The second installment of Bond films, From Russia with Love follows in the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis and its threat of mutually assured destruction. However, director Terence Young’s second contribution to the series is a bit of an iconoclast inasmuch as it neither places blame directly on the Russians for the world’s ills, or praises the United States for the globe’s survival.
Instead, it treads a fine line, hinting that this is its motive from the title that ironically links endearment with the pejorative enemy, Russia. Perhaps the title was easier to take at the time because of its correlation to Tatiana Romanova (Danielle Bianchi), the beautiful Russian blonde sent to seduce James Bond and lead him into an assassination plot. Whereas this might be seen as a nefarious move by the Russians, Romanova is actually unaware of Bond’s fate and is put in a precarious position when KGB commander Rosa Klebb asks her to violate her propriety and giver herself over to a man whom she does not love.
At first, I thought From Russia with Love might be commenting on the double standard between men and women on film, wherein the beautiful woman is degraded by taking a lover, but the protagonist Lothario is cheered for conquering many women in many countries in many movies. To a point, this illustration is present, but Romanova’s coerced lasciviousness is not about gender roles; it’s about perceived nationalism.
Klebb, who was formerly in the KGB, is no longer, but this information has not been made public to the citizens of her mother Russia, an interesting note in that the Russian government in an attempt to keep its citizens ignorant of any corruption actually helps perpetuate the corruption of its citizens. What I mean to suggest is that Russia – like the U.S. and any other country – performed damage control and kept its skeletons in the closet and out of the public sphere. However, keeping Klebb in the closet only allowed her the time to become part of SPECTRE and weave herself into an assassination of Bond and the procurement of the decoding machine, Lektor.
Because of Klebb’s ruse and Romanova’s belief that she’s helping her country gain an upper hand on the West, it’s hard to label Tatiana a villain, but she is a victim of deception. And this is where From Russia with Love held my attention the most: the true enemy is fighting the United States, Britain, and the Russians. SPECTRE has no loyalty but plays on effused propaganda perpetuated by its enemies.
Sure, Klebb as the Russian could be a symbols of their presumably innate wickedness, but this is cleverly dispelled by the presence of the British Grant (Robert Shaw), a mountain of muscle with a highbrow accent and a blonde coif, at once drawing a physical comparison to Romanova, but forcing us to differentiate the two based on their intent.
In the end, From Russia with love is more than a “new adventure” with “new women” and “new enemies” for Bond (according to the original movie poster). It’s a look at failing diplomacy stunted by stubborn nationalists. There’s something additionally intriguing about the way in which these global situations are rectified, by a covert man with no public face. It’s almost as if Bond is keeping a world safe despite its best attempts to self-destruct.
