From Russia with Love

'''This page is dedicated to Sean Connery, who died on October 31st, 2020. May he Rest In Peace.'''

From Russia with Love is a 1963 British spy film and the second in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions, as well as Sean Connery's second role as MI6 agent James Bond. It was directed by Terence Young, produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, and written by Richard Maibaum and Johanna Harwood, based on Ian Fleming's 1957 novel of the same name.

Plot
James Bond 007 is on the search for a Russian decoding machine, known as "Lektor". Bond needs to find this machine, before the evil S.P.E.C.T.R.E. organization discovers it. While being romantically linked with Russian girl, Tatiana Romanova, Bond sneaks his way around Istanbul, while each S.P.E.C.T.R.E. Agent tries to pick him off, including the over powering Donald "Red" Grant and ex K.G.B. Agent Rosa Klebb, who knows all of the tricks in the book, and even possesses an incredible poison tipped shoe.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Good direction by Terence Young.
 * 2) A really good story where the evil organization hatches an elaborate plan to kill Bond and get a Russian decoding device: "Lektor".
 * 3) Great special effects.
 * 4) Features a number of memorable action scenes such as the Orient Express fight between Bond and Grant (a fight so good that every so often after this film, Bond gets into a fight on a train, examples are Live and Let Die, The Spy Who Loved Me, and Spectre) and scene where Bond is being chased by a SPECTRE helicopter and taking it down with his portable sniper rifle.
 * 5) This film introduced things that would become staples in future Bond films.
 * 6) *This is the first film to have it's own theme song as opposed to the previous film which constantly reused Bond's theme.
 * 7) *The introduction of gadgets. This mostly comes in the form of the briefcase which comes equipped with a knife, gold sovereigns, a can disguised as a tear gas canister, ammo, and a portable sniper rifle.
 * 8) *Desmond Llewelyn makes his debut as Q (the head of R&D and creator of Bond's gadgets).
 * 9) Great acting with a lot of crew being more comfortable in their roles now.
 * 10) Thanks to the higher budget, the film has a lot more location and action shots.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The pacing can slow down sometimes; although it isn't nearly as bad as it was in the previous film.
 * 2) Missed Opportunity: While the story is very good, keeping the SPECTRE plot a mystery until Bond finds out would have made for a cool twist.
 * 3) Bond Villain Stupidity: Red Grant's plan is to just shoot Bond, and he actually manages to get the drop on his target and have him completely at his mercy, but he still fails because he can't resist gloating about getting the upper hand. In Red's defense, he still would have been fine if he hadn't fallen for Bond's bribe. He also had plenty of opportunities to kill Bond before he even got on the train, but his failure to do so was his superior's fault: Blofeld didn't just want Bond to die, he wanted him to die in a manner that would embarrass MI6 and the British government, which required a more elaborate setup then just shooting him as he walked down the street.

Reception
From Russia with Love received critical praise from critics decades following the film's original release and is considered one of the finest Bond films. Rotten Tomatoes sampled 62 reviewers and judged 95% of the reviews to be positive with an average rating of 7.9/10. Its summary states: "The second James Bond film, From Russia with Love, is a razor-sharp, briskly-paced Cold War thriller that features several electrifying action scenes." Many online sites commonly cite From Russia with Love as the best Bond film of all time.

Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote: "Don't miss it! This is to say, don't miss it if you can still get the least bit of fun out of lurid adventure fiction and pseudo-realistic fantasy. For this mad melodramatization of a desperate adventure of Bond with sinister characters in Istanbul and on the Orient Express is fictional exaggeration on a grand scale and in a dashing style, thoroughly illogical and improbable, but with tongue blithely wedged in cheek."

Time magazine called the film "fast, smart, shrewdly directed and capably performed."

Variety described the film as "a preposterous, skillful slab of hardhitting, sexy hokum. After a slowish start, it is directed by Terence Young at zingy pace. The cast perform with an amusing combo of tongue-in-cheek and seriousness and the Istanbul location is an added bonus."

Film critic James Berardinelli cited this as his favorite Bond film, writing "Only From Russia with Love avoids slipping into the comic book realm of Goldfinger and its successors while giving us a sampling of the familiar Bond formula (action, gadgets, women, cars, etc.). From Russia with Love is effectively paced and plotted, features a gallery of detestable rogues (including the ultimate Bond villain, Blofeld), and offers countless thrills".

Upon its first release, From Russia with Love doubled Dr. No 's gross by earning $12.5 million ($104 million in 2020 dollars) at the worldwide box office. After reissue it grossed $78 million, of which $24 million was from North America. It was the most popular movie at the British box office in 1963.

The film's cinematographer Ted Moore won the BAFTA award and the British Society of Cinematographers award for Best Cinematography. At the 1965 Laurel Awards, Lotte Lenya stood third for Best Female Supporting Performance, and the film secured second place in the Action-Drama category. The film was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for "From Russia with Love".

In June 2001 Neil Smith of BBC Films called it "a film that only gets better with age".

In 2004, Total Film magazine named it the ninth-greatest British film of all time, making it the only James Bond film to appear on the list.

In 2006, Jay Antani of Filmcritic praised the film's "impressive staging of action scenes", while IGN listed it as second-best Bond film ever, behind only Goldfinger.

Entertainment Weekly put the film at ninth among Bond films, criticizing the slow pace.

In 2014 Time Out polled several film critics, directors, actors and stunt actors to list their top action films; From Russia With Love was listed at 69.

The British Film Institute's screenonline guide called the film "one of the series' high points" and said it "had advantages not enjoyed by many later Bond films, notably an intelligent script that retained the substance of Ian Fleming's novel while toning down the overt Cold War politics (the Cuban Missile Crisis had only occurred the previous year)." In 2008, Michael G. Wilson, the current co-producer of the series, stated "We always start out trying to make another From Russia with Love and end up with another Thunderball." Sean Connery, Michael G. Wilson, Barbara Broccoli, Timothy Dalton and Daniel Craig also consider this their favorite Bond film. Albert Broccoli listed it with Goldfinger and The Spy Who Loved Me as one of his top three favorites, explaining that he felt "it was with this film that the Bond style and formula were perfected.

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