagine. The movie recreates the novel’s descriptions of Bond dealing with the agonizing torture and taunting Le Chiffre as he questions him.
The unseen hit man who shoots Le Chiffre also does something to Bond that's not in the movie. He carves a stylized letter 'M' into the back of Bond's hand, which is the symbol for SMERSH. Bond has to have new skin grafted onto his hand. In the movie, the back of Daniel Craig's hand seems to be scarred, but it is likely unintentional.
The car.
My dad and I have had several discussions about this, and here we can set the record straight.
In the movie, Bond acquires an Aston Martin (presumably the DB5) from someone in an early car chase, but he ALSO gets a new DBR9 Aston Le Mans racer 2007 Aston Martin DBS from M in Montenegro that's got a few of the extras we see in later films. Specifically, poison antidotes and a defibrillator (how convenient!)
Not much more to say about the car. But it's a refreshing change to NOT see all the toys - as fun as they are, they took over the last few movies (an invisible car? right) and this Bond relies on his wits and his silenced Beretta. Actually, I'm not sure what gun he's using. It could be the Walther PPK though he puts up a fuss in Dr No when he's ordered to stop using the Beretta (namely because M's armourer calls it a ladies' gun.) But he prefers the Beretta in the books.
Finally, the man. Bond, James Bond.
Daniel Craig is aptly described in a recent issue of Esquire as dangerous, someone who looks like he could actually kill you. And he does. He's a lot bigger than the other Bonds, more muscle and less pretty-boy (though that's not saying much in the case of, say, George Lazenby.) He doesn't have the one-liners, he doesn't use any cool gadgets provided by Q although there are a few life-saving goodies in the Aston Martin.
Craig isn’t as conventionally handsome as, say, Pierce Brosnan, but he’s got the cold ice-blue stare down pat. The Bond of the novels had black hair ‘that fell in a thick comma over his right eye’, a 'cruel mouth', and a pale scar down one cheek - but Craig is blonde with a boxer’s jutting ears. However, as long as he can wear the tailored tuxedo (and he does look like he was born into it) then he’s got the Bond touch.
In contrast to the killer tendencies, he displays tenderness to Vesper after they run into henchmen in the stairwell and he is forced to strangle one in front of her. She goes into shellshock in her hotel shower, and he sits with her under the water and comforts her.
The movie does keep the line "The bitch is dead." when Bond tells M of Vesper’s death. In the novel, Fleming describes Bond imagining Vesper working at MI-6 headquarters, carrying information on a tray down the long hallways while betraying Queen and country. Again, this is the start of the emotional detachment he displays throughout the rest of the movies.
And the very last line of the film? "The name's Bond. James Bond." Perfect. Welcome to Bond, Daniel Craig.
EDITED TO ADD (upon a holiday re-read of the novel):
* Le Chiffre does indeed have a breathing problem in the novel, and uses a benzedrine inhaler.
** I believe I am totally wrong here. The novel uses a mesh of spiked chain to blow Bond's tires, the Goldfinger movie uses the mirror trick (I think), and I have no idea which novel uses the mirror.
But then I saw the movie. And oh my stars and garters, it was intense. The following is a discussion of the movie (one viewing, and I’d go back for more in a heartbeat) versus my fuzzy recollection of the original novel written by Ian Fleming. Mainly because I am that much of a nerd that I have read every James Bond story and re-read the five that my parents had over and over until I could practically quote them. Casino Royale, Dr. No, Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever, and From Russia With Love. The funny thing is, the lines all sound like Sean Connery in my head.
If there's anything I've gotten wrong, and I'm sure I have because this is almost totally off the top of my head, feel free to correct me (you Bond fans know who you are :P ) A quick, dirty essay, with minimal clarification research - definitely not my best writing. Oh, and many many spoilers below. Why haven't you seen the movie yet?!
The timeline.
Casino Royale may have been the first novel, but it probably wasn't action-packed enough to introduce Bond to the big screen. That honor went to Dr No, he of the bird guano and 'fire-breathing dragon'. In Casino Royale, Bond becomes a double-0 agent at the beginning of the movie, but it is set in present day, and M is played by Judi Dench (who totally holds her own. Awesome) even though she followed Bernard Lee as M of the older films. But who cares about timelines? It's Bond. His 'misogynist dinosaur' character is timeless. Here, though, we see him before he’s complete. He’s rough around the edges at the beginning, but by the end he’s acquired the beginnings of the ruthless 007 persona.
The villain.
Le Chiffre. In the book, he represents SMERSH, short for Smert Shpionam, which means 'death to spies'. It's one of the secret Soviet groups out to destroy Western civilization and take over the world, or something like that. Not entirely sure of the details, but I'm pretty sure they don't mention SMERSH in the movie. In the book, it's also referred to as SPECTRE, and Bond says something like 'I thought I saw the Spectre of bad luck over your head when I sat down' to unnerve Le Chiffre at the baccarat table. They also skip a minor SMERSH-related part of the torture scene, which we'll get to later (and I'm sure you're looking forward to that).
In the movie, he's got several health issues (one eye bleeding bloody tears?), which I don't remember in the book. But Mads Mikkelsen does the character justice with that dark sneer.*
The girl.
Ah, Vesper Lynd. One of my favorites, though she doesn't survive and she's in cahoots with the bad guys. But only to protect her kidnapped boyfriend, and she's unlucky enough to fall for Bond, after which she winds up committing suicide. In the book, she overdoses on pills at the seaside resort where Bond is recuperating from the torture at Le Chiffre’s hands. Bond finds her in her bed, 'white sheet drawn over her body' like a shroud, 'dark hair against the pillow'. She writes him a suicide note that he reads and crumples up and at that point in the text you can see him becoming the cold detached agent of later stories.
But back to Vesper. She's beautiful, she's strong-willed, she’s intelligent, and Bond does fall in love with her. He approves of her style (a black velvet dress one night) and her nails (short and unpainted) and she verbally parries with him much like she does in the movie. Bond girls are generally strong-willed, but he makes much more of an emotional connection with her. He would have proposed to her at the end of the novel, if things had gone differently.
In the movie and in the book, he names his invented drink after her. Ian Fleming did create this drink, though it is never mentioned by name after this novel (forever afterwards simply a "vodka martini, shaken, not stirred"). In the movie, the bartender asks if he wants his martini shaken or stirred, and he replies, "does it look like I give a damn?" Ha!
For reference, The Vesper Martini:
3 oz Gin
1 oz Vodka
0.5 oz Lillet Blanc
Shake with ice and strain into a wine glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.
The plot.
Oh, nefarious SPECTRE, how you plot to overthrow all British and American spies! Le Chiffre must win at baccarat to earn back the money he has lost and avoid being hunted down by his financiers. In the movie, it is a tournament; I believe in the book it is simply a night at the casino tables. Vesper brings the money for Bond in the movie, with extra from Felix Leiter of the CIA. I'm not sure how he gets it in the book but I don't think it was from Vesper - she is assigned to assist him. At any rate, he definitely doesn't keep it in the door number plate of his hotel room in the movie like he does in the book. It's all done by electronic wire.
So Bond's goal is to keep Le Chiffre from winning this money and funding SMERSH’s next terrorist action. Apparently, they changed it from baccarat to Texas Hold'Em in the movie, and though I can’t really tell the two apart, I think I would have liked to see baccarat. The game scenes are rather exciting in the novel and they do a good job of it in the movie, but they did have to add a lot of action to keep the movie up to today's short-attention-span standards. What was I saying? Oh.
In the novel there is no opening sequence of jumping from construction towers, and no fight sequence in a sinking Venice house at the end. But these scenes are fabulous in the movie, and Daniel Craig is fabulously action-packed in them.
The car chase that leads to the torture scene has been slightly altered. In the novel, Le Chiffre's henchmen kidnap Vesper and all Bond sees is her handbag thrown out of the window of their car. They scoop her skirt over her head and tie it up to subdue her. Bond chases them but swerves to avoid a large mirror in the road, which makes it look like he's driving head-on towards another car. He crashes and is knocked unconscious, and they take him to an abandoned building.
This change was made because the writers of the Goldfinger movie had already used the mirror trick**. So instead, Bond swerves to avoid Vesper lying in the road, which results in him flipping the DBS several times. Apparently they actually destroyed three 2007 Aston Martins to film that crash - which is a horrible waste of an awesomely expensive and fabulous car.
The violence.
Before we get to the torture scene, there is a smaller scene in the middle of the baccarat game. In the movie, Bond is poisoned with digitalis and must get to his car and shock his heart to rescue himself from a heart attack. He collapses, but Vesper saves him in time, and he gets up and goes right back to the table. Incredible! In the book, a henchman comes up behind him and jams the business end of a walking-cane gun into his lower spine. Bond kicks his chair over and knocks the cane out of the man's hands. Again, going for the visual effect and the ramped-up danger in the movie. But the scene was very well written in the novel and you can practically feel Bond sweat.
Now! The torture. I mentioned this to a few male friends and they cringed and told me not to be so gleeful about the details. But it's fascinating! In the movie, as well as in the novel, Bond is tied to a cane chair that has had the seat cut out of it. However, the rope cudgel is a movie invention. In the novel, Le Chiffre maims Bond's genitals with a carpet-beater laid under the chair that he wields with a flick of the wrist (leaving a 'ring of blood drops' on the concrete around the chair when he's done). It takes Bond a long time to recover at the hospital in the novel, as you can imagine. The movie recreates the novel’s descriptions of Bond dealing with the agonizing torture and taunting Le Chiffre as he questions him.
The unseen hit man who shoots Le Chiffre also does something to Bond that's not in the movie. He carves a stylized letter 'M' into the back of Bond's hand, which is the symbol for SMERSH. Bond has to have new skin grafted onto his hand. In the movie, the back of Daniel Craig's hand seems to be scarred, but it is likely unintentional.
The car.
My dad and I have had several discussions about this, and here we can set the record straight.
In the movie, Bond acquires an Aston Martin (presumably the DB5) from someone in an early car chase, but he ALSO gets a new DBR9 Aston Le Mans racer 2007 Aston Martin DBS from M in Montenegro that's got a few of the extras we see in later films. Specifically, poison antidotes and a defibrillator (how convenient!)
Not much more to say about the car. But it's a refreshing change to NOT see all the toys - as fun as they are, they took over the last few movies (an invisible car? right) and this Bond relies on his wits and his silenced Beretta. Actually, I'm not sure what gun he's using. It could be the Walther PPK though he puts up a fuss in Dr No when he's ordered to stop using the Beretta (namely because M's armourer calls it a ladies' gun.) But he prefers the Beretta in the books.
Finally, the man. Bond, James Bond.
Daniel Craig is aptly described in a recent issue of Esquire as dangerous, someone who looks like he could actually kill you. And he does. He's a lot bigger than the other Bonds, more muscle and less pretty-boy (though that's not saying much in the case of, say, George Lazenby.) He doesn't have the one-liners, he doesn't use any cool gadgets provided by Q although there are a few life-saving goodies in the Aston Martin.
Craig isn’t as conventionally handsome as, say, Pierce Brosnan, but he’s got the cold ice-blue stare down pat. The Bond of the novels had black hair ‘that fell in a thick comma over his right eye’, a 'cruel mouth', and a pale scar down one cheek - but Craig is blonde with a boxer’s jutting ears. However, as long as he can wear the tailored tuxedo (and he does look like he was born into it) then he’s got the Bond touch.
In contrast to the killer tendencies, he displays tenderness to Vesper after they run into henchmen in the stairwell and he is forced to strangle one in front of her. She goes into shellshock in her hotel shower, and he sits with her under the water and comforts her.
The movie does keep the line "The bitch is dead." when Bond tells M of Vesper’s death. In the novel, Fleming describes Bond imagining Vesper working at MI-6 headquarters, carrying information on a tray down the long hallways while betraying Queen and country. Again, this is the start of the emotional detachment he displays throughout the rest of the movies.
And the very last line of the film? "The name's Bond. James Bond." Perfect. Welcome to Bond, Daniel Craig.
EDITED TO ADD (upon a holiday re-read of the novel):
* Le Chiffre does indeed have a breathing problem in the novel, and uses a benzedrine inhaler.
** I believe I am totally wrong here. The novel uses a mesh of spiked chain to blow Bond's tires, the Goldfinger movie uses the mirror trick (I think), and I have no idea which novel uses the mirror.