The villains of the revolutionary era will be the most cohesive group of villains in any era. They all represent the growings fears brought about by the cold war, and attempts to mitigate those fears through misdirection.

Cold War Cronies

All of the villains during the revolutionary era are slightly altered versions of their novel counterparts. The largest change made to all three villains is the umbrella organization of SPECTRE. Not introduced in the novels until Thunderball, SPECTRE is a terrorist syndicate bent on world extortion. The origins of the villains of Dr. No, From Russia With Love and Goldinger were all updated to link them back to SPECTRE.

This change was made politically as tensions between the US and the USSR were extremely high. The film producers did not want to increase the USSR’s aggression by painting them as the villains as they were in the novels. As Tony Bennett and Janet Woollacott wrote in Bond and Beyond: The Political Career of a Popular Hero, “the primary impetus for this ideological readjustment came from the requirements of the film industry.”

Other small changes were made to the characters to update their debuts. Instead of sabotaging missile tests in Dr. No, Dr. No is sabotaging space rockets tests at Cape Canaveral to coincide with the space race. Dr. No’s death is also altered slightly. In the novel, he was crushed by guana; however, the film has him die in a container of radioactive was, a nod to the growing nuclear movement (History of Nuclear Energy).

From Russia With Love avoids changing the villains for the most part, rooting them in their cold war backgrounds. The villains retain the personality and characteristics of the novel, with the only significant change being the organization for which they work. This results in a film consistently praised as a proper adaptation of Fleming’s source material (Williams).

Goldinger’s plan no longer involves bussing the gold out of Fort Knox, as that would be impossible. The film even directly references the ridiculousness of the novel’s plan:

Goldfinger, instead, plans to irradiate all of the gold in Fort Knox leaving the US economically collapsed and his bullion worth a fortune. This plan is financed by Chinese businessmen.

The changes made to Goldfinger reflect the growing interest in nuclear power, as well as the growing fear of the economic and political power of China. Professor Peter Cain of Sheffield Hallam University argued, China has been viewed by many in the west as “a potential economic giant for a very long time.” The inclusion of the Chinese gave Goldfinger a much needed setting in the current cultural context.

Overall, The Revolutionary films gave villains that hoped to cause tears in the world fabric. They aimed to sow distrust, economically cripple countries, and change the social dynamic of the world. These fears were the result of a community on the brink of social evolution. A healing world hoping to survive the cold war.