The James Bond Film Festival. Part 12: For Your Eyes Only

Cafe Society
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The James Bond Film Festival. Part 1: Dr. No
The James Bond Film Festival. Part 2: From Russia with Love
The James Bond Film Festival. Part 3: Goldfinger
The James Bond Film Festival. Part 4: Thunderball
The James Bond Film Festival. Part 5: You Only Live Twice
The James Bond Film Festival. Part 6: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
The James Bond Film Festival. Part 7: Diamonds are Forever
The James Bond Film Festival. Part 8: Live and Let Die
The James Bond Film Festival. Part 9: The Man with the Golden Gun
The James Bond Film Festival. Part 10: The Spy Who Loved Me
The James Bond Film Festival. Part 11: Moonraker

The best thing about this one is the song by Sheena Easton.

Maybe that’s not fair. For Your Eyes Only was much better than the dismal Moonraker. A British spy vessel disguised as a fishing boat is sunk off the coast of an East Bloc country. On it is the ATAC, the Automated Targeting Attack Communicator, which the British use to coordinate their submarine fleet. If it should fall into the wrong hands, England’s enemies can use it to order the subs to attack her. The British have an asset in the area, Sir Timothy Havelock (Jack Hedley) who is searching for the missing vessel under the guise of an archaeological expedition. Minutes after his daughter Melina (Carole Bouquet) arrives aboard his yacht, Cuban hitman Hector Gonzales (Stefan Kalipha) strafes the boat and kills Havelock. Bond (Roger Moore) is sent to find Gonzales and follow the chain upwards to find out who ordered the hit, and by extension to find out who is trying to get the ATAC. He is captured by the bad guys, but Melina causes a distraction by shooting a crossbow bolt into Gonzales. They escape, but the bad guys have already found Bond’s white Lotus.

Bond and Melina escape in Melina’s bright yellow Citroen, which is over-horsepowered by the persuer’s cars. They escape, but Bond’s mission has been futile. He identifies the man paying off the Cuban as Emile Leopold Locque (Michael Gothard). Another MI6 asset, Luigi Ferrara (John Moreno) has information in the Italian Alps. There Bond meets Aristotle Kristatos (Julian Glover) who tells Bond that tells Bond that the man he wants is Milos “The Dove” Columbo (Topal).

Und so weiter. Pretty standard story. I’ll stop with the plot, and someone else can fill in the rest if they want.

The Alpine scenes harken back to earlier films, compete with a Big Ski Chase™. While I did like the bit with Bond skiing down the bobsled track, I didn’t find the chase very exciting. Basically all that happens in the Alps is that Locque tries to kill Melina, an East German biathalon athlete tries to kill Bond, Ferrara is killed, and Kristatos’s over-sexed Olympic-hopeful skater niece (“Bibi Dahl”, Lynn-Holly Johnson) tries to shag Bond. I just don’tthink it added anything to the story. The only thing Bond found out was that Columbo is the man he’s after.

But Columbo isn’t the man he’s after. I thought that was a nice little twist in the story. Of course, the suave Kristatos is really the bad guy.

One thing I found uproariously funny when the film came out was Bond’s “burglar alarm” on the Lotus. A bad guy tries to break in, and the car blows up. I know there have been times when I could have used such a device, after people have broken into my cars.

But For Your Eyes Only doesn’t have a particularly noteworthy Bad Guy. There are no Big Battles. It’s similar to From Russia With Love in that someone has a device and the British want it, and that it’s more of a “spy” movie than films such as Moonraker or You Only Live Twice. But that doesn’t save it. It needs a Big Finish. Instead there is a small-scale raid on a monestary and Bond ends up destroying the ATAC to keep it out of the hands of General Anatol Gogol (Walter Gotell), who just walks away.

It’s not a bad film, especially following Moonraker. I liked that they tried to cut the comedy and get into the cloak-and-dagger mode. It is entertaining. But in the end, the best part is the song by Sheena Easton.

Incidentally, I’m going on holiday starting next weekend and driving back from it the following weekend; so it might be a while before I post a thread for Octopussy. If someone else wants to start a thread for it, go for it. It would be nice though, if someone starts an Octopussy thread, if the title is The James Bond Film Festival. Part 13: Octopussy – Just to keep the threads consistent. Or, I’ll start the thread in a couple of weeks when I get back and that gives everyone extra time to watch it. :wink:

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I need to watch this again. The only thing I can remember about this movie is the video box, where Bond is visible through the girl’s legs. I always thought it was porn until we rented it.

I also remembered the chase in the yellow Citroen. Doesn’t he drive it off a cliff and land in an olive tree?

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Huh.

It takes all kinds, I guess.

This one was always my favorite of the Moore films, and probably my favorite Bond film overall. I like the twist in who Bond is pursuing. The raids on the warehouse and the monastery are both good action sequences. And after “Moonraker” and the last few prior movies, we finally get a realistic, non-jokey film overall. Most Bond villians and their schemes strike me as too over-the-top (taking over the world; or killing everyone on it), but “For Your Eyes Only” at least has a plausible real-world scenario.

Plusses: the warehouse raid (inspired many a “Top Secret” scenario back in my RPG days); Melina’s crossbow (always partial to 'em, and here it’s an “exotic” weapon that makes sense in context–and proves useful in the monastery raid); the “detente” ending (although it felt a bit dated in Reagan’s America); Bond getting chased in low-end, non-tricked-out vehicle and STILL getting away; and, yes, the anti-theft device on Bond’s car.

Minusses: that annoying skater bimbo; rather pointless biathelete baddy.

4

Are you kidding? I thought the skater bimbo was one of the funniest moments ever in the Bond movies.

I know they’re not supposed to be funny, but that was.

5

In my opinion, the best thing in this film was the final gag, in which a parrot poses as James Bond. (Could this gag have been done if Thatcher wasn’t PM? James Bond ain’t gay…but I guess saying “give us a kiss” to a man would be surprising.)

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I’d have to side with Manatee here… compared to the stinker that was Moonraker and ridiculous semi-stinker Spy Who Loved Me, I like the return to good ol’ fashioned East vs. West spy thriller. OK, “thriller” is a bit of a stretch, but go with it. The early 80s détente makes a better backdrop than the blaxploitation of the early 70s or the disco late 70s anytime.

Johnny, you completely left out the opening sequence! The part where Bond is “captured” by a dude in a wheelchair who’s obviously intended to be Blofeld, although we never see his face. I was expecting you to critique of that scene, especially as a helo pilot! :stuck_out_tongue: Anyway, Bond commandeers the hijacked chopper, picks up Blofeld and drops him down a smokestack, thereby disposing of him once and for all, as well as proving that the Bond franchise could live on without him. Speaking of continuity, isn’t this also the movie where Bond visits Tracy’s grave?

Good Bond quip, while spurning the advances of Bibi, the “skater bimbo”: “Now put your clothes back on, and I’ll buy you an ice cream.”

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This one marks the first time the singer of the theme song makes an appearance in the title credits…and DAMN if they did not make me slobber for Sheena Easton as a horny 13 year old.

But beyond that…we are definitly sliding down a slippery slope on the Bond series…meatball characters, no real suave fair from Bond who is just becoming such a tard IMHO. But then again, we are coming up to the time when someone figured out how to whore out Connery is by presenting him his weight in 100 dollar bills…coming soon.

Anyway, I agree with Johnny on this one. It has a certain blandness…no real flair other than the generic stuff. The lil skate vixen was cute but god that voice would kill a boner at 10 paces. Oh and I love the falling dummies off the monastary…easily the worse “bodies” they could afford.

A definite MEH…I will watch it, but only if nothing else is on.

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One of my favorites, probably b/c it was on HBO when we first got HBO and I have seen it many, many times.

Of note not already mentioned:

  • The Countess that sleeps with Bond and then gets chased on the beach and run over by Locque’s dune buggy was Pierce Brosnan’s first wife, who died of cancer.

  • Julien Glover was also the bad guy in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade who “chose poorly.” And for you Star Wars fans, he was General Veers in Empire Strikes Back. Boba Fett (Jeremy Bullock) was also in For Your Eyes Only very briefly.

Other stuff:

Carole Bouquet is my 2nd favorite Bond girl, behind only Daniela Bianchi. I went to go see Lucie Aubrac simply b/c she was in it. She still looks fantastic, although too bad she’s married to that drunken slob Gerard Depardieu. (Instead of this drunken slob). :slight_smile:

Watching Q construct Locque’s face on an old Vaxmate using what looks like Harvard Graphics 1.0 is high comedy these days.

My brother, an avid climber, laughs his ass off during the scenes when Bond is climbing up St. Cyrils. Apparently there are dozens of technical mistakes in that scene.

Family favorite lines:

“Oh, I smuggle. I smuggle gold, pictachio naaaahts…but no heroeeeeen.”

“The skiing is good at Innsbrook.”
“But not at St. Maritz.”
“Ferrara. Luigi.”
“Bond. James.”

(At confessional) “Forgive me father, for I have sinned.”
(Door slides open, it’s Q) “That’s putting it mildly, 007.”

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I was all set to critique it. Helicopters are inherently unstable and require constant, minute control inputs in order to fly. If the pilot had really been killed, the heli would have crashed immediately. But it was obviously under remote control. It works with models, why not a real one? (Although I wonder how the pilot could have missed the mechanisms during pre-flight.)

I was going to mention getting rid of Blofeld (EON lost a court case and didn’t have the rights to Blofeld or SPECTRE), but I forgot.

Yes. At the beginning, before he’s picked up by the helicopter.

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This one was almost good. Liked the more-or-less plausible and low-key spy plot. Hated the opening sequence with the helicopter. Liked Caroline Boquet and crossbow. Hated the whole sub-plot with Holly-Johnson (tres shaggable but egad, that voice). Liked the buildup to that spectacular monastary location. Hated the screwy bit with the parrot at the end. You get the idea.

IIRC this was the first of the series directed by John Glen, who had assisted on some of the previous films. He was one of the more competent directors, but IMO was handicapped a bit by a continuing trend toward duff scripts and a visibly aged Moore, who from this one forward, simply didn’t look capable of the stunts carried out by his doubles.

Glen did bring out the cruel streak that seemed so correct for Bond. One of my favorite scenes is the one where, after a lengthy chase, Bond stick out his foot and casually shoves a henchman’s car off a cliff, with henchman still inside.

Despite being a bit lackluster, this is actually one of my favorites of the Moore films. Something about that Adriatic scenery, I guess.

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Greatest. Movie. Poster. Ever.

Yeah killing Bloefeld (who it obviously is tho his name is not mentioned) was Cubby’s big “FU” to Bloefeld’s owners.

This film introduced Tula to the world – she is one of the Ladies sitting at the pool. If you don’t recall her 15 minutes in the 80’s she was born a man & the film makers didn’t know it.

Funniest moment, the one that all the films have and usually screw up the film worked in this one: when Q and Bond put the code in the booth. The noise the buttons make is Nobody Does it Better. (like the filmakers were trying to forget Moonraker)

I like this one better than Moonraker - worse than Spy. The second best Moore Bond IMO. It needed a good supervillian and I think it might have worked better. Still was OK.

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And now they’ve gone back to cartoonish F/X fests. :frowning:

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How did I miss this thread? I was looking for it. After panning all the Bonds leading up to it, I had to contribute to this one. I’d become convinced that Moore couldn’t do a good Bond film to save his life. He’d been in films that pushed Bond spectacle and F/X to the limit. Where else was there to go?
And then For Your Eyes Only came out.

My God. Moore can do a good Bond. The franchise wasn’t dead. This was the best Bond since…since… heck, since On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (And yeah, I mean that sincerely. I think OHMSS was one of the best).

It’s always a good sign when Bond films get nostalgic. Supposedly it’s to introduce new Bonds (I heard that they were considering someone else for the role initially), but in practice it seems to mean that they’re looking back over the series and remembering their roots. The film opens with a shot of Tracy’s grave. Right away I knew it was good.

Getting rid of “Blofeld”. Heck, I thought they were tidying up old business and making a link to the past, rather than saying “F you” to the holders of the Blofeld copyright.

Strong reliance on Fleming’s original stories – the titular “For Your Eyes Only” (which gave its name to the story collection it was in) and “Risico” (which is in that collection). They didn’t release a tie-in novel to this movie, not even a custom-written one. But they could have re-released Fleming’s story collection for this one, with considerable justification – it fitted the story line closer than Diamonds Are Forever did. It’s also the very last time they really could have done it – Octopussy was a pretty far cry from its inspiration, as were A View to a Kill and The Living Daylights.

They also take a bit from the novel Live and Let Die.

Bond relies on his skills rather than on Q’s props in this – always a good sign. He plays Baccarat and they even try to explain it to the audience.

Good theme song. Excellent choice to have Sheena Easton sing it on-camera during The Maurice Binder Show.
The best Bond in years, and one of the best ever!