Legitimate spy thriller
From Russia With Love (FRWL) is the second installment in the James Bond series, and is considered to be one of the best in the franchise. It’s also one of the few Bond movies that made references to previous installments, denoting continuity. Most Bond movies contained stand-alone plotlines and do not require the audience to see a prior episode to appreciate their stories. Upset by the defeat of Dr. No by Bond’s hands, the shadow organisation known as SPECTRE concocts a deliberate scheme that will garner them a prized decoder machine, pit the British and Russian spy agencies against each other, and cause the death of James Bond. Tangled in this web of lies and deception is a beautiful but oblivious Russian embassy staff tricked into seducing Bond for the good of Mother Russia.
FRWL advances the Bond formula by making the sexy sexier, and the action more packed. The gadgets are far more elaborate than the sole self-destructing device in Dr. No that we never even see in action, but only heard about from one character. But the espionage work in FRWL still has the realistic vibe from the first movie. Like what real spies should be doing, the characters lie, cajole, torture or kill in order to fulfill their missions. The obligatory muscle-bound henchman in this one also demonstrated some unexpected level of smarts, and didn’t flex and grunt his way through the movie like his future successors did. These points make FRWL one of the very few Bond movies that resemble a legitimate spy thriller. Later the series will eschew these for “blowing up the bad guy’s giant floating base with the big freakin’ laser cannon attached to it” with greater frequency and fervour. I prefer the more realistic approach, as it makes the action feel more palpable and exciting.
Unfortunately, like Dr. No and subsequent installments, FRWL also has its share of cartoon villains that were supposed to instill fear instead of laughter. The faceless, cat-stroking master villain, his diminutive, butch Russian agent, and her deadly shoe have been parodied countless times, particularly in the Austin Powers movies, that it’s hard not to chuckle during the moments when they appear. Thankfully, they did not take up a lot of screen time in FRWL. They’re probably scarier to the audiences at the time, but then again these were post-Psycho audiences (Psycho came out three years prior to FRWL). Well, the colourful Bond villains do have their own unique charm though, or the series wouldn’t have lasted this long.
Interesting to spot some things like the music accompanying the Gypsy action sequence sounding very similar to one of Neon Genesis Evangelion’s scores, and the map montage that obviously inspired Indiana Jones’ own version (Indy director Steven Spielberg is a self-proclaimed Bond fan). - BMF
Directed by Terence Young (Thunderball, Dr. No) and screenplay by Johanna Harwood (Call Me Bwana, Dr. No) and Richard Maibaum (prolific Bond screenwriter). Stars Sean Connery, Daniela Bianchi, Pedro Armendáriz, Lotte Lenya, Robert Shaw, Vladek Sheybal, Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell and Desmond Llewelyn. Based on the novel by Ian Fleming. |
