From Russia with Love (1963)


In the second James Bond film, Sean Connery is reasonably credible if you can accept his character’s psychopathic tendency to make wisecracks when his victims die.

The plot is typically incoherent. For example, the role of the Russian girl (played by Daniela Bianchi) turns out to be completely pointless as she never does any of the work SPECTRE hired her for. It’s rather shocking to see Bond hitting her, but then he was never supposed to be a nice guy.

There’s an utterly ludicrous scene set in a gypsy encampment: Bond gets to see two scantily clad women grappling with each other in a “fight to the death” before saving them and earning them both as his “reward”.

There are engaging moments: for example, the parts on the Orient Express have a certain tension. And Blofeld – face unseen, hands stroking his white cat – has an undeniably iconic quality.

But is it a good film? Not really.

No comments:

Post a Comment