‘Casino
Royale’ is the twenty-first film from the James Bond film series, and the third
version of this film which was written earlier by Ian Fleming in 1953. In this
film bond is after a banker that works for different terrorist organisations,
who is trying to win a high stakes poker tournament. This film was directed by
Martin Campbell and Neal Purvis et al worked on the screenplay for the film.
In the first scene the
audience are shown a picture of Bond aiming at
directly at the camera , which makes it look like Bond is aiming at the
audience. This immediately lets the audience know that the film will have Bond
featuring as a main character and shows the newest actor to play James Bond.
After Bond finishes shooting blood streams down covering the screen, some
people may recognise the blood as that of an enemy, but it helps to establish
the movie genre which is action and filled with suspense. Also, enigma is
created as this is used to excite the audience and create effect. Cards and casino wheels are used widely
throughout the rest of the title sequence show the audience that they may be
some relation to gambling within the film. in the title sequence the audience
are shown Bond sitting down whilst holding a gun and looking at the audience,
this enforces the idea that even though Bond is a hero he doesn’t mind being
destructive to do this, causing suspense and giving some insight into what can be expected to
take place within the film . Other images of snipers and guns suggest the film
may include murder, but who is murdered and why is yet to be disclosed until
you watch the film. Animated shadows of Bond show him fighting against what we
presume is the enemy, giving the impression onto views that they will see lots
of action within the film, plus the shadows of Bond help to show his two sided
character who can be both mysterious and dark. In another scene, the audience
are shown hearts falling which signifies the female companionship that Bond is
going to have in the film, which is a usual convention for Bond films in terms
of his identity.
After the first visual shot
is shown and Bond finishes shooting towards the audience the music within the
title sequence begins and I think is used to help generate interest for the
audience. The background track consists of exciting sounds which create
excitement for the audience. The lyrics cite ‘arm yourselves because no one
else here will save you’ implying that protection is needed and is important,
meaning that there will be something or someone Bond is fighting against.
Nevertheless, this alerts the audience that there will be action. The
background track has been skilfully composed to make fit the film genre.
The typography used in the
title sequence is quite simple yet sophisticated, I believe this was done to
keep the focus on the sequence of images being shown. Plus, Bond is expected to
be a man of class and prestige so using a fancy or exaggerated type of font
could have looked childish.
The title sequence of this
film uses a mixture of both animated stills and moving shots to establish
expected events within the film, with the use of new concepts to represent old
conventions of Bond’s identity which is usually associated with ; women, lust,
murder, heroism and action.
By Diana Odoom