For Your Eyes Only

After four movies in which the association between Connery's Bond and Moore's Bond was heavily downplayed, suddenly we are hit by a pretitle sequence that seems determined to remind the audience that the two are the same - or at the very least, Moore's Bond is the same man as Lazenby's. A visit to Tracy's grave (interestingly confirming that Tracy was murdered in 1969...so is For Your Eyes Only set twelve years after On Her Majesty's Secret Service?) is followed by an attack by a bald man with a white cat...hmmm, wonder who that can be. Seems to reinforce the idea that Blofeld was wearing a wig in Diamonds Are Forever, however, and ensures we won't ever be seeing Blofeld again. And we get a mention of Universal Exports being a cover for the Secret Service!

Aside from a gunbarrel sequence in which Bond is still wearing flares in the 80's, FYEO seems to be setting a completely different tone for the Bond films, no doubt helped by a new director helming the series. Indeed, Moore's attitude towards women in the previosu film has been replaced by a much more caring character who is a lot less indifferent towards the women he meets. When hit on by someone who is virtually jailbait, Bond actually has the decency to turn her down. Bond seems to be a reformed character - he doesn't even light up a cigar.

John Glen directs with the eye of an editor - obiviously as he has been doing editing duties on a number of the previous films - and as such the film holds together very well. Clearly Glen knows what he wants and how it is going to end up and film is very well put together. The best examples of these are the action sequences in the film. The scene aboard the St George's and the subsequent scene of the Havelock's murder are particularly intense. the pretitle sequence has some gorgeous photography above London. Glen manages to make a fair bit of difference to traditional action sequences such as the, by now compulsory underwater sequence, the ski sequence and the car chase. The latter, despite the movie seeing the return of the Lotus, is actually conducted in a Mini, which is a hilarious twist on the traditional idea. Of course all of these take place in some stunning locations we have rarely seen, such as Greece and Milan.

The story is loosely based on two of Fleming's short stories - "For Your Eyes Only" and "Risico", the former about the Havelocks being murdered by Gonzales, the latter about the rivalry between Colombo and Kristatos. The movie story ties these two stories together into an overall story about the sinking of a British ship and it's ATAC system. There is, in fact, quite a lot of story in the movie, and as such, after the title sequence, it is quite some time before Bond turns up as the story requires a kick start from a number of different directions.
Julian Glover, one of the many people considered to replace Moore for this film (hence the rather curious pretitle sequence), gives a superb performance as the very charmaing and manipulative Aris Kristatos. He quietly attempts to manipulate everyone around him into doing his dirty work, which for Bond requires him killing Colombo. When he dispenses with this facade, he becomes completely indifferent towards everyone, including his own men.

One of the highlights of From Russia, With Love was the brilliant cameraderie between Bond and Kerim Bey, and until now Roger Moore hasn't had someone with whom he can share that with (maybe excluding David Hedison's Felix Leiter). Topol plays Milos Colombo, a man who is apparently dating Countess Lisl (although she is a bit of a floozy as she quickly goes beyond her instructions to discover more about Bond and sleeps with him), and who, according to Kristatos, is the big bad villain of the piece. When Bond and Colombo meet, Colombo exudes even more charm and charisma than Kristatos. Topol manages to steal scenes even from Roger Moore, and Moore has a very good relationship Topol.

It's also worth mentioning there is another nice character who strikes up a good relationship with Bond and that is his contact in Cortina, Ferrara. They have a nice little moment, played extremely well by the two actors, where they introduce each other and as the two are not given a lot of screen time together, it helps tremendously in getting us to believe that Bond cares about this man. Indeed, to the extent where, for the first time in the series, Bond commits cold blooded murder of the henchman Locque, in revenge for Ferrera.

Indeed the brilliance of the relationship more than makes up for the sad loss of Bernard Lee who passed away before filming of this movie took place, and as such there is no appearance by "M" in FYEO. Instead his position is taken by James Villiers as Chief of Staff Tanner, miles away from his background appearance in The Man With The Golden Gun. In this movie he seems to have even more disdain for Bond than "M" did in a Guy Hamilton film. Tanner is backed up by the Minister of Defence who has, quite frankly, outstayed his welcome. In this movie he merely grunts his way through the film, at one point even getting a raised eyebrow from Moore when he grunts agreement twice in a row. The audience is with you all the way, Roger...

Conversely the regular appearances of General Gogol seem to be always on the mark. Going from "M"'s opposite to comedy relief, he now appears as Bond's chief rival, though in such a delightful way as, when Bond throws the ATAC over a cliff, Gogol is happily accepting of the situation. It also helps that, aside from a brief phone call at the beginning of the movie, Gogol doesn't say a word for his final appearances. Both Moneypenny and "Q" also return, although they are merely going through the paces in this film. That said, Glen is carrying on Gilbert's desire to have "Q"'s workshop become a sci-fi gadget convention.

No Bond movie is a true Bond movie without the gorgeous women and we get three women in this film. I've already mentioned Lisl, a rather curious character, played charmingly by Cassandra Harris (and is that our first glimpse of nipple in a Bond film??), but we also have Melina Havelock (Carole Bouquet) and Bibi Dahl (Lynn-Holly Johnson). Bouquet is stunning in the film, with a husky voice and a dab hand with a crossbow, and she really stands head and shoulders above her immediate predecessor and the other ladies in the film. Johnson, on the other hand, is good in her role, but it is a dodgy idea all round. She is clearly the desire of Kristatos and possibly even her trainer, Jacoba Brink, but to be honest, the paedophilic hints are distasteful even for a Bond villain, and lesbian paedophilia is even more at odds for the series. Thank God Bond himself manages to reject her advances.

On the music front there are a number of points to be made. Sheena Easton performs the title song and clearly impressed Maurice Binder so much he put her into the sequence itself - although she does appear to be naked. Bill Conti takes over the composing chores for the film and gives the film a really different edge to John Barry's ideas. Conti's music is very much a product of its time, but I can't help but love it. Sadly he does something ridiculously stupid and has the musical code for the door in "Q"'s lab be 'Nobody Does It Better'.

On the trivia front, how weird is it to see Charles Dance in one of his early film roles? And the dubbing on Blofeld sounds a lot like Robert Rietty. Also interesting is that Bond is no longer instantly identifiable by everyone he meets, but curiously Gonzales identifies as a British agent by his Walther.

Some small plotholes - it's never quite clear whether the sea mine that destroys the St Georges is an accident or deliberate. Who exactly did send the telegram to Melina to get her to come to Cortina? Bond didn't and no one else knew who she was. How on Earth can Kreigler be the East German champion, and dash off in the middle of competing to assassinate someone? Melina's actions are a little curious - why did she go to the casino where Bond met with Lisl?

This is a brilliant movie, but there are a couple of low points; Blofeld offering Bond a stainless steel delicatessan is just stupid, as well as making no sense at all. Sadly the man who sees something he believes comes from his drinking is back...again...and the ending is ridiculously stupid. Quite aside from the idiocy of having a parrot flirt with Margaret Thatcher, hasn't the MOD learnt not to put Bond in touch with high ranking officials?
Favourite movie order: 1. On Her Majesty's Secret Service; 2. Dr No; 3. Live And Let Die; 4. Thunderball; 5. For Your Eyes Only 6. The Spy Who Loved Me; 7. From Russia, With Love; 8. Goldfinger; 9. You Only Live Twice; 10. Moonraker; 11. The Man With The Golden Gun; 12. Diamonds Are Forever

Favourite Bond girl: 1. Claudine Auger/Dominio; 2. Diana Rigg/Tracy; 3. Carole Bouquet/Melina; 4. Barbara Bach/Anya; 5. Mie Hama/Kissy; 6. Daniela Bianchi/Tanya; 7. Ursula Andress/Honey; 8. Jane Seymour/Solitaire; 9. Lois Chiles/Holly; 10. Honor Blackman/Pussy; 11. Britt Ekland/Mary; 12. Jill St John/Tiffany

Favourite Bond villain: 1. Donald Pleasance/Blofeld; 2. Gert Frobe/Goldfinger; 3. Christopher Lee/Scaramanga; 4. Adolfo Celi/Largo; 5. Michael Lonsdale/Drax; 6. Yaphet Kotto/Mr Big-Dr Kananga; 7. Julian Glover/Kristatos; 8. Joseph Wiseman/Dr No; 9. Lotte Lenya/Klebb; 10. Telly Savalas/Blofeld; 11. Charles Gray/Blofeld; 12. Curt Jurgens/Stromberg