CBn Reviews 'From Russia With Love'
#31
Posted 08 February 2009 - 11:10 PM
WOW! This film is GREAT! I really like FRWL (the novel and the film) and it's just a great film. Here's what I liked:
Sean Connery: Probably the best Bond ever, IMO. His acting is phenomenal, his action scenes are fantastic, and he's a believable Bond.
Daniela Bianchi(spelling???): One of the best Bond girls ever. Tatiana Romanova remains, for me, iconic, and she looks fantastic.
Plot: Believable, not "take-over-the-world" ridiculous. Great villains in Grant and Klebb. The actions scenes are great (the boat chase at the end, the fight in the train, etc.)
What I didn't like:
At times, I felt that the film was a little too long, but that's my only complaint.
Overall, I would easily recommend this film to any of my friends. One of Connery's best, and one of the series best films ever made.
10/10
#32
Posted 25 May 2009 - 02:37 AM
It's one of the things that makes this film far more interesting than the others. It's clear that the "Bond formula" hasn't been fully established, and the noticable difference in it's storyline can be easily seen. From Russia With Love is a much more slower film but I don't think that drags it down, in fact it works better for the film. There are fewer action sequences but when they erupt on the screen they sure are fun to watch and not as laughable as Dr. No's action sequences. But the real fun is watching Bond actually being a spy rather than a run-of-the-mill action hero.
The film is a gritty cold-war thriller that leisurely and successfully builds upon the story whilst always keeping the tension and suspense up. I also enjoy the film's focus on it's supporting characters, even down to characters like the chess-master Kronsteen who in a later Bond film would probably have just been eliminated from the story had FRWL followed the standard Bond formula. But the more standard story elements from the Bond formula are still shown here, the menacing and memorable villain Red Grant (played superbly by Robert Shaw) and the wonderfully evil Rosa Klebb who gets her fair share of kicks in the film. The always charming Pedro Armendariz plays the wise Kerim Bey who proves to be a worthy ally of Bond and the gorgeous Daniela Bianchi plays the Russian decoding clerk Tatiana Romanova.
Bond seems to be less the star of the show than is usually the case, but Connery is at the top of his game, and the antagonists prove to be genuinely intimidating.
A far more suspenseful Bond than most which is what makes it all the better, the lack of explosions every five minutes and Bond doing one dastardly stunt after another is a refreshing change (not that I don't mind explosions and dastardly stunts )
#33
Posted 24 December 2009 - 11:46 PM
The aim was to watch them in order in the run up to the premiere of QOS. I succeeded and the reviews were well received.
However, subsequently, I have re-read my reviews and re-watched a number of the movies (the BFI had a whole 007 season earlier this year and I saw quite a few on the big screen again!).
This is my updated review for From Russia With Love.
FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE
REVISED REVIEW 23/12/09
When James Bond returned to the screen in 1963, it was with a smarter, slicker product. The fumbling of Dr No was replaced with the confidence born out of success. Where as one of the problems with Dr No was the performance of Sean Connery, in From Russia With Love it is Connery who carries the film, responding to his co-stars and feeding off their evident enthusiasm.
For the most part the film is faithful to Fleming’s novel, even to the point of introducing all the villains and the plot device in the first fifteen minutes, and it is much better for it, as From Russia With Love is one of Fleming’s and the film franchise’s crowning achievements. The novel spent time dissecting its characters and the film utilises the physical and psychological descriptions excellently. Hence we have Pedro Armendariz’s boisterous, chauvinist family man Kerim Bey, running his Turkish headquarters from the back of a carpet sellers in the bazaar. We have the beautiful, impressionable ex-ballerina Tatiana, played effortlessly by debutant Daniela Bianchi, who falls in love with Bond and the freedom of the Western world. We have the gruesome Rosa Klebb, the blonde killer Grant and the wily planner Kronsteen. As inhabited by Lotte Lenya, Robert Shaw and Vladek Sheybal these are a formidable trio of villains who bring menace and intrigue in equal measure.
Robert Shaw in particular excels as the almost mute hit man, whose sole purpose in life is the destruction of others lives. He is brilliant impersonating Captain Nash and swapping lines with Connery in the claustrophobia of a sleeping carriage, where his bulk and presence seems to fill the screen. Also there is a tiny scene when, having killed a man, Shaw is being congratulated by Lenya; his eyes are fully closed as she patters on, seemingly oblivious to everything but the havoc he can cause. More than anyone, Shaw is the template for many Bond villains to come.
In addition a whole plethora of background characters lend colour and vibrancy to the film. There are Kerim’s sons, a pack of gypsies, several lesser villains (particularly Krilencu, a Bulgarian killer who is shot escaping from his apartment through the mouth of Anita Ekberg) and even the re-appearance of Sylvia Trench, who Bond still can’t spend any length of time with. Our introduction to the head of SPECTRE is disappointing. Seen only from behind, he has an interesting speech about the merits of Siamese fighting fish, but other than that the appearance of SPECTRE is wasted and serves, as in the previous Dr No, only to deflect the mark of villainy from the Eastern Bloc.
While the characters keep the story alive, the action keeps it moving. Terence Young takes Maibaum’s script and delivers a true British spy thriller, in the tradition of The Third Man and The Lady Vanishes. We have colourful locations, beautifully photographed by Ted Moore; excellent sets, designed in a minimal style by Syd Cain; a chase with an overbearing helicopter; a flight to freedom on a train; and several delightful rendezvous: on the Bosporus, at the St Sophia mosque, a gypsy camp and in a moonlit hotel bedroom. The final of these reveals both the lengths the producers were prepared to go to retain Fleming’s vision and how far they couldn’t. The filming of Bond and Tatiana’s love making is included, while the best line in the novel (“This” - Tatiana tells Bond she is naked except for her lace choker) is excluded.
There is a lot of action in From Russia With Love and it reaches its climax on board the Orient Express, where Bianchi brings to life her character’s qualities, at first gay and carefree, besotted with Bond and relishing her new opportunities, then later sullen and awkward as she realises the tide has turned against her. Connery is good here too, bringing the ruthlessness and violence of Bond back to the forefront. Bond’s battle with Grant is a movie highlight, no Wild West pastiche this, a full blooded encounter in which both protagonists end up sullied and scarred, though only one is dead. Mercifully John Barry’s generally intrusive music score is subdued during this struggle to the death and the roar of the locomotive seems to mimic the chaos on screen.
Finally, or formerly, the title sequence, one of the great Bond innovations. A five minute teaser in which we see “Bond” killed by his potential assassin, followed by the credits projected onto the curves of a belly dancer. If there is any indication of how confident Broccoli and Saltzman had become, this was it. In an era where big music themes and credit picture boards were still in evidence – witness My Fair Lady and Dr Zhivago the very next year – this truly was something to remember. So confident were the producers, they even tell us James Bond will be back in “Goldfinger”.
RATING - 10 from 10
#34
Posted 21 January 2010 - 05:31 PM
In a way it reminded me of QOS - but it has a much lighter touch.
A template for further Bond films, legendary and masterful.
10 out of 10.
#35
Posted 21 January 2010 - 08:47 PM
#36
Posted 21 January 2010 - 09:13 PM
#37
Posted 23 January 2010 - 04:57 PM
The feel of Istanbul was a draw for me even 30 years after first seeing the film.
#38
Posted 23 January 2010 - 06:26 PM
#39
Posted 23 January 2010 - 11:25 PM
I'm a little confused by that statement, too. But we wouldn't want that, would we?It captures the era better than films from another era?
#40
Posted 10 February 2010 - 09:27 AM
From the moment this one began I felt right at home; I really enjoyed this after being somewhat underwhelmed while watching Dr No on Sunday night.
That girl who is massaging Robert Shaw with baby oil at the beginning was a big hit with me, too.
#42
Posted 09 March 2010 - 12:34 AM
#43
Posted 09 March 2010 - 10:28 PM
#44
Posted 15 July 2011 - 12:00 AM
Pros:
Too Many to list, but the film is very strong, from the writing, to the directing, to the performances. I will make a few observations though.
Having SPECTRE play both the Soviets and British for fools seems an improvement on Fleming's original plot.
Best directed moment in any Bond film - the moment when the camera is down on the floor (at Bond's level) pointing up at Red Grant, who completely dominates the frame. A VERY effective moment.
Brilliant performances, especially from Robert Shaw (who is very minimalistic most of the time, which makes his "crawl over here . . ." line that much more shocking) and Armindariz (how a person in as much pain as Armindariz was could convey such lust for life is beyond me).
Cons:
The resolution to the Gypsy girls fight is unsatisfying and frankly weird. These girls are willing to kill to marry the chief's son, but they'll engage in an implied threesome to get Bond to choose one of them. Plus it seems like Bond just drives off without choosing either one. Are they still waiting there for him to come back?
Edited by right idea, wrong pussy, 15 July 2011 - 05:18 AM.
#45
Posted 15 February 2012 - 03:20 PM
The film reminded me how menacing Blofeld was when we was faceless. None of the actors that played him ever captured the character so well for me.
9/10
#46
Posted 15 February 2012 - 03:36 PM
It's Terence Young's best job as director, and Ted Moore's best work as cinematographer.