Here's hoping rough diamond Craig can shake up 007

Published on Sunday 16 October 2005 00:06

'THE scent and smoke of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning." With that sentence, the legend of James Bond was born. Kingsley Amis - himself the author of a not-bad-at-all Bond book, Colonel Sun - might be one of the few to consider Ian Fleming a great writer, but it can safely be said that Fleming did more with his super-spy than the film-makers who have made James Bond an icon across the planet, while doing their best to turn the character into a laughing stock.

The appointment, or anointment, of Daniel Craig as the new 007 offers hope that Bond might return to his roots. Pierce Brosnan was always a little too smooth for the job (not helped by the producers' feeble insistence that he give up smoking and drastically cut back his liquor consumption). Craig has a pleasing hint of menace in his face that augurs well for his chances.

The most promising moment of Brosnan's tenure was the sequence in North Korea at the opening of Die Another Day in which Bond is taken prisoner and subsequently tortured by his captors. That hinted at a darker, more interesting Bond - a promise that remained frustratingly unfulfilled as the movie degenerated into silliness preposterous even by the franchise's lofty standard, earning a place on the too-long-by-far list of worst Bond movies ever made.

Indeed, a charitable estimate might be that only half a dozen of the 21 Bond movies are really worth watching.

The formula desperately needs to return to its roots, not so that Bond can be "relevant" but simply so he can be at least somewhat plausible. I'm not sure if it is reassuring or not that Paul Haggis, writer of the shockingly over-rated Million Dollar Baby, has been brought in to doctor the script for Casino Royale but his hiring at least demonstrates that the movie's producers are taking their responsibilities more seriously than they have in the past.

That's just as well because very little actually happens in Casino Royale. Bond plays a lot of Baccarat, is double-crossed by his assistant Vesper Lynd, gets tortured and does not even execute the villain, Le Chiffre, himself. There's not too much glamour in Casino Royale, merely the messy, often squalid business of Her Majesty's Secret Service. There is, then, plenty of room for character. We will know if the Bond reinvention is for real if the producers include Bond's cold judgment on Miss Lynd: "The bitch is dead now."

Although the memorable villains - Rosa Kleb, Goldfinger, Dr No and Blofeld - are vital to Fleming's success there is material to work with in terms of Bond too. Fleming relished describing Bond as "cruel", and the character's sadistic streak has only fleetingly been glimpsed on screen.

Casino Royale offers the chance for a fresh start - and not just because it features the most famous example of Fleming's sado-masochism as Bond's genitals are soundly thrashed by a cane. Featuring that realistically will be another declaration of intent that we are in a new, more interesting Bond era.

Refreshing Bond should not be an impossible undertaking. Fleming referred to the books as "fairytales for grown-ups", but in one significant respect they are prescient visions of a dystopian world plagued by the menace of rogue lunatics and organised crime syndicates.

Spies are in vogue again. Human intelligence is back; relying solely on technology is out. Toughening up Bond, while still allowing for a degree of escapism, will let the films explore the uncertainties of a world that seems much more complicated and dangerous than it did a decade ago.

Fleming got something else right too. Bond is comfortable with American power - in stark contrast to the sneering attitude towards "the cousins" affected by John Le Carre's characters, many of whom resent Britain's eclipse. Bond, by contrast, offered the appearance of independence and emerged as a reassuring figure of British relevance in the years of imperial decline.

Even so, it is no coincidence that the stark realities of the new world order were spelt out in Casino Royale. Bond, not for the last time, needs to be baled out by the CIA as Felix Leiter provides the funds 007 requires to continue the mission just when disaster and ignominious failure seem to be his fate.

And the reason a casino is nauseating at 3am? It's then, Fleming writes, that "the soul erosion produced by high-gambling - a compost of greed and fear and nervous tension - becomes unbearable and the senses awake and revolt from it". For some aficionados the wait for a new Bond has had a little of the same nervous tension, heightened by the realisation that it's too absurd to care much about which actor gets to play the part of the world's most famous Fettesian. But then diamonds aren't the only thing that is forever, so is James Bond.