Evangelicals Now
<< January 2007 >>

Casino Royale

Spy glass
CASINO ROYALE
Director Martin Campbell
Cert. 12A

This film is interesting, not because it is particularly edifying (it isn’t), nor even because it marks the debut of actor Daniel Craig in the role of the celebrated fictional British spy James Bond. It is interesting because it holds up a mirror and reflects the change which Western civilisation is undergoing in its attitude to itself.

Previous Bond films have represented a self-confident, even arrogant celebration of the materialism, technology and decadent sensuality of our culture. Secular democracies with their instruments of state were the world beaters who would save the world from the baddies and secure a bright future of fun and freedom for all. But with this fresh film the upbeat feel is decidedly muted if not missing. We now see ourselves differently.

Current mood

The new departure is signalled by the story, while set in the present day, taking us back to the beginning of Bond’s spying career, before he has obtained double ‘O’ status. Thus all previous Bonds are set aside. Daniel Craig brings far more grit and cruelty to the role. The chases and fight scenes are electrifying because they have moved up a couple of gears in violence. And like the current mood in Western culture following 9/11 and our interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, James Bond is far less certain of himself.

The construction of the movie underlines this uncertainty teetering on self-loathing. It is a long film (2 hours 24 minutes) and there are a couple of occasions which look very like the final scenes of the old Bond movies — the girl and the boat, etc. But these turn out not to be the end. When the end comes it has a far more unsettling and bitter taste to it. Perhaps the fact that the ruthless defence of democratic secularism is not the answer to the world’s problems it was once thought to be, is even beginning to register with the purveyors of this enduring movie icon.

John Benton