MovieChat Forums > Casino Royale (1967) Discussion > Trying to be so hip and totally misses i...

Trying to be so hip and totally misses it

posted 12 years ago by SweetHotAngel
19 replies | jump to latest

I just watched the film again.

Unlike back in the day, now when I watch a film and any question comes up, like when was it released or how old was David Niven then, I can quickly get the answers. (April 1967 and 57.)

This activity on my part, watching the film and at the same time researching it, made me really aware of how hip the film makers were trying to be. Right when I was reading about it attempting to capture the zeitgeist of the time, and just after reading how Austin Powers imitated it, I was watching the scene were the go-go girls in go-go boots in metallic mini-dresses and bobbed hairstyles were attacking Sir James Bond and Moneypenny.

That was such an obvious attempt to be with-it, hip and 'mod.'

But I couldn't help think that in reality that was the hipness of Swinging London from 2 to 3 years earlier. The cutting edge of hip in the spring of '67 was not shiny, metalic miniskirts but long, patched granny dresses. It wasn't bobbed hairstyles but long hair that was styled with flowers. It wasn't shiny go-go boots but bare feet or salt water sandals.

But then I thought about how films portrayed what was hip back in '64 and '65 when it was mini-skirts and bobbed hair and go-go boots and realized they were still stuck in Rat Pack styles.

People, don't let films like this inform you what the styles of the times were. This film was anachronistic when it came out with David Niven as star and Orson Welles as the villain. It wasn't really hip. It was what people in their mid 30s and on thought was hip at the very time when young people were saying, "Don't trust anyone over 30."

But the theme song, instrumental version, is great, even if it wasn't hip at the time like "Strawberry Fields" or "San Francisco."

"Is it bright where you are? Have the people changed? Does it make you happy you're so strange?"

[–] Blueghost 12 years ago

By the time the film rolled around the 60s had changed from being a post modern setup to more of a political activist grunge scene.

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] skiddoo 12 years ago

Was it possible to make a James Bond movie in that era, spoof or not, that would be considered hip to the grunge set? I very much doubt it. One might also ask if this movie was made for kids. I don't think it was, so being "in" by their lights is irrelevant.

There was an entirely different world of hipness in that era. It was populated by sophisticates--beautiful people, like the man in You're So Vain. They were the international jetset. They hung out in places like Monte Carlo, made the scene on someone's yacht, and mingled with royalty and Hollywood. James Bond would have felt at home in their company.

This movie reminds me of the Pink Panther, especially the madness at the end of Casino Royale compared to the Pink Panther's masquerade party and car chase.

[–] YouKnowMyName68 12 years ago

Grunge? You lost any credibility with that.

"You know, my name..."

[–] Wuchak (8833) 4 years ago

Blueghost was obviously referring to the grunge-hippie look that was 'hip' in the late 60s/early 70s, which had nothing to do with the grunge movement of the 90s, except that both included a simple, grungy look.

[–] [email protected] 12 years ago

I don't think hippies existed in the James Bond universe. In the real world, there were cultural gaps forming into canyons by 1967 - Jane and Michael Stern (Roadfood) wrote pretty incisively about the time in their book "Sixties People". There were chapters on specific groups, including the 'Playboy' set, where the gulf you mention is summed up nicely. (Cool book; anyone keen on the decade should seek it out). And it's no coincidence that "Casino Royale" got some presence in Playboy pictorials.

I was a preteen in '67, and even then thought hippies lost a lot of their force when they became a dominant culture. There was something bold in their early presence as outsiders, acting as court jesters to society - their outlandish differentness (it is SO a word!) let them hold up a mirror to the straights. When they became what you were *supposed* to be, they lost their unique essence. Or something.

If you do want to mix spies with hippies, there is "The President's Analyst" (one of my favorites) from later that year. The title character, running from government agents out to capture or kill him, is taken in by a hippie rock band (Clear Light, led by Barry McGuire). I can't attest to how realistic they were, but they were probably the most centered, rational people in one of very few movies of the time to treat hippies sympathetically.

[–] YouKnowMyName68 12 years ago

The movie is a mess and behind the times.

"You know, my name..."

[–] domester82 12 years ago

The 60s Bond movies themselves were very hip, in an early 60s way. By the late sixties, the counterculture movement thought them a bit outdated, including George Lazenby himself, who embraced the hippie culture.

They tried to modernise them (to the 70s) with the Moore movies.

[–] gregopego12 12 years ago

I just caught some of this movie last night.
Technical flaws render it hard to watch. Not enough editing, so you are forced to notice every inch of the costumes and scenery.
David Niven was terrific. It's just weird to see not only him, but his vintage roadster swallowed up by his costume and the scenery.
The music is very good, but doesn't really fit in some parts.
Woody Allen's first scene is, actually, flawless.
There is a movie somewhere in here.

"Get me the non-union equivalent of Steven Spielberg!"

[–] ejcbac 11 years ago

I've often thought it would make a great film class project to edit this film down and make a good movie out of it. With the star power, great music, and plenty of silliness to cut out, there's a great movie in here somewhere.

[–] crood 10 years ago

A lot of this is due to trying to salvage the Sellers footage after he quit/was fired. Half the movie is trying to cover that it's two movies mashed together.

[–] knawdas 10 years ago

Apparently fans have tried to reconstruct it into a more conventional Bond film (actually, one fan split it into TWO movies) but I haven't seen them.

All I've seen was a truly, truly pathetic attempt to massacre some of the scenes into a framing device for a potential theatrical release of "Casino Royale" with Barry Nelson. It made absolutely no sense, and seemed to imply that Tracy Bond was Mata's mother!

[–] BabyCastle 11 years ago

This film was a train wreck from start to finish. Nothing in the film was cool or hip for the era. Nothing was funny, witty or clever. The writers tried too hard, reached too far and it's just a hideous mess. This film should have been shut down and never distributed.

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[–] jaynobody 11 years ago

This movie was hip in it's own way. By the time they mentioned the lysergic acid gas I already knew one thing: Whoever made this movie had tried LSD. It is a very psychedelic movie. Just like Barbarella, which is also not a "good" movie either although I love it too. I am actually surprised this movie didn't catch on with the tripping crowd despite it's un-hipness.

[–] Vansnitchzel 10 years ago

I don't think they tried to be "hip". The film just laughs at everything. It doesn't seem that any of the people involved really cared of making a great movie, they just made a chaotic spoof that certainly had it's funny moments.

I actually thought about giving up on this film after first 30mins. Luckily I didn't, the last half of movie was really fun brit-style comedy. I honestly think that if the first half had been anything like that, this might be considered as a comedy classic.

[–] MooseNugget 10 years ago

Well the movie of course was trying to spoof EON's James Bond series which was very popular. The series though might have lost some steam after Thunderball. I'm sure it still made more money than Goldfinger but I don't think it was the top grossing film of the year.

There's a lot of things I like about the film but it's a pain to watch. This movie had a lot of problems with Sellers walking off and having so many directors and writers. But it still made money since it had James Bond's name on it.

[–] gary_w_trott 9 years ago

But the theme song, instrumental version, is great, even if it wasn't hip at the time like "Strawberry Fields" or "San Francisco."

How can Burt Bacharach and Herb Alpert not be great? Alpert and his brassy sound of music have been favorites of mine since first hearing the Tijuana Brass in the mid 60s. Pretty square for that time period I know, but I took the main lessons of the 60s to heart and live them today: Do your own thing, and don't trust the establishment.

[–] Wuchak (8833) 4 years ago

But then I thought about how films portrayed what was hip back in '64 and '65 when it was mini-skirts and bobbed hair and go-go boots and realized they were still stuck in Rat Pack styles.

It was shot in 1966, so 1964-1965 wasn't that much earlier. Compare it to a movie shot in 2020 using styles that were 'in' in 2018-2019. In other words, it's not that big of a difference and not that significant of a cinematic transgression.

[–] Otter (24464) 4 years ago

Not everyone suddenly turned into a hippie in 1967. Yes, that was when the existence of hippies came to the notice of the mainstream and they began to influence fashion, but the whole Mod thing didn't just go away. People who were older or who thought of themselves as sophisticated stuck to the synthetic fabrics, bouffant hairdos, and light colors that we see in "Casino Royale". MI6 employees wouldn't have been dressing like hippies in 1967, neither would the fancy people that were involved in the story.

And the producers of the Bond franchise weren't targeting hippie kids or the sort of kids who wanted to dress like hippies, their target audience would have been the sort of mainstream people who were still wearing synthetics and using hair spray. So while you're right that the film wasn't at all cutting-edge hip, their primary audience was people who weren't cutting-edge hip but wanted to feel like they were.