Casino Royale
Despite the fact that most of us today have an opinion on a famous James Bond movie, Casino Royale, not many of us know much about the novel that originated and made the movie happen in the first place.
Casino Royale, the first James Bond novel ever was written by Ian Fleming. What Fleming didn't know then, is that thanks to this piece of writing, he will be busy for a long time writing up future 11 novels to follow the adventures of the most desirable fictional man of all times. The other writers have also attempted to create novels and Fleming himself added 2 short story collections to the James Bond history.
Casino Roayle itself has been adopted for the screen an incredible amount of times, testing different names and personas Bond could have had, starting with 1954 CBS TV episode Climax which had Barry Nelson as "Jimmy Bond" and finishing in 2006 with Daniel Craig as James Bond.
The novel itself was released in April 1953 in UK and reached US publishers in 2 years time. There were discussions about the name the novel should adopt and although Fleming himself felt that The Double-O Agent or The Deadly Gamble would be more appropriate, the publishers decided that You Asked For It is more sellable, which was all replaced in 1960 in favour of the original title Casino Royale. The main character's name was Jimmy Bond.
The first image of the "real" James Bond was first printed on the front cover of the Casino Royale novel in 1995 published in UK. The image was solely based on then very famous and handsome actor Richard Conte, who later starred in such huge films as Ocean's Eleven in 1960 and The Godfather in 1972.
Casino Royale had very typical of that time set of characters for the action movie, i.e. cruel and heartless Russian villains, a beautiful girl to save and get, and of course, the great action hero: strong, handsome, resourceful and very good.
Most Bond novels themselves and when interpreted into the movies, reflect the values and stereotypes the culture could be characterised by. Who were considered villains, and who - heroes. The obvious shadow of the post 2nd world war consequences are evident here even when you look at the main Russian villain, a SMERSH agent - Gettler. Brings some associations in mind, doesn't it? Hitler perhaps...
The man/woman relationship is also evidently characteristic in Casino Royale novel, as after the assistant/lover turns kills herself and betrays Bond, he reports her death to the head office with the words "The bitch is dead now". In the 2006 Casino Royale movie, the same character turned out to betray Bond to actually try and save him and he is portrayed broken hearted and still in love with a woman. You can clearly see the consequences of the long battle and many winnings of the feminist movement that made the both sexes more equal and just as good as one another, which is why instead of being portrayed as a stupid, weak "bitch", she is now portrayed as a noble, brave and strong woman who sacrifices her own life to save Bond. The roles have definitely changed around.
