MovieChat Forums > Casino Royale (2006) Discussion > The scene where the militants beat up Le...

The scene where the militants beat up Le Chiffre


That scene has never sat right with me. It made Le Chiffre too vulnerable a character, certainly more vulnerable than a Bond villain should be. He already showed how weak he was by having to set up a poker tournament out of desperation, and I'll even accept him being eliminated like a dog by Quantum. But getting manhandled by a bunch of nobodies was a bit too much for me.

The way I see it, Le Chiffre is a great character but a terrible Bond villain.

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Totally agree..
I want a bond villain to be almost unstoppable in the physical sense as well.

"Death means nothing to someone who knows how to live".

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Le Chiffre getting beat up by those guys perfectly meshed with the overall theme that in this organization, everybody has somebody to answer to.

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I don't mind it. Bond's nemesis isn't usually a "bruiser", he has a Jaws or Hinx or Oddjob to do the dirty work. Just looking at Le Chiffre, I can tell he's the brains and not the hatchet man, although he doesn't mind getting sweaty and doing some torturing by himself.

I can't imagine Drax or Kamal Khan or Largo winning a fistfight against those African terrorists, either. My favorite, Mr. White, not the toughest villain of the bunch. But not every villain has to be Boba Fett or Bane. Sometimes they're more like Wormtail or Wormtongue.

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Good point. In fact even when a Bond villain is more a physical threat than a mental one, they're usually a high-ranked henchman for the brainier ones.

It's the brainy ones who have the know-how to build death rays and organize schemes to steal nukes behind the facade of an innocent company, making them the greater danger. Also, if a villain physically capable as Bane or Boba Fett ending up fighting Bond they'd probably win. Usually in the finale, Bond is just fighting the mastermind when they're really, really angry that their plan got ruined, getting an adrenalin boost.

I haven't seen even half of all the Bond movies, has there ever been one with a main villain who was also the most dangerous physical presence in his or her organization? I remember Max Zorin was quite the nutter but his chief henchwoman was far more athletic, and Trevelyan had Xenia Onatopp.

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has there ever been one with a main villain who was also the most dangerous physical presence in his or her organization?
The World Is Not Enough (1999), arguably.

______
Joe Satriani - "Always With Me, Always With You"
http://youtu.be/VI57QHL6ge0

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Arguably Electra King was the main villain of TWINE, not Renard

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Well, I did say "arguably", which means I wasn't too sure. Electra King may be the main antagonist to Bond on a personal level. But Renard was the guy pulling the strings and the top of the crime organization. Also, if I'm not mistaken the apotheosis of the movie was Renard's demise, rather than the death of Electra, which happened earlier; and so this hints that the movie itself considers Renard as the bigger villain.

However, an alternative way to look at it is that Electra was, ahem, "physically" more dangerous to Bond than Renard... 

______
Joe Satriani - "Always With Me, Always With You"
http://youtu.be/VI57QHL6ge0

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The way I understand the movie, LeChiffre is not really a member of the organization. To the organization, (Quantum) he is just a small potatoes banker that Mr White introduced to the Ugandan Freedom Fighters . And not a good one at that, Bond beat him at his own game.

After they did the blackmail deal with Vesper, the org. didn't need LeChiffre any longer, so Mr White eliminated him.

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Yeah, to be fair, LeChiffre is just a banker and the other dude is an African warlord. What kind of sense would it make seeing an African warlord get his ass beat by a banker? And to be honest, realistically he would have killed Bond too if you watched the fight. It seemed like Bond was making all the right moves whereas the movie had the warlord make some very nonsensical movements with his machete. Despite LeChiffre getting manhandled by everyone except Bond, he still looked pretty freakin cool doing it.

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They're not terrorists. They're warlords.
I'm sure they could throw down whenever they felt like it, especially when they've got a machete against your girl's throat

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It made him vulnerable and much more dangerous because of it. He is desperate to make the money back and he can't afford to have anything interfere. Other villains in Bond history could just jump on a plane and try again later if Bond foiled their plans, but Le Chiffre has no choice but to succeed. If Bond interferes he is going to take as extreme of measures as necessary to try and eliminate him.

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Agreed. I was really hoping he would somehow get the upper hand and kill those thugs, instead of Bond doing it. Mads Mikkelson is great at looking intimidating but it seemed like the makers of the movie wanted to make him a pushover every chance they got. Maybe he should have played Blofeld instead.

Horror_Metal

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The Ugandan War Lord is not a "nobody." True, he's only in 2 scenes, but it's his money that enables LeChiffe to complete the stock scheme.

LeChiffe probably thought that he could win the money back before the Warlord realized what had happened.

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You can't expect every movie villain to be the same. People are different from each other. Personal traits has its' ups and downs. Plus what's there to expect from someone (a banker) who handles a terrorist organization's funds? This description doesn't match a physically capable villain at all. His weaknesses throughout the movie perfectly reflect his personality and thereby making sense in the story.

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I don't need to think a Bond villain is invulnerable, some of the best ones have been weasels who probably couldn't win a fist fight against a 12 year old girl without their organization or henchmen behind them. Le Chiffre isn't your typical Bond villain, he's not even really the main villain. MI6 and the CIA only want him for the information he can provide on other people. He's just a banker, not a megalomaniac with a laser satellite and army of stooges or anything. He's supposed to be vulnerable, that's the plot of the story, the guy is in trouble and is looking for a way out so MI6 want to take away his lifeline and force him to deal. I think the scene works well with the narrative. Without it there's hasn't really been any threat towards Le Chiffre other than M and Bond talking on a beach about how somebody must be pissed off at him. That scene shows you he's a desperate man and the lengths he would go toward later make more sense. Without seeing his neck on the line it's kind of like he's just upset and torturing Bond over money as opposed to save his life. And besides, it sets up a nice action scene between rounds of poker. And a nice little twist, almost Red Grant style, where Bond is not only working to bring Le Chiffre down but has to also protect him until the time is right to bring the plan to a close.

"Dan Marino should die of gonorrhea and rot in hell. Would you like a cookie son?"

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