A Study of Adaptation - The Spy Who Loved Me

I'm wondering whether or not I should have skipped this one. The Spy Who Loved Me is Fleming's tenth entry in the book series, published in 1962. It's also the tenth entry in the film series, released in 1977. It's also an example of an adaptation which has virtually nothing to do with the source material other than a shared title.

The novel doesn't even follow Bond. Instead, we follow Vivienne Michel a Canadian receptionist at a motel in New York state, who narrates the story from a first-person perspective. In the first part, "Me", she talks about her past and two previous relationships which ended poorly. The second part, "Them", brings her into contact with two mobsters, "Sluggsy" Morant and Sol "Horror" Horowitz, who have come to burn down the motel so the owner can collect the insurance money. The third part, "Him", introduces her to Bond, who was passing through and realises that something is amiss.

In the film, Bond is on a mission to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a British nuclear submarine. Following a lead in Cairo, he meets Major Anya Amasova, a KGB agent who is investigating the similar disappearance of a Russian submarine. Their investigation soon leads them to Sardinia, and a shipping company owned by Karl Stromberg.

Other than the title, the only thing both versions share is the appearance of the villains. In the film, Stromburg's henchman, Sandor and Jaws, are partly based on Sluggsy and Horror. Both Sandor and Sluggsy are short, fat, and bald. Meanwhile, Horror is described as being tall and thin, with metal caps on his teeth. Jaws takes this up a few steps by having the metal teeth which give him his name.

The novel would not have transferred well to film. It's too sexually explicit (and cringe-inducing), and there's the fact that James Bond doesn't even appear until two thirds of the way in. In fact, Fleming himself disowned the story. He requested that it wasn't re-printed and wouldn't even grant the film rights for it. This is why we have the differences.

A letter Fleming wrote to his publisher revealed that he originally wrote The Spy Who Loved Me as an experimental cautionary tale, when he heard that his books were being read by younger audiences who were regarding Bond as a hero. He concluded by saying that the experiment went wrong. However, the first Bond film, Dr No, would be released six months after the book was published. Since there would have more of a demand for the protagonists to be heroic on screen compared to print, I guess Fleming's goals for this story would soon be moot.