Will Return
Bond Legacy: From Russia With Love
Welcome back, dear reader. You join us for the second in this monthly series, where I will be increasingly tested in my attempt to prove the theory that every single James Bond film has had a lasting legacy, having a profound effect on both the rest of the series and cinema in general. This means, of course, that while others are keenly studying recurring motifs and themes, I’m only interested in the origins. At this point, we’re still in early Connery, so there’s plenty of meat on these bones yet – it’s when we get to later Moore that I’ll be completely bricking it.
From Russia With Love is a key film in many ways – a chance to improve on the formula, to refine what was good about the original but to take it to a new level. It got the chance to make it to the screen after JFK named it in his list of his ten favourite novels – one can only imagine that George W. Bush played with a lot of Transformers while at college if the modern standard of sequels is still based on presidential preference.
Dr. No had established many of the key Bond standards, but there was only part of a template in place at this point. Oddly, a few of the things that it had established go by the wayside here, including “Bond, James Bond,” which was actually in the book on which this was based. But this, almost more than any other Bond film, establishes the template by which the others work, and has earned its place as one of the most highly regarded films in the wholes series. I said last month that I would look for at least one legacy per film, but that I’d go a bit further for the first film and came up with five. This month I’ve skimped a little due to time pressures, and only came up with… ten.
