The Case for From Russia With Love

It is my firm belief that movies can suffer the effects of the “middle child syndrome.”  Sequels in trilogies that don’t push the envelope enough or are forgettable for not being the beginning or end of a story, can often fall into this middle child territory.  Falling in between the first James Bond(Dr. No), and what is arguably perceived as the best James Bond (Goldfinger), From Russia With Love suffers this inglorious syndrome with no just reason other than its placement.  It is superior to Dr. No in every aspect, and if the series had ended with only two movies it would be viewed as a masterpiece.  However, the success of FRWL allowed the producers to make a third movie and with Goldfinger the series took off to the stratosphere.  Here now, let us take the opportunity to make the case for FRWL and why it should be regarded as a Bond masterpiece.

***Spoiler Alert***This article is full of spoilers, so if for some ungodly reason you haven't seen From Russia With Love then what is wrong with you?  Watch it first, or at least don't complain.  You've been warned.

A Bondtastic Bond Movie Marathon

Over the weekend I played a lot of Warhammer 40K, and had a James Bond marathon.  The James Bond movies were a fun diversion where we sat around watching and talking about movies.  I decided to journal the time spent for the blog.  We watched Goldfinger, The Man With the Golden Gun, and License to Kill.  We had The World is Not Enough and Casino Royale on the list, but after 6 hours we needed a break and never got back to those movies.  The cast of characters watching the movies were myself, fellow Bondtastic author Steve, and our friends James and Scott

Just a word of warning, this was written as we watched James Bond and drank (beer, whiskey, and martinis).  Comments were not edited for mixed company, and tongues loosened as booze flowed.  So if anything offends you, my apologies.  Not a lot of swearing, but topics of conversation might offend.


Hit the jump to see my journal while watching these movies.