For Your Eyes Only (1981)
Synopsis
Bond must retrieve a remote missile control device from a sunken British vessel off a Greek island before Grand Maester Pycelle can sell it to the Russians. Will he run out of oxygen before reaching the surface? Will he die from coral injury? Is it time to retire?
Particulars
Director: John Glen
Writer/s: Richard Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson
Producers: Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli
Stars: Roger Moore as James Bond, Carole Bouquet as Melina Havelock, Topol as Milos Columbo, Julian Glover as Aristotle Kristatos, Lynn-Holly Johnson as Bibi Dahl, Cassandra Harris as Lisl, The Countess Von Schlaf, Walter Gotell as General Anatoly Gogol, Charles Dance as henchman Claus, Desmond Llewelyn as Q and Lois Maxwell as Moneypenny.
Budget: $28 million
Shot: Greece, the Bahamas, the North Sea, Italy, Pinewood Studios
Based on: For Your Eyes Only (short story collection) the 8th book in Ian Fleming’s James Bond series
A modest return to form
I will try my very best not to refer to this film as For British Eyes Only, partly because not everyone has seen Arrested Development but also because I happen to kinda like it and want to show it some respect. For Your Eyes Only corrects some of the missteps of Moonraker and it feels more spiritually like a sequel to The Spy Who Loved Me, just as it was intended to be (before the gang got carried away with their Star Wars fandom).
I say ‘some’ because it’s still got plenty of the trademark silliness that defines the Roger Moore era. Its pre-credits opening sequence, for instance, where Bond dunks what is clearly supposed to be Blofeld (though they weren’t allowed to be explicit due to ongoingThunderball legal issues) into a brick chimney, is hilarious but pretty strange outside of the rest of the film’s goings on.
For the most part, the film achieves what director John Glen and writer Michael G. Wilson set out to do: dial back the outlandishness of Moonraker and take Bond “back to grassroots”. Here’s what works — and what doesn’t — about For Your Eyes Only.
Finally, some restraint
In both the Moore and Connery eras there are films — like Thunderball, like The Man with the Golden Gun — whose stories really lose my attention and result in me wondering what the fuck is going on and what Bond is actually trying to achieve. Not the case here, thankfully. With For Your Eyes Only the writers supposedly took inspiration from Goldfinger, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and Live and Let Die in crafting the story, supplementing the source material (two short Fleming stories) and resulting in a more followable plot.
For Your Eyes Only also opens with a mention of Tracy (Bond’s dearly departed wife), and I’ll take any sliver of lore continuity I can get.
Stunts of quality, not quantity
Thanks to the 1980 recession and a resulting budget cut, the filmmakers couldn’t just go ham the way they did on Moonraker. Instead, they had to be smarter with the money, spending it on a few properly impressive stunts. The Spy Who Loved Me stuntman Rick Sylvester returns for the sweaty-palmed abseiling drop off the side of Meteora as Bond takes the vertical route to St Cyril’s monastery, a scene which must surely have served as inspo for the Cliffs of Insanity in The Princess Bride.
Willy Bogner Jr, pro skier and former cameraman who was promoted to second unit director, devised the fabulous bobsleigh ski chase sequence in an attempt to surpass his work in On Her Majesty's Secret Service and The Spy Who Loved Me. Mission accomplished, I say.
I also found the sequence where Bond sustains multiple coral reef injuries while being dragged behind a boat pretty thrilling, even if I don’t believe for a second that 54-year-old Rog could then climb a mountain, bleeding and untreated, and not die from infection.
A decent supporting cast
Bond’s allies and enemies in this film are ‘Greeks’ Melina Havelock (the quite French Carole Bouquet, whom I know as Aleksandr Petrovsky’s ex-wife in SATC), Milos Columbo (the Israeli Chaim Topol) and Aristotle Kristatos (the British Julian Glover aka Westerosi Grand Maester Pycelle). Oh, plus Charles Dance as one of Aristotle’s goons.
But what they lack in cultural authenticity the supporting cast make up for in competence, likeability and feeling slightly like real people with real motivations (i.e. money).
Bond girl chemistry and agency
There’s an obscene 30-year age gap between Roger Moore and Carole Bouquet and obviously, upon seeing just how young Melina is when we’re introduced, it made me uncomfortable. Having said that, the pair spend most of the movie just working together as allies — Bond with his agenda, Melina with hers — and I hate to say it but they do genuinely have good chemistry.
I also appreciate that this film knows how fucking old Bond is at this point and ensures that he acts with propriety and restraint around the secondary Bond girl (Aristotle’s ice-skating prodigy ward who is obsessed with Bond and tries to sleep with him), gently shutting her down. Sean Connery would never.
Like many of the Moore era films, For Your Eyes Only still gets some things wrong. For one, Roger’s cars suck and the Lotus is no exception, making Melina’s little Citroën a welcome replacement after it self-destructs.
While I like Bill Conti’s score I find Sheena Easton’s title song super dorky, only exacerbated by her appearance in the credits sequence. The ego!
Finally, I spent some of the film wondering where M was. Turns out Bernard Lee had died prior to filming his scenes and the filmmakers didn’t recast the role out of respect. Vale, sir.
All in all, I think For Your Eyes Only is one of the better Roger Moore Bond films. It’s got lush locations, ocean shenanigans that I actually enjoyed (take note, Thunderball) and that balance of action, intrigue and drama that classic Bond films have.
RANKING CATEGORIES (70%)
Bond execution = 7
Villain = 6
Bond girl(s) = 7
Song = 4
Opening titles = 4
Plot/action/gadgets = 7
Franchise identity = 7
PERSONAL ENJOYMENT (30%)
7/10