James Bond was born in the Cold War. At Eye on Bond, we examine how the movie series treated Russia and Russians in the 1970’s.
Back in the 1960’s, the James Bond movies had decided to make SPECTRE, and not Russia, first tier villains. While SPECTRE was gone after Diamonds Are Forever (for a while anyway), EON continued to choose other foes for 007. In fact, the 1970’s saw an even more positive portrayal of the USSR and her agents.
EON Adapted Russia Out Of Stories
What do Live and Let Die, The Man With the Golden Gun, and Moonraker have in common? They were all adapted by EON in the 1970’s? They all starred Roger Moore? Yes, and yes, but for me, they all have one far more interesting thing in common.
In all three novels, Russia was a key part of the conspiracies. Mr. Big was selling parts of Sir Henry Morgan’s treasure to fund SMERSH activities. The novel version of Drax was an ex-Nazi who was going to fire a Russian nuke at London with a rocket built by the British government. In The Man With the Golden Gun, the KGB are working with Scaramanga and American gangsters. (This is one of the James Bond books I have read. But I read it when I was 13 , so I needed to check Wikipedia to see if Scaramanga was working for the KGB).
In the movie versions of all three, Soviet cooperation with criminal elements on American and British soil is completely removed. I’m not sure if EON productions were trying to avoid making Russia the bad guy on purpose. The USSR is only in one of the 70’s Bond films. That one film is The Spy Who Loved Me, and it features them in a very, very big way.
The Spy Who Loved Me: A New Era
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In the beginning ,both England and Russia have lost a Nuclear submarine. This positions Spy as a spiritual sequel to You Only Live Twice (YOLT).
The most important difference, for the purpose of this article, is how The Spy Who Loved Me treats Russia. When an American spaceship gets kidnapped in YOLT, the USSR declare their innocence vehemently and…don’t do anything. The Soviet government is very passive, existing mostly as an abstract hostile force for America to engage with.
It’s a very different story in TSWLM. As soon as one of their nuclear submarines goes missing, Russia sends their own top agent to figure out the how, who and why. More importantly, Russia’s General Gogol agrees to begin “…a new era of Anglo-Soviet cooperation” for their mutual protection.
This is really huge. The Russian government had never been a big ally of MI6 in the previous Bond films. Here, Russia took the place usually served for America, Japan, or a similar Allied nation. I struggle to think of a more positive depiction of Russia in any major studio movie of the time.
Cold War Context for EON’s Decisions
The mid 70’s were an interesting time in the Cold War. On one hand, the Vietnam war had ended with victory for the communist North. Glancing at PBS timeline of 1975, I’m reminded that Cambodia was taken over by the Khmer Rouge, and within a month, some Cambodians hijacked the Mayaguez. Yet at the same time, the final Apollo mission docked with a Russian spacecraft, conducting experiments together and establishing both techincal know-how and diplomatic precedence that led to the International Space Station. You had pockets of proxy wars along with an effort to grow a little closer so that WWIII didn’t happen.
In this context, a film where 007 is forced into a tense but productive working relationship with his KGB equivalent made sense.
Major Anya Amasova (Agent XXX)
The deliciously named Agent XXX was the first Soviet female character in a Bond film since From Russia with Love. Like Bond himself, Anya’s has a mix of positive and negative characteristics that make her a good foil for 007.
Ms. Amasova’s Surgery Side
XXX has done through research on James Bond to get familiar with this character. She’s depicted as headstrong and clever. Anya’s smart enough that the first time her and James encounter Jaws, she’d rather just pull a gun on him. (Let’s face it, this is infinitely smarter than hoping James Bond will win a fist fight with a guy who can bite through steel).
When she learns Bond killed her lover, she states “Then when this mission is over, I will kill you.” She’s angry enough to want revenge, but professional enough to wait.
Ms. Amasova’s Spicy Side
She is completely unashamed to use her feminine wiles and how people perceive her as a women against men. She uses her looks to get attention from Kalba to obtain the tracker plans. Also, she uses a cigaratte with sleeping gas to steal the tracker plans from Bond just before they reach Cairo. While clever, doing that to somebody who has helped save your life is underhanded and cold.
Undebatably negative is the fact that she would have abandoned James Bond during their first encounter with Jaws. The only reason she didn’t was because he hadn been smart enough to steal the keys to Jaws’ van. Also, let’s face it, when it came to hand to hand fight scenes, she wasn’t Michelle Yeoh. Heck, from even the same decade, Lady Snowblood and Princess Leia could have both kicked her ass.
Still, Anya had some of the best writing that any Bond girl got in the Moore era. Barbara Bach wasn’t the best actress, but I’ll take her over Britt Ekland or Tanya Roberts any day.
General Anatol Gogol
This was the introduction of General Gogol, who was basically the KGB version of M. A lot of his character comes from Walter Gotell’s voice, which had enough gravel in it for miles of country roads. There are only really two ways he’s different from M. How eager he is to talk up working with England, and the delicate way he broaches to Anya that her lover has died.
Walter Gotell depicts Gogol (and by the extension, the KGB) as someone worth taking seriously. This was the first time and friendliest time he encountered Bond. Bond and Gogol would meet again (and sometimes clash) as 007 continued into the 80’s.