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That was a missed opportunity come MR, to get stories closer to Fleming. They did way better in FYEO.
So yeah, I don’t know… perhaps not using the Gala Brand name? Even for a Moore era Bond film the name Goodhead is a bit much.
There's always degrees of faithfulness in an adaptation. They could have made it closer to the novel and still keep it outlandish and keep the globe trotting elements, etc.
Then again they borrowed so much from MR in subsequent films, had they made a more faithful adaptation maybe it would have been detrimental to the other ones, who knows.
Hugo Drax as a book character is worthy of a screen adaption too. Though given the tone of this film I am glad they went in a different direction.
I think the whole boat chase in this movie is a missed opportunity. It needed more tension and high stakes. The score of Barry doesn't help it with a very slow version of 007. Though it was nice to hear this track return. I would have liked to have had some more tension with Bond feeling more in danger. As it is it falls flat and yet they have a beautiful back drop for a boat chase and a menacing baddie chasing Bond.
That would have been wonderful.
Also, why are there *two* boat chases?
@007HallY, MR was originally optioned by a different production company (The Rank Organisation, I think). That's why Eon didn't get the MR rights until the late '60s, possibly when the Rank option was up.
Rank probably did commission a screenplay or two.
This is also why we didn't get a closer Eon MR adaptation in the early-mid '60s when the original story might not have felt dated.
Do we have the scripts in the Bond scripts thread?
Maybe that was the big missed opportunity: that it wasn't filmed earlier in the franchise .
Did not know that @echo. That’s interesting.
An earlier MR closer to the novel is a cool thought. I suspect things like Drax’s Nazi past would have been rejigged slightly (perhaps he’d have been an ex-Nazi who now works for SPECTRE? Just something to keep the film series as widely distributable as possible without touching on then relatively recent atrocities in a key European country/market). I’m not sure if I can imagine Maibaum or the other writers at the time finding the ins and outs of Bond’s desk job all that interesting. It’s possible we would have gotten a GF type adaptation with an elaborate PTS which leads into Bond getting roped into thwarting Drax’s cheating (possibly M’s involvement may have been written out). Perhaps if it’d have been filmed post TB they would have adapted the story to be set in a different location as opposed to completely in England/London?
Even in musicals, like The Sound of Music.
I think what @007HallY is implying, is that EoN wanted to keep their films as a politics-free zone.
I guess in terms of adapting the book, it perhaps is a bit of a missed opportunity that they didn't have M asking Bond for a little off-the-books help as he does in the book, as Lee's M and Roger's Bond had quite an interesting relationship onscreen with lots of eye-rolling etc. and ending it on a warmer note might have been good to see.
Yeah, pretty much. I think something would have been different in adaptation when it came to Drax's character (I doubt they would have completely erased the Nazi past/overtones though - even in the MR we got his plan is very much centred around creating a 'master race').
Yes, it's something that we've never quite seen in the films, but happens a handful of times in the Fleming books. Maybe for a future film.
I mean, it sort of is, but then M also has the line "So there was a lab" when Bond shows him proof - why on Earth wouldn't he have believed Bond before that? He's his most trusted super agent :D
Okay, our spy had now gone to space! Where else could they send him?
It had to be back to a more grounded adventure. Not a space laser in sight, no henchmen with metal teeth. In fact this stripped down adventure packs a punch without many gadgets, unless we count Q's computer.
I am talking about For Your Eyes Only. A Bond adventure that harkens back to FRWL, OHMSS in that Bond is back in action but that action is grounded. The one-liners are kept to a minimum. But oh what a delicious scene of Bond kicking a car over the edge. Kneel hauling from LALD makes an appearance. But were there missed opportunities with this film?
Did this film style and focus fit Roger Moore? Dare I say was this a missed opportunity? The score from Bill Conti was quite true and funky in the 80's, now it sounds a little dated. Did the producers mess up the dynamic between Bond and Melina? How about the lovely Bibi Dahl?
Lets hear it community members:
What are the missed opportunities of For Your Eyes Only?
Small disclaimer, this is not about a critique of the film, but rather a thing you think is missing from the movie? Maybe a character who doesn't have a great fleshed out character, or a story line that never really pays off? Maybe an action sequence that needed more or less time?
Lisl feels like a more accurate Bond girl for this story; albeit she'd have to be spruced up for the part, more of a femme fatale that tries to bring Bond to Colombo who becomes a hostage for Kristatos. In fact, just making the film "Risico" and omitting a lot of For Your Eyes Only would make the film a lot better in my eyes.
The actual For Your Eyes only plot would have worked a lot better with Dalton as Bond
Dalton would have worked like gangbusters as mentioned.
Quite the "what if"...what if they had not mashed two movies together for FYEO and OP and made four movies based on this material instead of two?
I wonder if it would have been better if it was Jaws, not Blofeld, killed in the PTS. Wasn't he slated to die in a furnace in TSWLM anyway?
I think a number of things could have been done. We could have had a QOS type thing where Melina does in fact kill Kristatos at the end but feels empty. Maybe Kristato's plan is motivated out of revenge in some way (his death/downfall would show the consequences and how cyclical revenge can be). Heck, Roger could even have given a slightly sombre look after kicking Louqe's car off the cliff. Just anything rather than the hack job we got.
Oh and the child in me would have liked to have seen Bond press a button in his Lotus :D I don't think it's fair to the kids to introduce a gadget car and never use it. I'd much rather that than the rubbish ice hockey sequence. Drive a Lotus around an ice rink: there you go- much better little short scene!
That's a good point, that would have been good to see. It might have been interesting to go with that with a temporary replacement for M who wasn't entirely up to the job.
We have Bond lecturing Melina on the danger of revenge and yet he himself takes revenge through out the movie. He prevents Melina from taking revenge at the end and as a result she doesn't get her revenge. I think it might have worked if Melina saw how cold or aloof Bond is because of the revenge and how it consumes him.
Perhaps that would have helped the film tonally and allowed of the theme to be more consistent within the movie.
Bond is on a mission, and acts on the opportunities that come up.