For all the emotional complexity beneath James Bond’s surface in “Casino Royale,” the film was packed with memorable action scenes and stunning visuals. Whether it was the Parkour sequence in the opening moments or the taut poker game itself, director Martin Campbell made sure to include as much style as he did substance — all the while subverting the classic Bond tropes audiences had come to expect.
A particularly memorable shot recalled a famous moment from the first Bond movie, “Dr. No,” wherein Ursula Andress’s Honey Ryder emerges from the ocean in an ivory cotton two-piece bathing suit. This shot alone helped launch the relatively unknown Andress to fame back in 1962, and caused quite a stir in pop culture due to its apparent embrace of the female body at a time when Western society was still outgrowing the more buttoned-down culture of previous decades. The suit itself reached almost $150,000 when it was auctioned off by Christie’s back in 2001 and was expected to reach almost $500,000 when it went back up for auction in 2020 (no final figure was announced).
In “Casino Royale,” Campbell seemingly both subverts and pays homage to Andress’ indelible scene by having Bond himself emerge from the Bahamian waters in a similar fashion. In an inversion of the male gaze approach taken by director Terence Young in ’62, Daniel Craig’s 007 can be seen in all his sculpted glory, rising from the ocean and surveying the beach in a pair of, frankly, unbelievably tight pale blue trunks. It was an image used across the promotional material for “Casino Royale” and one that turned Craig into somewhat of a sex symbol, as well as reinforcing his more muscular spy.
Clever stuff — or at least it would be if the whole thing wasn’t an accident.