What I’ve Been Watching: Casino Royale (2006).
Who’s Responsible: Martin Campbell (director), Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and Paul Haggis (screenwriters), Daniel Craig, Eva Green, and Mads Mikkelsen (stars).
Why I Watched It: Primarily research, for now.
Seen It Before? Once, on its release.
Likelihood of Seeing It Again (1-10): 10.
Likelihood the Guys Will Rib Me for Watching It (1-10): 1.
Totally Subjective BOF Rating (1-10): 7.
And? I jumped at the unexpected opportunity to see the third adaptation of Bond’s literary debut so soon after comparing Ian Fleming’s novel with the 1954 Climax! version, but I won’t analyze it in detail here, especially since Sleuth cut the entire sequence where 007 is poisoned and nearly dies. I will say, though, that I liked Craig’s interpretation of Bond less this time than I did when it came out. Back then, I objected mainly to the decisions to “reboot” the series and—apparently reaching as strenuously as possible for the lowest common denominator—to change the card game that is the story’s raison d’être from the quintessentially Bondian baccarat in France to poker…in Montenegro, of all places.
I am currently concerned with its fidelity to the book while the latter is fresh in my mind, and indeed, this version adheres most closely to Fleming’s admittedly slim plot. That’s ignoring the decided amount of killings, chases, explosions, seductions, betrayals, globe-trotting, and parkour demonstrations shoehorned in by Campbell (who also oversaw the introduction of the previous Bond, Pierce Brosnan, in GoldenEye) & Co. In fact, the film is almost an inversion of Fleming’s structure: there, the villain was liquidated two-thirds of the way through, leaving us a long, doomed-romance denouement; here, the picture is practically half over before 007 embarks upon what was originally his mission all along.
That said, though, he does defeat Le Chiffre (Mikkelsen) at cards, working with Mathis (Giancarlo Giannini), new CIA acquaintance Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright), and domestic colleague Vesper Lynd (La Green, seen to good advantage—ahem—in Bertolucci’s The Dreamers). Le Chiffre still kidnaps Vesper to lure Bond into his clutches, tortures him by beating him about the, um, family jewels in an unsuccessful attempt to regain what he lost at the table, and gets a third eye from his superiors. We once more learn that Vesper betrayed Bond because the opposition promised to spare the life of her previous lover, and her suicide (here by drowning, rather than sleeping pills) again spurs Bond to vengeance.
Oh, and they kept the drink that Bond names after her. Calling it “my own invention,” he orders it as follows in the novel: “A dry Martini…in a deep champagne goblet…Three measures of Gordon’s, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it’s ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon-peel…[and] if you can get a vodka made with grain instead of potatoes, you will find it still better.” As I recall, the “recipe” is quoted almost verbatim in the film—and that makes up for a lot of explosions.
