Film adaptations of best-selling or popular intellectual properties rarely go to plan. While setting out with the best intentions, oftentimes the filmmakers and studios alter the very things that made the original work stand out and connect with audiences. Historically, video game adaptations have been notoriously hard to nail down, never quite satisfying the audiences that made the games so popular in the first place. One of the other difficult avenues of adaptation is the popular novel. Adapting a best-selling book is a tall ask of any filmmaker, even if the roads are paved with the best intentions. For every breakout success like Harry Potter, you still have adaptations like I Am Number Four that fall flat on their faces.
Oddly enough, the one massive franchise of adaptations that often goes under-represented in this conversation is the James Bond franchise. Originally based on the books by Ian Fleming, the franchise has taken deviations along its winding journey through the decades. There are, however, many of the films that are direct adaptations of Fleming’s novels — some of which can be considered incredibly faithful to the original text and some not so much. Here is a list of the 10 most accurate adaptations of Ian Fleming’s James Bond books.
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10 On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
United Artists
Often considered one of the most underrated films in the long-running franchise, it also happens to be one of the most book accurate adaptations. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service features almost every element from the Ian Fleming book, although nitpickers could single out certain moments that are altered or changed for the pacing of a film, but that would be an exercise in futility. As it stands, this film is the one that fans can rest easy knowing is a practically one-to-one adaptation of Fleming’s written work.
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9 Goldfinger
United Artists Releasing
While mostly book-accurate in the ways that count, Goldfinger jettisons some of the most unsavory depictions of racism and outward sexism that are contained within the original text. This isn’t to say that these elements are present in this film, and many others in the Bond franchise, but the filmmakers do alter the ethos of the book in some ways. Plot-wise, however, the film is nearly indistinguishable from the novel. Things like the central plan to rob Fort Knox and the characterization of its main villains are lifted straight from the pages of Fleming’s book.
8 Thunderball
Originally imagined as the first Bond film but only later produced, per Total Film, Thunderball is one of the most successful Bond films ever, and also one of the most faithful to the books. There are minor shifts and changes to the structure of the film, but constant legal battles kept the film on the straight and narrow throughout its production. Fleming’s collaborators Kevin McClory and Jack Wittingham claimed that Fleming had stolen the idea for the book from an unproduced screenplay the two had written. The ultimate lawsuit that came from this resulted in McClory and Whittingham having writing credits on the film, thus ensuring their original vision was kept intact.
7 Live and Let Die
Live and Let Die is an odd example, because while most of the plot conceits and core characters are kept intact from the original text, certain elements of the book would be excised and then used in later Bond movies instead. It’s one of those weird cases where the film itself, while well adapted from the source material, doesn’t encompass everything that fans of the books think make the book version of Live and Let Die special.
6 The Living Daylights
MGM / UA Entertainment Co.
This is a funny one to include because The Living Daylights was never a novel of Fleming’s, but a short story from a collection that also included the basis for Octopussy. The short story itself is only the basis for the first act of the film adaptation, but that in and of itself is largely unchanged from the source material. The Living Daylights makes it onto this list by virtue of its source material only being enough to base 45 minutes of film on.
5 Dr. No
Distributed by United Artists
The very first produced Bond film and one of the most faithful adaptations to date, Dr. No is a significant outlier in the Bond franchise for that very reason. With so many films, the chance of the majority being loose adaptations at best is quite high, but expecting the first attempt to be a faithful one is a tall ask. Luckily, Dr. No excels at being both a great Bond film and a loyal to the text one. While it might be less comical or goofy than the book, it keeps all the ethos of Fleming’s text.
4 Casino Royale
MGM
The history of Casino Royale is a very interesting one. It’s the very first Bond book that was published, and attempts were made to adapt it to the screen many times over the years, but it only just happened with the Daniel Craig reboot in 2006. Since there was such a long gap between publication and adaptation, the film takes a lot of liberties with setting in order to modernize the text. Even still, the film maintains the novel’s tone and bravado, while making it a lot more palatable for a modern audience.
3 Diamonds Are Forever
United Artists
The final Bond film Sean Connery would appear in and one of the more interesting attempts at adaptation, Diamonds are Forever is an example of maintaining plot points and characters, but not the general vibe or tone of an adapted work. The book from which the film is based had a lot different of a tone, while the film took a sillier and more slapdash approach to the work. In general though, enough is kept of the original text to consider this a somewhat faithful adaptation.
2 For Your Eyes Only
Another interesting example of adaptation is For Your Eyes Only, as it takes cues and plot points from not one, but two Fleming short stories. Both the title story and a story called Risico were used as the baseline for the plot of For Your Eyes Only, which results in a fairly well-intentioned adaptation of both stories. Main points from each story can be seen in the film, although the inclusion of the Soviet Union was entirely invented for the screenplay.
1 From Russia With Love
Eon Productions
A notable entry in the series and one of John F. Kennedy’s favorite novels, From Russia With Love still holds a lot of influence over the shape of the Bond franchise today. While the main villains of the book were altered to be Russian spies (reflecting the time period in which the film was released), not much about the accuracy to the novel is affected as a result. In fact, it’s such a faithful adaptation that many consider the retooling of the antagonistic plot to be an improvement over Fleming’s text.
