From Russia With Love [DVD]

In my opinion, the quality of the image for From Russia With Love is not quite as good as Dr.No, but then again what is? This film's image quality is still top drawer though, and makes a lot of more modern releases look flat and bland. Even the titles are a treat, with their beautiful vibrant colours, and the shadowy dancers are now clearly defined with some startling detail revealed occasionally by the lighting.

The soundtrack is also a little off par with Dr.No, without that films weight and punch. It still has superb clarity, and subtle effects steering and surround use, which is in keeping with it's mono roots. Generally, it still sounds like an old film though, whereas Dr.No could have been made yesterday. Still, as I have already said, the first film set the bar extremely high, and maybe one of the best Blu-Ray transfers out there.

I believe the extras are identical to the Ultimate Edition DVD, which is fine as they are very exhaustive. A lot of the docs have been bumped to HD as well which is nice. I only have one note of concern, and that is with the length of time it takes to load the disk (at least, with my Sony player), it always looks like it's going to fail and spit it out, you just have to have patience, it does get there in the end (although I've read elsewhere that some early players have genuine problems).

Despite the fact that I knew of the major restoration of the Bond catalogue for the Ultimate Edition DVD releases, I avoided buying them since I knew that HD was around the corner in one form or another.

Now that they're here on BD, I can honestly say that this represents the best clean-up of an 'old' title that I've seen. It simply comes alive with rich, vibrant colour, rock-steady image stabilisation and not a single blemish. Details that were not apparent before, such as the cut of Bond's suits or the make-up of his leading lady, are now revealed in stunning clarity. As has been remarked elsewhere, it does indeed look like a period spy thriller filmed in 2009.

The sound has also had a makeover, and although a new mix of DTS HD Master Audio from the original mono makes you think that surround effects will be introduced for their own sake, they're not. Instead are subtle improvements that provide a crystal clear dialogue track and leave the wider soundstage for the musical score.

The special features are copious, with (as far as I'm aware) all the featurettes and documentaries from the previous releases being ported over.

Although it's still early days for my Blu-ray collection, if this is the standard for all the 007 films in the format, then I am in for a treat!

The second in the Bond movie canon, and a satisfying balance is achieved in this, Sean Connery's favourite of the series. The plot is satisfyingly spy-like, with decoding machines, double crosses and foreign venues...
Cold war politics are not emphasised here, but instead Spectre, a fictional terrorist and extortion organisation, is invented for 1960 political correctness sake. However, with Terence Young once again in the director's chair we get a real cold war style spy thriller, as well as an element of the exotic we associate with Bond.
So what do you get for twice the money as Dr. No..? A then stellar cast, including the famous German cabaret star Lotte Lenya, playing Rosa Klebb, the villain who inspires the Connery quip `She's had her kicks', Daniella Bianchi who had just come runner up in Miss Universe, as well as two more beauty pageant contestants, who play the fighting gypsy girls. Robert Shaw plays one of the more convincing and genually menacing villains, and of course Q makes his debut.
The action scenes are varied, and satisfyingly interspersed with a real story, not so far removed from Fleming's original. Most famously of course, is the 6 minute fist fight between Connery and Shaw on the Orient Express, a scene which some producers at the time were worried was just too violent. Mostly, it is Peter Hunt's fantastic editing that makes the scene, and indeed adds a sense of style to the entire movie. Train fight aside, there are also set pieces including a gunfight in a gypsy camp, and a `money-shot' with exploding petrol canisters in a boat chase in a loch.
As for the remastering, the film is now spotless, although there is no one place one can say the restoration has made a startling impact. Indeed, in some places the improved colour correction has made a night scene darker than before, albeit with improved contrast. The sound has become clearer, but without obvious tricksy surround effects on the dts or dolby digital soundtrack.
The extras include all that the special edition had, plus one or two new items. Specifically, some archive material of Ian Fleming. The radio conversation between Raymond Chandler and Fleming is fascinating, while the other CBS interview and desert island disc appearance are of moderate interest but contain nothing surprising. However, even the original extras are worth revisiting, especially the documentary `Inside From Russia with Love', as the trouble shoot of this movie does have some fascinating stories behind it.
All in all, this was not yet quite the Bond movie that would emerge in its full overblown form in Goldfinger, but a terrifically good thriller, especially given its age, and more of a genuine spy movie than the movies to follow.