I had actually never seen a Bond film until last Thursday, when I stopped over at Paul Davis's house and watched From Russia With Love. I thought it was great. I just started reading the book and am surprised at how classy the writing is.
I'm glad you liked the film and I hope you'll like the novel even more.
I think "From Russia With Love" is Fleming's best novel and I think it was the best Bond film as well.
Unfortunately, the Bond films in the 1970s with Roger Moore as James Bond moved far away from Fleming's books.
The films shifted from being thrillers to action-comedies and then to camp.
Although the film series has brought countless readers to Fleming's novels, the films have also given the wrong impression to people who have only seen the films and not read the books. To them, Bond is no better than a cartoon character.
I hope that you will also enjoy the other Fleming novels and the other Sean Connery-Bond films of the 1960's.
Frank, the novels are superior to the movies for so many reasons that neither time nor space permit a listing of the those reasons here. I think the movies preempted the reading that Ian Fleming deserved, and I know of no one who has convincingly argued that the movies were better than the books. As entertainments, the books are first-class, As examples of the espionage-thriller genre, they are much better than most of those written by most of Fleming's contemporaries in the genre. A major publisher spend a good deal of time and money reprinting and promoting all of the Bonds books a year or so ago, so--if you are so inclined--you will have no problems finding crisp, clean copies of the Bond adventures.
Frank,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you liked the film and I hope you'll like the novel even more.
I think "From Russia With Love" is Fleming's best novel and I think it was the best Bond film as well.
Unfortunately, the Bond films in the 1970s with Roger Moore as James Bond moved far away from Fleming's books.
The films shifted from being thrillers to action-comedies and then to camp.
Although the film series has brought countless readers to Fleming's novels, the films have also given the wrong impression to people who have only seen the films and not read the books. To them, Bond is no better than a cartoon character.
I hope that you will also enjoy the other Fleming novels and the other Sean Connery-Bond films of the 1960's.
Frank, the novels are superior to the movies for so many reasons that neither time nor space permit a listing of the those reasons here. I think the movies preempted the reading that Ian Fleming deserved, and I know of no one who has convincingly argued that the movies were better than the books. As entertainments, the books are first-class, As examples of the espionage-thriller genre, they are much better than most of those written by most of Fleming's contemporaries in the genre. A major publisher spend a good deal of time and money reprinting and promoting all of the Bonds books a year or so ago, so--if you are so inclined--you will have no problems finding crisp, clean copies of the Bond adventures.
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