Establishing The Formula Well: From Russia With Love Is Engaging James Bond!

The Good: Decent plot development, Awesome DVD bonus features, Good pacing, Fairly good acting
The Bad: Absolutely no character development, Bond lacks charm, Weird musical effects
The Basics: In the second James Bond film, From Russia With Love establishes much of the formula that the rest of the franchise abides by.


As I have begun going through the James Bond films, I do so with the full knowledge that they become troublingly formulaic. I was pleasantly surprised with the first Bond film, Dr. No, did not seem nearly as formulaic as some of the later films. So, as I sat down for From Russia With Love, I actually allowed myself to delight in the process of watching all of the formulaic conceits fall into place.

From Russia With Love falls in line with exactly what one expects from a James Bond film. Bond has banter with Moneypenny, gets his assignment from M, equipment from Q branch, and goes out to face his mission. His male companion will get killed, he will use the gadgets to kill off an assassin and there will be a romantic interest who has more of a sexual fling with Bond than an emotional one. And, despite what the title might imply: Istanbul is largely the setting of From Russia With Love, not Soviet Russia!

After what appears to be an assassin killing James Bond in a training scenario, in Venice, a chess match is held to determine the world champion. Kronsteen wins and leaves abruptly to meet with leaders of SPECTRE. The head of SPECTRE, still outraged over the murder of Dr. No, is set on revenge upon James Bond. He plans to have Kronsteen and Rosa Klebb (Number 3) – and her agent Grant – frame and kill James Bond. To that end, they enlist the Russian agent Tatiana Romanova to pretend to defect to England to get Bond into the embassy in Istanbul where he will steal a Soviet decoding machine. After Bond is equipped by Q and given his assignment by M, he goes to Istanbul where he is assisted by Kerim Bey.

After getting the plans to the Russian Consulate, Bond meets Romanova and she describes the decoder that Bond is going to steal. After the Russian Consulate is bombed, Bond steals the decoder and he and Romanov escape on the Orient Express. There, they are hunted by Grant. In thwarting him, James Bond learns the truth and puts Grant down. To fulfill SPECTRE’s mission, Klebb goes after Bond, Romanova, and the decoder herself!

From Russia With Love is marred by a surprisingly unemotional James Bond. Bond seemed efficient in Dr. No: he seems cold and distant throughout most of From Russia With Love. In fact, his flirtatious scene with Moneypenny is a better example of chemistry and character than his “relationship” with Tatiana Romanova. Romanova is willingly a pawn for SPECTRE; she is a patriot for the Soviet Union and she thinks her attempt to entrap Bond is for her country, instead of a revenge plot ancillary to her country’s interest. It is an interesting historical note that at the height of the Cold War, James Bond does not illustrate any particular animosity toward or fear of the Soviet Union. Then again, he does not illustrate any powerful emotions, even when his friend is killed.

From Russia With Love has a James Bond who is not exciting doing exciting things. Despite the bland rendition of Bond, From Russia With Love moves along at an incredibly good clip. It is an exciting movie, though some of it is ridiculously forced by director Terence Young. So, for example, in one of the early scenes that is simply establishing character, the musical cue goes into an action beat that is melodramatic and does not match the emotion of the scene. At least during one of the key scenes in Istanbul as Bond and Romanova are hunted in a giant room, the musical accents are much more subtle (and even absent at points).

Daniela Bianchi steals From Russia With Love and Pedro Armendariz (Bey) plays the Turkish sidekick as one of the most memorable and competent James Bond characters in the pantheon. Bianchi gives an emotive performance and while her character is intentionally deceitful, Romanova is likable and incredibly human. She is a wonderful foil – both as an actress and as a character - for Sean Connery’s James Bond. While From Russia With Love has decent action and an engaging enough plot (despite the somewhat monolithic villains), but Sean Connery pretty much sleepwalks through the role.

For its issues, though, From Russia With Love is one of the best entertainment films and an engaging spy thriller that seems surprisingly undated. For those looking for a must-see James Bond movie, this is might well be the one worth hunting down!

For other James Bond films, please check out my reviews of:
Dr. No
Thunderball
Die Another Day
Casino Royale
Quantum Of Solace
Skyfall

7.5/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Dr. No: Or The Tale Of A Spy More Lucky Than Skilled!

The Good: Entertaining, Interesting character, Generally decent acting
The Bad: Terribly racist dialect, A number of technical issues, Serious character issue
The Basics: The first of the films based upon the novels of Ian Fleming with the protagonist James Bond, Dr. No is a (mostly) satisfying start to the franchise.


Last year, I made a new friend who has quite a bit in common with me. We got together a few times, talked comic books and she and I proofread a script of mine while spending the evening at Dunkin’ Donuts and Denny’s and it was a lot of fun. Before the release of Skyfall, the latest James Bond film, she and her boyfriend were determined to watch all of the James Bond films. I told her that doing so was utterly unnecessary; that there was almost no continuity between the various incarnations of James Bond and that she really only had to watch the two prior films with Daniel Craig in order to be ready for Skyfall. She did not take my advice (or my advice that she just get them out of the library) and made a marathon series of viewings prior to Skyfall’s release. Well, now that I have an exceptional library system at my disposal and have pretty much run out of any stockpile of genre film reviews, I figured it was time I actually review the entire James Bond franchise. So, I am going back, despite having reviewed some before now, and starting at the beginning, with Dr. No.

Dr. No is the first James Bond film and the first to star Sean Connery as the popular pulp novel series’ protagonist. I promised myself that I would not complain about any of the spy thriller conceits in reviewing Dr. No - after all, the franchise was one of the major ones to establish those conceits, so it is somewhat ridiculous to expect it to defy the standard reversals, betrayals, and action moves over sensibility in the first film or two. To its credit, Dr. No employs shockingly few reversals. It is, in fact, a remarkably straightforward film (though there is a damsel in distress who needs to be rescued in the last few moments of the film from what amounts to a high-tech equivalent of a railroad track) that illustrates a spy doing what a spy does. In this case, James Bond’s mission is, oddly enough for a British intelligence agent, to save the U.S. space program.

The franchise begins, innocuously enough, with three apparently blind men entering a country club where they kill an MI-6 operative and his communications specialist. They steal a file from her office on Dr. No. James Bond, called out of a card game, is informed of the assassination in Jamaica. Given a new gun against his wishes, he arrives in Jamaica where he realizes he has been set up to be killed and he turns the tables on his would-be killer. He is met soon thereafter by his American counterpart, Felix Leiter and a local informant, Quarrel.

In investigating the death of operative, Bond learns of an island nearby owned by Dr. No and quickly learns that the files local intelligence has kept on Dr. No have gone missing. Despite Quarrel’s insistence that the island Bond wants to investigate – after nearly being killed by a geologist and a tarantula given to him by Dr. No – is haunted by a dragon, Bond goes there and meets a shell (conch) hunter, Honey Ryder. Together, they approach the lair of Dr. No and his tank, before Ryder and Bond are taken captive and Dr. No’s sinister plan to disrupt a U.S. rocket launch is revealed.

Dr. No is a straightforward espionage mission. Honey Ryder and Quarrel are exactly who they appear to be and end up as sidekicks for James Bond without having incredibly distinct character of their own (though a passing attempt is made by giving Ryder a backstory that is surprisingly dark, especially for a PG film!). Honey Ryder is more than just a woman walking on the beach in a bikini with a giant knife on her belt; she is hardened and self-reliant and surprisingly cool.

It is hard to say the same for this incarnation of James Bond. When first introduced, Bond is playing cards and he just seems exceptionally lucky, although given how much money he is winning off his opponent when he leaves, his confidence seems justified. But more often than not in Dr. No, that is the story of the character; he shows up and sees what happens and gets surprisingly lucky. He survives the tarantula attack not through any real skill of his own; he merely waits it out and when it gets off him, he leaps away from it and kills the giant spider with a shoe. It’s not skill, he just was lucky it didn’t bite him while he watched the creature in abject terror. Similarly, he is drugged by the Sisters who house Bond and Ryder on Dr. No’s island and wakes up to have a good meal, as opposed to being drugged and killed. Lucky, not skilled.

He is also fortunate that the villain is kept somewhat vague. Dr. No has powered his whole island with atomic power, which has destroyed his hands (he appears to have super-strong bionic ones underneath the gloves he wears) and a backstory that involves fleeing China with ten million dollars in gold to establish his island fortress. But he is somewhat oblique about his motives in wanting to sabotage the U.S. rocket launch and mess with the space program.

Still, Dr. No is treated better than poor Quarrel. Quarrel is the Jar Jar Binks of Dr. No. He is a caricature of a Jamaican and actor John Kitzmiller is unfortunately forced to live down to almost all of the worst stereotypes about black islanders. The American insults him, he drinks copious amounts of rum, and his accent is ridiculous. And there is no excuse for a Jamaican to think that a tank is a dragon, even if it does shoot fire (they have automobiles on the island, even in the era of this film!).

That said, Sean Connery does a decent job of establishing James Bond. He is charismatic as Bond and while some of his advances seem awfully rapey now, it’s easy to see how men of 1962 wanted to be him.

Perhaps the worst aspect of Dr. No is the editing and some of the technical aspects (like obvious bluescreen shots) that have not been fixed, even on the two-disc ultimate DVD release. That release comes packed with a commentary track, behind-the-scenes featurettes and a whole disc of featurettes on the production and history of the film. Cinephiles will have plenty to gush over.

Still, the film is far from perfect, though it is a good, basic spy film and very satisfying as entertainment, even if not anything deeper.

For other James Bond films, please check out my reviews of:
Thunderball
Die Another Day
Casino Royale
Quantum Of Solace
Skyfall

7/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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An Average James Bond Film, Thunderball Is Surprisingly Sloppy Moviemaking.

The Good: Decent pacing, Engaging enough plot, Most of the acting is fine
The Bad: Some real shit editing, Utter lack of character development, Casting of main female characters.
The Basics: Outside being impressed by all that moviemakers could get away with in a PG film back in the 1960s, Thunderball is unremarkable.


I recognize that before one can defy the conceits of a genre, the standards have to be established. Even so, the spy thriller genre, which frequently hinges on reversals, still had some early flops. In fact, I was shocked in listening to the audio commentary track to Thunderball that it was the highest budgeted and highest-grossing of the early James Bond movies. Understanding that the spy thriller genre is not known for having films that are deep character studies, at least back in the day, and that frequent reversals are the norm, Thunderball is still an unfortunately poorly-constructed film.

The fourth film in the official James Bond franchise, Thunderball is plagued by some awkward casting (so many of the females look similar to one another!), terrible editing (the first fight sequence should be taught in film schools as how not to piece together a fight!), and irksome directing (did Terence Young pioneer the shaky handheld camera move to connote frenetic activity in Thunderball?). While the stakes in Thunderball are exceptionally high – both in menace to the world and potential financial damage to the United States and Great Britain – the film does not feel important or big. Instead, it meanders through reversals, women and obvious bluescreen shots until its obvious resolution that restores the status quo.

Appearing publicly at the funeral of SPECTRE agent Jacques Bouvar, James Bond quickly exposes the “widow” of Bouvar as the secret agent himself. Killing the SPECTRE agent and escaping via jetpack, James Bond leaves for a vacation in a spa. Elsewhere in Paris, Largo and the council of SPECTRE meets where an embezzling officer is killed in front of the others. Largo plans to extort the Caribbean governments of over $200 million. Recuperating at the spa, James Bond thwarts an assassination attempt by Count Lippe and then discovers that a French pilot has been killed. The killer, the SPECTRE agent Angelo, was surgically altered to match the French pilot’s appearance and he uses that access to steal a NATO plane with two nuclear warheads.

With Angelo betrayed by Largo, SPECTRE takes possession of the nuclear warheads and sends the Prime Minister an extortion message, demanding 100,000,000 pounds, sterling. Following a lead from a photograph, Bond heads to Nassau where he makes contact with Largo’s niece, Domino. Aided by Felix, Q, and Paula, James Bond works to recover the warheads and thwart Largo and his thugs.

The best I can say about Thunderball is that the acting is competent. The film moves along at a fairly decent clip, regardless of whether the viewer actually cares about what is going on or not, and the performers in it handle their roles well. The only real notable exception to the general quality of the acting comes from Claudine Auger. Auger, who plays Domino, learns of her beloved brother’s death and her guardian’s culpability in his murder and reacts in a ridiculously understated fashion, mortgaging any emotional realism her character had. Director Terence Young cast Auger too closely in appearance to Luciana Paluzzi, Largo’s primary villainesses, and it seems like the main difference in the two is their hair color (but, rather annoyingly, not their acting style).

The primary villain of Thunderball is Largo, who is played by Adolfo Celi. Celi is fine as the somewhat monolithic villain who enjoys fishing and has a collection of dangerous sharks. Truth be told, I actually enjoyed that the method of getting James Bond into the villain’s lair is remarkably simple in Thunderball; he walks up to the front gate and the servant lets him in for a veiled conversation between the hero and the villain that involves no violence between them, just a verbal chess match. Celi sells the feeling of menace in that scene without ever seeming over-the-top.

Sean Connery, who plays James Bond in Thunderball is stiflingly average in the movie. Some of his best lines, the ones laced with subtle humor, innuendo, or irony, are delivered stiffly or barely captured as the camera is moving off him. There is no time to savor his wit or appreciate that the guy is actually cool. Many of his lines are technobabble to service the plot.

What Thunderball truly lacks is any sense of reflection. James Bond is entirely devoted to his work. In fact, one of the women he has sex with he claims to have done only in the service of his work and derived no pleasure from it. As it is, he has no chemistry - either as a character or as an actor – with any of the women in this movie, making it a much less engaging film to watch for the delightful ‘60’s softcore feel of some of the other Bond flicks.

On DVD, Thunderball comes with two informative and entertaining commentary tracks. They describe the moviemaking experience in a compelling depth of detail and relate elements of the actor’s bios that are intriguing. The historical archives of the commentary tracks, though, are not enough to forgive the sloppy filmmaking and lack of genuine character development throughout most of the movie, though. Thunderball is easy to pass by.

For other James Bond films, please check out my reviews of:
Die Another Day
Casino Royale
Quantum Of Solace
Skyfall

4/10

Check out how this movie stacks up against others I have reviewed by visiting my Movie Review Index Page where the film reviews are organized from best to worst movie!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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