From Russia with love review

12 January 2007

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE (15)

108 mins 3.5/4

By Timeyin Jones

Seen by many as a groundbreaking performance James Bond in ‘From Russia with Love’. It is the fifth James Bond novel written by Ian Flemming and considered by many readers to be the best one. One for the females as well, containing a lot of romance with James Bond’s love interest.

The creative director of ‘From Russian with Love’ Terence Young had directed many films before it. The most popular were ‘Theirs is the Glory’ (1946) which he was not the only director of and ‘Valley and the Eagles’ (1952) which he was the director and screenwriter of. Just before ‘From Russian with Love’ he directed the James Bond film Dr. No (1962). Later he made a third James Bond called ‘Thunderball’. Usually Young did Action/Adventure films however later on in his career starting from the 70’s he began to make films such as ‘The Klansman’, ‘Bloodline’ and ‘The Jigsaw Man’, which were all dramas. Young gained a lot of fans when he directed movies first ‘East meets West Western’ involving Japanese and American culture. This was very successful in Europe and Japan and was a major hit in the box office however it was not in the United States. This is such a contrast compared to the first film he directed ‘Corridor of Mirrors’ which was dismissed in both America and Europe. However at the early start of Terence Young’s career he was a screenwriter and wrote many scripts for such films as, The Fugitive, Secret Mission, On Approval and Hungry Hill. Young became an expert in making thrillers although sometimes he worked in other areas, including the award winning dance film ‘Black Tights’ (1960). He began to gain most of his fame when he directed Dr. No, the first James Bond Movie. In the early eighties his film career began to decline when big budget films he had made did not do so well, Mayerling and Inchon. He made his last movie, the thriller The Jigsaw Man, in 1984.

This is a preview of the whole essay

Characteristic trait of Terence Young that follows in all his films is a romance. In all his films no matter what genre this has been showed. Starting with his first film ‘Corridors of Mirrors’ which is about a man who is insane and surrounds himself with artwork, obsessed that he and his lady friend are reincarnations of the lovers in a centuries old painting. A prime example would ‘From Russia with Love’ considering James Bond films are viewed as Action/Adventure’s majority of the film involves the relationship between James and Tatiana. Bond films always have a love interest however this is different to all the other films done by different directors except for ‘Dr. No’ and ‘Thunderball’. Terence is also known for a lot of war films considering that he was a tank commander during World War 2. He recaptured a film that he was actually in fighting in called ‘Theirs is the Glory’. He made many more such as ‘Secret Mission’ and ‘Tank Force’ which were also based on World War 2 and others were ‘Zarak’, ‘Action of the Tiger’, ‘Guerre Secrete’, ‘The Triple Cross’ and ‘The Rover’.

When ‘From Russia with Love’ was released in 1963 it was seen as a glamorized spy film. The genres it contains are Action, Adventure and Romance. The action is shown with the battle between SPECTRE muscleman Red Grant and James Bond because Red is expected to kill James Bond. Also when James ends up in the center of a Soviet Consulate where there is war going on between soviet agents and he gets involved in a conflict caused by a gypsy tribe. The aspects of adventure is shown through the journey he embarks on traveling to Istanbul and him going through an usual experience of twists and turns involving him fleeing on the orient express and his lover Tatiana protecting him from the ruthless Colonel Rosa Klebb. A lot of romance is shown because of the fact the spy on James Bond Tatiana falls in love with him. Throughout the film they show the companionship between the two lovers. Their love is certified at the end when Tatiana betrays Rosa Klebb by killing her to protect James Bond.

I thought that the dialogue was realistic, all the characters spoke how I imagined they would especially the Russian spies. The acting of Rosa Klebb I think was the best because I heard in real life her character is a complete contrast to her character in ‘From Russia with Love’. James Bond character is predictable because it is the same in every James Bond film however I still think that Sean Connery done a good job of it. Robert Shaw’s character Red Grant was very ruthless and you can sense his envy and hate of James Bond, which made him very believable. There are a lot of characters that support James bond, M, Miss Monnypenny, Q, Tatiana and Ali Kerim Bay. However for Red Grant he has Rosa Klebb and Kronsteen. The support of both groups of characters builds up to when James Bond and Red Grant will meet.

The opening sequence where you think James Bond has been killed makes the audience think he’s possibly going to be killed and definitely Bond will get into action with Red Grant. This opening of the film is Byzantine because no one really knows what’s going on. The idea is for the audience solves the mystery later on in the film. The message used by the chess game is to compare the a game of chess to situation in the film, whoever makes the right moves will ultimately win and you cannot afford to let your guard down. The sequence with Dr.No the villain on the boat giving out orders to assassinate James Bond and steal the Lektor decoding machine sends many messages first that he is the main villain and he is clearly very powerful. They don’t show his face, which implies that he is key character in the film and adds to the mystery of who he is. The fact that Tatiana falls in love with Bond and betrays SMERSH (Soviet assassination agency). The sequence on the Orient Express where Red Grant captures James Bond he can’t resist a boastful conversation of explaining exactly what is going on. This answers the question of the audience for scenes earlier on in the film.

My overall opinion of the film was that I thought it was a good film for its time. Personally it is not the kind of film that I would watch in my spare time however I can understand why it was a hit for it’s generation. In the 60’s Venice and Istanbul were very exotic locations so a lot of people in that time must of enjoyed the mise en scene however I did not find it that fascinating. Mainly because I am used to seeing the modern James Bond films I think is the reason why I did not enjoy it as much. I can relate to the modern day James Bond’s more because it represents what Britain is like now. Alternatively in ‘From Russia with Love’ British representation and humor is a lot different. Most of the film I thought their was not enough action and I was disappointed because I thought their was going to be a lot more. Their quite a lot of scenes with romance between James Bond and Tatiana which is usually shown in James Bond films but not as much as this one. Their was not a lot I knew about Russian espionage nor was I interested and their was too much off them talking. The parts of the film I did like were the opening scene where you think our main character James Bond is dead. I found this very engaging and made me want to find what it meant. I thought the car scene was not that exciting but I really like Bentleys so I was impressed by that.