The Spy Who Loved Me Turned The Worst James Bond Book Into One Of The Best Movies In the Franchise

The Spy Who Loved Me is generally considered to be one of the best installments in the James Bond franchise, while the book it’s based on is widely regarded to be Ian Fleming’s worst 007 novel. Like many early Bond films, The Spy Who Loved Me takes its name from one of Fleming’s original novels. Every James Bond movie based on a book is bound to provoke debate as to which is better. However, the disparity in quality between the Spy Who Loved Me book and its cinematic counterpart is nothing short of glaring.

The original The Spy Who Loved Me novel was first published in 1962. It differed wildly in terms of both structure and tone from every other Bond novel and, as a result, was considered a failure. Meanwhile, the 1977 film, which starred Roger Moore as James Bond himself, was a critical and commercial hit. The movie’s success can be put down to one key fact: The Spy Who Loved Me completely changed the original Bond novel.

The Spy Who Loved Me Book Is Ian Fleming’s Weakest James Bond Work

The Novel Garnered Overwhelmingly Negative Reviews

After penning eight successful Bond novels, which included popular titles such as Casino Royale and Goldfinger, as well as a collection of short stories, Ian Fleming chose to do something different when it came to his ninth 007 novel, The Spy Who Loved Me. In many ways, this was understandable. Much like the films, the James Bond novels follow a particular formula that sees Bond being sent on a mission, defeating the bad guy, winning the girl, and saving the day. While Fleming’s books did provide more wiggle room than the films, they still stuck pretty rigidly to this structure.

It makes sense that Fleming would grow tired of writing the same stories and decide to play with the formula. Unfortunately, his attempts to do this with The Spy Who Loved Me ultimately backfired. While the other Bond novels are told in the third person and largely follow Bond’s perspective, The Spy Who Loved Me is told in first person from the perspective of a young woman named Viv Michel. It’s also broken into three sections, titled “Me”, “Them”, and “Him”. If that wasn’t jarring enough, Bond himself doesn’t show up until about two-thirds of the way into the novel.

Despite these radical changes to the formula, The Spy Who Loved Me‘s biggest crime is that it’s dull. The story only starts to heat up when Bond appears, but by that point, there aren’t many pages left. A big part of what held the story back was that its protagonist, Viv, never came across as a fully-developed, three-dimensional character. This contributed to the negative reception the book received from critics.

How The Spy Who Loved Me Book Led To A Strong James Bond Movie Adaptation

The Film Version Is Considered Among The Best In The Series

Critics weren’t the only ones dissatisfied with Fleming’s attempts. Fleming himself was seemingly disappointed by The Spy Who Loved Me, so much so that he called for there to be no reprints of the work. He also refused to sell the rights to the book’s plot, only its title. This proved to be a good thing for Bond film producers, Harry Saltzman and Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli, who essentially had free range to do what they wanted. Other film adaptations of Bond novels changed certain elements of the plot, but The Spy Who Loved Me was able to start almost from scratch.

The Spy Who Loved Me movie, in contrast to the novel, proved to be a hit. The film depicts Bond coming head-to-head with the villainous Karl Stromberg (Curt Jürgens), who plans to destroy the world as we know it and build a new empire under the sea. It features the iconic ski chase sequence before the opening credits, which is among the best James Bond movie scenes of all time. The Spy Who Loved Me grossed $185.4 million at the worldwide box office (via The Numbers) and is often ranked highly on lists of the best Bond movies.

The Spy Who Loved Me Movie Rightfully Ignored Most Of The Book (Except The Best Part)

It Changed Almost Every Aspect

The reason The Spy Who Loved Me movie succeeded is because it ignored almost every aspect of the novel. Even if Fleming himself hadn’t requested this, massive changes would’ve had to be made to the novel’s content in order to win over moviegoers. The film version does, however, retain one aspect of Fleming’s book – Jaws. Played by Richard Kiel, Jaws is Stromberg’s henchman. With his imposing stature and metal teeth, Jaws is one of the rare Bond henchmen who overshadow the main villain. In the book, he’s called Horror, but his trademark teeth and towering height are the same.

Arguably, the film version of The Spy Who Loved Me isn’t an adaptation of Ian Fleming’s original novel. After all, apart from the title and the inclusion of Jaws, the two works share almost nothing in common. Completely original Bond films started to become commonplace in the late 1980s when Fleming’s material began to run out. There is a case to be made, however, that The Spy Who Loved Me was the first entirely original James Bond film.