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MI6 guest writers Richard & Leslie Skillman report
on the Casino Royale World Premiere event
and the
audience
reaction
from an American perspective...
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Opinion - James Bond In The Decade Of Fear
15th December 2006
JAMES BOND IN THE DECADE FEAR - AN AMERICAN
PERSPECTIVE
REPORT & OPINION BY RICHARD & LESLIE SKILLMAN
While in London this month, we were fortunate
to accompany some of the MI6 crew to the Casino Royale World
Premiere along with noted Bond authors, Lee Pfeiffer and Dave
Worrall. For the last 5 years, my wife Leslie and I have planned
and executed James Bond theme parties and film showings. In addition
to the Royal Premiere in London, we have followed up with subsequent
US viewings made up of other Bond enthusiasts and non-enthusiasts
alike.
Casino Royale is a crossroads
film for EON Productions, one made from daring decisions
and response to criticism of the franchise direction, in
stunning defiance of the financial success of its less
than stellar predecessor “Die Another Day”.
What is more impressive is that these decisions came amidst
the acquisition of MGM by a Sony led consortium. It is
with credit to all those involved that they did not choose
to play it “safe” and produce another “Die
Another Day”.
While in London, we took the opportunity
to visit Ian Fleming’s grave site at Sevenhampton,
as well as his schoolrooms at Eton. Like the film, our
visit was a return to James Bond’s more literary
roots rather than just the cinematic locations we had previously
visited. Ironically, reaction to criticism and how that
may affect the outcome of creative pursuits is rife with “Casino
Royale”.
As Ian Fleming was chastised as a schoolboy
at Eton by his school masters and grew to a great literary
power dispute poor grades in literature, Daniel Craig harnessed
the overwhelming early scorn of his selection as James Bond
and delivered one of the best Bond performances and has made
the character his own. |
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Craig, taking unusually harsh barbs from press
and fans alike, focused the criticism externally on the development
of
his physique for the role and turned it inwards to create one
of the most emotional and introspective Bonds. This is evidenced
by Craig’s masterful expression of a great range of emotions
through Bonds killings required to becoming a 00, falling in
love, suffering extreme torture and experiencing painful betrayals.
On both continents, women in the audience reacted positively
to Craig’s portrayal and seemed to transition from the
suave Pierce to the rugged Daniel with little effort. The men
interviewed were split, some looking to Bond to be their lifestyle
model, with Brosnan/Connery being the role most identified and
others felt this may be more developed by Craig’s Bond
in films to come, and welcomed his “re-Bourne Identity”.
Granted, the writers, Purvis, Wade and Haggis
are working with the framework of a great existing Bond story
for the first time.
It is clear in this outing that they were given significant more
flexibility to reset the Bond template and establish an architecture
more in touch with present day terror. The writers have skillfully
woven Fleming’s story in and out of contemporary plot lines
and issues and although some of the sequences follow the previous
Bond pitfalls of being too long, too confusing and too incredulous,
the overarching themes of the story continue to mesmerize.
The
films best sequences are the interplay scenes between Vesper
and Bond - of note was the dueling dialogue of wits on the train
and touching shower scene following the killing of Le Chiffre’s
assailants, excellent moments and notable for Bond's character
in films to come. Duels and opposition of power sequences are
thematic in this film - Bond and the Free Runner, a cobra and
mongoose fight scene in Madagascar, Bond and Le Chiffre at Casino
Royale’s poker tables and the free world against organized
terror.
Martin Campbell returns to direct a launch of
another new Bond and he works with the usual larger than life
elements with an
artisan’s skill. Several of the action pieces could have
been assembled better to establish more suspense. For example,
the terror plot to explode a new jumbo jet failed to generate
any significant concern and could have benefited by inter cutting
between the oncoming fuel tanker to the gathering audience at
the airport for the unveiling. Terrorists feed on carnage and
at no time did we feel anyone was in grave danger save Bond in
this sequence. Conversely, the opening free running sequence
was brilliantly edited, exciting and more physical than any other
Bond chase in memory.
From our perspective, James Bond, as Ian Fleming
might have envisioned, is back from a long absence and the “rebooting“ of
the template as Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson, the producers,
described their intent of this film accomplishes this transformation
perfectly. This new Bond faces real world terror and some may
argue that Brosnan's’s Bond was unfairly hampered with
cardboard villains and evil during the decade following the collapse
of
the Cold War icons - the Berlin Wall, the Soviet Union, etc.
Similarly, other Bond's - Moore and Dalton - it could be argued
provided their
Bond for their decades - the silliness of the 70’s, the
sternness of the 80’s.
Craig’s Bond will have to
compete with the real life evil and faceless terror witnessed
on television screens daily around the world. It is suggested
in this film that there is an organized front to the funding
and direction of terrorists and in a “S.P.E.C.T.R.E-esque ” approach,
Bond will do battle with this group in films to come. As Connery
satisfied A-Bomb nervous filmgoers in the early sixties, Daniel
Craig’s Bond will have a similar role to play for this
decade’s audience. This is a James Bond to provide a cinematic
solution to the issues we confront in our war with our real enemies
in our decade of terror.
Casino Royale squarely joins as the middle book
to the bookend “Fleming
Faithful” films, “Dr. No” and “On Her
Majesty’s Secret Service”. In the overall franchise,
we place it as one of the Top 5, joining “Goldfinger “ and “Thunderball” and
groundbreaking in its contribution to the success of the character
going forward.
Related Articles
Casino
Royale Coverage
Casino
Royale World Premiere Report
About The Authors
The Skillman's appear as movie theme party experts on the
American television series, “The Rachael Ray Show” and had
recently coordinated 21 months of James Bond Supper parties in
countdown to Casino Royale. Their events consisted of themed
cuisine and drink and unusual activities for their guests such
as Scuba Diving among mechanical sharks for “Thunderball”,
a shooting range for “Golden Gun” and a string ensemble
complete with bullet laden cellos for “The Living Daylights”.
For more information visit themepartypeople.com
The views of this columnist
and those expressed in this article are not necessarily those
of mi6-hq.com or its owners.
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