When I was looking for an article for my synopsis this week, I found a lot of magazine and newspaper articles written around the time that "Casino Royale" was released. Because the Daniel Craig movies have been so successful, I had forgotten that initially his casting and a few other factors had been criticized by the public. I can remember having a conversation with a friend before I watched the movie about how physically different Craig was from Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan, who was originally offered the role in the movie. Even after "Casino Royale", the movies have been criticized for apparently breaking with the traditional Bond mold, the most famous example probably being the Heineken branding placement from "Quantum of Solace."
From watching the movies in this course, we know that this isn't the first time these traditional breaks have happened: the Aston Martin has been switched out for a BMW, the multiple Bond girls have been traded out for a single heroine, and unlike Honey Rider, women are sometimes allowed to wear pants. But there is obviously a change in the Craig Bond movies: the darker, moodier, more cynical character, the adapted plot from the first Fleming novel. There are obvious similarities, present from the original story and not: the early scene in Madagascar, the gambling (poker, not baccarat), Bond's physicality, the abuse to Bond's penis, etc. And yet the biggest change is something I found in the article I'm going to cover for my synopsis: the portrayal of Bond as a mixture of common tropes from earlier Bond movies. The article argues, reasonably I believe, that Vesper isn't a true Bond girl; instead, she's a sort of compound Bond heroine. The Bond girl role is instead filled by James Bond himself due to the way his body is displayed for the viewer's gaze. It's almost a return to the homo-eroticism of the Connery movies, but it isn't offset by a girl in a bikini (Vesper Lynd is usually covered up, even on the beach).
I've always really liked this movie, but it's interesting watching it after reading Ian Fleming's novel. While I do think that the movie actually might be more true to the cultural perception than the book, I was disappointed in Vesper's film character after reading the book. I always viewed Vesper in the movie as a departure from the Bond girls I watched when I was growing up, and I do believe that she isn't part of that mold. And her character is much more fleshed out than an object trying to be a woman, as she is in the book. But I'm realizing that she doesn't actually do much and Bond does actually relegate her to a simple pretty distraction at one point. But what can you do? It is a Bond film, after all.
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