From Russia with Love | second James Bond Film | Hollywood Movie Reviews

From Russia With Love is the second film in the James Bond Film series, starring Sean Connery as the protagonist. As the original movie poster claimed “Meet James Bond (secret agent 007), His new incredible women…, His new incredible enemies…, His new incredible adventures…”, people can expect more adventures than the previous version of the movie here.

The movie were having a remarkable number of differences than the original novel of course. Especially the novel takes a large amount of space in explaining about the killer and generating his character. The movie however concentrates on James Bond and his work. Even the novel have more emotional quotient behind the entire mission to bring the Tanya to the UK by showing her the bright future, and Tanya was also in her mission too. However we must say this is one of those films who stick to the original incidents most, when comparing Bond books and Bond movies.

This movie start the tradition to show an incident before the titles falls. Here we see that Bond was killed by a Russian assassin. Disappointed?! Don’t worry, we found that it was a rehearsal and the fellow was a man in disguise with the James Bond mask, not the real James Bond. Phew… got relief now, right?

There was a chess championship running between two fellow being one of them is a Russian. He was summoned to see at once and the match was immediately lead to its end. The Russian champion Kronsteen meets to the caller who happened to be Rosa Klebb, the ex-colonel of SMERSH, now serve as the Chief Operations Officer of SPECTRE (the main antagonist of the movie). The scene before their meeting, showing a fighting between fish was showing the war philosophy by various creatures and how humans implemented the same. The meeting between the Head, Rosa (who is no. 3) and Kronsteen (who is no. 5) was result oriented. It is decided that they need the help of British Secret Service agent, a Russian Cryptographer to move ahead in their plans with the Cryptographic machine. It was immediately granted by confirming the availability of resources and foolproof-ness of the plans from both them, by the chief.

In order to arrange resources, Rosa visits the training center, where she overlook, test and confirm Red Grant as the person to be worked on the mission. By the it is interesting to note that the introductory scene of Grant is from where the book starts. He was summoned to be available at Istanbul in 24 hours. The next she need to arrange is the pretty lady, and she was having Tatiana Romanova in her mind for the role. She have to play the role of a girl who works for Soviet Intelligence, who saw the photo of British Secret Service agent James Bond in a Russian file and was fallen in love for him. If she was offered a life with him (by marrying him) in UK, she was ready to provide a cryptography machine and her expert services for the same in return; as she was fed up with this life and wants to get settle with James Bond. However to matter of fact the lady playing Rosa doesn’t look live, probable because she had to play a Russian who have her accent when talking into English and so on. But especially the meeting between Tatiana and Rosa, was looking like a scene without having the life in it.

This brings James Bond into the picture, as he is the only one who can carry on the mission. When he was briefed about the stuff, he was amused. His conversation with M says that it is possible that girls fall in love with film stars by seeing their photos but a Russian cypher clerk falling in love with a British secret service agent by seeing his photo in a file seems differently interesting. When proposed that it could be trap, M confirms that obviously its a trap. But it can bring us the latest cypher machine which CIA and British Secret Service are behind of since years. Bond was then given Tatiana’s photograph which amused him and of course given the latest gadgets in a brief case, designed by Q for him. He needed to leave for Istanbul the next morning 08:30.

Waiting there for him Ali Karim Bey – the station chief of British Secret Service at Istanbul. En route to meet Karim Bey Bond was followed by a car. When Bond raised the query the driver said, they are Bulgarians working for the Russians, it is like a tradition, they follow us, we follow them :). But unknowing to both them was Red Grant who overlooked them at the airport. When Bond met Ali Karim Bey and informs the incident he confirms that the game here is played differently with Russians. The day to day routine things doesn’t matter much so we do not keep them tough to overlook by each other. When Bond said the chauffeur was a intelligent fellow, Karim Bey says that he has to be, he is my son. He also reveals that all his key employees are his sons. Blood is the best security in the business – very true. The intelligence in the dialogs is what make your experience to watch the Bond movie a delight, and this movie is no exception to that.

Red Grand takes the advantage of the friendly tradition of Bulgarians (working for Russians) following the British agents and by capturing the Bulgarian agent he uses his car to follow Bond to the hotel so no one can have a doubt. Bond was given room number 32 there in the hotel. Bond as being an intelligent spy checks the room for any hidden stuff and he found the one. He demanded to change the room. The stunning locales of Istanbul are must to mention as delightful part of the movie. By suspecting that the Bulgarian agent was captured and murdered by the opposition there was grown the chances of a war between the British and Soviet agents. Ali Karim Bey’s house was attacked as the start! To find out the reasons behind the attack Ali Karim Bey and James Bond went to overlook the Russian office. They went through an underground reservoir made by a king 1600 years ago. They went underneath the Russian consulate and overlooked the stuff happening there via a periscope. Karim Bey asks James Bond to not to stay at the hotel that night, for his safety. He took him to a place where his gypsy friends were living. They didn’t knew that the gypsy area was already covered by the opposition and there will be a late night attack waiting for them.

What happens afterward is better to watch. How and if Tatiana meet James Bond? and if their love story starts at all. Who was behind the attacks and the reasons behind that? What will be the fate? The movie is not having too much technological stuff to expose but rather the brutal intentions.

Some interesting stuff to know about the movie:

• Sean Connery’s flourish play as James Bond is convincing as he is experienced as James Bond now.
• Many actresses were considered for the role of Tatiana, including Sylva Koscina, Virna Lisi, Annette Vadim, and Tania Mallet, before 1960 Miss Universe runner-up Daniela Bianchi was chosen.
• Katina Paxinou was originally considered for the role of Rosa Klebb, but her unavailability made it for Lotte Lenya for the role.
• The film’s cinematographer Ted Moore won the BAFTA award and the British Society of Cinematographers award for Best Cinematography.
• The film was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for the title song of the movie.
• In 2005, the From Russia with Love video game was developed by Electronic Arts and released on 1 November 2005 in North America.
• The studio approved double budget for the film and also approved a bonus for Sean Connery, who would receive $100,000 along with his $54,000 salary.
• The helicopter and boat chase scenes were not in the original novel, but were added to create an action climax.
• John F. Kennedy, US President, mentioned “From Russia With Love” as one of his favorite in top 10 books he liked (he mentioned so in an interview to the Life magazine).
• From Russia With Love, was the last film President Kennedy saw at the White House on 20 November 1963 before going to Dallas./li>
• Some people consider this as the best James Bond film till date.