If Dr. No was an underwhelming introduction to the world of James Bond, then From Russia With Love represents a literal and figurative second wind that introduces more of the Bond motifs and turns everything up several notches. It also has a fairly literal interpretation of the Hero’s Journey, which in turn provides a story that is dramatic with rising intensity and highly entertaining.

If there’s one thematic element that most long time Bond fans recognize, it’s the Cold War issues that always raised the stakes and heightened the tensions in these films. Quite often Bond wasn’t directly opposing or opposed by the Soviets, but rather had to battle some third party who wanted to steal Russian or American technology and weapons and use them against everyone. In the case of From Russia With Love, SPECTRE is trying to steal a Russian decoding devise and they lay a trap so that Bond will get it for them with the unwitting assistance of new Bond Girl Titiana Romanova.  It isn’t a nuclear device or a death ray, but the stakes are still high because SPECTRE has hired the sinister Grant (played with subtle brilliance by Robert Shaw) to assassinate Bond as revenge over defeating Dr. No.

The Cold War theme is the driving force behind the story, and other Bond motifs appear for the first time as well. We meet “Q” for the first time, and he gives Bond a briefcase with a hidden knife as well as a hidden gun and some gold coins. The brief case will also release a gaseous cloud if not opened properly, and of course, Bond uses the case at the critical moment of the film. This is also the first Bond film to make use of the one-liner, and they’re peppered throughout the script. The writers weren’t very strategic in their placing of them, and a couple of the one-liners are certified groaners, but some of them are actually quite witty and help to humanize Bond.

This film (along with Sean Connery) actually does quite a bit to humanize Bond in another way as well by showing his true weakness. When he first hears about the circumstances surrounding the decoder device, he plays it off casually as an obvious trap. However, as soon as he sees a photograph of Titiana, he’s instantly intrigued, and his hubris and his libido get the better of him so that he accepts the mission anyway. There are also moments in the film where Bond has to be saved. Grant saves him at one moment, in hopes of killing Bond himself later. Even Titiana takes advantage of an opportunity to save Bond’s life later in the film. The film makers did a great job in this film of showing Bond as vulnerable without making him weak.

The other thing that sticks out about From Russia With Love is that the story is quite a bit more sophisticated than Dr. No. There are several layers to the story and the plot line has excellent pacing and intrigue. Just as in Dr. No, there is a very well defined Hero’s Journey in this script. I was particularly a fan of the second half of the Hero’s Journey in which the Ordeal has Bond going into the Russian consulate in Istanbul to retrieve the decoder. Once he does, he receives his Reward by escaping with Titiana. Then there is a literal Road Back when they ride on the Orient Express. Bond comes close to death in his fight with Grant, then there is a literal Resurrection as Titiana is revived from the drug that Grant gave her on the train. The Return with the Elixir has Bond, finally saved by Titiana with the decoder in hand, and destroying an incriminating roll of film that showed him in bed with Titiana that was going to be used to discredit him.

The last thing that I want to say about From Russia With Love is that as I was watching it, I felt like I was watching the birth of the modern action/adventure film. As a series, the Bond films have to be considered among the most influential of all time, but this film in particular feels like the one where the franchise was really born. From the motifs of the gadgets and the one-liners to the theme of the Cold War to the integral inclusion of the Bond Girl earlier into the story and making her important to the advancing of the plot, this movie certainly provides the Bond series with its voice. However something else was happening in this film as well. The pacing and the action sequences were far superior to those of Dr. No which had come out just a year earlier. Whether it was the fight at the gypsy camp or the helicopter chase or the boat chase, they spent a lot of money on their special effects and not only does this film reap the benefit of it, but in so doing, it created an entirely new genre of film making.

                                                                                                                                                                               

Perhaps that sounds like hyperbole, but I recommend sitting down and watching From Russia With Love. Look for these motifs and thematic elements, and then remember that this film was released in 1963. To the best of my knowledge, no film like this had ever been released before. Yes, there had been adventure films like Ben-Hur, and there had been films with terrific action sequences like North By Northwest, but there had not been a film released before From Russia With Love in 1963 that could be compared to the modern-day action film. That’s because From Russia With Love created the genre.