007: From Russia With Love
(Terence Young, 1963)
Many of the most devout Bond fans will say either that From Russia with Love or Goldfinger are the definite films where Bond became Bond. It’s generally agreed upon that Dr. No serves as more of an introductory film of the Bond world; There’s no world-threatening plot, there’s no crazily powerful (but yes, memorable) supervillan going up against Bond, and there are so many classic Bond elements that are absent.
I’ve found over the years, whilst weighing it’s pros and cons and key aspects of the film that From Russia With Love is actually the quintessential early Bond film, deserving much of the praise which is often deflected to it’s successor Goldfinger, along with it being also the best Bond film of the Connery era alongside Thunderball.
From Russia With Love is like the main course after the appetizer that is Dr. No. We are introduced to so much over the course of the near two hour runtime; the Bond traditions (Q’s briefing, the film visiting numerous countries in it’s run-time, the opening titles including sexy women, even SPECTRE) are for the most part introduced fully in the movie (although the Astons and the Martinis would come with Goldfinger). Likewise, Terence Young’s relative success in directing Dr. No gives him a more level and strong ground to place his superior sequel, and it shows in the dramatic increase in direction quality while the flaws in said direction can mostly be attested to it being 1963 and the special effects departments of even the biggest studios of the day being mind-numbingly primitive.
The aspect of the film which captivated me whilst I had trouble staying focused in Dr. No is the fact that Russia has a complicated plot with a lot of turning points and revelations, but for all it’s complexity, it’s deceptively simple to remember and follow. There’s still no world-threatening super weapon, or terrorist cell threatening the west, but the story also has more enjoyability with the film itself having a rich array of locations to work with (London, to Istanbul to the Orient Express to Venice compared to Dr. No’s sparse London to Jamaica progression). From Russia With Love is shown to have set itself up as a more Cold War-themed thriller rather than a hugely international spy film, but it pays off on how the plot of the film works so well on being able to feed off it’s differing plot lines. Likewise, Bond is shown to actually build a friendship with ally Kerim Bay and Robert Shaw’s portrayal of Red Grant possesses such a sense of malice that few Bond villans up until the Craig restoration era would be able to come close to matching.
But above all else, From Russia with Love is the film which proved Connery to be the greatest Bond of all time. The man wasn’t just the first to play Bond, he perfected the role down to the dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s in the more minute aspects of Bond’s character which Lazenby, Moore, Dalton and Brosnan would all try and fail to varying degrees at until Daniel Craig’s introduction as Bond proved the breath of fresh air the franchise needed with Craig proving to be Connery’s first true worthy heir to the Bond role. Russia may not be the most action packed film of the franchise, nor the most continually exciting, but its one of the few that could be seen as an excellent spy film were it an individual one-off film. Plainly said, From Russia With Love was the moment in which the 007 franchise bloomed in full.
