I think it could be reasonably argued that Casino Royale is the best Bond
film of them all (though Goldfinger will always remain my favorite). It is
a wonderful re-start to a series that had become bloated on its self-importance
and this took it back to the basics and the origin story.
Now that doesn't mean that I think Daniel Craig is the best Bond; that honor
of course goes to Sean Connery. How people can think otherwise bewilders
me and makes me worry about their taste in everything. Though admittedly,
it is like so many things - the first Bond you saw is often your favorite.
But Roger Moore? Seriously? I loved him as the Saint but he was unfortunately
saddled with cartoony plots and characters that at the time I recall enjoying,
but watching those films now is torture. The Connery films hold up very well
because they never got silly and the women were spectacular. Excluding George
Lazenby who was only in the one film, I can't even recall whether it was
Pierce Brosnan or Timothy Dalton in what films. Forgettable and industrial
products. Casino Royale saved the Bond franchise.
Which is fitting because Casino Royale by Ian Fleming began it all. Not just
Bond but the entire fictional spy genre that ripped through the 1950's and
60's like a tornado. It was the first Bond book, written in 1953 and though
it only sold a few hundred thousand copies it had an enormous influence on
other writers and the public. The English loved it because once again England
was relevant after losing much of their Empire one piece at a time. In the
world of fictional espionage England could still hit above its weight.
Of course, there had been other spy novels before Fleming - John Buchan and
his series of Richard Hannay books (the 39 Steps being the most famous but
they are all good), Geoffrey Household and his classic Rogue Male written
in 1939 about an Englishman attempting to assassinate Hitler and perhaps
the best writer of them all was Eric Ambler who never developed a specific
character series of spy novels but instead wrote individual stories often
of innocents getting caught up in espionage from the Fascists through the
Communists. All of them English btw - I don't know of any American writers
in the spy genre pre-Fleming.
Casino Royale is a good read - sleek at 200 pages compared to most of today's
spy novels. Bond has two kills to his credit and has been recently given
the 007 distinction. Unlike the film, the book begins after those two huge
and wonderful action set-pieces in the film - when Bond comes to challenge
Le Chiffre in a game of chance and skill Baccarat - which still confuses
the hell out of me. From that point on the film follows the book in at least
the same neighborhood. In the book reflecting the time period, Le Chiffre
is a Soviet agent in France who has unwisely invested the money given to
him to cause unrest on bordellos - that went bankrupt. Now if he doesn't
make up his losses at the table SMERSH will kill him.
The movie is actually better than the book I suppose - though at 2 hours
and 20 minutes it could have lost a little off the top - but the three action
set pieces are amazing, Craig never cracks a smile or a quip and it is always
wonderful to hear "Bond, James Bond".
