The James Bond film franchise recently got a makeover - including a change to the typical James Bond character; typically, clean cut, handsome, gentlemanly - now generally a darker character, and not so classically handsome. The new Bond films follow more closely to Fleming's original works, and will the real true dark Bond be represented in the new films?
Film Noir is generally crime/detective films, known for their dark mood and black look of the film. Fear, mistrust, bleakness, loss of innocence, despair and paranoia are always readily evident in noir; for example The Blue Dahlia (1946), which fight scenes are know for their stark and brutal feel.For a start, the opening scene of Casino Royale is filmed in black and white, a typical convention of film noir; also plays homage to how it would've been filmed if it had been made at the time Fleming's first Bond novel, Casino Royale was first published (1953), partly because most film was still black and white, and because of its dark secret agent plotline, it would've been classified as a film noir.
The opening scene has shots in black and white, and also sepia, for a flashback interspersed with the current scene. The sepia shots so James Bond killing a man in a very brutal way, whilst the black and white shots show Bond conversing with corrupt MI6 section chief Dryden, before killing him. Bond acts as Dryden's judge and jury, not telling the M16 'authourity' and taking it into his own hands to kill him for telling secrets, not knowing if he will get into trouble for his doing, and frankly not caring - again, showing a darker, more evil Bond. This gives Bond his 00 status, and could be construed as the end to his innocence, a convention of film noir. Opening the film with two deaths in the one scene also symbolises the new dark Bond, the way Fleming wrote him.
In general, this opening scene, sets you up for the film - shows that Casino Royale is the start of a new era, and an end to Bond's womanizing, 'good-guy' ways. Also the fact that Casino Royale was Fleming's first Bond novel, and the one they chose to create into a film, suggests maybe a completely new set of Bond films; this being the first, and many more to follow - wanting to differentiate them completely from the old films. The black and white could be literal for Bond being 'darker', and the brutal killings, set you up for a more brutal film generally. The Bond in this film has a more devil may care attitude, and will not let anything (or anyone) stand in his way of becoming a successful agent, as shown in this clip.
To conclude, the dark opening scene, suggests a dark film and a new dark Bond.
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