A Woman Watches Bond: Casino Royale
And this is a Bond who likes to be watched, from the emerging from the sea scene into the view of Solange (Caterina Moreno) to being found by M (Judi Dench) playing a relaxed game of cards in her private home. Even posing in a well-cut dinner jacket and shirt, watched by an amused Vesper.
Blonde Bond is a blunt instrument, who gets the job done. We eavesdrop on him brutally earning his ‘00’ status in the pre-credits opener; even the Bond song is about an agent proving himself ‘You know my name’…
Bond is also super professional — not touching his ear, unlike his colleague. We see him bash through a construction site in pursuit of parkour traceur and terrorist Mollaka (Sébastien Foucan), fighting on a gut-churning very, very high up crane, and ending in the explosive destruction of an embassy. It’s a terrible day for local workers as health and safety is challenged on all sides, their work ruined — and they probably lose pay and jobs because of it. And in some cases, their lives. Ditto the embassy staff who are battered by a Bond gun shot at an flammable canister. However, he gets his kit, stops a small-fry bomb maker and creates international controversy.
Urged to lose himself, Bond hacks into M’s laptop first and then disappears to the Bahamas to track Mollaka’s co-conspirators and wider terrorist network. This includes a poker game and winning a DB5 from the criminal underworld, as well as Solange’s time and helpful information about her husband’s whereabouts.
Having tagged him so that even out of her sight she’ll know where he is, M’s gaze shifts from Bond’s international disruptions. Instead she starts to tap into his stealthy intelligence gathering skills, leading to him being placed in a poker game against another terrorist, financier Le Chiffre. However, ‘..sometimes we pay so much attention to our enemies, we forget to watch our friends as well.’ Is M’s gaze pointed in the right places at the right time?
Notable throughout is the high energy Craig brings to the role, even in the fight scenes. He’s also very much the underdog, barking at surly unimpressed administrators to cut through layers of bureaucracy. We get to enjoy, even relish, his sense of getting his own back at various points — in his second kill, with the exasperated diplomat in Madagascan embassy, in the fierce Miami airport chase and cab fight, in breaking into SkyFleet’s staff area, in his parking valet ‘duties’ at the Ocean Club, in his compassion for and seducing of Solange with a quick Aston tour of his route home, against M’s authority and boundaries, his resignation, his attempt to retrieve the money, in the reckless destruction of a historic Venetian villa and all who sail in her, even the ending itself. All of this push-back crescendos in his fizzing repartee with ‘the money’ Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) over dinner and into Montenegro. No wonder he feels both skewered and exposed, both shaken and stirred.
Eva Green is magnificent, demonstrating just how good Vesper is with figures and looking the part, having ‘sized Bond up the moment we met’. She creates Bond as ‘Bond, James Bond’, styling him to her preferences and assessment of the mission. The gaze switches now, far from being a distraction to the other players, it’s Bond who can’t stop looking at Vesper in the dress he’s given her. (As much as we’re invited to join with Bond in admiring his new tailored threads). With some fun references to Bonds and Bond girls in casinos past, Vesper swooshes around, mocking the moment — and Bond — and their not so undercover mission. Not just emotional, this is a romantic Bond — naming both a cocktail — and his passcode — after her. But is he trying to prove himself yet again?
In a gripping set piece, Bond violently dispatches two men, as he athletically avoids a machete, and Vesper desperately tries to get out of the way of all of them. Bloodied and battered after each fight sequence, Bond takes a good look at himself in the mirror and perhaps his soul, contemplating what he’s becoming. In this moment, and afterwards, he sees himself through Vesper’s eyes — and has compassion on himself — and her.
Proving that this is a Bond who knows the power of watching, Bond’s rampant ego will grab Vesper and try to force her to look into his eyes and see if he’s telling the truth. He also thinks she can be trusted, because unlike everyone else, he can’t see her ‘tell’. And she should trust him, because in losing, he’s marked Le Chiffre out and can see how to win. Thankfully a brother from Langley is watching Bond watching Le Chiffre.
Our gaze is diverted — by the involvement of Mathis (Giancarlo Giannini) and Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright), as well as by Vesper’s increased seething at Bond’s recklessness, ego and arrogance. We look away at our peril, as having beaten Le Chiffre at poker, Vesper is kidnapped and used as bait — cue the tremendous seven rolls from the DBS. Now we’re looking at a different scene, moving from Bond triumphant with lashings of caviar, boiled egg and toast to Bond alone and menaced.
Shifting back our gaze to Craig edition Bond, this time we’re seeing events through Le Chiffre’s gaze. It’s hard to tell whether he’s enjoying what he sees or is disgusted, having spent hours staring out his rival over the green baize. Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) makes a wonderfully charismatic and sophisticated villain. Due to an issue with a tear duct which weeps blood, perhaps his gaze can’t be trusted. And definitely doesn’t make a good boyfriend. Nor can his speculations as he ‘invests’/gambles and loses the Lord’s Resistance Army money in SkyFleet — and then attempts to recoup his losses at an exclusive poker game. He and his girlfriend (starting a line of unusual looking Bond villain accomplices) watch Bond steadily, unblinkingly, throughout — as they experience sense of humour failure over everyone ordering Bond’s new cocktail recipe, spike his drink with poison (maybe just to shut him and everyone else up about whether to hold the fruit or not in the drink), torment Bond and Vesper, and willfully destroy innocent Aston Martins.
Now Bond is exposed, un-armoured and vulnerable — yet still fighting back, rattling his saber in the form of humour. (For Le Chiffre, Vesper-like, has stripped all his armour from him). Like the sea scene, we’re invited to gaze at Bond — but this time with apprehension and discomfort, as Le Chiffre tortures him. Will Bond survive? Though Le Chiffre’s discomfort is apparent as Bond laughs hysterically and he nervously laughs along with his unpredictable prisoner. Thankfully, Mr White (on behalf of the Lord’s highly disgruntled and impoverished Resistance Army gets to Le Chiffre first, and in a strange way, liberates Bond and Vesper. Only Bond’s fevered gaze shifts to Matthis — who he thinks can’t be trusted, and neutralises him accordingly.
Clunkily, Vesper and Bond get together. It’s hard to see Vesper’s motivation here, apart from her own secrets— and gratitude for not losing the Treasury millions to fund international terrorism. But perhaps like a verbal dance break, this is an opportunity for Bond fans to have a rest before the next big action sequence. And when it comes — it’s the ultimate blunt instrument moment. Kudos though to Craig and Green who somehow (with actor magic) make this section work, be believable and credible, (nonsense dialogue, comedy Swiss banker, terrible jokes and all), and draw us deeply into the romance. They persuade us to look and believe. Though all is not well as a Herr Flick type ruins Vesper’s peace and photographs — and consequently Vesper breaks Bond’s heart and bank account. (Again, loving Craig’s era of humoursly dodgy looking evil sidekicks).
We’re left looking at a revengeful and then grieving Bond, who almost makes history by being a tearful Bond on screen. The camera looks away before we see his tears, instead lingering on his howl of anguish over Vesper’s dead body. When Bond returns, he’s full of bitterness. However, Vesper has left him a clue, which sets him on his next reinstated mission…And James Bond will return…
Not only is our gaze directed to Craig at most times (the camera can’t get enough of his steely blue eyes), but to the joy of a big screen film itself. Martin Campbell and Phil Méheux get us looking at the big picture, as the screen sings with locations, crowd scenes, airports, slippery disappearing marks (Claudio Santamaria’s Carlos). There are also striking moments, such as Isaach De Bankolé’s terrorist, Steven Obanno, who can tenderly share a coke and a pinball game with a child soldier, before discussing financing terror. The presence of the child soldier is a reminder of the grounded reality of this Bond, despite the lush locations and spectacular stunts. Of the deeper complex realities and ethics of a post-Cold War World.
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