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Literature and Cinema Unit 4 From Russia With Love
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3. Discuss the element of masculinity in the character of James Bond.
Ans: Central to this myth of invincibility is the promotion of a particular kind of masculinity, as well as a particular kind of nationalism. Bond is represented as having a ‘handsome, ruthless face’, in Tatiana’s words; this, along with his defeat of Red Grant and Rosa Klebb, by sheer dint of his presence of mind and fighting skills, are the key markers of the kind of masculinity that is valourized. In addition to this, in the corpus of Bond works, there are two more characteristic markers of a superior nationalist masculinity: one is in his somewhat paradoxical relationship to wealth and excess; the other is in the celebration of technology. In the first case, we see in the very first novel that Bond has access to enormous sums of money, which is provided to him by the British state, for him to gamble against the villain, Le Chifre. As such, he is represented as entrusted with enormous financial power. But Bond’s masculinity is defined by the fact that he is himself unmoved by wealth, and, while he can be repeatedly seen to enjoy a luxurious lifestyle as part of his cover, we are also repeatedly told that he rejects this: in From Russia with Love, for instance, Bond’s entry into the text is with the following words.
“The blubbery arms of the soft life had Bond round the neck and they were slowly strangling him. He was a man of war and when, for a long period, there was no war, his spirit went into decline.”
In other words, even as the Bond narratives present us with a masculinity that has access to enormous financial power, and to the trappings that go with it, its ‘real’ strength is revealed to be the stereotypical English austerity with which those trappings of luxury are rejected. This in turn is in consonance with the austerity measures of a depressed economy in postwar Britain, allowing the Bond-figure to be easily identifiable with. So, Bond’s enjoyment of luxuries allows the reader to enjoy them, as well as the sense of financial power that they endow, vicariously; at the same time, his rejection of these renders him one of the people, a truly national man. The second characteristic of superior nationalist masculinity, which we noted above as the celebration of technology, is again engaged with in a somewhat paradoxical, if not contradictory. manner. Bond has access to cutting edge technology in his ‘war’ against the enemies of Britain and this is especially and spectacularly true of the cinematic versions of the James Bond stories but although he uses it, thereby demonstrating his mastery over technology, ultimately it is his own skill, ability, intelligence, presence of mind, speed that work to overcome the enemy.
The veneration of technology is part of the condition of modernity, and sets the western world in general, but especially the former imperial powers, apart from the rest of the world. One of the most crucial elements in the triumph of western imperialism had been its industrial and technological superiority, till the middle of the twentieth century. It was no longer possible to sustain this, in the face of American industrial superiority on the one hand, and the dramatic growth in the military – industrial might of the erstwhile USSR. There was thus wistfulness for that technological superiority, even as there was a need to show that Britain’s glory was not dependent on it. Bond’s masculinity – through which Britain’s glory comes to be defined in these narratives, could thus be defined as master of that technology, even as simultaneously dismissive of it.
4. Write about the movie From Russia with Love.
Ans: From Russia with Love, British spy film, released in 1963, that was the second in the James Bond franchise. With notable performances by Lotte Lenya and Robert Shaw, it is considered one of the best Bond movies, and it stays relatively faithful to Ian Fleming’s novel. Bond (played by Sean Connery) is assigned to walk into what may be a death trap. British intelligence, has been contacted by Tatiana Romanova (Daniela Bianchi), a young Soviet cipher clerk with access to a highly desirable decoding machine called the Lektor. Romanova tells M16 that she is willing to help Bond secure the Lektor in return for safe passage to England. Bond and his boss M (Bernard Lee) do not believe her story, but M cannot pass up the chance to get a Lektor.
Bond arrives in Istanbul, where he meets the local station chief, Kerim Bey (Pedro Armendáriz), a charismatic man with seemingly endless connections to people in the espionage world. Bond continues to work with Romanova, unaware that she is being used as a pawn by the secret criminal organization SPECTRE, where her superior in Soviet intelligence, Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya), holds a position of authority. Klebb has recruited a psychopathic killer named Red Grant (Robert Shaw) as part of the plot to use the Lektor and Romanova to lure Bond to a humiliating and scandalous death as revenge for killing SPECTRE operative Dr. No. Tatiana and Bond succeed in stealing the Lektor from the Soviet embassy and, along with Bey, board the Orient-Express. Grant, posing as a British agent he has assassinated, is already on the train.
He murders Bey and convinces Bond that he is the contact who is arranging his escape to England with the Lektor. After overpowering Bond, Grant unveils the details of the scheme to kill him. Bond uses an exploding attaché case to gain the advantage on Grant and, in hand – to – hand battle, manages to strangle him. Romanova convinces Bond that she had no idea of the actual plot, though she admits she thought she was acting under orders for the KGB. Bond and Romanova leave the Orient – Express, hijack a speedboat, are confronted by a SPECTRE fleet (which Bond manages to destroy), and arrive in Venice, but their safety is threatened by the arrival of Klebb, who almost succeeds in assassinating Bond before she is shot dead by Romanova, who clearly has fallen in love with Bond. The second James Bond film has many noteworthy elements, among them the performance by Armendariz (who was terminally ill during production) and Desmond Llewelyn’s first appearance as the gadget master Q.
5. Write about Bond’s Masculinity, Sexuality and Sexism in the movie.
Ans: To enhance the cinematic impact – and the sexual ‘oomph’ – of the Bond persona, the characters are anchored in the language and themes of heterosexual masculine bravado. Marquee and supporting female actors are given names that serve as double entendres, engage in conversation filled with sexual references, and find themselves positioned as willing and wild temptresses. Graphic names are given to emphasize the character’s erotic appeal, such as: Plenty O’Toole (Diamonds Are Forever), Peaceful Fountains of Desire (Die Another Day), Mary Goodnight (The Man with the Golden Gun), Xenia Onatopp (Golden Eye), Dr. Holly Goodhead (Moonraker), Pussy Galore, (Goldfinger), and Octopussy (Rutherford, 2008: 169). To titillate viewers, numerous sexual references fill the series dialogue. Remember Bond ogling Honey Ryder (Dr. No) clad in a white bikini? When he approaches her on the beach, she asks him: “What are you doing here? Looking for shells?” Bond smoothly quips, “No, I’m just looking”.
When 007 met Soviet agent Tatiana (From Russia With Love), he states, “You’re one of the most beautiful girls I’ve seen”. She thanks him, and then retorts, “but I think my mouth is too big”. Not missing a beat, 007 counters, “No. It’s just the right size. For me, that is”. Mary Goodnight, a fellow security agent, is in 007’s hotel room and asks him, “My hard to get act didn’t last very long, did it?” 007 retorts, “I was trained to expect the unexpected, but…they never prepared me for anything like you in a nightie”. Suddenly, Andrea Anders arrives at his door to warn him of impending danger. Bond pushes Goodnight into a closet and exclaims: “Miss Anders! I didn’t recognize you with your clothes on,” and beds her. Bond’s language and behavior are replete with references that objectify women as love toys to be manipulated by fulfilling his every sexual whim. The positioning of female villains, lovers, and accomplices as ideal sex objects is so common that they became known as “Bond Girls”.
These women are constructed as iconic symbols of femininity and sophistication whose unblemished skin, perfect features, ample cleavage, and classic bodies-tall, lean, and young-exuded a halo of perfection (Morris, 1971: 45, 53, 58, 61). They connote contemporary versions of Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. Seductive and intriguing, the Bond Girls bewitch male viewers via their power of attraction over dominant male figures in the series (Pitman, 2003, 261; Lears, 1994: 139). Compliant and amorous (especially toward Bond), these girls became a prototype of female acceptability that Bond conquers, thereby offering the male audience a sense of confidence that they, too, can achieve these lofty standards. Female objectification set the benchmark right from the beginning when Sylvia Trench in the film, Dr. No (1962), introduced the Bond character to viewers (Cork, Stutz, 2009: 140). Adorned in an haute couture gown, Bond meets her at a London casino and introduces himself using the suave tag line that is now infamous: “Bond, James Bond” (ibid). The sexual tension between Trench and Bond heats up as Trench loses a game of cards and he, in turn, promises her a date the next day before offering his business card. Beguiled and fascinated by Bond, she leaves the casino, drives to his home, enters, and makes herself very comfortable by disrobing and putting on his pyjama top (ibid).
He eventually arrives at home and, sensing an intruder, enters the room, pulls out his pistol, and kneels in the doorway. To highlight the sexual tease, the camera is positioned at the level of Trench’s hips to showcase her legs and bum. She is wearing high heels and a shirt that barely covers her legs. Her hair is wild and tousled. Through all of these factors, she is positioned as a siren waiting to fulfil the base desires of Bond in his own territory, which accentuates her own daring and vulnerability. Within moments, Bond seduces Trench and they spend a night together in bliss.
The sexual sell is wrapped in a short voyeuristic sub-plot to entertain viewers, but never plays a key contribution to the overarching narrative. Later adaptations of female sexual objectification surface in a number of films. In Die Another Day, Jinx, (Halle Berry), wears an orange bikini on a beach with the Ursula Andress narrative serving as a referent. When Jinx reveals to Bond, “I’m so good,” he instantaneously replies, “Especially when you’re bad”. In The World is Not Enough, Bond meets a tall, thin, and long – legged cigar girl styled in a pin-stripe suit and short skirt that positions her as “eye candy” for male surveillance. She offers him a suitcase of money and a receipt. When the cigar girl asks, “Would you like to check my figures?” without hesitation, Bond replies, “Oh, I’m sure they’re perfectly rounded”.
Drawing on sexual promiscuity as an expression of female power, the Bond producers redefined the traditional series presentation of femininity. Rather than showcase a character that avails herself to the whims of Bond’s desires, they developed Xenia Zaragevna Onatopp-a woman who tries to challenge Bond’s masculinity through her own hyper-aggression. In Goldeneye, Onatopp is constructed as a leather-clad hired gun. Her persona is wrapped in an extreme form of narcissism. To suggest that she is sexually aggressive would be an understatement as she basks in the erotic excitement of sadomasochistic play and uses it as a platform to manipulate, hurt, and then kill her lovers. In a fight to kill Bond that is laced with graphic sexual wrestling, feminine sexuality as a license for. pleasure is constructed as unstable outside the limits of patriarchy. Bond, of course, rejects her advances-how often has that happened? Although driven by a powerful libido, he makes an intelligent decision by suppressing his base motives and allowing patriarchal power to reign over the threat of female sexuality. In conclusion, the construction of James Bond’s masculinity serves a commercial purpose by offering a subtle, yet compelling, action hero. The coding for 007’s masculinity is not obvious, such as in Pussy Galore, but, in effect, the British-born hero is positioned as a person that viewers can admire, desire, and imitate (Rutherford, 2007: 169). For men, Bond represents the ultimate fantasya secret agent who can confidently choose women with the same casual ease he uses to order a martini, while intelligently fighting criminal masterminds.
For women, he is debonair, gallant, and handsome; their knight in shining armour that embodies the roles of conqueror, seducer, and hero. Although the codes in Bond’s masculinity shift in later films to a fierce and hardened personality, he still exudes a coolheaded, cultured, and capable manner. His sexual vigor and manliness relatively assumen women to be compliant sex objects for his review, even those deemed as femme fatale. In the process, all women, especially women of colour, are positioned as inferior. His misogynistic beliefs overflow into physical force. when women directly challenge his dominance. Bond’s. commercially – produced masculinity, thus, transmits codes which teach teenagers and adults that white Englishmen reign supreme, that extreme physical force is an acceptable hegemonic disciplinary tool, and that the hyper – sexualization and objectification of women as violent, emotional, and unreasonable is to be expected. The Bond lessons conclude that women and villains, alike, are disposable and justified forms of collateral damage and, above all, that seduction of women, whether friend or foe, is a necessary tool of social control to protect the power structures that comprise the status quo.
6. Write about James Bond’s masculinity and commercialism.
Ans: To market the Bond films, EON productions (which produced 23 of the 26 Bond pictures) created a dynamic masculine brand identity for the character of James Bond. Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, the initial producers of the series, brought to the screen a solid male personality accompanied by a lifestyle that spotlighted the forbidden world of bachelorhood, sexual voyeurism, and adventure. Amid the ideological based advertising codes, in particular overt female sexuality, the Bond persona showcased a steady focus on trysts with beauty queens and actresses to spark viewer interest and facilitate long-term loyalty. As a result, the Bond series exploded into a financial boom reaching $2.5 billion in ticket sales. EON based the commercial potency of the films on the formulation of socially – created meaning.
To “hook” viewer interest, the film industry creates personas around subjects that promise to stimulate feelings of excitement, attachment, pleasure, lust, internalization, and understanding. Producers compose subjects within the structure of a film using various codes that transfer meaning: background (nationality and race); costume (suits, lingerie and masquerade); storyline (suspense and voyeurism); technical effects (camera angles and line of vision); and special effects (excitement and shock). During the 1960s, the Bond persona made cinematic history by drawing on a controversial set of codes to define masculinity. The producers ventured into new ideological territory by promoting Bond as a sexual nomad; a highly mobile and assertive man sworn to bachelorhood who unabashedly pursues young women adorned as sex kittens .He forsakes the values and permanence of monogamy, fatherhood, and family life (ibid). Instead, Bond seeks casual sexual encounters with women while exercising emotional and sexual control.
Zero-fault sex personifies his lifestyle. Women serve as leisure items for recreational sex. By inference, traditional marriage is pushed aside as outdated and long-term relationships are judged as emotionally constricting. Consider the persona of the sexual nomad-a prime example of male virility, power, independence, and authority (ibid). By branding Bond as a philandering hero, Life Magazine denounced the series for glamorizing amorality. Bond serves as a pseudo – celebrity by promoting his brand of masculinity to audiences as a form of counterfeit empowerment. The producers created Bond as a womanizer to spark an emotional and ideological connection with males of any age, race, class, and background. The persona connects images of the body and desire, popularity and wealth, identity and acceptance, and visual instruction through the seduction of women (Rutherford, 2007: 249). In turn, viewers are free to internalize his values and identity. The brand offers a false perception of personal agency with the belief that they, the viewers, become “cool” by remodeling their lives on the commodified values and standards promoted in the brand identity.
The Bond persona showcases what producers believe male teenagers and all men crave, if they are conscious of their human nature: forbidden sex, an elegant lifestyle, freedom from marital and family responsibility, and extreme action. The model, quite evidently, is synthetic, commercial, and, ultimately, unsustainable as it becomes self destructive in the real world. Within Bond’s fabricated world, the moral and legal repercussions that face him are surmountable since he is positioned above the law and beyond ethics. In an ironic leap, the producers of Bond glorify his character and the world around him as presumably “natural” while intrinsically defaming other social constructs as infeasible since they allegedly restrict human nature and altruistic patterns of behavior. Bond’s motives and behavior are vital in understanding the next phase that defines the brand traits of his persona. Bond is presented as an authentically sincere ladies-man; fit, handsome and so absolutely suave that he can transform the most jaded femme fatale into his complacent lover, along with a variety of loyal female accomplices.
Drawing from his manly charms he seduces women positioned as haughty, stylish, and, regardless of marital status, available. Bond seduces heiress Paris Carver (Teri H. tcher), the wife of media magnet Elliot Carver, to learn where Carver’s secret headquarters is located (Tomorrow Never Dies). Bond also seduces Domino (Claudine Auger), the trophy girlfriend of his enemy, Emilio Largo (Thunder ball), to prove that no woman is free from the power of his seduction. To showcase his sexual charisma, the camera is often positioned to reflect Bond’s line of vision, which often details the feminine lines and sexualize appearance of Hollywood’s most buxom and alluring actresses, including Ursula Andress (Dr. No), Daniela Bianchi, (From Russia With Love), and Jane Seymour (Live and Let Die). As a proxy for male viewers, Bond does not undergo feminine rejection, suffers no quandaries about his immoral behavior, and wastes no time securing his position of power above women.
Consequently, male viewers set box office records with the release of each new instalment in the series. To ensure the acceptability of Bond’s masculine formula among audiences, the producers employ a key code to position women as sex objects for male review (ibid: 30). In the film, Dr. No, Bond stands in the cover of a palm tree watching Ursula Anders emerge from the ocean and walk along the beach. Clad in a skimpy white bikini that showcases her figure as voluptuous, Bond surveys every inch of her feminine form, with the camera serving as a proxy set of eyes (ibid: 40). Imagine the impact that camera scene had on male viewers who were empowered through voyeurism and the internalization of Bond’s identity. In From Russia With Love, Bond intently watches two young gypsy women wearing revealing tight clothing wrestle each other to determine who will marry a village man (ibid). Bond Later seduces both women (ibid).
His voyeurism continues with a scene in which he is treated to the pleasures of a belly dancer who performs an exotic lap dance in his honor (ibid). Movie pundits argue that neither scene had any relation to the narrative (ibid). Therefore, the producers use the sexual sell to position the Bond series as an advertising pedestal to keep audiences entertained and in the theatre. The storyline becomes secondary. The femme fatale, thus, becomes a key feature in every Bond film. The stereotype is accentuated through the sex appeal of female characters such as Jenny Flex (A View To A Kill), Miranda Frost (Die Another Day), and Electra King (The World Is Not Enough).
These villains operate as cold-blooded enemies adorned in fetish wear. Their purpose, from an advertising plan, is to titillate viewers by establishing links between beauty, fashion, and violence. In the process, the characters teach women to promote their sexuality as unstable, narcissistic, and dangerous. In turn, male viewers are taught to expect this form of sexual behavior from desirable women and, subsequently, are given the necessary tools through language, seduction, and force to dominate the stronger, educated female aggressor. The role of gender identity in the world of Bond, thus, becomes a struggle to extend or deny power. The Bond series ties sexuality and politics together by typecasting female criminals as femme fatales of exotic Communist origins. The fear of the Iron Curtain and the political instability of Eastern Europe after the fall of communism during the 1980-90s served as a formidable theme that produced a manic enemy.
Female villains worked for the KGB, SMERSH (a Soviet spy ring based on the organization of the same name) and SPECTRE (a group of criminals from various mafia clans and state police bent on world domination). Female agents of this sort maintained the ideal image of the “high body” – statuesque, thin, and busty-and added a behavioural element that was temperamental, callous, and bitter. Log Cabin Girl (The Spy Who Loved Me), Fiona Volpe (Thunderball), Anya Amasova (The Spy Who Loved Me), and Helga Brandt (You Only Live Twice), willingly surrender to Bond’s charms, despite their goal to eliminate him. His dismissive and brutal treatment of women reinforces patriarchal beliefs that render women subordinate. In the Bond films, patriarchal values become the basis of gender convention and eliminate from Bond’s view women who do not meet the sexual aesthetics.
Middle aged female villains are presented in an exaggerated form of the “low body” – an unnaturally masculine physique that is short, stocky, uncoordinated, and unshapely. These women often wear military uniforms and display a preference for their own gender. They behave in a cutthroat and calculating manner. Even if their interaction with Bond is decisively non-sexual, Bond spurns them. After meeting Irma Bunt (On Her Majesties Secret Service), he mocks her surname by stating, “Bunt…Nautical term meaning the baggy or swollen parts of a sail. Nothing personal, of course”. For Bond, a woman must present an aesthetic and demeanour that reifies his patriarchal worldview. For similar reasons that Bond refuses to sexually accept women possessing masculine gender traits, he also dismisses black women as inferior and criminal. Conceivably, the producers draw on historical referents originating from the American antebellum south to construct black women as hyper – sexual and violent. The planter elite sought to defend slavery by creating a theory of black female inferiority, aggression, and prurience (Collins, 2002: 81; Yancey, Stafford, 1996: 409).
In Live and Let Die, A View to a Kill, and Die Another Day, 007 takes viewers into the forbidden world of blackness in which he conquers the black female body. Rosie Carver, a CIA turncoat working for Dr. Kananga, and Jinx, an NSA Agent, are positioned as sexually desirable fodder for Bond to conquer. Even May Day, the black lover and assassin employed by Max Zorin, finally submits to the sexual charisma of 007, despite her initial lack of interest. The construction of May Day as ruthless and androgynous – the black female exhibition of extreme masculine behavior and appearance – fits into a racist continuum. Female objectification is embodied in the fashion codes exhibited by Carver, Jinx, and Day as they glamorize porn-inspired sexual activity, provocative positioning, and exotic attire. Thus, the gender codes that define the ideal female image are misogynistic and racist by promoting the anti-female-a masculine or androgynous woman that is still conquerable, but undesirable.
7. Discuss ‘From Russia with Love’ and its place in Bond canon.’
Ans: “From Russia with Love” (1963) is one of the best James Bond movies and one of the first sequels to surpass the success of an original entry (“Dr. No”). Its existence represents a crucial reason for the series having lasted until today. The picture is not be quite as good as “Goldfinger,” but it provided a better influence on the following films of the series, with an ambience of suspense and danger that couldn’t be fully replicated until the recent arrival of the Daniel Craig Bonds.
“From Russia with Love” deals with the defection of a beautiful Russian embassy employee in Istanbul who seeks political asylum in the U.K. in exchange for a Lektor decoding machine, an intriguing – sounding Mcguffin that, as such, is of no further consequence. Her only other condition is for Agent 007 to be the one assigned to collect her in Turkey, claiming she has fallen in love with him through his photograph. Behind what the English see as an obvious trap from the Russians is SPECTRE’s nefarious plan to pit the superpowers against each other. They provide Bond with an evil guardian angel of sorts to assist him in unwittingly accomplishing their own goals. Ian Fleming’s original novel had the Russians from SMERSH playing the part of the manipulators and even though the film opened shortly after the Cuban Missile Crisis, it tried to downplay the political connotations by making chess master Kronsteen (Vladek Sheybal) the brains behind the scheme. The end result is still a Cold War thriller in the best sense of the word.
“From Russia with Love” has one of the most complex plots: series, but despite its abundance of twists and turns, it is surprisingly easy to follow, unlike some in the later entries (case in point: the confusing opium, diamond and weapons trades between the Soviets and Afghan rebels in “The Living Daylights”). The story takes a while to be set up; it’s almost twenty minutes into the movie before our (real) hero finally makes his appearance. There are plenty of witticisms uttered throughout but the picture is dead serious about its subject, and a sense of menace is present from its very first frame.
It is populated with imposing, larger than life characters that never feel overblown. The film works especially well because of how significant the stakes become, thanks to the deep contrast between the fondness Bond (Connery) has for Kerim Bey (Pedro Armendariz) and his palpable distaste for enemies Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya) and Donald Grant (Robert Shaw). It would be almost a half a century before a Bond feature could provide another cast at the level of this entry and that in “Goldfinger,” its immediate follow up.
“From Russia with Love” broke new ground for the series in several ways. It was the first Bond to include a pre-title sequence, creating the very effective tradition of starting every entry on its feet. It was the first to provide truly fascinating gadgets like the “nasty little Christmas present” of a lethal briefcase and a rather primitive car phone that must have blown away audiences at the time. There is still a bit of rawness in Bond’s relationship with the rest of the recurring cast, such as with the newly appointed Desmond Llewellyn as Q, but Connery really comes into his own here.
The film has one of the most iconic scenes in the series in Rosa Klebb’s testing of Grant’s endurance by smashing her steel knuckles into his waist. She’s an otherwise unremarkable looking lady who’s made to look like the most sinister of creatures with such details as her bottle-bottom glasses, a venom-spiked shoe, and one hell of an attitude.
The movie successfully creates one of the rare instances in the series where Bond is put in a situation with no apparent, possible escape and even though its resolution is based on the always reliable “fallacy of the talking killer,” director Terence Young gives it the intriguing facet of having our hero outsmarting Grant by resorting to his greed. He features what is surely the best fight scene in the series (and one of cinema’s all time greats) and it’s all the more remarkable coming from the days when movie clashes were mere stylized exercises. Here for the first time you had two adversaries with an intense mutual hatred and a clear intent of causing damage with every vicious blow.
Even though mild by today’s standards, “From Russia with Love” was fairly controversial when it first opened. As kids, this was the one Bond movie we couldn’t see until adulthood. It’s curious that we have to go all the way back to the second entry in the series to find the closest thing to a nude scene. The film makes no excuses about portraying its title character as the true sexist that he is; we get to see him volunteering to select the more “gifted” of two gypsy women or playfully spanking his leading lady (and even slapping her to extract information). I’m not a big believer in the recent axiom that every Bond girl necessarily has to be his equal; some of the best female characters in the series have been played by the most beautiful women from their time, whose lines were often dubbed in post production (think Ursula Andress, Shirley Eaton and Claudine Auger).
Daniela Bianchi provides Tatiana Romanova with enough appeal and vulnerability to make the audience fully sympathize with her, especially when Klebb comes on to her in a sequence that’s eerily similar to that in “Skyfall” where Javier Bardem is introduced on-screen while harassing Craig’s 007. I can easily picture today’s viewers blasting Bianchi for playing somewhat of a decorative item, but I’ll take Tatiana over most of the recent Bond girls.
“From Russia with Love” is an extremely taut entry and it has perhaps the best story among all Bonds, but “Goldfinger” is definitely the better all around feature. Ironically, the latter’s influence eventually brought more harm than good. The magnificent depiction of megalomaniac Auric Goldfinger inspired the 007 producers to abandon the mould of the sinister Blofeld and to go instead with grandiose portrayals of the character that made him lose most of his edge. They ranged from the campy (Donald Pleasence), to the bland (Telly Savalas) and the plain absurd (Charles Grey) in what was surely the lamest period in the series. Instead of showing him as they do in “FRWL,” finding perverse fascination in things like the duel of his Siamese fighting fish and uttering perverse lines like “let his death be a particularly unpleasant, humiliating one!”, Blofeld eventually went the way of volcanoes for lairs (“You Only Live Twice”) and dressing in drag for inexplicable reasons (“Diamonds Are Forever”), the kind of material that inspired the creation of Dr. Evil from the Austin Powers spoofs that doesn’t really have anything with the characters we first got to see here.
8. Discuss the overall summary of the story.
Ans: From Russia, With Love is a spy thriller by Ian Fleming. It follows James Bond as he foils the Russian agency SMERSH’s attempt to kill him and get him involved in a sex scandal. He does this because From Russia, With Love is book number five of twelve books in the series written by Ian Fleming. The series also has twenty – six movies that were based on it as well as comic strips.
The novel opens as a group of Soviet officials discuss their failures and how they can redeem themselves. They plan to assassinate a foreign intelligence agent, whom the Soviet government has declared an enemy. The Soviet officials decide that Bond is the best candidate for this task because he’s foiled several previous assassination attempts by them.
A Russian spy agency, SMERSH, has devised a plan to entrap James Bond. One of their agents will pretend to defect from Russia and offer the British Secret Service a Spektor decoder that they know the British can’t resist. Even if they doubt her motives, the British won’t be able to resist this offer. After meeting with Bond, she’ll assassinate him by spreading false evidence that he was collaborating with Russians through her.
Tatiana is told of the plan to defect with the Spektor (a Russian encryption device) only when she’s in Istanbul. She offers to defect, but only if James Bond will come and pick her up. Britain doesn’t know what to make of this deal, so they send him anyway. His contact is Darko Kerim, who works for British intelligence in Istanbul. As he and Bond tour around Istanbul looking for Tatiana, they quickly become friends. While out on a boat ride together one day while searching for Tatiana, members of a attack them. They are hired by Russia to kill Kerim because local gang he knows too much about their plans at that point (which involve stealing secrets from NATO). The two men decide it would be best to take out the head of the gang before he can cause more trouble later on down the line; before long there will probably be more attacks like today’s attempted assassination attempt against Kerim and Bond by this same group of criminals working for Russia.
Bond returns to his hotel room that night and finds Tatiana waiting in bed. Bond wants to take Tatiana and the Spektor back to Britain with him, but she insists they travel by train instead. She charms Bond into agreeing with her plan, so he asks Kerim Bey if he will go along as well.
Kerim is nervous because he recognizes three Russian agents on the train. He bribes officials to have two of them removed, but he’s still worried about the third one. Therefore, Kerim suggests that they get off the train and fly to London instead. However, Bond refuses this idea because he’s attracted to Tatiana and wants to stay with her on the train. The next day, Kerim is found dead alongside a body of a Russian agent who was killed by another agent in order for him not to talk about their secret plans. Because only one Russian agent remains alive now, Bond thinks that danger has passed and decides it’s safe for him and Tatiana to continue their trip without protection from MI6 (British Secret Service). Then an MI6 officer approaches him offering his help as well as sharing his stateroom with them both during rest of their journey across Europe – Nash offers his assistance so that nothing can happen between Bond and Tatiana while they’re alone together in one room.
The next morning, Bond finds out that Red Grant is really SMERSH’s executioner. He also learns about their plan to kill him: he will shoot Bond through the heart and plant footage of him having sex with Tatiana in his luggage. He’ll then kill Tatiana as well. The Spektor device is rigged to explode when it’s examined, so they can blame everything on Bond. This information gives Bond time to slip a metal cigarette case between the pages of the book he’s holding, because when Grant fires at him, the bullet hits it instead of hitting him directly. Then, after Grant steps over him (thinking he killed him), Bond attacks and kills Grant before escaping with Tatiana into Istanbul by train.
