Casino Royale: A Man For All Seasons
Jenny Qin — Thu, 01/21/2010 - 04:43
Casino Royale is the 2006 version of Ian flemming's first James Bond book of the same name. It is the twenty-first film in the British James Bond series; it was directed by Martin Campbell and the first to star Daniel Craig as MI6 agent James Bond. Based on the 1953 novel, the film is the first serious attempt to dramatize Flemming's first work as it is preceded only by a 1967 satirical version as well as a TV episode in 1954. Many aspects of the novel are modernized in the film to suit today's day and age. The film is set at the beginning of James Bond's career as Agent 007, just as he is earning his licence to kill. After a daring chase through Madagascar and foiling a terrorist attack at Miami International Airport, Bond is assigned to play in a high stakes poker game at Casino Royale against Le Chiffre, a math genius who owes a lot of money to his terrorist financiers (thanks to Bond). On the way, Bond falls for Vesper Lynd, the treasury agent assigned to provide the money he needs to play. Through the suspense of the high stakes poker game as well as dramatic fight and chase scenes we watch Bond's character develop and the relationship between Vesper and himself deepen only to tragic results. At the end of the film, we see Bond emerge the debonair, suave and confident hero we are familiar with, except now with more understanding as to why he is who he is.
The original soundtrack for the film is comprised of many orchestral pieces written as background music for the numerous action sequences. I have attempted to use contemporary, for the most part, songs to offer a bit of narration as well as insight into the characters' inner thoughts and emotions.
SOUNDTRACK
- You Know My Name - Chris Cornell
James Bond is a very recognizable movie franchise with a very particular sound to accompany its iconic superspy character. While this song by Chris Cornell is actually the song played in the opening credits of the movie and was written for the movie itself; it was too perfect to not share. The song starts with very strong instrumentals that immediately throw you into the action, similarly to Casino Royale which immediately thrusts you into the fray as Bond is earning his double 00 status. The song also creates a degree of tension and suspense that is very evident in the first scene of the movie shot in black and white where Bond makes his second kill while retelling the story of his first. Like an angel of death falling from blinding heighs we watch Bond leap off a crane hundreds of feet in the air. The song's lyric, "If you take a life, do you know what you'll give, odds are, you won't like what it is..." serve as a narrator's voice, perhaps even Flemming's, telling the audience that there is a significant price to pay when one chooses the life Bond has and leaves the viewers waiting to see what kind of price he will have to pay.
If you take a life, do you know what you'll give
Odds are, you won't like what it is
When the storm arrives, would you be seen with me
By the merciless eyes I've deceived...
I've seen angels fall from blinding heights
But you yourself are nothing so divine
Just next in line
- A Man for All Seasons - Robbie Williams
While the first few sequences in Casino Royale were serious, suspenseful, full of action and violence the second song I chose reflect the more recognizable side of Bond as a suave and slick "man of all seasons." Bond arrives in the Bahamas following a lead he picked up in Madagascar. He slaps on some shades and casually strolls into a high end resort to steal security tapes and win vintage aston martins in late night poker games. A Man for All Season by Robbie Williams is lighthearted and bright much like the light and lush scenary of the Bahamas. Bond takes care of business leaving "queen and country safe and sound, villains six feet underground," but leaves no trace behind as M cleans up after him. After accomplishing one mission, Bond has, in a way, proven himself to the audience as a superspy and therefore allows the rest of the movie to be seen with an "I believe in you" kind of attitude.
Queen and country safe and sound, with villains six feet under ground.
And no one knows cause no ones found any trace of a man for all seasons.
Loves 'em and leaves 'em alone....so alone
And you and I wouldn't have a clue, whose doing what, why, when and who, up the creek with no canoe,
watch out for the man for all seasons, loves 'em and leaves 'em alone......so alone (but safe at home)
- Womanizer - Britney Spears
I picked this song to pair with the scenes where James Bond drives off with another man's car and another man's woman in the same night. Caterina Murano plays Solange, the beautiful but neglected wife of Alex Dimitrioss, a key player in a hidden plot Bond is trying to uncover. While the song itself wouldn't pair with the quiet, yet heated, conversation between the two paramours, I like the narrative nature of the song much like the first song. Also, this is a sexy song, for lack of better descriptors, and it exudes the kind of sex appeal that Bond has over women. The movie goers know that Bond is a rake, a womanizer but hapless Solange doesn't. While she is assuming that this obviously attractive and attentive man is interested in her, he is simply using her for his own means. The song in the background of this scene would serve almost as an unheard Grecian chorus warning Solange that she is just a "puppet with [her] strings up" with Bond, the puppeteer, is "faking like a good one." However, we, the audience knows "just what [he is]," a womanizer.
Look at you
Gettin more than just re-up
Baby, you
Got all the puppets with their strings up
Faking like a good one, but I call 'em like I see 'em
I know what you are, what you are, baby
Womanizer, Woman, Womanizer
You're a Womanizer, oh Womanizer oh
You're a Womanizer, baby
- Poker Face - Lady Gaga
I selected this song to represent the first encounter between Bond and Vesper Lynd. Vesper enters the scene and immediate creates this irresistable gravitational pull that intrigues the womanizer that Bond is. Vesper is known to be the first "Bond girl", the original, the one he first fell in love with. While the book portrays her in a much more villainous light, the movie takes a completely different approach to Vesper that unfolds at the end. Vesper finds Bond on his train to the Montenegro Train to play at the Casino Royale. She sits herself down and introduces herself as "the money" to have Bond give her a once over and determine she's worth "every penny of it." She is in fact Bond's "bankroll". The two proceed to have a mental and verbal heads up game, each trying to read the others' "poker face". I especially like the fact that this is a heads up encounter happens outside the casino but they are exchanging bets and raises trying to figure the other one out.
I wanna roll with him a hard pair we will be
A little gambling is fun when you're with me (I love it)
Russian Roulette is not the same without a gun
And baby when it's love if its not rough it isn't fun, fun
.......................
Just like a chick in the casino
Take your bank before I pay you out
I promise this, promise this
Check this hand cause I'm marvelous
Bad Things - Jace Everett
This song corresponds with the Vesper's entrance upon Bond's high stakes poker game. He had instructed her to enter and distract the other players with her feminine allures but when she does enter, Bond seems to be the most struck with her salacious yet nonchalant attitude and breaktaking beauty. This song is just as alluring as Vesper and aside from obvious overtones, this is the time when Bond begins to take Vesper in his confidence, even creating a drink he later names after her. Bond is seeing Vesper as a partner and not just a liability now and whatever "bad things" a spy must do, he is more willing to include her.
When you came in the air went out.
And every shadow filled up with doubt.
I don't know who you think you are,
But before the night is through,
I wanna do bad things with you.
- Mad World - Gary Jules
As the poker game escalates Bond learns Le Chiffre's tell and then takes Vesper away during the break. He meets, fights and kills the terrorist leaders that Le Chiffre owes money too when they come after Le Chiffre. Vesper and Bond get caught in a stairwell when the terrorists come after them and Vesper is thrown in the middle of the melee. Upon returning to their rooms, Bond finds Vesper hugging her knees with the shower running, soaking her beautiful dress. I picked the song "Mad World" by Gary Jules originally for the end of the movie but later I felt it fit better for this scene. The song speaks for this otherwise silent scene where Vesper is screaming inside her head and Bond shows a tender moment by comforting her. "Hide my head, I want to drown my sorrow" is a vocal description of Vesper trying to wash away the grime of the fight and the feeling of being sullied by the death she participated in. In effect, Vesper is Lady MacBeth in this scene, crying, "out damned spot, out I say!" but all the showers in the world can't wash away the tangled web and life and death world she is now involved in.
Their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression, no expression
Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow
No tomorrow, no tomorrow
And I find it kinda funny
I find it kinda sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you
I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It's a very, very mad world mad world
- Impossible - Manafest
Bond's joy at winning 150 million dollars with a straight flush in the final hand of the movie is capped off with a quiet dinner with Vesper. However, she is abducted by Le Chiffre and Bond speeds after her in his Aston Martin DBS only to crash when he finds her laid out on the road. He is then brought to Le Chiffre, stripped and tortured. The song, Impossible by Manafest starts with a whisper and then gets louder and builds suspense that suits a high speed car chase. The lyrics refer to feeling "like an animal, I'm ready to lose control" which describes the situation well. Bond is reduced to his most base parts; he is naked, in pain and captured. He is a caged animal, willing himself not to give in to the torture and at the same time. The strong presence of bass guitars and percussion really lend to the atmosphere of the raging storm inside Bond while he is captured.
It seems impossible for me to let this go
Feel like an animal, I’m ready to lose control
Take everything you need, take every part of me
Take every part of me give me some room to breathe
I got to get away
Got a break away
Save Me
Got to find away
Got to break the chains
- Hanging by a Moment - Lifehouse
After recovering in Europe from the wounds he suffered after being tortured by Le Chiffre, Bond and Vesper truly fall in love. She stays by his side throughout their recovery and slowly build a relationship with Bond. The lyrics to "Hanging by a Moment" by Lifehouse says all that isn't spoken by the both of them. "Forgetting all I'm lacking, completely incomplete, I'll take your invitation, you take all of me now...." Both Bond and Vesper are incomplete people, they are missing something in their lives and they decide to take the leap and try to make each other happy. You can practically hear Bond saying, "I'm living for the only thing I know, I'm running and not quite sure where to go; and I don't know what I'm diving into, just hanging by a moment here with you." They both are giving up the only thing they know, their careers in order to follow the other person. They don't know what the future brings; they can only live moment to moment. Again the strong percussion in the song;s chorus comes into play because it reflects immense, overwhelming feelings of falling head of heels in love.
Forgetting all I'm lacking
Completely incomplete
I'll take your invitation
You take all of me now...
I'm falling even more in love with you
Letting go of all I've held onto
I'm standing here until you make me move
I'm hanging by a moment here with you
I'm living for the only thing I know
I'm running and not quite sure where to go
And I don't know what I'm diving into
Just hanging by a moment here with you
-Bitch - Room Eleven (original by Meredith Brooks)
Bitch is a song originally sung by Meredith Brooks that was redone in a much slower, almost jazz-like version by Room Eleven. This piece represents what I imagine is going through Vesper's mind as she is sacrificing herself to save Bond. The movie ends with the revelation that Vesper was a double agent who had been blackmailed by a mysterious organization who had abducted her boyfriend. However, in falling in love with Bond, she becomes so torn and riddled with guilt that she tries to kill herself and give the money to the villains to end it once and for all. The aquatic imagery in the scenes lend to a slower song and the almost painfully slow tempo of the melody reflects how painfully slow swimming through water must seen to Bond as he tries to reach a locked Vesper. Vesper "hates [herself] today" because she knows that she can't get out of her situation and she doesn't want Bond to keep thinking she's an "angel" yet at the same time she knows he loves her for her and wouldn't have it any other way.
I hate the world today
You're so good to me
I know but I can't change
Tried to tell you
But you look at me like maybe
I'm an angel underneath
Innocent and sweet
....................
I'm your hell, I'm your dream
I'm nothing in between
You know you wouldn't want it any other way
- Desperado - The Eagles
After hearing about Vesper's betrayal Bond coldly tells M that "the bitch is dead," in an effort to harden his heart again, however when M (in the movie version at least) suggests that it was only through Vesper's sacrifice that Bond was spared the night of his capture, the movie implies that he changes his viewpoint. "Desperado" by The Eagles seemed perfect for the end of the movie in my opinion. The movie actually ends with an action scene where Bond avenges Vesper by seeking out the Mr. White clue she had left him before her death. He defeats the bad guy and returns to his suave and invulnerable image that he reflected in the beginning of the film. However, I think that in the end, Bond realizes that without Vesper he is back at square one, alone, living only for his job. it seems that Bond is the most volatile person in the world, going from place to place, unable to be caught, defeating all odds, but as the lyrics say, "[His] prison is walking through this world alone."
Desperado, oh, you ain't gettin' no younger
Your pain and your hunger, they're drivin' you home
And freedom, oh freedom well, that's just some people talkin'
Your prison is walking through this world all alone
Desperado, why don't you come to your senses?
Come down from your fences, open the gate
It may be rainin', but there's a rainbow above you
You better let somebody love you, before it's too late
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The combination of multimedia
rwalden — Fri, 05/07/2010 - 12:49The combination of multimedia is excellent in your presentation. You did a thorough job in smoothing out your transitions so that everthing reads easily. Terrific job.
I thought your song
Vanessa Moreland — Thu, 05/06/2010 - 10:00I thought your song choices did an excellent job in illustrating the different aspects of the movie. I thought "Womanizer" adequately describes Bond not just for this movie but for all the Bond films in general. The Robbie Williams song also achieves this but it also succeeds in describing, both through the lyrics and music, the sort of suave, nonchalant way that Bond has of going about his life. You chose a variety of songs from different genres that succeed in illustrating the different energies of not only the story, but of Bond's character as well. Well Done
Detailed and Flowing Soundtrack
David West — Wed, 05/05/2010 - 10:41I agree with Crews in that I really like how your soundtrack flows from idea to idea. Even though the songs are not related, everything included seems like one coherent message. The pictures also help move you through the soundtrack from scene to scene and idea to idea.
I think that for a majority of the songs you chose, the “mood” inspired by the song matched directly with the idea in the movie. I like a lot of the songs you chose, but I think Desperado is a very interesting choice to describe Bond’s character at the end of the movie.
Before I read Joe’s comment, I was also thinking that the songs you chose actually gave a Bond-like feel to a not very Bond-like movie.
James Bond
redens — Wed, 05/05/2010 - 10:13First off, your soundtrack layout is beautiful. It flows very well and is entertaining just to look. The links and embeds are seamless and the pictures are great. When I first saw this movie, I really enjoyed it. Some of you song choices stood out to me: Mad World (from the Donnie Darko Soundtrack) was an interesting choice. I can definitely see it fitting in with the scene. Did you know that that song was originally a Tears For Fears song and is MUCH more upbeat? I like the Lady Macbeth comment as well.
The GaGa song fits in nicely too.
Overall, very well done. Great soundtrack for a great reboot of the Bond series.
I actually JUST learned it
Jenny Qin — Wed, 05/05/2010 - 10:33I actually JUST learned it was a Tears for Fears song. My friend had posted it on Facebook which made me do a double take. I love how many songs can almost take another personality unto themselves when reinterpreted by another artist. I definitely used to hate when artists would "remake" a track; but recently I think I've changed my mind and I'll agree that if the artists does a good job (which in my opinion is hard to do) it can really be another artisitc piece unto itself.
I thought your project was
AndrewSimpson — Tue, 05/04/2010 - 23:29I thought your project was well organzied and easy to follow. The songs describing Bond were very appropriate, including "You Know My Name" and "A Man For All Seasons." Also, "Mad World" was a great choice for the silent scene in the shower.
I really like the song
joesaunders — Sat, 02/20/2010 - 20:03I really like the song selections here. The bass lines to the Robbie Williams and Jace Everett songs are very "Bond"-ish. And I think the Britney and Lady Gaga dance songs would have been a really cool contrast to Daniel Craig's stoic portrayal.
When I first saw the selection of Meredith Brooks' "Bitch", I admit I was doubtful. I'd never heard this version before but it is perfect. Great for the scene and seems to fit in with the franchises jazzy selections in the past.
Excellent use of pictures, also. Really added to the piece well.
There is a nice collection of
Dan Anderson — Tue, 02/02/2010 - 08:34There is a nice collection of materials here. The layout is also easy to follow. I also get a good sense of Bond from your analysis. I'm less sure about the analysis of the music. Bringing out more details about the songs--the sounds, perhaps a bit more on lyrics--will help tie things together even better.