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I do agree with the majority here. Roger Moore had given a suitably rounded performance for much of his first three films, but here he had relaxed into the overall tone of the film and spent a good proportion of it with an annoying smirk on his face. How he pulled so many lovelies is anyone's guess.
When offered dramatic moments - the centrifuge, the safe breaking, the lab scenes etc he seemed to shake himself awake and give a little more.
His habit of doing a James Finlayson double take to suggest surprise at seeing something unusual gets a little repetitive in this one.
He dresses smartly but not particularly in a stylish, timeless fashion. And his undercover dress for the Rio carnival - a dinner jacket and bow tie - is almost risible.
But his Bond is cultured and speaks Portugese and Italian in this film to add to all of his other languages.
Lois Chiles as Holly Goodhead (good grief) is always likeable without ever threatening any Bond fans top 10 favourite Bond girls. She fights well, scrubs up nicely, and actually seems, for a while at least, understandably immune to Bond's charms. ("A woman?" he smirks annoyingly)
Corinne is lovely and is the films sacrificial lamb (The Spy Who Loved Me didn't have one as such). She pays the ultimate price for being seduced into helping Bond. And her death scene combines music, photography and scenery for a quite stunning minute of screen time that is at odds with the tone of the rest of the film. But for a minute anyway, Moonraker is a magnificent film.
Hugo Drax has a lot of Stromberg's quiet, understated villainy, but he gets much better lines than the flippered one.
"Sir Frederick Gray and assorted dignitaries. And all wearing gas masks"
He doesn't name check M despite the fact they apparently play bridge together!
Chang is Drax's manservant and killer for hire. Great fight scene with Bond where they appear determined to keep fighting until both of them are satisfied they have destroyed several million dollars worth of glass pieces.
Good to see M doesn't play by the rules. Happy, as he was in On Her Majesty's Secret Service and The Man With The Golden Gun to let Bond off the leash and do some furtive investigating. But of course Bernard Lee in his last role is wonderful. His apparent drunkenness on set never hampered his performance. Never was he more missed than when the inferior Robert Brown took over.
Manuella is another lovely helper for Bond to bed and use to distract attention from his investigation of the Rio factory.
When she nearly gets her head bitten off by a 7 feet tall Jaws, Bond rescues her and all she seems capable of saying is "Did you find anything in there?" as if this sort of thing happens to her every day.
Gogol appears again, with his blonde beauty at his side. One wonders if M gets up to such mischief when off duty!
Last, and least, Dolly. AND NO BRACES!
My own theory about the braces is that everyone assumed she had them because they never really looked closely. They were too busy staring at her knockers.
I know I was.
Moonraker is a movie that I have so much affection for. It was the first Bond movie that I ever saw and made me the fan that I am today. I always enjoy it, albeit some times more than others, and it is a movie that I can't put right down the bottom of any ranking. And yes, even though it follows, pretty much, the same pattern as TSWLM.
New Ranking
1. OHMSS
2. TSWLM
3. GF
4. FRWL
5. DN
6. LALD
7. MR
8. TB
9. YOLT
10. TMWTGG
11. DAF
Previous Ranking
1. The Spy Who Loved Me
2. On Her Majestys Secret Service
3. Casino Royale
4. From Russia With Love
5. Skyfall
6. Goldfinger
7. Octopussy
8. Spectre
9. Dr No
10. The Living Daylights
11. Goldeneye
12. Live And Let Die
13. Licence To Kill
14. A View To A Kill
15. For Your Eyes Only
16. Moonraker
17. Thunderball
18. Quantum Of Solace
19. Diamonds Are Forever
20. Tomorrow Never Dies
21. You Only Live Twice
22. The Man With The Golden Gun
23. Die Another Day
24. The World Is Not Enough
So, my favourite Bond, Roger Moore is back here as 007. However, after his first few movies, there is something altogether new here about Moore’s Bond. This is the start of how Roger Moore will be forever remembered as Bond. Cheeky, smarmy (A woman?), the raised eyebrow and that smirk he gives. He never seems like he’s in any real trouble and you know that he will get out of any situation he sees himself in. No real tension. It’s a shame to see, as his first 3 movies were superb for that.
However, while this is all the case, I don’t have a massive issue with it like others may have. Personal taste I guess, or a bias as I just love the guy.
The Bond girls in question are both completely miles apart. The doomed Corrine is my favourite. Not only is Corrine Clery a stunning woman but her interaction with Bond is much more believable (although the 2heart of gold”, “14 carat” exchange does grate on me a little – cheese isn’t the word for that). Corrine also appears in a scene that is one of my favourites from any Bond movie; the death of her character Corrine Dufour. The way that scene is filmed, Corrine running through the wood, the music and the atmosphere it builds is outstanding and it plays out like a Hammer Horror. Great scene.
Manuela, for what little we see of her, was ok. Obviously, her plan when first meeting Bond was to jump in the sack with him. Why else would she have been wearing such skimpy clothes in his room and then sit down, knickers showing. Complete change in character after that at the carnival. Odd.
There’s also Dolly. She doesn’t talk etc. and she is there for comedy value as Jaws’ new girlfriend. Braces, no braces? No idea; in her introductory scene, I can’t imagine that many will have been looking at her mouth. Not much more to say on her, but quite the beauty.
As for Holly Goodhead, while she may be attractive, I find Lois Chiles very unconvincing in playing an undercover CIA agent and her acting wooden at times. As has been mentioned before, this seems a start to have the Bond girls be Bonds’ equal, which is fine and there is no issue with that, but I’d like to see actresses who can act the part a lot better than Chiles does here. I actually prefer her performance in the Creepshow 2 movie segment “The Hitcher”.
On to the Henchmen, Chang (Cha, Char or whatever he’s called) I like. Understated, acting as Drax’s servant and then we get his fight with 007. This is a great fight and Sir Rog certainly steps up his game here. We know the fisticuffs aren’t his major asset within the Bond movies but this is quite excellent. But, yeah, enjoyed that character.
Then we have Jaws. After such a super debut in TSWLM, he was brought back for MR. How I wish they had left him out of this movie as the character is completely spoilt by turning him into a comedy character. Such a shame as he was such a menace in TSWLM. He did have one good scene in the movie though and that was the Rio carnival scene. The sight of that clown working its way down the alley towards Manuela was quite a chilling site; right until all the carnival-goers came out of the adjacent building, spoiling his deed.
Michael Lonsdale as Drax I like. Yes, he comes across as quite similar to Stromberg (but most of this movie is similar to TSWLM) but I like how understated he plays it. Almost monotone in speech. Ok, so for me, he doesn’t come across as a man of such authority that he is a massive threat (although he is) but I think that is what I like about the character. I think it may have been a better idea to introduce him a little later into the movie, give him a little more menace; although I find that with most of the villains we see early.
The supporting cast are all their usual charming selves. Always gutted that this was the last one we saw with the wonderful Bernard Lee. All the stories of him turning up after a skinful you really wouldn’t believe as he always delivered. The same goes for Desmond and Lois (not the drinking of course), but they always delivered their short parts very well.
On to the elements we expect to see. The gun barrel is always a treat no matter the movie and no matter the music. However, when it comes to the Roger Moore ones, and because of trailers, I always expect him to walk towards the camera after taking his shot.
The PTS I like, mainly for the stunt. Bond, Moore’s Bond anyway, is doing what he does with the ladies and then we have the plane fight and wonderful stunt that ended with Bond and a parachute. Again, similar to TSWLM but the stunt is super. Obvious stunt doubles and the ending with Jaws falling into the circus tent gives us a show of what’s to come, comedy wise.
A couple of stunning locations in Venice and Brazil. Fit the movie very well and the scenes of the carnival in Brazil are great. Nice to see a carnival make a return in a Bond movie after Thunderball, super scenes. Some of the country we also see, is absolutely stunning.
This movie has gadgets coming out of its ears, and not just for Bond. Holly Good head also has her fair share that 007 takes a look at after discovering she is a CIA agent. As for Bond himself, well he has the wrist dart gun that comes in very handy in not only saving his own life in the centrifuge, but in disposing of Drax during the final battle.
He also makes use of the safe cracker and camera comes in very handy during his time with Corrine and the hydrofoil boat I like that’s used in his escape from Jaws. There’s also the laser guns that pretty much tell us the final battle is going to be a space one. Very Star Wars like.
The most bonkers gadget of the movie is, of course, the Gondola Hydrofoil. Whoever came up with that deserves something. I’m not sure what but something. Quite a crazy invention, however, during the scene it’s used in, it does have its use as 007 manages to escape his attackers. In this scene we also get the double take pigeon; maybe that was to fit in with the many times that Moore, himself, did the same thing during the movie.
The action in the movie is ok, my personal favourite action being the fight between 007 and Chang. Not sure we needed 2 water chases and I’m not entirely sure which I feel is the best one, gondola or the one with Jaws on the chase. The gondola one is very similar to the one we see in TMWTGG and the other finishes on a comedy note with Jaws. Ok, but nothing to write home about. I do love the final battle in space, lasers and all. I enjoy a bit of sci-fi, like Star Wars and I do think this is done very well, with some decent special effects.
On to humour, what can I say, the humour goes overboard here and, as I said earlier (and others have said), it’s from this movie onwards that Moore’s Bond is thought of as he is. There are some good one-liners as always and I always get a kick out of them, some are not so good but, if I’m being honest, they don’t really bother me too much.
The plot is plain bonkers as with most Bond movies and is, pretty much, the same as the one we got with TSWLM.
The villains’ scheme, again, is the same as we get with TSWLM, instead this time he’s taking the perfect people into space rather than underwater. A massive and quite crazy scheme. Again, no issues here as it’s what I would expect from a Bond movie.
Now for the production elements, not my best subjects but here goes.
Lewis Gilbert was back directing this one after doing the duty on TSWLM, only bigger and bolder and with a massive budget to boot. He seems to be having so much fun on this movie, making Bond go sci-fi and the extra budget. It’s difficult for me to criticise but, I’ll admit, despite my soft spot for it, it’s not the best movie of the series, but one I really do enjoy.
I like most of the opening title design, but parts look really dated now I’m afraid. Then, I suppose that is bound to happen with it being from the 70’s. However, I feel that some earlier ones look much better.
The script is, quite clearly, ripped off from TSWLM, turning it into a big budget sci-fi movie. Because of that I think that it is very lazy writing from Christopher Wood. However, I have his novelisation of the movie, which I think is better.
The movie, at times is filmed beautifully. Some of the shots in Rio look stunning. I particularly like the scene with Bond and Goodhead looking though the viewer at the cable car. The scene behind them is beautiful.
The music, arguably, could well be the best thing about the movie. John Barry is bang on form here and gives us a wonderful score. The music during Corrine’s death scene is outstanding.
John Glen is here on editing duties and, despite one or two issues (Corrine’s vanishing helicopter headset for a start) the editing all looks good.
Roger Moore always looks great in the majority of suits etc. is he is given. However, the suit he wears during his time on the space station leaves a lot to be desired. Not a great look, I’m sure that he could have been given something better. Other than that he looks good as always.
Lois Chiles gets the same treatment and looks good in whatever she is wearing. Not sure about the white, Marilyn Monroe, type dress she is given at one point. She looks ok, but only one woman could have ever pulled that off.
The rest of the cast look great, Drax looks like the villain he is and the beautiful people, look beautiful as they are expected to be.
Ken Adam on set design brings it to the maximum again. The space station is absolutely outstanding and could be seen as a rival to the volcano set we got in YOLT. It’s so grand, with different levels and so much going on. It’s a superb bit of design from the maestro.
Finally – as I mentioned above, this is a movie I always enjoy, I know it isn’t the best, but the soft spot I have for it means I’ll always enjoy. It does do some things right, but the things that are wrong with it certainly outweigh the good, which is a shame. With a massive budget, this could, maybe should, have been the biggest Bond movie of all. Yes, there is a camp element to it and the humour, eyebrow raising etc. may do it more harm than good. Myself, I’ve never had a problem with that side of any of the Moore movies but I can see why some don’t like it.
Cheers.
1 OHMSS
2 DN
3 GF
4 FRWL
5 DAF
6 LALD
7 YOLT
8 TB
Lewis Gilbert gives us another PTS featuring the disappearance/kidnapping of a craft. A spacecraft in You Only Live Twice, a submarine in The Spy Who Loved Me and now a space shuttle.
Well, if it ain't broke, why mend it?
And the hostess shown standing with a parachute in the plane? What happened to her? Well, in keeping with 70s Bond criteria, no one knows and no one cares.
The stunt work however is exemplary.
This is the culmination in Cubby's obsession with getting Bond globe hopping as much as possible, taking in so many exotic and fantastic locations that we hardly have time to take anything in. All beautifully filmed however.
The action is good on the whole. The centrifuge rightly lauded, the fight in the glass museum is very good.
Elsewhere we have the cable car fight, and everything about this sequence is wrong. (I mean, better off on top of the car? How come?) The back projection, the doubling of Jaws and Jaws's jump are all pretty inept. But, they wanted a cable car sequence to show a stunt man risking his life, so that's what we got.
On balance it was all about the incredible stunts rather than the logic of the sequences.
The music is a highlight, and John Barry gets it right throughout. Light and shade in all the right places. I love the theme song sung by Shirley Bassey. Haunting and ethereal.
The humour of course is over done, but it was where we were in 1979. Cubby new to pull back after this, but here he gave it us with both barrels. The Bondala chase is the main case in point. The answer is to pop the kettle on while this plays out. Up until this point the film had been fairly faultless.
There is a moment when Bond breaks in to Holly's hotel room and declares "Bollinger! If it's a '69 you were expecting me"
Is that an innocent remark about a good year for champagne, or a smutty pun? I'm more inclined to believe the latter based on Roger Moore's approach to this movie.
The plot is another mad man destroying the world. I do now expect Bond to slap his forehead and shout 'Say what? Did you go to school with Blofeld and Stromberg for crying out loud?'
At least this time his reasoning is explored a little more than Stromberg, who seemed to want revenge on God for giving him flippers.
Always destined to be compared to it's sister film The Spy Who Loved Me the likelihood is this one will be accused of trying too hard to outdo its ultimately superior predecessor.
In the titles it reads Roger Moore in Ian Fleming's Moonraker. Now, whilst I'm no purist still feeling suicidal over the lack of respect for Fleming's story, even I admit this is stretching the point.
Elsewhere in the titles we see lots of weightless, naked girls (of course - even I could have designed that idea), accompanied by a dreamy and lovely song.
I have already spoken about the music and cinematography, both highlights of the film. However the musical 'jokes' (2001 - A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters, The Magnificent 7) become annoying.
The script is ok, and we see Bond doing some real spying, using his wits as well as his gadgets. Ultimately though it loses it's way and gives in to the need for just one more outrageous stunt or chase sequence. In fact, during the python scene, I was rooting for the snake.
Interesting costumes. Moore's safari suit (Gumpf), and he wears a three piece suit for the first time, I believe.
All looks a little 70s when it comes to style. Understandable, but in the 60s the clothes looked timeless and still add an extra quality to these films.
Gilbert is an assured director of these big scale Bond films, but the days when Bond had it all his own way were coming to an end. Star Wars was already out and Indiana Jones was on the horizon. It would mean the 80s would be frantically trying to decide which way to go, and getting it wrong as often as getting it right.
Finally, as I have said elsewhere the best joke is left to Q at the end. His line 'I think he's attempting re-entry ' is rightly applauded not least for Desmond Llewellyn's peerless delivery.
I once said, and it still stands, that I would love to think dear old Desmond never fully understood that the line was a smutty innuendo. I'm sure that's not the case but it's still a nice thought.
I’m sure that you are right dear @NicNac. Smut and ol’ Desmond don’t really go together, do they? :)
By rights I should loathe Moonraker. It deviates substantially from Mr. Fleming; it has an elaborate plot; overt humour runs abound and it has daft gadgetry coming out of its wazoo.
But yet.... Over the years I fallen in love with Moonraker. A bit of careful editing would make this ‘un a top ten Bond film. You know the scenes – Jaws in the PTS; Jaws and Dolly; the Bondola fiasco etc.
Moonraker, for my money at least, has to be the most exquisite film in the canon. The depth of location shooting, captured beautifully by cinematographer Jean Tournier. The awe inspiring sets by Ken Adam, the launch pad in the Amazon, with screens ranking up vertically, to give the impression of a high tech cathedral, has to be one of the standouts in Adam’s storied oeuvre. The fantastic model/special effects led by the wondrously talented Derek Meddings.
I must defend Sir Rog. When one has a gondola turning into a hovercraft and 007 is blasting into space, what does one expect Moore do to? He knew this film was a parody, and thus invited us to laugh along with the film, instead of at it. Moore is like a tour guide, gently skirting round the inherent problems of Moonraker. With another actor, be it the role of James Bond, or just a silly spy caper in Moonraker, I wouldn’t watch it – a space age adventure with comedic elements? No thank you. But with Sir Rog at the helm, Moonraker’s various sins are suddenly much more palatable.
When Moore is given the chance to act, however, such as in the rightly heralded centrifuge scene, he knocks it out of the park. Even the climax when Bond and Holly are hunting down the orbs – a most preposterous scenario – Moore sells it completely.
While writing this piece, I couldn’t help but think of You Only Live Twice. Seeing it chronologically has made me realise something. From my bit about YOLT, a few pages back -
“This is what the Bond series has been building up to. Sean Connery has evolved from an impetuous operative in Dr. No to a seasoned professional in Thunderball. His character arc is thus complete. Whilst SPECTRE has evolved from a mysterious group, funding Dr. No to an all powerful, multi pronged organization in Thunderball. Their arc is thus complete.
This is it. Bond vs SPECTRE. An epic conclusion to the Sean Connery saga, or an overblown spectacular mess?”
I did have YOLT above GF and TB after seeing it again back when we viewed YOLT. Then changed my mind, because that would be daft. Maybe I’d place YOLT ahead of TB in my rankings. But then it would seem that I dislike TB, to rank it last of the 60’s films. So, I decided to rank YOLT ahead of both GF and TB. That way I'm blatantly insane, completely off my rocker!, ranking YOLT ahead of those two giants of Bond.
Royale’s Ranking -
1. From Russia With Love
2. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
3. Dr. No
4. You Only Live Twice
5. Goldfinger
6. Thunderball
7. The Spy Who Loved Me
8. Moonraker
9. The Man With The Golden Gun
10. Diamonds Are Forever
11. Live and Let Die
Golly, isn’t it looking good for LALD. Who came up with these placings again?
And yet... I was working on Boxing Day, so decided to have an early night watching Moonraker. Whilst taking MR out of my Blu-Ray player after I had watched it, I saw, out of the corner of my eye, this months MI6 Confidential, with the iconic image of Connery and Tatiana in the mosque. Seeing this made me realise how far away the Bond series had evolved. Or devolved.
Thank you to the 70’s for keeping the Bond franchise healthy, but it was a welcome change to be heading into the conservative 80’s...
Tell that to the AVTAK end scene.
MI6Community Bondathon:
1.) DN
2.) OHMSS
3.) LALD
4.) TSWLM
5.) GF
6.) YOLT
7.) FYEO
8.) FRWL
9.) TB
10.) DAF
11.) TMWTGG
12.) MR
That's a very fitting description. Great write up there.
Very glad to hear that Moore's performance finally registered with you. It's always been one of my favorites.
@Birdleson makes an excellent point about Roger Moore here. He seems less willing to use his stock facial mannerisms for whatever reason. I can't think it's the influence of first time director John Glen as he doesn't yet seem settled as a good director of actors (not that I'm convinced he ever became one)
Moore does seem happy to show a more world weary agent. A haircut swept away from his face, a never before seen principle about where he draws the line regarding who he will and won't sleep with. And initially at least a more avuncular attitude towards the girl (Melina) he eventually hooks up with.
It's a good performance and in keeping with the tone of the film.
But I did notice that on his puffer jacket in the scenes in Italy his zip seems to have a 'B' as the zip pull. B for Bond? Surely not.
Carole Bouquet is the vengeful Melina who name drops the Goddess Electra 18 years before we get another vengeful creature who goes by that very name. Clearly too young for this Bond, and despite the actresses highly regarded career she falls far short of the emotive and passionate Greek girl she claims to be.
Julian Glover is good as villain Kristatos, a much less ambitious villain than those Bond has been used to in recent adventures.
Topol is Colombo, at first thought to be the villain, later an ally in Bond's adventure. Topol, excellent in the role, is very astute casting.
John Whyman is Kriegler, yet another peroxide Grant clone. I do quite like him though. He offers a certain sense of danger despite his sharp shooting skills totally deserting him when faced with the simple lumbering target of James Bond from 50 yards. Funny that!
Elsewhere the tragic actress Jill Bennett seems wasted as Brink the ex-skating star, now training Bibi (Lynn Holly Johnson) the skating strumpet hell bent on bedding Bond. Interesting and admirable idea to have these characters as they add nothing to the plot as such other than giving Kristatos some kind of raison d'etre. I would be intrigued to discover how and why they were dreamt up.
And Cassandra Harris is Lisl the 'Countess' from Liverpool who only grabs a few minutes screen time but whose death clearly moves Bond. Likeable performance despite the horrendous hair style at the casino/restaurant.
Shoot me now, but every time I see the ridiculous scene with Maggie and Denis Thatcher it......makes me smile. OK I've come clean. Denis getting his hand slapped makes me chortle. I'm so glad that's out of the way.
We see this right away in the PTS: for 007, the consequence of taking a wife immediately after smashing another of Blofeld’s diabolical plots, was to see her killed by Blofeld and Frau Irma Bunt. But Bunt seems to have essentially disappeared from continuity following the demise of actress Ilse Steppat, and Blofeld gets all the credit/blame for this heinous act. So we see Bond laying flowers at Tracy’s grave, and when a priest informs him that his office has sent a helicopter, Bond takes the news with uncommon solemnity. And at last, finally, after a typically hair-raising stunt with a real person riding along on the outside of a helicopter, Bond has his final, long-delayed revenge on Ernst Stavro Blofeld.
We’ll leave aside the joke about the delicatessen in stainless steel. That’s down to a private little joke of Cubby Broccoli’s aimed at Kevin McClory. “I don’t want your Blofeld, I don’t need your Blofeld, WE created the guy with the white cat anyway, not you. THIS for your Blofeld!” Okay, Cubby, we get the message. We may not have laughed at the time, but now we can. A delicatessen in stainless steel. If we got to have some form of low-grade humor in a Bond film, at least this one isn’t a Bondola or Mrs. Bell.
But this Bond is at least taking the job seriously, even if every now & then the film-makers don’t. I don’t hear people complain about the Citroen car chase, for example, although it’s about as funny as any other vehicle chase in the Roger Moore era. Perhaps that’s because we’ve got Bond kicking Locque’s car off the cliff a little later in the film. This is about as serious as Roger’s Bond can be…we’re told that Roger was a little uneasy with this scene, and that John Glen had to talk him into it. If so, then Glen doesn’t really get enough credit as a director. Plenty of fans dismiss his directorial style as being fairly pedestrian, but as far as I’m concerned, the next several Bond films, helmed by Glen, are far more to my taste than MR or TMWTGG.
But getting back to my point of this Bond being more of an adult than is Moore’s usual presentation, just look at the two main female stars of this film: Carole Bouquet as Melina Havelock and Lynn-Holly Johnson as Bibi Dahl. Melina is out for revenge against the man who had her parents killed. For her, Bond has a protective approach. Knowing firsthand the emotional effects of killing (even if your target is people who deserve to die) Bond’s intent is to save Melina from having to carry that burden. Melina is one of my favorite Bond Women in the whole series. She had a life before Bond walked into it and her motivations are quite believable. Carole Bouquet’s long black hair is just gorgeous, and her way with a crossbow definitely makes her an effective presence throughout the movie. Bibi Dahl needs, and gets a very different kind of protection from Melina‘s: Bond is going to save her from her own hyperactive libido by refusing to have sex with her. A lot of people find Bibi annoying. I certainly did the first time I saw this movie. In subsequent viewings as I have reached the fullness of my years, I see that she has a purpose in this film: to demonstrate this Bond’s unusually grown-up attitude to the world around him. In another film -- Octopussy, for example -- Bibi would never even have existed. Or she would be a few years older and Bond could bed her in good conscience rather than having to buy her off with an ice cream. Bond is a fantasy figure, and guys dig the fact that he gets every girl he wants, even if she has to die a couple of scenes later. Bibi is annoying because Bond CAN’T have her…bit in this film, he doesn’t WANT her. He’s an adult and must be protective of the underaged child that is Bibi Dahl. At least he gets Melina. And Countess Lisl. Let’s not forget Lisl, whose importance to the world of Bond should not go un-noted. Actress Casandra Harris was (at the time this movie was filmed) the wife of Pierce Brosnan, and it was during the filming of this movie that Brosnan first came to the attention of the folks at Eon Productions. ‘Nuff Said there…
The script of this movie is a clever melding of two Ian Fleming short stories, “For Your Eyes Only” and “Risico.” The two stories are combined quite seamlessly, and with the addition of the reef-hauling scene omitted form the film version of LIVE AND LET DIE, this film is almost an embarrassment of Fleming-penned riches. Topol makes for one of Bond top allies as the noble rogue Columbo, and Julian Glover has truly understated presence as Kristatos. None of this “soft spoken menace” a la Drax or Stromberg for Kristatos: he’ll say “You may have to kill him,” in a fashion that doesn’t call attention to itself the way Drax’s admonishment, “See that some harm comes to him” fairly shouted its cartoon villainy. Eric Kreigler is very much the stock blond Germanic super-henchmen…but at least we have Locque to provide a more realistic portrait of villainy to the mix.
The action climax of the assault on St. Cyril’s is very different from anything seen before in a Bond film, and the tension of Bond’s ascent of the mountain is quite palpable. Finally, the denouement with General Gogol, and the “That’s detante, Comrade!” defusing moment, is another welcome stroke of originality for this film. Many fans consider FYEO among the lesser Bond films, given its lack of world-threatening consequences and a less-than-super-villainous display of scenery chewing by this film’s principal adversary. I am not at all among them. This film is easily one of my favorites among Roger Moore’s portrayal of the world’s most famous secret agent. To those of you who disagree, I can only echo the words of Max the parrot to Margaret the PM: “Give us a kiss! Give us a kiss!”
CURRENT STANDINGS:
1) Goldfinger
2) From Rissia With Love
3) On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
4) The Spy Who Loved Me
5) Thunderball
6) Dr. No
7) For Your Eyes Only
8) You Only Live Twice
9) Live And Let Die
10) Diamond Are Forever
11) Moonraker
12) The Man With the Golden Gun
And yes, @OBrady, do return when you can!
@Birdleson, @BeatlesSansEarmuffs, I've been keeping up with your posts, and been trying to catch up on the side with my own. The holiday just kind of kicked me out of whack and I didn't have the time to devote to the films I needed with a lot of other personal stuff going on, and family traveling. I'm heading into the Moore films and will do as much of them as I can in silence, then once you all move on to The Living Daylights I'll drop whatever film I'm on and join you.
My thinking was that I did a lot of detailed reviews for all my favorites already, and if I missed out on the Moore films over the holidays and got bogged down, I wouldn't feel as if I'd lost anything as they aren't my go-to films anyway. But I do want to rejoin you all the moment we reach Dalton and onward, where I will invest myself again all the way until the end, as more of my favorite movies are on offer. I will then go back post-Bondathon and clean up all the reviews I didn't finish for Roger's, which may amount to three or four films.
Sorry for falling back post-OHMSS!
A very sombre start to this one. The pre title sequence has Bond visiting Tracey's grave and offering the most potent suggestion yet that these films all move along the same (albeit a bit wonky) time line.
When it was thought that Moore may jump ship Eon moved in to top gear to show the world that any new Bond would still be part of the series (a la George Lazenby). Here in the PTS the clues are more minimal, showing Tracey's grave and even Tracey's assassin (yes I know it was Bunt who pulled the trigger but you get my point). The Blofeld on display looks like Telly Savalas from Tracey's movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service but has the generic European accent from Thunderball and From Russia With Love.
All very odd, but as usual the PTS is dominated by the wonderful stunt work, as well as a bit of a funky re-work of the Bond theme.
After Moonraker had gone into overdrive with location work (including outer space) For Your Eyes Only gathers itself together and gives us Corfu and other Greek locations, and Cortina in Northern Italy.
John Glen beds himself into the director role with plenty of action. It comes thick and fast. I always thought the film would benefit from removing the ice hockey fight and the submarine battle. The latter was quite unnecessary coming right after the fight with the deep sea diver and just before the sequence where Bond and Melina are dragged over the coral.
Considering Kristatos was waiting for Bond to return with the ATAC anyway why on earth was he trying to jeopardise its safe return?
On the point of the deep sea diver and the recovery of the ATAC. Good to see the return of the bomb that almost seems to count down backwards.
The stunt work in the film is exceptional, especially the driving and of course the ski stunts. This sequence actually conjures up a degree of tension as Bond is backed into a corner more than once. A palpable sense of danger.
The sinking of the St George is very good.
The raid on the warehouse is also enjoyable, and nice to see both sides wearing matching clothes to identify each side, much like the good old days in the 60s where one side wore orange and the other side wore black. Happy days.
Gadgets are not so obvious, but we do have the quaint, antiquated identigraph. ("A nose Q, not a banana").
The Q lab scene is now standard fair with Bond making his usual lame jokes.
"Stinging in the rain?"
"That's not funny 007"
Indeed it isn't Q, indeed it isn't.
The film does have some amusing moments, but thankfully not too painfully full on. I do like the moment during the car chase when a bus full of yelling locals is silenced in a heart beat by a gun fired in the air.
Some of Moore's quips sound too obviously edited in later ("Not that low"). Spoils the effect somewhat.
The villain's scheme is quite low key. The whole business with the ATAC is fine, despite a lot of glaring plot holes (staple fair in a Bond film though). The climax is less spectacular than most, which is a nice change but the moment Bond launches the ATAC into the clouds for it to blow apart like Antonioni's climax to Zabraski Point is wholly satisfying.
Some Bond elements return and you realise how glad you are to see them again. Seeing Bond back at the poker table is good, although Moore simply doesn't look as comfortable in this environment as his two predecessors.
The next scene shows Bond's culture as he orders his meal and wine. Again it's good to see but Moore does look like a man trying to remember the slightly complicated food and wine names in his head.
John Glen who would go on to direct all the 80s Bonds does an ok job here, although he somehow appears to throw the towel in at the film's most dramatic turning points.
Firstly when Bond meets Columbo on his boat and the latter declares that Kristatos is actually the villain ("Locque works for him, not for me!") the impact of the revelation is lost. The scene, wedged between the beach buggy sequence and the warehouse raid is rushed, and maybe Glen's inexperience has something to do with it. A good scene that should have been a great scene.
Similarly when Melina's parents are killed off it's hard to sympathise with the girl or mourn the parents as it happens so quickly. This film was crying out for a couple of action scenes to be trimmed and for these two major dramatic moments to be enhanced.
Interesting opening title design. For the first and to date only time we have the singer, (Sheena Easton), featuring on the credits. It's a nice idea and shows Maurice Bonder to still have the odd new trick up his sleeve.
Bill Conti wrote the score. Some very generic Greek-style music.
During the ski chase we have weird plinky plonky piano music that sounded like a vintage episode of Dr Who starring Jon Pertwee.
At other times the music got so groovy and funky I was half expecting Earth Wind & Fire to appear.
I'm no fan of Bill Conti's contribution if you hadn't guessed.
The script sees Bond offering Chinese proverbs to Melina and an ice cream to Bibi (in sub zero temperatures).
And this interesting exchange.
Bond: Who are you?
Melina: They killed my parents
Bond: The Havelocks!
Woaa! She gave an answer that simply didn't fit the question but Bond worked out who she was anyway!
Love it.
The Lotus is back for a few minutes at least.
Another film with hot and cold locations. Quite enjoyed the short tour of the back streets of Corfu. Offered a nice breather after some frenetic action.
Also some nice photography during the scenes with Lisl, alongside a saxophone mournfully playing the theme song.
The sets were nicely understated which suggests a massive budget cut after Moonraker.
Overall it's a Bond film that non-fans will never remember, Fleming Bond fans will grudgingly accept, and the rest of us will place somewhere between 10 and 12 in our rankings.
When all is said and done For Your Eyes Only is fine for what it is, but a chap called Steven Speilberg was now mixing things up and Raiders Of The Lost Ark was reinventing the action/adventure genre.
Time I would say for 007 to wake up and keep up.
Cheers.
I can't believe how the weeks are flying by! No sooner have we written up on one film than we are slotting the next into the old player.
As you know, I don t. For me it was the worst yet.
I think part of the problem there is that Brosnan was saddled with movies whose plots and happenings largely overshadowed much of his character. In GE there was a balance, but in TND, TWINE and DAD there's moments where it might as well have been any nameless action hero there for all that they do with him as a character.
In my head, I view Brosnan as the video game Bond. He's the 007 that spends his finales running around mowing down endless baddies with automatic weapons, often stopping schemes with an exaggerated premise. As with video game shooters, it's fun to watch, but at a point there needs to be attention paid to character.
The best Bond films get that distinction by presenting a good story and making Bond a big player in it. The Terence Young films are excellent examples of this, because there's seldom a moment where we don't experience everything with Bond, and we get to see him go about his mission, checking for bugs, laying his plans, etc. Through this we know the man.
Brosnan didn't really get that. He got to wear a tuxedo, sip a martini and say a few one-liners, but there's a distinct lack of true character and characterization in his movies. He's Bond in looks, sure, but he could have been so much more given the right material. Seeing him in The November Man, playing a hard edged man showed he was capable of being a real bastard in the vein of early Moore Bond. I wish we'd gotten to see him tackle the character that way, but EON made it clear to him early on that that wasn't the direction they wanted to go with the material. The envy he must feel for Dan at the moment...
I always thought Spottiswood seemed to get Bond, but didn't have the script to make a great film. TND had its moments (in the first hour) but fell away into the shoot em up scenario you mention.
Therefore it's what the series needed.
It's all good. If a tad boring and bland in case of TWINE.
An interesting point. I was going to correct you and say the 80s were the big action hero decade, but when you think about it, those movies, as nuts as they were, had true character to them, both in the people who filled the script and in their awareness of what movies they were.
Like many things in the 90s, however, a lot of that character was sucked away to show things blowing up and people getting kicked and punched just to look cool, with not much other than that to engage you. The Brosnan films aren't that faulty to me in that regard, but there's moments where the 90s influence are visible for all the wrong reasons in those movies.
I could cry watching Bond and Renard fighting like two octogenarians wrestling for the last drop of prune juice in the retirement home fridge, displaying about the same level of strength as two grandpas on top of it all. When a Bond film makes me face-palm that hard, you know it's a bad sign.
there's a reason TWINE is sitting at No 23 in my ranking, firmly. It's the only film I never really look forward watching AND it's remake Skyfall of course. Not to be misunderstood, both are still great entertainment and in the year they were released among the best stuff offered. But we are judging within the franchise.
I was 21 in 1995, 23 in 1997, 25 in 1999. I LOVED THAT CINEMATIC DECADE!!
THE ROCK, CON AIR, FACE OFF, GOLDENEYE, CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER, TOMORROW NEVER DIES, THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT, TRUE LIES, SPEED, THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH and I could go on and on, but I know you get the point.
Quite frankly, Brosnan and EON saved the franchise with GoldenEye (possibly) and they went the save way with TND which was the right thing to do. With TWINE they toyed around and it failed (for me personally) but even that had enough crazy action to be a huge success at the BO.
And if I'm at it. The same goes for DAD, look at the films in 2002. XXX ring a bell for instance? And there's many more such films. It was a transition time though with Jason Bourne crashing into the cinematic universe.
Still, DAD was perfect for 2002 and except some hastily done CGI there's nothing to complain about in my opinion. We can rank it near the bottom, why not. After all DAD doesn't fare well against films like GF, DN, OHMSS, TLD, TSWLM, OP or GE, but so doesn't AVTAK, TMWTGG, DAF and even YOLT sorry to say.
I'd like to single out Alec Trevelyan as the best of the Brosnan era. One of my favorite Bond villains.