For Your Eyes Only (1981) As a lifelong Bond fanatic, we certainly couldn't ignore the 40th anniversary of Sir Roger Moore's 5th Bond film and the 12th in the official Eon Productions series.
Like every Bond movie, 'FYEO' has a full compliment of both rabid fans and detractors, who'll never stop debating each other about the film's pros and cons.
And why should we be any different? Let's plunge in......
Everyone knows the backstory legends about this one......after Bond's wild 'n crazy "Moonraker" fling into outer space, it was time to bring back him down to earth - by way of a much more grounded, earthly and realistic espionage caper, along the lines of "From Russia With Love" and "On Her Majesty's Secret Service".
With Bond films editor John Glen making his directorial debut (to continue on for all seven Roger Moore Bonds and the two with Timothy Dalton), FYEO mostly succeeded in its ambitions.
With only a few spurts of silliness, it's a rough, tough, fairly serious affair, but maintains the Eon and Ian Fleming gloss with its beautiful locations.
Does that make it a favorite with us?
Ehhh.....not so much. Though there's plenty of stuff in it we admire and respect, its stop-and-go pace made it less fun for us then, let's say "On Her Majesty's..." and the Sean Connery Bonds.
The highlights and lowlights:
Bond grieves for Diana Rigg's 'Tracy'.....a nice touchstone. With Moore's split-second moment of mourning in "The Spy Who Loved Me" and Timothy's Dalton's equally brief sad refection in "License To Kill", these became the only three times that reference Bond's one and only day of matrimony.
Bond dumps the unidentified Blofeld..... we realize this whole sequence was a big F*** You. to Kevin McClory and his neve rending lawsuits over control of the "Thunderball" copyright. In what other Bond film could you hear Blofeld's idiotic "I'll buy you a delicatesson in stainless steel!" Thrilling and silly all at the same time..
Sheena Easton in the credits.....another nice touch. Just main title maestro Maurice Binder, we had the hots for Sheena too.....
Bill Conti's score.....never been crazy about it and nothing's changed our mind. Some of it sounds like temp tracks left on the soundtrack until they found a better composer.
The indestructible Citroen.....here's where the film gained its high cred with the fans....blowing the sleek futuristic Lotus to smithereens and leaving Bond to outrace the minions in the dumpy, homely Citroen, introduced with a low comedy underscore by Conti. The car's a gem and so is the chase.
M replaced by Britain's favorite Upper Class Twit....we couldn't help but chuckle at the sight of Moore browbeaten and humiliated by the eternally snobby, sneering James Villiers, who specialized in playing unctuous uppercrusts. (Just imagine if this character sniped, "Try not to muck it up again" to Daniel Craig's Bond....heh, heh....)
Silent villains.....Michael Gothard has that extra creepy vampiric stillness about him, and that fine actor Charles Dance, overqualified for this role, gives great glowering stares. We'd even put John Wyman's man-mountain East German Kriegler into this category of silent thugs.....since his few speaking lines are clumsily dubbed, making him sound like a villain from a a cheap Eurotrash Bond knockoff.
Cortina winter smackdowns.....thrilling stuntwork with cycles, bobsleds and skis, but that ruinous stop-and-go pacing we spoke if sucks the overall energy out of it
Bibi Dahl......it really didn't look like Moore was holding on to the role past his age expiration date until "A View To A Kill", but the scenes between him and the bubbly ice skating Princess played by Lynn Holly Johnson got the ball rolling. Thank God the "I'll buy you an ice cream" gag line stopped their scenes from coming off as Lolita-Lite.
Bond executes Locque.....another scene that builds up the film's rep, even though Moore didn't think it fit his version of Bond. He's right about that, but the scene sure as hell fits the more violent, revenge-fuled tone of this film. Fine with us, that cold snaky bastard had it comin'.....
The Good Guy/Bad Guy Duo.....of the genial Topol and the nefarious Julian Glover, something unique to this film alone, as opposed to the usual world-dominating mastermind. Topol at least has some hammy fun with his role while Glover never made much of an impression on us, since his villainy's not made apparent til the last third of the film.
The final assault ......same thing we said about the Cortina stuff......individually jaw-dropping stunts, but the start-and-stop way all these sequences are strung out gives them no urgency or energy....... makes the whole thing play out like a mundane TV show. Where's the excitement? That's why this one could never ever be among our favorite Bonds......
Margaret Thatcher flirts with a parrot.....we don't mind this nearly as much as all the FYEO haters do. Sure, it's ridiculous and probably would've been more suitable for "Octopussy", but there she is, primping her hair at the thought of 007 asking for a kiss. But for us, it functioned as a last minute reminder that the Bond films are supposed to be fun, after all.
All things considered......as you can see, we've all kinds of mixed feelings out FYEO. But as a hardcore Bond-o-maniac, we're always gonna grade on a curve and round the rating upward.........3 stars (***).
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