[quote]Good films have subtext. In the last part of this series on the subtext of various James Bond films, we took a look at the subtext 1967's You Only Live Twice. Then we mentioned this would be a three part series on sub-text; well it seems it will be a four part series instead.
In the second part of this series we'll take a look at the subtext of 1963's From Russia With Love.
The Subtext Of From Russia With Love
By John Cox
In From Russia with Love, James Bond is sent to Istanbul to sleep with a Russian cipher clerk in order to get a decoder machine. "Just make sure you measure up," warns M. The villain's plot? Capture 007's sexual performance on film and use it to discredit the Secret Service when his "suicide" is discovered. Kinky stuff? You bet. And there's more. Much more.
From Russia with Love is really a catalog of "secret" sexual fetishes thinly veiled by the world of the '60s Secret Agent. Think about it. FRWL depicts sadism (making two fish fight to the death); oil massage (Grant on SPECTER island); S&M (Klebb's handy riding crop and brass knuckles); pimp prostitution (Bond and Tatiana are both ordered to have sex); sexual fixation (Tatiana falls in love with a photo of Bond "like young girls fall in love with movie stars"); lesbianism (Tatiana's