110 replies to this topic

[glidrose]

Lo and behold... Jezza himself Jeremy Clarkson hates the film. Here's what he had to say about a list of "best British films".

"The only Bond flick to make the grade was From Russia With Love, which came in at number nine. Why? With the possible exception of Moonraker, this early Sean Connery flick was one of the worst 007 adventures."

 

Clarkson goes on to say the greatest British film ever made is The Long Good Friday, followed by Local Hero, then The Killing Fields.

 

Clarkson calls the following British films overrated,

 

The Third Man

Brief Encounter

Lawrence of Arabia

The Bridge Over the River Kwai ("God Almighty. Jesus took less time to die than Alec Guiness.")

Get Carter

The Wicker Man

If...

A Clockwork Orange

[plankattack]

One suspects that with his list Clarkson is either

A - Taking the proverbial
or
B - Really is as stupid as he acts

[Bond31]

Can't bash FRWL, I think it has Connery's darkest Bond performance (I do love when Bond isn't treated like a Joke), one of the best villain's in Robert Shaw's Red Grant and great characters in Pedro Armendariz's  Kerim Bay (you actually miss him on screen when he dies) and Lotte Lenya's Rosa Klebb. Great script and Direction to. It's in my top 5 Bond films and I still consider it Connery's Best Bond film.

 

The Fault's the Bond girl sucks (Connery's Bond girls were nice to look at but lack character).

 

But Connery in Top form is always great. Only Craig has bettered him as Bond imo.

[Rik]

Can't bash FRWL, I think it has Connery's darkest Bond performance (I do love when Bond isn't treated like a Joke), one of the best villain's in Robert Shaw's Red Grant and great characters in Pedro Armendariz's  Kerim Bay (you actually miss him on screen when he dies) and Lotte Lenya's Rosa Klebb. Great script and Direction to. It's in my top 5 Bond films and I still consider it Connery's Best Bond film.

 

The Fault's the Bond girl sucks (Connery's Bond girls were nice to look at but lack character).

 

But Connery in Top form is always great. Only Craig has bettered him as Bond imo.

 

I agree with almost everything said here apart from only Graig bettering Connery as Bond.

[Walecs]

This Clarkson guy is an idiot.

[FlemingBond]

From Russia With Love is one of the best Bond movies . I can't see any flaws in it.

[ViperSRT87]

Is that the same Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear? He does have some interesting interpretations of things, but overall he is a pretty cool guy. Hell he has one of the best jobs in the world!!!! Definately don't agree with him on From Russia With Love though. 

[glidrose]

Yep, that Jeremy Clarkson, hence "Jezza".

[Moore'sStuntDouble]

FRWL is my favorite Bond. It's the most straightforward spy movie they ever made. Most of the others are more fantastical action adventure flicks, which I love, but in a different way. For me, FRWL (and Dr. No, for that matter) just has the perfect tone for a Bond movie, the perfect balance between the serious side of the spectrum (QoS, SF) and the light-hearted (MR, AVTAK). All the ingredients congeal in a way they haven't since. 

 

BTW, I love movies like TSWLM and Goldfinger for how grand-scale they are, but it's a love that runs parallel to my love for FRWL and Dr. No, rather than against it. 

[Guy Haines]

I too liked the helicopter scene.  Did not realise, it was shot in Scotland.

Much of the last part of the film was shot there - the helicopter scene and the boat chase. The latter is notable because, at least according to several obituaries I've read, one of the SPECTRE boats was helmed by a real life British hero - the record breaking test pilot Peter Twiss, the first man to fly faster than 1,000 mph. By the time FRWL was filmed he was involved with the Fairey Marine Company, having previously flown for Fairey Aviation. His marine company arranged for the boats to be used in the boat chase scene and, according to his biography "Faster Than The Sun", made a tidy profit out of it.

[glidrose]

Penelope Gilliatt gave it a mixed review in The Observer,

"I think myself that the reason why "From Russia With Love" begins to slip off the rails halfway through is that Bond is made to look too thick-headed. There is a long sequence when he is a good 20 steps behind the opposition: you start to be more interested in the killer, who obviously has him on toast. Heroes in this sort of film can't afford not to be bright. You have to be able to admire heroes for something, and you can't exactly admire Bond for his character. I wish he thought his way out of more situations, instead of always kicking his way out."

[The Krynoid man]

I've never liked the helicopter chase. Not because it's a rip off of North by Northwest, I hadn't even heard of North by Northwest when I first saw From Russia With Love. I just didn't find it that exciting.
Plus the Bond girl is kind of wooden (not her fault, she could barely speak any English and had her voice dubbed over).
I still love the film though, it's my 3rd favourite behind OHMSS and TSWLM.
It's not just a great Bond film, it's a great film in general.

[Dustin]

I found no fault with the helicopter or the boat chase. But having both was one action set too much for my liking. When first seeing FRWL as a boy I was of course perfectly fine with it. But since then I gradually came to see these two as overkill on the action front.

[elizabeth]

Why would there be any bashing?  Best Bond movie ever made!

[Dustin]

It's definitely an early classic in the series. While not actually the first it is often the one casual fans see as the real start of the run, with Connery in Bond-mode throughout. DR NO used to be heavy on adventure, with part of the plot resembling a modern Tarzan film. FRWL then went right into Cold War espionage with an intriguing villain that's never seen and seemingly commands fantastic funds and an army of spies and killers, marvellous stuff!

[Colossus]

It might actually be faultless, similar to a couple of rare ones like The Good, the Bad the Ugly. 

[S K Y F A L L]

I didn't like FRWL as a kid but enjoy it now. As a kid I thought it was slow and boring but now I think it moves smoothly and I find it very interesting. I wonder if my taste in the films will change in another decade. 

[Colossus]

Isn't there a Michael Wilson quote somewhere along the lines of "We always start off trying to make FRWL and too often end up somewhere else."?

It's as close to bash-proof as there is, but it's not without its faults (is there such a thing as the perfect film anyway?) I tend to agree with everyone here, including David_M of course. The 

 

Ah that is admitting to them they try to replicate FRWL and fail. I can imagine a couple of those examples in the last decade or 2 or 3. hah.

[Colossus]

The relativity factor can also influence the likability of FRWL... in that the whole series, take GF for example i have been part of cbn now for many years and    see the bashing GF gets, yet it is still a pretty good Bond. But in relative stature to FRWL it looks bad, especially coming right on the heels of FRWL. Now to go back to FRWL, it is also highly praised BECAUSE it happens to be one of the only couple of "grounded" Bond films - this veneer in itself heightens the film. So i think it is slightly overrated in that way, if i were to bash this movie for the thread. If there were a bunch of more FRWL's to come afterward, or the 70s Bonds to be equal in their FRWL-sharpness then of course it would not stand out so like the shining jewel that it is seen. I do not let this relativity factor affect or warp my views on it. To me i do not discern whether between "grounded" Bond or "outlandish" Bond should be the better one. Despite occasionally succumbing to group think mentality (which is a powerful mentality) i used to also think FRWL was my favorite or one of my favs, but while it is good i cannot say no to core impulses to the outlandish, something which i have always loved, the over the top, but treated with some merit. Something why i really love YOLT in all its glory. Man i'd like to meet some more YOLT lovers around here. I think i'll just read some praise topics come to think of it. Also why Moore's 70s era was a good one.

[glidrose]

This guy explains why he doesn't like FRWL in fifteen minutes



A Rotten Tomatoes community manager didn't like it either and explains why here.

[Turn]

Really, that guy was supposed to give me any type of doubt about the merits of FRWL? I didn't make it through 5 minutes. He sits there in his backwards ball probably in in his parents' basement waving around the first DVD version of the film, looking everywhere else but at the camera and explains the extra features and seems to have trouble grasping what's going in the film, saying something like "and get the f***  outta here" at one point. It was just hard to take serious in any way, whether you saw the film on release or just became a fan with the release of Skyfall.

 

I'm actually someone who counted FRWL among my least favorite Bonds for years and it has steadily climbed up to among my favorites. And it will take something a lot more than that guy to alter that.

 

As far as the other review, did you actually read it? He states twice he liked or enjoyed the film, but it didn't meet his expectations based on previous films. It just surprised him for the lack of camp and more emphasis on plot and character and not so much on the suave aspects of Bond. I found it a thoughtful review and strong in explaining why he felt that way, which I respect.