Bond and Fisher on the floor

Casino Royale Minute #3

Bond and Fisher (played by Darwin Shaw, whose changed his name from Daud Shah) get up from their scrum on the floor, but Bond is up first and delivers a kick to the sternum of Fisher. The same time the kick connects, we cut back to Dryden pulling his gun on Bond.

Bond at this point is unflinching. Dryden has the upper hand and he delivers,

‘Shame, we barely got to know each other.’

Which suggests there was a tinge of regret in Dryden’s voice. He sees potential in Bond and he genuinely felt they could have had a good working professional relationship. Although it has an undercurrent of smugness about it too. Dryden pulls the trigger, the gun is empty.

‘I know where you keep your gun, I suppose that’s something,’ says Bond dryly, breaking the tension with a little oneupmanship.

Dryden attempts to conceal his disbelief but fails. For the first time we know Bond is in the ascendancy.

Dryden empty gun

Shame, we barely got to know each other

He’s no Clint

Also it tells you that Dryden is as proficient a killer as he should be, I.E he probably doesn’t handle firearms on a daily basis. In the movie In the Line of Fire, Clint Eastwood can tell the weight of a bullet-less gun. Dryden is far too invested in his own capabilities.

This also foreshadows in Spectre when C attempts the same move on M,

“Now we know what C stands for.” – M.

These corporate guys should really carry a secret gun. Have one in an unlocked draw, and then one tucked away in the desk clock or something. That’s what I would do.

‘How did he die?’ Asks Dryden, somewhat resigned to his fate.

‘Your contact?’ Dryden nods. ‘Not well.’

This also mirrors the book Casino Royale, one in cold blood one face to face.

Back to the action, we see more of the toilet fight, and the photos on the wall of cricket players from Vanity Fair paintings, which by the way Billy Bonds Art has discovered I’ll leave a link to them on the blog.

Cricket paintings from Vanity Fair

CLOSE: Vanity Fair Cricket Paintings. As suggested by Billy’s Bond Art.

Mega punch

We see a punch from Bond and that throws Fisher through a urinal. And then Bond wrestles Fisher into the sink. Fisher finds a gun on the floor. This is not so much a continuity error as we have joined the fight midway. In a deleted scene Fisher enters the bathroom before Bond and points it at a cleaner to get out.

Fisher pre-titles Casino Royale

Fisher with Bond approaching from behind

Deleted scene

Bond enters the bathroom shortly after the gun is already drawn, they grapple, and both lose their guns. There is a few other edits where Bond and Fisher scrap on the floor, and some more strangling going on before Bond dunks Fisher’s head into the sink.

Fisher grabs a gun on the floor, but Bond has the upper hand and Fisher only manages to get a shot off that destroys a nearby sink. Bond smashes the gun into the mirror that shatters and Fisher loses the gun. Bond continues to plunge Fishers head into an already full sink of water.

The camera then focuses on Bond with his head pressed against the mirror as he tries to squeeze every last breathe out of Fisher. Fisher then goes limp and flops to the floor in a heap.

It’s a bloodthirsty kill. A messy kill. A visceral, no quarter given kill.

END of Minute 2-3

Fisher toilet fight

Down and out for Fisher

About the black and white choice: (a note from Phil Noble).

One thing I’ve never seen given proper credit is that, although the cricket toilet kill and the Dryden kill in Casino Royale are both black & white, the filmmakers actually distinguish the scenes from each other by processing the film slightly differently, with the toilet kill color timed with the slightest sepia, and more film grain. (See attached below; it’s subtle, but I’ve turned up the saturation to show the difference.)

As for “why black & white,” consider this: the world of James Bond 007 is a world we the audience know to be rich in scenery, sensuality and, yes, COLOR. The black & white pre-title sequence is a world before “James Bond 007” exists, so it makes a thematic and even narrative sense for those scenes to be absent of that color, and set in chilly, mundane tableau.

As Bond gains his 00 status and 007 is truly born, the monochromatic frame is washed in deep red blood — because birth is often bloody — and the title sequence explodes with every color under the sun. We haven’t just entered the world of 007, we’re seeing it come into being. – Phil Nobile Jr. Editor-In-Chief, FANGORIA.