With Roger Moore finally settling into the role of Bond in
“The Spy Who Loved Me”, the producers were left with only one final place Bond
hadn’t been…outer space (he almost got there in “You Only Live Twice” but was
stopped by Blofeld before he could get on the rocket). Bond would finally go
where he hadn’t before, even though he probably shouldn’t.
Having spent several movies just taking the title, a few
character names and maybe one or two scenes from Fleming’s original works, this
time out all they took was the villain and the title. The plot is partially a
retread of “The Spy Who Loved Me” (maniac wants to destroy humanity to create a
new perfect race underwater/in outer space) only with more silliness.
Jaws returns as comic relief (not that he wasn’t in “The Spy
Who Loved Me’, but here it’s even more obvious). Lois Chiles plays Holly Goodhead…a Fleming name if ever
there was one…a CIA agent who is far more attractive than Felix Leiter would
ever be. Michael Lonsdale plays the villainous Drax with a relish that almost
borders on ridiculousness, but seems “normal” in comparison to most of the rest
of the proceedings.
I have a love/hate relationship with “Moonraker”. It’s the
first (and only) Bond film I saw in theaters with my dad before he died, but
it’s also an absolutely terrible film. The only thing that does save it from
being the worst Bond film (which on most days is “The Man With The Golden Gun”)
is the fact that it’s silliness is entertaining at the end of the day. The film
is never boring, has a nice pace to it and does keep you laughing. Perhaps if
they knew then what we know now about space travel, it wouldn’t be as funny…but
probably not. Luckily, Moore’s next film would bring him back down to Earth.
“For Your Eyes Only” is most likely Moore’s best Bond film
(it’s a close race between this and “The Spy Who Loved Me”). Going back to the
start of the series and sticking close to Fleming’s stories, “For Your Eyes
Only” is much more serious in tone, which is a bit of fresh air for the usually
jovial Moore.
Taking two short stories by Fleming (the title story about a
woman out for revenge on the hit man who killed her parents and “Risico” about
two rival smugglers) and throwing in some political/technological Macguffins,
the film strikes the right note, keeps moving at a great pace and remains
exciting and “believable” throughout. Only the pre-credits sequence (featuring
an unnamed wheelchair bound Blofeld – we assume it’s Blofeld because of the
white cat and bald head -- trying to kill Bond via a remote controlled
helicopter) and the very end (featuring a Margaret Thatcher impersonator) veer
into the silliness of what has come before.
Moore reaches his peak as Bond here, but he's certainly showing his age (there's a point where he's running up some steps and you wouldn't be surprised if he started wheezing, threw up his hands, said "Fuck it" and started back down). The rest of the cast supports him nicely especially Chaim Topol and Julian Glover as the rival smugglers. Sadly missing is Bernard Lee as M who passed away before he could start shooting his scenes for this film. They were rewritten to include Chief of Staff Bill Tanner and Minister of Defense Frederick Gray (the former being a character from the novels who had yet to make it to the big screen and the latter being a creation for the series first appearing in "The Spy Who Loved Me" played by Geoffrey Keen who would continue to do so through "The Living Daylights").
From here Moore has nowhere to go but down...luckily, his last two films don't descend to the depths of blandness of his first two films.
Be seeing you.
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