Ruthless, Vulnerable and a Downright Sexual Daniel Craig Drags Bond Into The 21st Century

“The Name Is Bond…. James Bond.”

These words have become immortal in the annals of movie history due to the 22 movies and the over $5 billion it has earned in its 47-year lifespan as a movie character, not to mention the six actors who have played it with varying degrees of success.

Despite all the impressive box office numbers over the years however, the Bond franchise was in serious danger of becoming a series of clunky, unimaginative and expensive product placement commercials, intended only for its most die hard of fans and ripe for parody by the Austin Powers movies and outright contempt by the more complex Bourne trilogy.

Director Martin Campbell (GoldenEye) and EON Productions, the long time producers of the franchise finally seem to have listened to not only the critics, but also to its long-suffering fans have asked for- to update the much loved or loathed series (depending on whom you ask).

They got it.

“Casino Royale”(2006) is not a remake of an earlier Bond parody of the same name, but based on author Ian Fleming’s first Bond novel from 1953. Nevertheless, it’s a worthy addition to the lore and mystique of the franchise’s early days.

The introduction of Daniel Craig (Layer Cake, Infamous), not necessarily the most unanimous of choices, as the sixth 007 finally gives the character a sense of realism, probably not seen since Timothy Dalton’s Bond in “License To Kill”(1989).

Craig, the shortest of all the previous Bonds, but certainly the leanest and toughest of them all, plays the character more like a rough and tumble street brawler unlike his predecessors. Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan played Bond more like suave and sophisticated playboys, more interested in the finer things of life like the Aston Martins, Dom Perignon Champagne, Vodka Martinis and of the course, the bevy of attractive women that always needed saving.

The considerably darker beginnings of the movie, where Bond earns his 00 status, his license to kill if you like, tends to take the franchise in to quite an unfamiliar territory where the brutality and violent nature of Bond threatens to briefly morph him into a Jason Bourne type of character; a cold and ruthless killing machine.

The entry of Eva Green (The Dreamers), the talented and classically beautiful French actress as Vesper Lynd, working for the British Treasury, balances the earlier ruthlessness of the movie with what can very well be described as some of the most intelligent and engaging conversations Bond has ever had with his leading ladies. Bond and Lynd match each other wit for wit, ego for ego and finally vulnerability for vulnerability.

The emotional depth of the relationship between Bond and Lynd surely has to be one of the highlights of the movie and something the series has not really dared to explore since the wonderfully underrated “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”(1969).

It is a refreshing change from earlier movies to see the human side of Craig’s Bond finally emerge from underneath his emotional armor, if only for a brief moment.

The movie doesn’t completely start anew as the consistently wonderful Dame Judy Dench brings her considerable gravitas and reprises her role as Bond’s boss M. The relationship between M and Bond at times feels like a parent trying to discipline a teenager for breaking curfew or crashing the family car.

Bond’s primary mission in this movie is to beat the terrorist financier Le Chiffre, played competently by Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen (King Arthur) in a game of high stakes poker at the Casino Royale and discredit him in front of his clientele.

Sounds like the premise of every other Bond film, right? Wrong. The near nakedness of Bond, physically and emotionally might shock the faithful fans of the character. The emergence of Bond from the ocean in the Bahamian beaches wearing tiny blue swim shorts like a modern day Adonis or his nude and quite painful torture scene at the hands of Le Chiffre finally makes him the sexual object that was hinted at for years, but only spotlighted on the Bond girls.

The writers, including Oscar winner Paul Haggis have done a more than adequate job in reinventing the franchise but as in the debut of the other Bond successors before him, has Craig done enough to finally banish the considerable shadow of the man who started it all, Sean Connery.

Only time will tell.

Ian Fleming created one of the most iconic figures in media history when he brought James Bond to the written page. Decades later, the ups and downs of Fleming’s suave superspy has survived marriage, countless women and castration.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the movie “Casino Royale” is the closest interpretation of Fleming’s novels. The magic of movie making turned a near eunuch-misogynist into a cavalier, devil-may-care, ladies man; making Daniel Craig’s scowl and arrogance particularly in his second turn as Bond well earned. It’s also an excellent way to reboot a series.

-Donna-Lyn Washington