# Which was the best Roger Moore Bond film? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 24, 2012, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-was-the-best-roger-moore-bond-film/638723 "2012-10-24T13:16:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2012, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-was-the-best-roger-moore-bond-film/638723/21 "2012-10-24T18:38:38Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > _For Your Eyes Only_, without a doubt. > > After the wretched excess and puerility of the 1970s Bond films, especially the Star Wars-influenced _Moonraker_, this was a welcome return to the older Bond, as indicated by the initial reference to Tracy as the very first shot in the film, and the tying up of the Blofeld loose end. As in _On Her Majesty’s Secret Service_, they got awayu fro m excessive gadgetry for any serious purposes, and got back to Bond’s self-reliance and his love of gaming. And, for the first time since OHMSS, the plot was mainly derived from a Fleming story. It was Bond Lite, but it harked back to the best of early Bond. > I thought the next film, _Octopussy_, started out well (I could ignore some of the typical Bond idiocy in the opening) , but they got really stupid halfway through. Completely agree. The rest of the Moore Bond films suffered from terminal silliness; only FYEO managed to avoid that. I don’t know what stars happened to be aligned when they made it, but it was a one-shot deal, then they were right back to the silliness. By the by, **CalMeacham** , I just saw “This Island Earth” and finally grok your username! Bravo. ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2012, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-was-the-best-roger-moore-bond-film/638723/22 "2012-10-24T19:34:11Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > _For Your Eyes Only_, without a doubt. This. For the reasons you gave. Though the rock climbing scene bothered me. Technically it was fine more or less and as a former climber myself I did like seeing Bond using his boot laces to fashion prusik ascenders where most action heroes would simply hand-over-hand it up the rope. No, my problem was when the henchman starts knocking out the pitons one by one. **Why not simply cut the rope?** Hard to believe that any henchman worth his salt didn’t have a knife but if he didn’t, then why not shoot the rope? ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2012, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-was-the-best-roger-moore-bond-film/638723/23 "2012-10-24T21:38:13Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > Completely agree. The rest of the Moore Bond films suffered from terminal silliness; only FYEO managed to avoid that. What about the end scene? ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2012, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-was-the-best-roger-moore-bond-film/638723/24 "2012-10-25T00:20:21Z")
standingwave: > [@](#): > > No, my problem was when the henchman starts knocking out the pitons one by one. Why not simply cut the rope? Perhaps it wasn’t a simple fabric rope, but a cable made of sturdier material. Still, stupid henchmen are par for the course in Bond movies. Love and Let Die always bothered me because of the scene in which Tee Hee had Bond at gunpoint…and used that not to shoot him, but to force him onto an island to which he then attracted crocodiles??? IF YOU WANT HIM DEAD, AND YOU HAVE A GUN, SHOOT HIM! ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2012, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-was-the-best-roger-moore-bond-film/638723/25 "2012-10-25T00:52:37Z")
_The Spy Who Loved Me_. Great song, great opening scene, iconic parachute, Barbara Bach, and a reasonably decent plot and ending, though admittedly bordering on the coming over-blown stupidity that seriously debuted in _Moonraker_. ---
**Author:** ![BMax](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bmax/32/4267_2.png) [@BMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMax)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2012, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-was-the-best-roger-moore-bond-film/638723/26 "2012-10-25T00:52:51Z")
Asking which Moore Bond film is the best is asking which is the best of the worst Bond films. Live and Let Die was the first Bond film I ever saw. I was 9 years old, my dad’s visitation weekend, he took me to see it in a theater. Loved the theme song, the occult stuff and all the crazy blacksploitation in the background. I was too young to get the over-the-top comedy of putting James Bond in that element, but as a kid growing up in St. Louis I enjoyed seeing a honkey be so cool and calm in that environment, when my culture told me it was dangerous for a white person to go alone into black neighborhoods. ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2012, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-was-the-best-roger-moore-bond-film/638723/27 "2012-10-25T01:48:17Z")
_The Spy who Loved Me_ is probably the quintessential Moore era Bond and if I could vote for two it would be it and _For Your Eyes Only_, Having said that, I think FYEO is a far better film. ---
**Author:** ![phxjcc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8491ac/32.png) [@phxjcc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phxjcc)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2012, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-was-the-best-roger-moore-bond-film/638723/28 "2012-10-25T01:52:32Z")
> [@Suburban\_Plankton](#): > > _Live and Let Die_ > > Paul McCartney’s theme song > Yaphet Kotto as the villain > Alligators > World-record speedboat jumps > > And Jane Seymour 😃 +… The boat chase scene. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2012, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-was-the-best-roger-moore-bond-film/638723/29 "2012-10-25T09:10:23Z")
_For Your Eyes Only_, for \*\*Cal Meacham’s \*\*reasons. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2012, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-was-the-best-roger-moore-bond-film/638723/30 "2012-10-25T11:17:42Z")
For Your Eyes Only, followed by Spy who Loved Me and Man with the Golden Gun. Of course none of them could compare with his best Bond film, [Ffolkes](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081809/). He played the Bond of Fleming’s books in that. Why the hell did he not do it in Broccoli productions, sigh. He is the Natalie Portman of James Bond actors. His movies are as good as his mood when making them, he can be brilliant in some, awful in others. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2012, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-was-the-best-roger-moore-bond-film/638723/31 "2012-10-25T11:58:08Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > For Your Eyes Only, followed by Spy who Loved Me and Man with the Golden Gun. Of course none of them could compare with his best Bond film, [Ffolkes](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081809/). He played the Bond of Fleming’s books in that. Why the hell did he not do it in Broccoli productions, sigh. > He is the Natalie Portman of James Bond actors. His movies are as good as his mood when making them, he can be brilliant in some, awful in others. While **ffolkes** \* was an interesting flick, it wasn’t Bond, especially Fleming’s Bond, by several light years. A bearded hero who likes cats, knitting, and _hates women_!!! Not even close. \*The movie title and poster both feature a small letter “f” at the front, and the letter is doubled. Iconoclastic and eccentric all around, like ffolkes himself, and unlike Bond. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2012, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-was-the-best-roger-moore-bond-film/638723/32 "2012-10-25T14:02:33Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > The Roger Moore films, IMO, as a whole were not very good, but I’m going with _The Spy Who Loved Me_, for two reasons: the Lotus Esprit submarine, and Jaws. Agreed. I know there’s a lot of love for _Eyes_, but there are several things in that film that just ruin it for me: The opening sequence with not-Blofeld is ludicrous and and silly; Carole Bouquet shows all the acting range of a department-store mannequin and Lynn Holly-Johnson, cute as she may be, is teeth-grindingly awful. Not to mention the obvious recycling of the Karim Bey-like character in _From Russia With Love_ and the skiing sequences from _On Her Majesty’s Secret Service_. Things do pick up a bit in the last third, with that spectacular monastery setting. Oh, and I see it was directed by John Glen, which pretty much explains everything. Most consistently bad of the various Bond directors, IMO. Sorry. Jane Seymour is my favorite Bond Girl of the group, and _Live and let Die_ is something of a guilty pleasure for me, but IIRC that film and _Man With the Golden Gun_ came pretty close to killing the franchise. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2012, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-was-the-best-roger-moore-bond-film/638723/33 "2012-10-25T14:38:45Z")
I voted for _ **The Spy Who Loved Me** _, but the truth is, I enjoyed ALL of the Moore flicks except the wretchedly bad _ **Man With the Golden Gun.** _ Despite the fact that I liked Ian Fleming’s books, despite the fact that Timothy Dalton was my favorite Bond (his\*\*\* License to Kill \*\*\*was MUCH closer to Ian’s Fleming’s \*\*\*Live and Let Die \*\*\* than the Moore film of that name was)… I almost always had FUN watching Moore’s movies. As critic Vincent Canby observed, Moore’s _ **Moonraker** _ was MUCH funnier than The _ **The Nude Bomb** _, the Maxwell Smart spy comedy that was supposed to to spoofing James Bond. If you have a fixed image in mind of James Bond as a cold-blooded killer, you’re likely to think thta, say, Daniel Craig is the perfect Bond, and hate Moore for treating the role as a silly joke. But I disagree- I can like the campy comic approach to Bond AND the serious approach. Roger Moore played Bond with a wink and a nudge, and I usually enjoyed that. To use an example I’ve posted before… just as there’s plenty of room for Adam West’s campy, comic Batman AND for the Dark Knight, I can enjoy Roger Moore’s goofy Bond AND Daniel Craig’s grim 007. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2012, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-was-the-best-roger-moore-bond-film/638723/34 "2012-10-25T14:51:44Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > \*The movie title and poster both feature a small letter “f” at the front, and the letter is doubled. Iconoclastic and eccentric all around, like ffolkes himself, and unlike Bond. The doubled f isn’t iconoclastic and eccentric; it’s Welsh. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2012, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-was-the-best-roger-moore-bond-film/638723/35 "2012-10-25T14:56:08Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Iconoclastic and eccentric all around … unlike Bond. If you think Bond isn’t supposed to be iconoclastic and eccentric, I think you’re missing the whole point of ordering a “vodka martini, shaken not stirred.” I’m told he also prefers coffee to tea. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2012, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-was-the-best-roger-moore-bond-film/638723/36 "2012-10-25T20:01:29Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > The doubled f isn’t iconoclastic and eccentric; it’s Welsh. I know. But it sets him apart, which is my point ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2012, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-was-the-best-roger-moore-bond-film/638723/37 "2012-10-25T20:06:51Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > If you think Bond isn’t supposed to be iconoclastic and eccentric, I think you’re missing the whole point of ordering a “vodka martini, shaken not stirred.” I’m told he also prefers coffee to tea. Fleming said often enough that Bond wasn’t supposed to be eccentrivc – he was pretty much a blank slate who enjoyed Good Things, and he gave Bond that bland name to be in keeping with that philosophy. the preference for his Vodka martinis Shaken but not Stirred is pretty minor. I’m told that his choice of liquors for his the Vesper is more eccentric, but that never caught on. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2012, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-was-the-best-roger-moore-bond-film/638723/38 "2012-10-25T20:51:37Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > I can enjoy Roger Moore’s goofy Bond AND Daniel Craig’s grim 007. That’s how I feel about it too, which is why I voted “The Spy Who Loved Me” as the best Moore Bond film. It’s right up there with “You Only Live Twice” for mega-villain excess and silliness, and in a lot of ways, the goofy Moore Bond works better in that element than Connery’s Bond did. Also, TSWLM just was better than Moonraker or the other Bond mega-villain movies. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-was-the-best-roger-moore-bond-film/638723/39 "2012-10-26T09:11:51Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > Still, stupid henchmen are par for the course in Bond movies. Love and Let Die always bothered me because of the scene in which Tee Hee had Bond at gunpoint…and used that not to shoot him, but to force him onto an island to which he then attracted crocodiles??? IF YOU WANT HIM DEAD, AND YOU HAVE A GUN, SHOOT HIM! Compare his “crocodile bridge” scene to Daniel Craig on that crane in _Casino Royale_. It’s the difference between “working smarter” and “working harder.” > [@CalMeacham](#): > > While **ffolkes** \* was an interesting flick, it wasn’t Bond, especially Fleming’s Bond, by several light years. A bearded hero who likes cats, knitting, and _hates women_!!! Not even close. Critics of the Bond franchise (notably one Alan Moore of Northampton) have long felt that he doesn’t much like them either. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-was-the-best-roger-moore-bond-film/638723/40 "2012-10-26T11:42:57Z")
> [@](#): > > Critics of the Bond franchise (notably one Alan Moore of Northampton) have long felt that he doesn’t much like them either. But not in the same way. Even Alan Moore (who has voiced his disapprobation of 007 in several places) has to admit that he likes to seduce and bed women. Fleming explicitly points out how Bond has a soft spot for “birds with a wing down”, which is a helluva long way from the woman-hater Moore would have you believe. But ffolkes wants to have as little to do with women as possible – not associate with them, talk with them, or touch them. I think, too, that ffolkes didn’t drink. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-was-the-best-roger-moore-bond-film/638723.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-was-the-best-roger-moore-bond-film/638723.md?page=3)