Starring: Sean Connery, Pedro Armendariz, Daniela Bianchi, Lotte Lenya, Robert Shaw
Directed by: Terence Young
Running Time: 111 minutes
Back Cover
Sean Connery returns as James Bond in this thrill-a-minute adventure featuring remarkable villains, beautiful women and exotic locales! This time, Bond squares off against the evil SPECTRE organisation in a race to seize a soviet decoding machine, thrusting him into a thrilling boat chase, a brutal helicopter attack and a deadly brawl aboard the Orient Express.
Movie Review
Sean Connery shines in the second, and possibly his best, 007 Adventure. MI6 spy-extraordinaire James Bond sets out on a mission to grab a top-secret code machine from the Soviet consulate in Istanbul and bring it back to the UK. Unbeknownst to both MI6 and the Soviets, however, SPECTRE has plans of its own, plans that include both the machine and revenge for Bond’s killing of Dr. No. The bait? Tatiana Romanova, a beautiful Russian cipher clerk posing as a defector with dreams of England. What follows is a whirlwind of gun-slinging action as Bond and Romanova make a mad dash across central Europe towards home, with SPECTRE agents snapping at their heels.
This film sets up several devices that would reappear in following Bond movies, including a helicopter chase, a pre-title caper and a secret weapon introduced by Major Boothroyd (now called simply “Q”). This also marks the first appearance of SPECTRE boss Ernst Blofeld (a.k.a. Number 1), who can be considered the standard against which many subsequent evil movie masterminds have been set.
And, of course, there are the romantic locations. Where Dr. No put Bond in the bikini-laden Caribbean, the action this time around centres on big-ticket European exotics like the Orient Express, Belgrade, Istanbul and finally, Venice. This casts the second Bond film in a totally different light than the first, showing us off the bat that we’re not in for more of the same. Instead, director Terence Young took the foundations laid by the first film and followed them up with a movie that cemented James Bond securely at the centre of the spy genre. From Russia with Love is probably the best film of the series; It’s got just the right mix of action, romance and modern-day swashbuckling; and none of the over-the-top gadgets or excess of subsequent releases.
The film is not without its issues: Though Daniela Bianchi’s Romanova is a Bond Girl with some life and substance (in contrast to the depressing number of later ornamental Bond Girls), a gratuitous catfight scene in a gypsy camp adds nothing to the plot other than to land our favourite spy an overnight double-hitter. And some of Bond’s one-liners are, let’s face it, complete groaners. The jokes are kind of charming in a clumsy sort of way, but the girl-on-girl action would be seen to-day as a bigoted depiction of Gypsies (that’s “Romany” to us 21st-century types) and honestly, the transparent titillation aspect is pointless. After all, we already know that all the women in 007’s world are either total sexpots or Soviet gnomes with designs on world domination. That being said, it is possible that I’m bringing too modern a view to both of these issues. And aside from these little niggles, this really is a superb film.
Crave Factor – 9
Video
Just like in the other five films in the special release series, the image quality of this film is simply stupendous in comparison to the soft, washed-out TV images that most of us have come to expect from early Bond movies. The colours are deep and bright, and the lines are needle-sharp. Those with true 1080p televisions are going to get excited about vintage Bond all over again.
Crave Factor – 9
Audio
As with the image-quality, MGM really hit one out of the park with the sound. The re-mastered, lossless DTS 5.1 sound has been re-designed to take advantage of today’s surround audio systems, without going over the top for wow factor. They’ve taken it about as far as they can without re-recording the whole thing, and the results are terrific.
Crave factor: 8
Extras
The nice thing about Blu-ray is that you can really stuff a lot of great extras onto a disc. The lousy thing about Blu-ray is that you can really stuff a lot of crap onto a disc. Some of the included extras are interesting, like the audio commentary, the CBC interview with and the Exotic Locations featurette; but several of the features left me feeling that the producers were trying to top up a half-full glass of wine with water.
The Included features are:
- Audio commentary with director Terence Young and members of the cast and crew
- Ian Fleming: The CBC Interview
- Ian Fleming & Raymond Chandler featurette
- Ian Fleming on Desert Island Discs featurette
- Animated storyboard sequence
- 007 Mission Control interactive guide to From Russia With Love
- Inside From Russia With Love
- Harry Saltzman: Showman featurette
- Image Database
- Theatrical trailers, TV and radio spots
Crave Factor – 7
Menu & Packaging
The packaging is a slickly re-designed box that makes a nod to the look of previous DVD releases, but with an up-to-date flair. The extra cardboard sleeve is an unforgivable waste of resources, though.
As with the rest of the Blu-ray discs in the series, the menus are tasteful and simple.
Crave Factor – N/A
Conclusions & Final Thoughts
From Russia with Love is a towering work of filmmaking, blending high adventure and romance with a down-to-earth element that is largely absent from later Bond movies. Though the extras are a mixed bag of cool features and lousy afterthoughts, they don’t really detract much from an otherwise fine effort.
