Call me crazy…but CASINO ROYALE could be the greatest movie ever. Well, it certainly is the best Bond film at least.
Before you exit out of my blog and never read it again, just let me explain.
There are a bunch of reasons we watch movies- for joy, entertainment, inspiration, sorrow, love, hatred, etc. And what CASINO ROYALE is for me is ESCAPISM in its finest form. I mean, every one of the 1000 times I’ve watched this masterpiece, I drool on myself in sheer awe of Bond’s swag as well as cry at the end because I will never be that cool.
I simply want to be Bond when he is hunking it up in the Bahamas, winning Astons via poker and whatnot. Or when he is saving a jumbo jet from exploding. Or when he shuts down the poker game for a second when Vesper *swoon* struts in voluptuously and kisses him…You get the point.
So let’s condense and organize these thoughts a little bit into some easily-understandable reasons why I feel the need to make this post (I wrote 2 more points about the flawless costumes and the plot but decided to scrap those for length purposes…maybe there will be a part 2, who knows).
1. The script is absolutely marvelous
Let’s look at an example:
Such banter!
I sadly haven’t yet had the chance to read Ian Fleming’s novel, so I don’t know how much of the dialogue was directly taken from the text, but the writing really shines in the scenes between Bond and Vesper, in particular their first meeting. The writers and director Martin Campbell realize that she is the one woman that Bond ever truly falls in love with. She has a tremendous impact on his life and ultimately shapes him into the Bond that we all know, so thankfully her dialogue is equally beautiful, sophisticated, clever, mysterious, and complex. The dialogue in this scene stands out from the rest of the script, but not in a negative way. It reads and sounds like the great film noir CASINO ROYALE was meant to be.
I don’t want this to become a drudge, so let’s keep this moving.
Vesper Lynd: “If the only thing left of you was your smile and your little finger, you’d still be more of a man than anyone I’ve ever known.”
Bond: “That’s because you know what I can do with my little finger …”
(If you want to do further research on the script, click HERE for the whole thing)
2. Bond isn’t a big doofus!!
Daniel Craig’s Bond is a vulnerable, #emotional, and rugged character who starkly contrasts with Connery’s silly playboy Bond (no beef tho). This newest Bond is forced to use his wits throughout the movie, especially in the grand Texas Hold’Em match at the end, in order to complete the mission. He lost once to the twitchy Le Chiffre and required the help of the CIA bro, Felix, disproving an invincibility previously associated with the character. We see bitterness surface, we even see Bond forming real emotional attachments. And when his love interest, Vesper, is killed after her heart-wrenching betrayal, his line: “The job’s done and the bitch is dead”, says everything that needs saying. Damn, James. (This all being said, he can still charm ladies’ pants off when need be.)
3. The theme of “trust”
Finally, let’s talk about the theme of the movie: trust. CASINO ROYALE was written by Ian Fleming when he was just about to get married in the Bahamas and was reflecting on the Bohemian bachelor life he was leaving behind. The story he wrote is Bond doing the same thing. Bond falls in love with Vesper and decides to leave MI6 to spend his years happily with her. This story requires us to fall in love with Vesper the same way Bond does or else the twenty minutes where the two characters float around in Venice would be a momentum killer. Thankfully, the characters are handled well and one feels like one could see a whole movie of Bond and Vesper’s travels and enjoy it thoroughly.
Of course, this can’t last forever and Bond tragically has everything he cares about torn from him. His trust is betrayed in the worst way imaginable. Bond becomes a cold-hearted bastard thus launching him into a career filled with misogyny and one-night stands with only the most exotically beautiful women on the planet. I literally burst out in tears every time I watch the drowning scene. Shortly after Vesper’s death, M calls Bond and asks, “You don’t trust anyone anymore, do you Bond?” He replies, “No.”
“Then you’ve learned your lesson.”
Editors Note: I don’t acknowledge Spectre ever happened.
uk vibes 