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It's better to show the first two kills then Bond establishing himself as a double-O, then his first mission. He's experienced with a military career and some time at MI6, but NOTHING prepares a person to simply step into the role as that type of agent. There must be a dangerous learning curve involved at the start. Act one does that well, from Montenegro to the Bahamas to Miami.
The Vesper character is greatly improved, given dimensions that make sense with the final reveals in the third act. And witnessing her death and Bond relentlessly trying to save her is epic. Seeing him discover her body and become enraged wouldn't work so well on screen to communicate what he's about.
Lastly the torture scene shows 007 confronting his tormentor and winning. Different than holding out as long as he can and hoping against all hope that Mathis or anyone saves him.
It really is masterful storytelling on several levels.
I agree. I love the novel, but I do think the adaptation, which in terms of the narrative, is pretty faithful, makes significant improvements particularly with the characterisations. I absolutely love the film. My top 3 - OHMSS, CR, FRWL - all of them virtually neck and neck for me.
Yeah, cutting the 'Bond begins' stuff would be good. Bond doesn't exhibit any real growth in the movie anyway. His recklessness does not appear to have abated in Venice when that scene is compared to the one in Madagascar. His cold bravado in reacting to Vesper's death is not a world away from the cold bravado in his reaction to Solange's death. The cool way he shoots Mr White is not very different to the cool way he shoots Dryden. :-?
I don't think any of the material not from the novel improved it. Vesper committing suicide in a bathtub (with a note!) would probably be better than having her luck out in finding a nice place to improvise a suicide she was apparently (?) intending when she went out. And you wouldn't need her motivation to be explained out loud by a character who didn't share any screen time with her (M).
CR, FRWL….. and might have to go with TLD.
OHMSS, TLD, LTK
CR would be 4!
This is a James Bond film...committing suicide in a 'bathtub' was never going to happen. The cinema going public are not one big 007 fan club. Ordinary cinema goers expect some bang for their buck. So I think the action packed climax does the job very well. Also the film ends on a high note.
I think the makers were pitch perfect in updating the novel to a contemporary setting and still giving us a James Bond film. Albeit, a more serious and sophisticated one than usual.
They raised the bar with CR and I don't think any future films will ever reach it. A grade A masterpiece no question.
Doubtful. As I stated. It's a Bond film.
We're not talking shoe gazing drama here...
Well, I don't need fealty to Fleming. I think P&W's original script had the suicide in the bathtub (love the scare quotes :)) ), and Haggis added the improvised drowning suicide/mediocre action extravaganza. They can run around and do a generic gun battle if they want, but having M, who doesn't really know Vesper, explain her motivation (and badly) is just crap writing.
You could just as easily say 'this is a James Bond film: playing cards for 45 minutes was never going to happen.'
They futz around on a beach for 15 minutes and Bond says 'I've no armour left; you've stripped it from me.' You can practically hear the semicolon.
The "No Armour left" quote happens at the sanatorium...
And M is using something called 'empathy' to help Bond get past his grief and betrayal.
I always (apparently wrongly!) remember it at the beach. There is a lot of shoe-gazing melodrama to keep track of in this movie!
I get that M is being empathetic, but she's also doing something called 'exposition', where characters say things out loud mostly for the benefit of the audience, often in a way that is slightly contrived or nonsensical. Le Chiffre also does some very uncommon 'fake exposition', where he says something to James Bond that isn't true and only makes sense when you consider he is talking directly to the audience.
A masterpiece of a film could have M be empathetic without inadequately explaining the peculiar improvised suicide of a stranger, and would probably not have Le Chiffre play tricks on the audience!
Don’t really have a problem with the M stuff at the end but I can definitely see your point. Would it have been better if we got a similar note from Vesper as in the novel? Voiceover by Eva Green as he reads it?
I feel like the armour line was uttered on the beach in one of the trailers maybe?
All of this is academic. The film is perfect as it is 😁
“It’s a Bond film” is no excuse for a badly executed third act.
If there is an action climax that doesn’t detract from the emotion taking place between Bond and Vesper, I just don’t think they succeeded with this film.
My problem with M’s exposition is that it’s all a conjecture. We really should have heard from Vesper’s account. Whether it’s a suicide letter or just a confession she leaves behind before taking off with the money.
As it is, it kinda feels rushed. “Oh by the way we found out Vesper’s boyfriend was kidnapped and she was told to do their bidding or else they’ll kill him. Ooops, our bad!”
Two Views from the Hotel Splendide
I like CR, but to claim it’s “perfect” is a bit much. But I also don’t think any Bond film is perfect anyway. FRWL is my #1 film, but also concede that it’s one action sequence too many (the boat chase).
Thanks for that link! Even with CR as my least favorite Bond film, I found that to be uncharitable in places, but it's a relief to see mediocrity recognized like that. I did enjoy the author's point that Campbell offers a more Flemingesque casino in Goldeneye!
I do think it’s funny how the writer doesn’t hide his disdain for Craig and how was quickly he was embraced by the public with the film’s premiere, and how Brosnan was essentially left in the dust. That bitterness just informs everything he writes, aside from his knowledge of Fleming. Even trying to attribute its box office success with just good marketing and no competition (I guess he forgot about HAPPY FEET). Like, sure, nobody actually liked CR. It’s only the media claiming that. The next fifteen years must have been miserable for him as a Bond fan.
:))
Yeah. I primarily disagreed with him on two major points: I think he is too impressed by the action, and he really does the cast a disservice, as the majority of CR's cast does an incredible job with the material, regardless of how you feel about the material itself.
I've moaned at length about how none of CR's heavy scenes bear any scrutiny whatsoever (and especially Le Chiffre boasting about how he's gonna get Vesper's account number, wtf), but if this guy put any of his beloved Brosnan pictures through the analytical wringer as he does here in his lengthy epistle about Casino Royale, well. :)) It reminds me of seeing fundamentalist Christian apologists pedantically taking apart the faith of their Mormon rivals. Have some self-awareness!
M is more or less her boss on this mission and I'm sure didn't get as high as she did without deductive reasoning skills. ;)
That said, I think it's best that we didn't get Vesper's quiet suicide and then a chase. I feel that in itself would have been even more jarring a tonal shift (you really need the pathos of the death to sink in at the end of the action sequence). Also, I think at this point in the script the audience really needed another action sequence after the relatively subdued scenes beforehand. For better or for worse, we were never going to get Vesper's quiet death from the novel.
As a professional screenwriter myself, I very much feel they made the correct dramatic choices in CR, including the final act and Bond realising Vesper has betrayed him. The point is, he is emotionally conflicted in the climatic scenes within the sinking building, as is Vesper. On one hand Bond is blindsided that the woman he has fallen in love with has kept secrets from him, but at the same time he still loves her and tries to save her. Vesper is too mentally and emotionally broken by her betrayal and, in this state, she chooses to let her life go because her future with James, the man she loves but has betrayed, is forever gone. Bond, however hard he tries, cannot save her. He is left reaching out to her as she drowns just a few feet in front of him. It's a powerful scene and deeply impacts Bond's ability to fully trust anyone again, as is further explored through the other films until No Time To Die.
That plays, in terms of the drama and the characters, extremely well.
It seems the original draft did have a more low key suicide - (as you suggest), but Campbell and the producers felt is wasn't emotionally powerful or impactful enough, and Paul Haggis agreed and developed the new ending which we now see. They made the right choice IMO.
I'd still say that the ending in the novel was much more powerful, there's a melancholy air, quiet, more emotional.
Vesper's death never gets me in emotions, I didn't get emotional.
Plus, I'm not a fan of Vesper's horror-esque face when she drowned herself.