Double-0's Have a Short Life Expectancy

ASK Recommends: Casino Royale (2006)

Casino Royale. Directed by Martin Campbell, featuring Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen, Judi Dench, and Jeffrey Wright. Eon Productions, 2006.

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When early in Casino Royale, Daniel Craig’s Bond tells M that “double-Os have a short life expectancy,” I imagine most in the audience laughed. After all, James Bond has been a force to reckon with in cinemas across the world since 1961. But that line proved telling, as Craig’s bond did the one thing that none before him had dared: he dies. Sorry if that’s a spoiler for No Time to Die, but it is essential to recognize the candidness of the moment to truly appreciate that Casino Royale is the best James Bond Film.

The director Martin Campbell, whose successes include GoldenEye (1995) and The Mask of Zorro (1998) while his failures include Green Lantern (2011), took a chance on rebooting the Bond saga before such reboots became the standard. And he takes a fairly mediocre novel, Fleming’s Casino Royale (1953), and turns into something spectacular to watch. Not only does Casino Royale deliver on action, but it is replete with nods to all the Bond fanatics out there (Daniel Craig imitating Ursula Andress in the Caribbean plus the “initial” coining of the Moneypenny nickname).

Aside from those factors, Craig’s Bond is something different from previous incarnations. Connery, while always suave and in control, was rather heartless. Moore was, well…an English friend of mine once said it best, “Roger Moore is just smutty.” Dalton was disastrous. Brosnan was clever and charming, but often a tad bit whiny. That covers everyone, right? What sets Craig apart is his ability to take a little bit from each of his predecessors, and then add something unique to make the role his own. Unlike other Bonds, this Bond is not entirely comfortable with what he does nor who he is. There is something in the killing that bothers him, that keeps him up at night.

Of course, he doesn’t walk away from it. Where would M be without James Bond? Even Craig’s version follows in the footsteps of those who had come before him. But his relationship with Vesper Lynd is really the driving force of the first movie, which also sets the tone for the four sequels (each one diminishing a bit on this theme, but still keeping to it). Vesper is the person who gives him pause after he’s dealt out death. Vesper is the person who makes him realize that the life he’s living can do more damage than simply get you killed. She causes him to look outside himself, to see what he is for the first time. And the tragedy, is of course, that she is also the person who eventually drives him further towards becoming the empty soul that Dalton so wonderfully captured (although I doubt that was his intent). The key to his salvation becomes the fetters of his destruction.

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 tenderest scenes in Casino Royale end up paying significant dividends in the later films, which all continue to try and heal the wounds of Vesper’s betrayal. Even down to the last moments of No Time to Die, there are echoes of Vesper’s eventual willingness to die, knowing her sacrifice meant that Bond might live.

The film, aside from being fairly thoughtful for a Bond movie, also played off the poker craze in America during the early aughts but avoided becoming a boring “poker movie.” Campbell here is at the top of his game, able to capitalize on a passing trend without allowing it dominate the film, which would otherwise render it accidentally obsolete. These are just a few of the reasons why this film ranks so high with me. It was an intelligent James Bond film. It held onto all the things that make Bond entertaining, and then took it to the next step to make it something a little bit more. It is, in my mind, the first movie to take James Bond seriously.

At the end of Casino Royale, you don’t envy Craig’s Bond; you pity him. And in a culture that idolizes heroes and wealth, that’s a rare thing to see in something so mainstream. Which only kindles my affection for it even more.