Casino Royale

Women want him and men want to be him. What is it about Bond?
I must say that I have hated most of the Bond movies I have seen. Die Another Day was possibly the cheesiest thing every committed to celluloid. Yet this one got rave reviews, so I gave it a shot. Casino Royale is the beginning of Bond's career. He goes to exotic locales, finds beautiful women, and fights the bad guys. The life of a spy is exciting, and we want excitement in our lives. The fate of the world rests on the shoulders of a spy, and we want our lives to be that important. So we live vicariously through 007. Daniel Craig (Road To Perdition, Layer Cake, Munich) does a fantabulous job playing the world's famous spy. He exudes confidence, charisma, and charm. The action was suberb, and quite exciting (this coming from someone who usually gets bored during a long chase sequence). Casino Royale looks and sounds pristine; it is everything a good action flick should be.
But then that old brain kicks in, and asks questions, like "is it okay that Bond kills dozens of men in cold blood, without a second thought?" and "why is this guy a hero?" Today I came across an article in the Toronto Star by Geoff Pevere, entitled "Testing the soul's ability to bear murder." Pevere states "the man required to kill on society's behalf ... may be every bit as dangerous as any threats he kills in civilisation's name. He's become a cancer within." The article focuses on the question "What toll does murder take on the murderer?" Casino Royale addresses this thought, if only slightly. Bond is a cold-blooded killer, he cannot care about anyone or anything (except the "Crown," I guess). He has no attachments, no relationships, no heart. He must become a machine in order to do his job. Does that mean he must lose his soul? (And I am talking here and now, not in the distant future ie. heaven/hell). I love to bring up The Myth of Redemptive Violence, Hollywood's greatest lie. Bond is definitely one of the greatest flag-bearers of this myth, yet the film seems to attempt to wrestle with this reputation. Bond struggles at times with what he must give up in order to be a 00-agent. He seems to want a "normal" life. Yet he is willing to sacrifice all of that to use, in Pevere's words, "aggression as a solution," so that others may be safe. Is that Christ-like, or the opposite, or both at the same time? What does this way of life do to someone, how does it change them? Is Bond really a good guy? He is a utilitarian (choosing the greatest good for the greatest number of people), yet I always think of the Parable of the Lost Sheep as the antithesis of utilitarianism. Casino Royale is much better than your average Bond film for many reasons, but one big one is the fact that it does not gloss over these questions. It could have gone so much deeper, but who wants to think during an action movie?
The latest Bond is head and shoulders above anthing I have seen since the Connery days. Yet there is consistency. In all Bond movies, as is the case in Casino Royale, one thing is made very clear: the bad guys' lives don't matter at all.