Licence to Kill

LICENCE TO KILL
1989 | Dir. John Glen | 133 Minutes

"British agent. I knew it! You have class."

A Latin American drug kingpin disfigures CIA Agent Felix Leiter and murders his wife on their wedding day. To avenge his friend, James Bond goes rogue and dismantles the cartel from the inside.

Licence to Kill is a questionable total departure from the James Bond formula. Timothy Dalton's second and final 007 adventure is a bloody revenge film that sees Bond driven by personal vendetta, forsaking his professional duty to serve the British government. While the stakes are the lowest ever for a Bond movie plot, the violence on display, delivered by reliable series regular John Glen on his fifth and last turn behind the director's chair, is brutal and occasionally shocking as characters graphically lose limbs, explode, and ground into pulp. Though the one-liners are dispensed more sparingly than ever, they are all the more jarring juxtaposed against the over-the-top carnage. It's a fine action film in its own right, the explosive climactic tanker truck chase in particular is a fantastic sequence, but it's ultimately a lesser outlier installment of the James Bond series.

Timothy Dalton cements his status as a colder, more brutal James Bond than his predecessors, doing everything he can to make this relatively humorless take on the super spy still appear heroic. Having to bury his natural charisma under layers of anger and anguish, Dalton deserved a better final Bond film. As the skilled pilot and CIA informant love interest Pam Bouvier, Carsey Lowell is believably tough and feisty but slightly struggles as a convincing match for Dalton's Bond. Conversely, Talisa Soto is lovely but somewhat bland as the femme fatale Lupe Lamora. The intimidating Robert Davi fits perfectly as drug lord Franz Sanchez, his performance makes the cartel boss feel more threatening than some of the series' megalomaniacal villains armed with doomsday weapons.

As Sanchez's underlings, the film features Anthony Zerbe as slimy trafficker Milton Krest, Anthony Starke as cocky financial advisor Truman-Lodge, and a young Benicio del Toro stands out as Sanchez's loyal and sadistic enforcer Dario. Returning from Live and Let Die, David Hedison reprises the role of Felix Leiter, slightly more than a minor role this time around, while Priscilla Barnes delivers a brief but spirited performance as Leiter's doomed bride Della. The cast also includes Frank McRae as the standard unfortunately disposable Bond ally Sharkey, Everett McGill as corrupt DEA Agent Ed Killifer, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as undercover MI6 Agent Kwang, and entertainer Wayne Newton as lecherous televangelist and minor cog in Sanchez's trafficking operation Professor Joe Butcher. While the highly amusing Desmond Llewelyn once again enjoys an expanded role in the story as Q, Robert Brown and Caroline Bliss make their brief final appearances in the series as M and Moneypenny.

An odd combination of relatively low stakes and extreme violence, Licence to Kill is a unique James Bond film that discards series standards with mixed results. While his traits are put to good use on this tale of bloody revenge, Timothy Dalton's short-lived darker take on Bond deserved to go out on a better film than this one.


THE COLD OPEN
Slightly too long but all and all entertaining, it's another high-flying stunt for Dalton's Bond as he literally fishes Sanchez's plane out of the sky. Concluding the sequence with Bond and Leiter parachuting down to Leiter's wedding is pure 007 cheese.


THE THEME SONG AND OPENING TITLES
Gladys Knight's "Licence to Kill" is disappointingly bland, perhaps best remembered for opening with same notes as Shirley Bassey's "Goldfinger" if nothing else. Patti LaBelle's "If You Asked Me To" playing over the end credits is much more memorable, a catchy pop single that can easily stand on its own. Maurice Binder's final opening title sequence isn't his most memorable. It prominently features an Olympus camera and film strips alluding to the sniper rifle made out of camera parts that Q lends to Bond in the picture.


THE BOND GIRL
Pam Bouvier is a step in the right direction for Bond love interests, proving to be a capable operative in her own right, one hell of a pilot as demonstrated in the climatic tanker truck chase when she provides Bond with invaluable air support. The way she uses her sex appeal to infiltrate Joe Butcher's compound to reach Sanchez's drug lab is amusing. Unfortunately, the huffy jealousy she displays upon seeing Lupe's attraction to Bond takes much away from her character's overall respectability.


THE BOND VILLAIN
His plans are relatively ambitious for a drug lord, and he goes to great lengths to turn his operation into a global enterprise - creating a cult as a clandestine way to communicate with his business associates, engineering a method to smuggle cocaine in gasoline - but Franz Sanchez is still just a drug lord. He's interesting to watch - quick to demonstrate how he values loyalty over money with swift violence, treating his pet iguana better than his woman - but he pales in comparison to the vast majority of Bond villains.


FEATURED HENCHMAN
Devoid of basic human remorse, the gleefully violent Dario is one of the more memorable underlings of the series. His brutal death by grinder is one of the most graphically gory exits for a Bond villain's henchman.


BEST GADGET
The plastic explosives disguised as Dentonite brand toothpaste is gloriously punny.


FLEMING FIDELITY
The manner in which Leiter is disfigured with the accompanying note "He disagreed with something that ate him." is lifted from Ian Fleming's second James Bond novel Live and Let Die published in 1954. In the book, Leiter loses an arm and a leg when crime boss Mr. Big captures him and feeds him to a shark. The drunk and abusive Milton Krest and his ship the Wavekrest are adapted from Fleming short story The Hildebrand Rarity first published in Playboy magazine in 1960.


FRAGMENTS
- The son of Pedro Armendáriz who portrayed Karim Bey in From Russia with Love, Pedro Armendáriz Jr. appears as Isthmus President Hector Lopez

- Talisa Soto and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa went on to appear as Princess Kitana and the shape-shifting villain Shang Tsung in 1995's Mortal Kombat based on the video game

- At the bottom of the end credits, the film advertises that "James Bond Will Return"


MCU CONNECTIONS
- Benicio del Toro (Taneleer Tivan in Thor: The Dark World, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Avengers: Infinity War)

The Living Daylights

THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS
1987 | Dir. John Glen | 131 Minutes

"Stuff my orders! I only kill professionals."

Bond prevents the assassination of General Georgi Koskov and smuggles him out of East Berlin when he defects to the West but Koskov is immediately captured by a Soviet operative during his debriefing with MI6. Bond quickly confirms his suspicion that the assassination attempt was an act perpetrated with assistance from Koskov's oblivious girlfriend. Koskov's schemes to eliminate the current head of the KGB and profit off stolen Soviet funds, the wares of a delusional arms dealer, and narcotics traded by the Afghan Mujahideen.

The Living Daylights is a slick espionage action film offering the James Bond movie franchise's customary exotic locations, clever gadgets, and exhilarating stunts with a decidedly darker, more mature tone than the installments that immediately preceded it. While he still utters the occasional one-liner with a smirk, the 007 of this film isn't afraid to fight dirty, best characterized in his quickness to violently strip a woman nude to distract an enemy, and his key allies on this adventure, honorable KGB general and dope trafficking Afghan Mujahideen leader with a heart of gold, are by far the most morally ambiguous featured in the series yet. The grittier overall style of the picture makes the escapism all the more entertaining though having Bond ally himself with the rebel forces that would historically become Muslim terrorists violently opposing the West is a political stance that certainly hasn't aged well.

The set pieces and action direction of The Living Daylights are uniformly superb as director John Glen delivers his fourth and best James Bond picture. The explosive climatic battle on the airfield between the Soviet army and Afghan Mujahideen forces leading to the midair fight between Bond and the nigh-unstoppable Necros as they dangle from a next on the back of a cargo plane is ambitious and truly spectacular. Most impressive is how the finale constantly escalates, with Bond bombing a bridge to save the rebels from the Soviets just moments after dealing with Necros, only to be forced to improvise a makeshift escape aboard a Jeep with a parachute as the plane runs out of fuel and crashes into a mountain. The only sequence that feels slightly out of place for this picture is the cheesetastic gadget heavy Aston Martin car chase that culminates with Bond and love interest Kara sledding downhill on a cello case while dodging machine gun fire.

Timothy Dalton proves to be an exceptional James Bond, immediately setting his performance apart from past Bond actors by subtly suggesting a conflicted inner life, conveying pain and anger just beneath his handsome and naturally charismatic exterior. Maryam d'Abo is adorable Kara Milovy, bringing as much credibility as possible to one of the more clueless love interests of the series. As the alternately groveling and treacherous Koskov, Jeroen Krabbé really makes a meal of the scenery. Conversely, Andreas Wisniewski is convincing a total badass Necros. Joe Don Baker isn't particularly notable as Napolean wannabe Brad Whitaker but his performance is serviceable. John Rhys-Davies brings his reliable excellence to the role of KGB head General Leonid Pushkin. Despite the controversy behind the part, Art Malik is great as the unassuming prisoner revealed to be the noble and eloquent Afghan Mujahideen leader Kamran Shah. Thomas Wheatley as stickler MI6 agent Saunders is impressive in how believably annoying he makes the character but also in how he gives his death scene the right amount of gravitas to make the tragedy of the moment really stick. Caroline Bliss is immediately lovable as the second actress to play Moneypenny, while John Terry definitely looks the part of Bond's American CIA counterpart as the sixth actor to play Felix Leiter. Returning from previous films, Robert Brown and Geoffrey Keen reprise their roles as M and British Minister of Defence Frederick Gray, while Desmond Llewelyn's Q really gets a chance to shine with demonstrating a wide selection of mid-1980s gadgets. Walter Gotell makes his final brief appearance as General Gogol in the epilogue.

Despite its questionable politics in hindsight, The Living Daylights is very much a return to form for the James Bond film franchise, perhaps the most underrated installment of the series. Offering fantastic action and an excellent new leading man, Timothy Dalton's debut 007 feature is a hard-edged fast-paced ride with just a little bit of corniness.


THE COLD OPEN
The training mission at the Rock of Gibralter turned deadly chase does a awesome job of setting the tone for Timothy Dalton's Bond, establishing him as a real man of action while still making time to romance a lady right after eliminating an enemy agent.


THE THEME SONG AND OPENING TITLES
Potential hot take: a-ha's "The Living Daylights" is one of my favorite Bond theme songs. Anecdotally, it's certainly not series regular composer John Barry's favorite, clashing with the band over the song's composition; the single version featured in the film sounds notably different from the band's album version of the song. It's a slick, extraordinarily 1980s tune and in the end, Barry's version is truly epic, skillfully woven it into his fantastic final James Bond film score. Maurice Binder's opening title sequence is also quite lovely, featuring a prominent orange and blue color scheme.


THE BOND GIRL
Beautiful cellist Kara Milovy is clueless to the point of absurdity, somehow completely unaware of her boyfriend's nefarious machinations until the final stretch of the story. She also falls for Bond almost a little to quickly despite initially resisting his charm for about five minutes. Thankfully, she proves to be so much more than a damsel in distress and plays a crucial part in the climactic battle. She get her own love theme in the form of The Pretenders' lovely "If There Was A Man" worked into Barry's film score and playing over the end credits.


THE BOND VILLAINS
Both the main villains kind of suck in this one. Georgi Koskov is appropriately aggravating but less than intimidating. His plot to make money while taking out his superior officer is also fairly pedestrian by Bond villain standards. War profiteer Brad Whitaker doesn't get enough to do to really make him stand out, and his death by stone bust is also incredibly underwhelming.


FEATURED HENCHMAN
Necros simply rocks. He has one of the best introductory sequences for a Bond henchman ever as he infiltrates the lavish MI6 safe house disguised as a milkman to retrieve Koskov, strangling his enemies with a headphone cord, tossing explosive bottles of milk. His badassery only increases from that point on. It's awesome that not only does he have his own theme song, The Pretenders' "Where Has Everybody Gone?" (with several phenomenal instrumental arrangements within Barry's score), he's jams to it on audio cassette.


BEST GADGET
The multi-purpose lockpicking, stun-gassing, exploding whistle-activated keychain is the perfect balance of practical and cheesy.


FLEMING FIDELITY
The plot of the first act originates from Ian Fleming's short story of the same title first published in 1962. In the short story, Bond is assigned sniper duty to protect British Agent 272 as he escapes from East Berlin. Bond discovers the enemy sniper is a blonde female cellist and decides to spare her life, shooting her rifle instead.


FRAGMENTS
- Timothy Dalton finally takes on the role of James Bond after turning down the part multiple times since as far back as On Her Majesty Secret Service in 1969

- At one point, producer Albert R. Broccoli chose Pierce Brosnan to play 007 in The Living Daylights, but his refusal to cast Brosnan due to his commitment to the NBC television series Remington Steele and NBC's last minute renewal of the series delayed his debut as James Bond

- Joe Don Baker would return to the series to play CIA Agent Jack Wade in GoldenEye

- At the bottom of the end credits, the film advertises that "James Bond Will Return"

A View to a Kill

A VIEW TO A KILL
1985 | Dir. John Glen | 131 Minutes

"Intuitive improvisation is the secret of genius."

Bond investigates government defense contractor Max Zorin after he recovers a Soviet microchip identical to those manufactured by Zorin's tech company. In a scheme to monopolize the computer industry, Zorin is in the process of causing a massive seismic event to destroy Silicon Valley.

Director John Glen's third James Bond film, and Roger Moore's seventh and last, A View to a Kill is a wacky low point for Eon Productions' long-running film franchise. The plot involving high-tech race horse doping and man-made natural disasters perpetrated by a psychotic rogue KGB operative endowed with super-intelligence through Nazi medical experiments is superfluously, hilariously convoluted. The set pieces are rote and uninspired, even the ones that prominently feature the Eiffel Tower and Golden Gate Bridge. Worst of all, the action sequences fall way below franchise standards, as the audience can clearly tell the difference between the nearly sixty-year-old Moore and his stunt double. Bond's race through a booby-trapped horse track, a forced cop car and fire engine chase through the streets of San Francisco, and the finale in a flooded mine rigged to explode are all remarkably regrettably dull. Connoisseurs of subpar cinema will assuredly find ample amusement in watching Bond stumble his way through the narrative, dutifully going through the motions of murdering his enemies to serve Queen and country and the plot, delivering his cheesy one-liners without missing a beat, and embarrassingly romancing ladies old enough to be his daughters.

At least Bond's adversaries in A View to a Kill are fun to watch. Maniacal industrialist Max Zorin played by a distractingly blonde Christopher Walken and his physically imposing bodyguard/lover May Day exhilaratingly brought to life by Grace Jones are a sight to behold. In a sense, they are an interracial power couple to root for until Zorin's disappointing inevitable betrayal. Walken's Zorin and Jones' May Day are vastly more captivating together than Moore's Bond and his fleeting woefully forgettable love interest, the dull as dishwater geologist Stacey Sutton played by Tanya Roberts. Sutton is completely lifeless in the role, and the lack of chemistry between her and Moore only makes matters worse. Visibly aloof, Moore still does what he can with the material but what fun he had playing Bond is clearly gone.

Patrick Macnee, Jean Rougerie, and David Yip respectively play MI6 agent and horse expert Sir Godfrey Tibbett, French private detective Achille Aubergine, and CIA Agent Chuck Lee - a parade of disposable Bond allies. Patrick Bauchau is just kind of bland as as Zorin's secondary henchman Scarpine, while Willoughby Gray simply looks out of place as cartoonish Nazi scientist Hans Glaub aka Dr. Carl Mortner. Fiona Fullerton is genuinely a lot of fun briefly appearing as KGB Agent Pola Ivanova. The film also features Alison Doody and Papillon Soo as May Day's underlings Jenny Flex and Pan Ho; Robert Brown, Desmond Llewelyn, Geoffrey Keen, and Walter Gotell reprising the roles of M, Q, British Minister of Defence Fredrick Gray, and KGB head General Gogol; and Lois Maxwell in her fourteenth and final appearance as Moneypenny.

A View to a Kill is an awkward and campy end to Roger Moore's run as 007. Featuring bizarre over-the-top villains with a logically questionable plot, it's one of the silliest, most absurd Bond films made even more ridiculous by its doddering leading man. For all of its wretchedness, this goofy romp is best enjoyed ironically.


THE COLD OPEN
Bond's mission in Siberia isn't bad, though the forced snowboarding moment set to a cover of the Beach Boys' "California Girls" is downright embarrassing. It doesn't help that you can immediately tell the difference between Roger Moore and his stuntman right at the top of the picture.


THE THEME SONG AND OPENING TITLES
Duran Duran's "A View to a Kill" is a fabulously 1980s rock tune, and objectively one of the best James Bond theme songs. Featuring an ice and fire motif that doesn't have much at all to do with the film, the opening titles is classic Maurice Binder with a literal coat of fluorescent paint applied on the dancing ladies in the darkness.


THE BOND GIRL
Stacey Sutton is among the worst love interests of the series. Her backstory is dull, and her geological knowledge is almost completely useless. Constantly shrieking from the danger, she does the minimum to assist Bond in taking down Zorin during their climatic Golden Gate Bridge battle but she wouldn't have been up there had she not been captured in the first place, somehow blindsided by Zorin's gigantic blimp.


THE BOND VILLAIN
Max Zorin's backstory involving Nazi eugenics is total nonsense as is his plot to flood Silicon Valley in order to control the microchip market against the wishes of his erstwhile KGB masters, but he is so much fun to watch. The way he indiscriminately murders friend and foe really sells his madness. Gotta love how he still cackles as he hangs off the ledge moments before he plummets to his death.


FEATURED HENCHMAN
May Day is totally rad. She inexplicably possesses superhuman strength, perhaps a product of the same experiments that produced Zorin, but it the long run it doesn't really matter. Her wardrobe seems completely impractical for a deadly assassin and all the physical work that comes with the job but she pulls it off and kicks major ass all the same. Best of all, she doesn't allow Zorin the upper hand when he betrays her, instead sacrificing herself to help Bond foil Zorin's explosive plot. Her final emphatic shout of "Get Zorin for me!" may be the best dramatic moment of the film.


FEATURED GADGET
Bond's electronic lockpicking Sharper Image credit card is a gloriously dated bit of product placement.


FLEMING FIDELITY
Though the plot of the film is completely original, the title is sourced from Ian Fleming's short story From a View to a Kill first published as James Bond and the Murder Before Breakfast in 1959. In the short story, Bond faces off against an assassin who murdered a motorcycle dispatch-rider transporting top-secret documents.


FRAGMENTS
- The film opens with the disclaimer: "Neither the name Zorin, nor any other name or character in this film, is meant to portray a real company or actual person" due to the producers discovering  real fashion design company Zoran Ladicorbic Ltd.

- Dolph Lundgren, who was dating Grace Jones at the time, makes his cinematic debut as one of Gogol's KGB agents

- Appearing in her third Bond film following The Man with the Golden Gun and Octopussy, Maud Adams makes an uncredited cameo appearance as an extra in one of the Fisherman's Wharf scenes

- Bond's jab at Sutton about finding a uniform that fits when they infiltrate the mine is an ad-libbed reference to Tanya Roberts' allegedly insufferable attitude on set

- At the bottom of the end credits, the film advertises that "James Bond Will Return" without naming the next film for the first time since Thunderball


SUPPLEMENTAL STUFF
- Podcast: How Did This Get Made? Episode #99: A View To a Kill: LIVE

Octopussy

OCTOPUSSY
1983 | Dir. John Glen | 131 Minutes

"We're two of a kind. There are vast rewards for a man of your talents, willing to take risks."

MI6 Agent 009 is slain in East Germany leaving behind a counterfeit Fabergé egg. Picking up the fallen agent's mission, James Bond encounters deposed Afghan prince Kamal Khan and his cohort, a prolific jewel smuggler and all-female cult leader known as Octopussy. Bond discovers Khan is in league with a rogue Soviet general and races to stop their nefarious plot.

Offering few thrills and failing to capitalize on its aging leading man's cheeseball charisma, perhaps best remembered for literally presenting Bond as a clown in one off-puttingly self-aware moment, John Glen's second Bond film, and Roger Moore's sixth, Octopussy is another low point in Eon Productions' film series. The plot involving circus performers, stolen Russian treasures, and nuclear disarmament is convoluted yet the story is threadbare. The characters are downright boring, featuring the least intimidating villain Bond has ever faced and a love interest who predictably and infuriatingly loses all agency after one night with Bond.

The action scenes are mostly by-the-numbers, every one of them substandard. Bond is chased through the streets of Rajasthan littered with awful Indian caricatures, he dodges bullets and swings from jungle vines complete with corny Tarzan yell, he improbably drives on train tracks and leaps train cars in pursuit of his target. Even Octopussy's skimpy acrobats who do most of the fighting in the finale fail to truly liven things up. Aside from the production value on display in some of the sets, there is little to distinguish Octopussy from a tedious made-for-television movie.

Roger Moore has seen better days as James Bond, and though he still appears committed to the part delivering the often cringey dialogue without missing a beat, he has clearly overstayed his time as the action hero based on how much screen time his stunt double receives in this one. Previously appearing as Scaramanga's doomed lover in The Man with the Golden Gun, Maud Adams is fine but unremarkable as Octopussy. Adams surprisingly doesn't have much to do despite the fact that film is named after her character. Louis Jourdan doesn't leave even the slightest lasting impression as Kamal Khan, which might be the worst thing that can be said for a Bond villain, and neither does Kabir Bedi who plays is go-to henchman Gobinda. Twins David Meyer and Anthony Meyer are slightly more memorable than the main baddies as knife-throwing assassins Mischka and Grischka. Kristina Wayborn is great as the seductive Magda, surprisingly makes it through the entire film without dying, Tennis star Vijay Amritraj is charming as the doomed token foreign operative Vijay, and Steven Berkoff chews scenery the cartoonish Soviet General Orlov. Walter Gotell makes his fourth appearance as the honorable KGB leader Gogol, Desmond Llewelyn receives significant screen time as Q in his tenth appearance, Lois Maxwell makes her thirteenth appearance as Moneypenny, and Robert Brown appears as M as the second actor to take on the role.

Octopussy is arguably the worst Roger Moore Bond film in terms of entertainment value. Not only is it unapologetically silly, it's also uncharacteristically dull. The adversaries are rather generic and unappealing, the featured set pieces are disappointingly mundane, and the action sequences are among the least inspired and most forgettable of the entire series.


THE COLD OPEN
It's the best action sequence of the picture. Naturally, it's completely unrelated to the rest of the film. With the help of a beautiful accomplice, Bond infiltrates a Cuban military base, gets caught, and accomplishes his mission while making his daring escape piloting a small airplane.


THE THEME SONG AND OPENING TITLES
Rita Coolidge's "All Time High" is a fairly standard inoffensive track. It's pleasant love song but rather forgettable for a James Bond theme tune. For me, the title is unintentionally ironic, as I consider Octopussy one of the series' all time lows. The opening title sequence by Maurice Binder isn't one of his best, featuring odd-looking laser graphics over the on-brand nude models and silhouettes of acrobats that look out-of-place.


THE BOND GIRL
With an infamously terrible name, Octopussy is written as an interesting and capable match for Bond. Unfortunately, despite her incredible backstory as a skilled smuggler and leader of a formidable cult of fighting women, the film only ever tells and doesn't show, the plot doesn't give her much to do once Bond beds her. Instead of having her dispatch Khan in revenge for his betrayal, he almost immediately takes her hostage during the finale, shamefully rendering her another damsel in distress.


THE BOND VILLAIN
Bland as can be, Kamal Khan fails to live up to the standards of even the most basic Bond villains. The evil scheme devised by Khan and General Orlov carries catastrophic implications but unfolds late in the film, is over-complicated in execution, and is relatively pedestrian overall. The most memorable thing he does is plucking an eyeball out of a stuffed lamb's head and eating it.


FEATURED HENCHMAN
Gobinda is just as forgettable as Khan despite showing his strength by crushing dice with his bare hands. If there's one thing that's memorable about him, it's his perhaps misguided loyalty to his boss. When ordered to fight Bond hanging outside of their plane midflight, he questions Khan but ultimately does as he is told leading to his demise.


FEATURED GADGET
The crocodile submarine is one of the most ridiculous out-of-left-field gadgets featured in the series, delivered as a campy plot twist when Bond emerges from its mouth after struggling with what is clearly a real crocodile. It's really kind of sublime in its campiness.


FLEMING FIDELITY
The story of Octopussy's father, the disgraced Major Dexter Smythe, as well as the title of the film, originate from Ian Fleming's short story of the same name first serialized in the Daily Express in 1965, with few details changed. The auction sequence is loosely based on Fleming's short story The Property of a Lady first published in Sotheby's annual journal The Ivory Hammer in 1963. The rest of the film is an original story.


BATTLE OF THE BONDS
Ion Productions' Octopussy was in direct competition with Never Say Never Again, Kevin McClory's remake of Thunderball starring Sean Connery released by Warner Brothers four months after Octopussy. Though it claimed a better opening weekend than Octopussy, Never Say Never Again ultimately made less money.


FRAGMENTS
- In one extraordinarily cheesy moment, this film features the first and only diegetic use of the James Bond theme tune when Vijay plays it to charm a snake

- At the bottom of the end credits, the film advertises that "James Bond will return in 'From a View to a Kill'" though the title of the next film was slightly shortened to A View to a Kill during production

For Your Eyes Only

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY
1981 | Dir. John Glen | 127 Minutes

"The Chinese have a saying: Before you set out on revenge, you first dig two graves."

A spy ship carrying a device used to coordinate the Royal Navy's fleet of nuclear submarines is sunk in an accident, and the marine archaeologists hired by the British are assassinated by a Cuban hitman. Unlikely alliances are forged as James Bond races against Soviet operatives to recover the device and crosses paths with the daughter of the murdered marine archaeologists seeking vengeance at any cost.

John Glen, editor for On Her Majesty's Secret Service, The Spy Who Loved Me, and Moonraker, makes his directorial debut delivering a straightforward James Bond adventure that brings the series back to its more practical roots with mixed results. The camp that so prevalent in the series throughout the 1970s is dialed so far back that For Your Eyes Only seems to actively play against Roger Moore's strengths. While its central theme of revenge is explored with slightly more depth than expected, the inherent drama is undermined by predictable plot twists and severely suppressed vestiges of low-key cheap comedy. Deceptive smuggler Aristotle Kristatos' betrayal can be seen a mile away, encapsulating the narrative's lack of dramatic tension in a nutshell.

Notable action sequences featured in For Your Eyes Only take place in Cortina, Italy and underwater within a sunken ship, recalling Bond's prowess on a set of skies and in diving gear. However, even taking into consideration the high altitude final act that begins with Bond hanging from the side of a mountain, the stunt work and set pieces of the picture are merely passable and mostly unremarkable overall. The one notable exception is the film's very best sequence depicting Bond and Melina's escape from certain doom as they are dragged through a shark infested coral reef is truly excellent.

Roger Moore really shows his age in his fifth picture as Bond, and though he successfully pulls off a sterner 007 the script doesn't do him any favors, significantly toning down the humor so prevalent during his tenure and drawing direct attention in one sequence to the age gap between him and lusty Olympic hopeful Bibi Dahl played by accomplished American figure skater Lynn-Holly Johnson. As the vengeful crossbow-wielding Melina Havelock, Carole Bouquet convincing gives off a fierce intensity rarely found in Bond love interests. Julian Glover is believably suave as Kristatos though he isn't afforded a moment to truly shine as a Bond villain, his henchmen the laconic Emile Leopold Locque and KGB thug Erich Kriegler are respectively played by Michael Gothard and John Wyman. Israeli luminary Topol turns in a fun performance as honorable Greek smuggler Milos Columbo. Geoffrey Keen and James Villiers return as Frederick Gray and Bill Tanner to dole out exposition, alongside Desmond Llewelyn as Q and Lois Maxwell in her twelfth appearance as Moneypenny. More of a looming threat this time, Walter Gotell reprises the role of KGB head General Gogol, letting out a terrific laugh at the end. Cassandra Harris appears briefly in the thankless role of doomed Countess Lisl von Schlaf.

For Your Eyes Only is Roger Moore's most grounded but least memorable James Bond film by far. The stunt work and set pieces are relatively mundane compared to spectacular heights the franchise had previously reached. Hinging on a predictable twist, the picture ultimately lacks the whimsical spirit of the series' best and worst entries.


THE COLD OPEN
Completely divorced from the rest of the film, Bond visits Theresa's grave and survives an attempt on his life by a bald man in a wheelchair with a white cat on his lap, concluding with Bond dropping the villain down an industrial smoke stack. It's a dopey sequence made even sillier by Thunderball writer Kevin McClory's legal dispute with Eon Productions preventing the producers from officially identifying Bond's uncredited nemesis as Blofeld.


THE THEME SONG AND OPENING TITLES
The third James Bond theme song to be nominated for an the Best Original Song Academy Award, Sheena Easton's "For Your Eyes Only" written by composer Bill Conti is a pleasant enough love ballad but it isn't one of my favorites. As opening title designer Maurice Binder liked Easton's appearance, she appears alongside the usual selection of nude models in the strange literally bubbly sequence so that it plays almost like a standard 1980s music video. Approached by the producers of the film, rock band Blondie recorded a theme song for the film but it was rejected in favor of Sheena Easton's track.


THE BOND GIRL
Melina Havelock is one of the stronger Bond love interests, with her own apolitical mission that she could have carried out alone. She may also be the least fun of all of Bond's lovers, without much of a personality aside from her quest for vengeance.


THE BOND VILLAIN
Aristotle Kristatos is the most mundane Bond villain. Though he seems to have an unhealthy preoccupation with Bibi, acting as her sponsor, there is little that makes him stand out from other big bads and his plot to retrieve and sell the ATAC to the Soviets while shifting suspicion to his former smuggling partner Columbo is the least impressive evil scheme of the entire series.


FEATURED HENCHMAN
Emile Leopold Locque is the least memorable henchmen of the franchise though he's the only one who leaves any sort of a meaningful impression in this film. His look anchored by a set of octagonal glasses is more dweeby than intimidating. The way Bond kicks his car down a cliff is really damn cold.


FEATURED GADGET
The giant Identograph computer put to work in identifying Loque is hilariously giant and impractical, filling up an entire room in Q's lab.


FLEMING FIDELITY
The film is adapted from two of Ian Felming's James Bond short stories published in 1960 in the collection entitled For Your Eyes Only, the title story and Risico. The murder of the Havelocks was adapted from the collection's title story in which M offers Bond an off-the-books mission to avenge their deaths at the hands of Cuban assassins hired by ex-Nazi Herr von Hammerstein. When Bond tracks down von Hammerstein, the Havelocks' daughter Judy is one step ahead of Bond, killing von Hammerstein with an arrow from 100 yards away as he dives into a swimming pool, directly inspiring the scene in Spain depicted in the film. The character of Aristotle Kristatos, his betrayal of Colombo, and his collusion with the Russians is adapted pretty faithfully from Risico.


FRAGMENTS
- Regular Rocky series composer Bill Conti provided the score for the film as series regular composer John Barry was unable to work in the UK for tax reasons at the time

- Out of respect for M actor Bernard Lee who passed away in 1981, producer Albert R. Broccoli refused to recast the role of M for this film

- Julian Glover had been shortlisted as a possible Bond for Live and Let Die but ultimately lost out to Roger Moore

- Claus, one of Loque's underlings, is played by a Charles Dance, best known for playing Tywin Lannister on Game of Thrones

- Cassandra Harris and her husband, future Bond actor Pierce Brosnan, lunched with Albert R. Broccoli during filming

- At the bottom of the end credits, the film advertises that "James Bond will return in Octopussy"