Casino Royale at 20: Why I Came Around to What I Now Think Is the Best Bond Film

I Didn't Like Casino Royale at First, But I Now Think It's the Best Bond Film

It's been 20 years since Casino Royale first released, and I wanted to look back at it with Griffin, who works behind the scenes with me and is a massive Bond fan. I don't really remember the first time I saw it. I just remember not liking it and being quite thrown by the whole thing. I think I was so used to the Brosnan take and the over the top gadgets. I hadn't read the books, and I saw Bond as a lovable, affable assassin with gadgets who always got through a close shave.

This film dropped a lot of the Bond tropes we expect, the kind you could tick off a bingo card, a formula that started with Goldfinger. I remember wondering where Moneypenny was and where the gadgets were. It took me a long time to adjust. Only when I went back through the films to rank them all did I finally fully appreciate it and see it for what it was, which I think is the best Bond film so far. I like origin stories in general, and I think this one nails it across the board.

Griffin came at it from the opposite side. He's about seven years younger than me and first saw it on one of the Netflix mail-in DVDs; his first Bond film in a theater was Quantum of Solace. He was captivated by how intensely focused it was on the character. In his view it didn't disrespect what came before, but after Die Another Day it made a clean break and built a new Bond from the ground up for a 21st century audience craving something more real. He points out that Casino Royale and Batman Begins were made concurrently, and he thinks the reception of Batman Begins gave Eon, Martin Campbell and Daniel Craig more confidence in their take. Making poker as riveting as a showdown in a Sergio Leone western, he says, is an accomplishment in itself.

The Black and White Prague Opening Threw Me, but I Now See It as Brilliant

Like Griffin, I loved the Brosnan era. GoldenEye was one of my favorite films, and games like Nightfire and Everything or Nothing reinforced what a Bond story should be. I know they said that when they were making Die Another Day, they watched the Bourne movie and took a lot from it. I wasn't a believer in Daniel Craig's casting, and it took a lot of years for me to come around. I had it drilled into me that the pre-title sequence should be a massive action scene with a big stunt, so this low key black and white affair, which felt a bit like Dr. No, didn't make sense to me then.

In hindsight I think it's pure brilliance. Turning the gun barrel itself into a scene is such a creative thing to do, and the first bit of color is the blood dripping down. In Prague, Bond makes two kills: a brutal bathroom fight shot gritty with lots of film grain, and a far more toned down scene where he questions Dryden, who pulls a gun on him. There's a look on Craig's face in the bathroom like he's pumped up and angry, then the cool, sophisticated Bond sits ready to shoot. When we see Dryden's family, it shows Bond simply carrying out hits as a blunt instrument, which is what Fleming described him as.

Griffin says the black and white calls to mind The Third Man and classic film noir. He sees the poker language set up straight away: Dryden thinks he has all the cards, but Bond is the one holding them close to the chest. Griffin suggests the man in the bathroom is essentially Bond in another reality, while Dryden is a traitor Bond has disdain for. To him it sets up what the film explores, summed up in Vesper's later line that being good at something doesn't mean you have to keep doing it.

You Know My Name Didn't Sound Like a Bond Song to Me at First

The song didn't click for me at first either. Only when I listened to it while driving did I realize it was a banger. It doesn't sound very John Barry, with neither the long strings of We Have All the Time in the World nor the brass from Goldfinger. It's a hard rock song and it's great, but it was too jarring for me then, as was a title sequence full of playing cards. David Arnold told me they didn't use the Bond theme until the end, which was in the script, but layered its notes through the score so more appear towards the end.

Griffin calls it a rush. He thinks that lyrically it's one of, if not the best, written Bond songs, and he finds it crazy that anyone thought to grab Chris Cornell, the lead singer of Soundgarden and Audioslave. He has to imagine hearing it was similar to hearing Paul McCartney and Wings' Live and Let Die for the first time, though he admits we'll never know since he wasn't alive then. Daniel Kleinman's title visuals are probably one of his favorites in the series. For me, it's a big swing from the windsurfing in Die Another Day, by the same people.

Le Chiffre Wasn't My Idea of a Bond Villain

Le Chiffre was the opposite of what I expected too. He doesn't go out in a blaze of glory, he's taken out at the end of the second act, and he's sniveling and weeping from the eye rather than maniacal. His plan is just to make more money, which I'd call selfish and realistic, and he has vulnerabilities, like the hotel room scene where the warlord threatens to chop off his girlfriend's arm. In my head, a Bond villain was someone like Hugo Drax. Reading the book now, I appreciate how the film updates the bare bones and adds things like Miami airport, since the book kind of starts at the casino. Mr. White is a subtle setup for a recurring character; he's not in No Time to Die, but his daughter is.

Griffin thinks a group financing these fighters to profit off the war on terror makes a lot of sense. Le Chiffre walks in confident, yet he's at the mercy of Mr. White and the warlord, then immediately gambles the money on the stock market. Griffin thinks Le Chiffre reflects Bond, a path he could have gone down, and that this makes him better than the novel's version.

The Madagascar Chase Shows Bond's Tunnel Vision

Madagascar opens with a mongoose and snake fight before Bond chases the bomb maker through a construction site. I was lucky enough to meet Sébastien Foucan back in March, I think it was, and he was still doing flips. Even at 18, I thought, at least the action is going to be good. Then Bond storms the embassy, which shows how reckless he is, and M gives him a dressing down for chasing one bomb maker rather than the people behind the bombs.

Griffin says it's still his favorite action sequence of all time. To him it's Fleming's blunt instrument against someone more nimble, and it shows Bond's tunnel vision: he doesn't see the global ramifications that leave M under fire. In the apartment scene, he says, Craig plays Bond like a petulant teenager and M feels like a maternal figure, with the slightly open laptop showing Bond gradually letting her in.

From the Bahamas to Miami, Bond Starts Calling for Help

In the Bahamas, Bond coming out of the water clearly plays off the Ursula Andress moment, and I think it's probably as iconic to a lot of people; Griffin says it might eclipse it, granted recency bias. Bond beats Dimitrios at poker and takes his car keys. Griffin thinks Solange's death does rattle Bond a bit. Then comes the Miami tarmac chase. Seeing Bond cut up didn't gel with me originally, but now I think it's a fantastic scene. Griffin notes it's a more gradual escalation than Madagascar, and this time Bond calls ahead to MI6.

Vesper Turns Casino Royale Into One Big Poker Game

The film swings from the high of that airport moment to Solange dead, and Bond gets a dressing down for getting her killed. Then he's on a train. Bond movies are littered with train scenes, and I think this one is up there as one of the really iconic ones. It's where he meets Vesper for the first time. She mentions the money, he says "every penny of it," and I did wonder if she was this universe's version of Moneypenny.

The back and forth is really good. You can see them size each other up and wonder whether they're bluffing, which plays into the stakes of the poker game. I think this film in general is one big poker game: Bond and Le Chiffre playing off against each other, but also Vesper trying to bluff her way through. She turns out to be a double agent, and Bond just cannot get the read on her. In hindsight, the conversations work really well. When she sizes him up as single, she isn't single, and he doesn't quite pick up on it. He believes Mathis is the one who betrayed him, while she's always kind of in his blind spot. Later he even tells her she's taken all his armor.

Griffin thinks Bond is blind to it for the same reason Le Chiffre beats him the first time: he doesn't recognize how easily people can read him. Griffin believes Vesper does love him and that their connection isn't insincere, but on rewatches you see her struggling with how all in Bond goes. His biggest issue, Griffin says, is that he's either all in or not, which helps him win the second time around but burns him with Le Chiffre and then with Vesper. Griffin calls Eva Green's performance incredible because it's so layered: she is basically doing exactly what Bond does, and we don't recognize it because we're fixated on his point of view. He even suggests you could argue Vesper wins the game, since she holds her cards closest to her chest.

Felix Leiter and Mathis Keep the Casino Scenes Moving

When Bond gets beaten, it's Felix who has to pull him out of it, and I really like the reveal that Jeffrey Wright has been Felix Leiter this whole time. The franchise often sets Felix up as the strange guy in the background; in The Living Daylights Bond gets picked up by two women who take him to Felix. Wright wasn't a big actor at the time, but you sort of recognized his face, and I think he's by far the best Felix in the entire franchise.

Mathis is a friendly face, kind of playing the game as well, and sort of the voice of the audience, explaining poker to Vesper in very simple terms. When I first watched this I had no idea how poker was played. The casino scenes are tense, with Le Chiffre bleeding from the eye, Bond needing a defibrillator, and the Vesper martini being made for the first time, its ingredients lined up with the book. The poker might not be that interesting to everyone, but you're not in it too long before a curveball keeps things going.

Griffin's favorite moment is the shower scene, because it's Bond considering the human cost of the violence he's become numb to. He thinks the problem is that Bond goes all in on Vesper as a person rather than recognizing that the life he wants is possible with the right person. Griffin also says we need more allies like Mathis, whom he sees as an older version of Bond, and finds it funny Bond suspects him, since Mathis is an open book. He calls Giancarlo Giannini incredible. I remember him standing out in Hannibal, and he's a warm face we need because Bond and Vesper are so cold.

The Aston Martin Crash and the Torture Scene Expose Bond's Weak Spot

I thought the poker went on a bit too long when I first watched it, but having read the book, I now appreciate what they're doing character wise. After the Brosnan run teased cars like the Z3 and Z8, and the Aston Martin came back in Die Another Day, I was expecting a big Aston Martin chase. I do wish it went on longer, but I love the flip, and I remember thinking it was the greatest car I'd ever seen. Again it shows the chink in Bond's armor: Vesper is the thing they constantly use against him. Griffin finds the line "Everyone has a tell but you" really sad on rewatch.

The torture scene is brutal, and I remember being in the cinema thinking exactly that. It shows how resilient Bond is: he's accepted that double Os have a short life expectancy and he's not giving up the password. Griffin calls it one of the most visceral sequences in the book and probably the darkest thing depicted in a Bond film up to that point, with Bond calling Le Chiffre's bluff like the poker game translated into real life.

Mr. White bursting in to shoot Le Chiffre was always a point of contention for me. I wondered why they didn't kill Bond, and whether that's really how the villain goes out. I didn't appreciate those curveballs at the time, but now I really do, and it lays the groundwork for Bond shooting White in the knee. At the lake, I think the password being Vesper is when she realizes he does care for her, while she grapples with the boyfriend she's doing all this for.

Venice, the Betrayal and a Perfect Origin Ending

Watching Venice the first time, I felt it had become a romance story, with fantastic vistas but a dark shadow looming. Griffin calls it Hitchcockian. He says lines that could be corny really hit him when he watched it as basically a tween, and that he loved how this section showed vulnerability within masculinity, Bond as a kind of Byronic hero. The sinking building finale is, I think, another phenomenal action scene, oddly not from the novel, with Vesper in the elevator seeing he's still coming to save her. Griffin thinks the collapsing building signifies their doomed romance, and he says Craig's reaction when she dies gets him every time.

I think Bond's cold line about Vesper is the last line of the novel, and Griffin praises Craig delivering it as a matter of fact, like he doesn't fully believe it. Then comes the ending: Bond shoots Mr. White, delivers "Bond, James Bond," and the fanfare kicks in for the first time. There is no better way to end an origin story. It reminds me of I Am Iron Man, another perfect example of a line that's very known to the character. Griffin compares it to On Her Majesty's Secret Service: done about as perfectly as you could, so why touch it? He liked how First Light did its own origin, but thinks remaking this would be like remaking The Godfather.

I think it's the best first film they're ever going to have for a take on Bond, with The Living Daylights up there, and I can't believe it's 20 years old. I think it's one of the best spy films of all time, with great action, espionage and character work, and that betrayal turns it into a tragic tale.

Where does Casino Royale rank among your favorite Bond films?