Spy in July: Moore Than Any Other

The 12-year, seven-film "Roger Moore as Bond" era was, for all intents and purposes, a smashing success in its time. Yes, the Connery series of films was mostly better, more financially successful, and a more essential part of the zeitgeist, but the Moore films weathered a deluge of shiny, new franchises (like Star Wars and Indiana Jones) in the 1970s and 1980s. In other words, Bond was no longer the king of the movie world. He had some competition, but he managed to stay in business, and by the time Moore retired from the series after A View to a Kill in 1985, the character's longevity was no longer a question.

We aren't at that point yet, however. Where I last left the series, Moore had finally put all the pieces together with The Spy Who Loved Me, maybe the most ambitious film in the franchise thus far. But that's a mantle that won't last very long as the 11th official Bond film—1979's Moonraker—sends our hero into outer space for the first time.

Though the film takes its name from a Fleming novel, the story is the creation of screenwriter Christopher Wood. That said, it's a complete The Spy Who Loved Me rip-off, which was, in turn, a total You Only Live Twice rip-off. Instead of a billionaire eliminating the human race and starting a new one under the sea, Michael Lonsdale's Hugo Drax (a billionaire, as well) selects only the most perfect physical specimens to live on his massive space station while he wipes out those left on Earth.

Bond, of course, is on the case and gets some quick help from CIA agent Dr. Holly Goodhead (Lois Chiles). We see the return of Jaws (Richard Kiel), who's once again eager to sink his metal teeth into Bond's gullet Edward Cullen-style. And while it's a blast to watch Roger Moore (who's Bond is now well-defined and a lot of fun) cavort around in space, the story is messy, and the action is mostly unexciting. There's some good stuff here (John Barry's score is one of the series' best, and the opening sequence kicks some real ass), but Moonraker is lower-tier Bond for sure.

It was a huge financial success (it's the biggest pre-Brosnan film in terms of box office). That said, what do you do to top it? Smartly, the producers decided to scale things back for what's easily Moore's most down-to-earth Bond film. For Your Eyes Only feels like it's forgotten for exactly that reason, but a closer look will show you it's second only to The Spy Who Loved Me on the Moore pantheon.

The plot is simple: Track down an essential piece of equipment stolen from a sunken British submarine. Things get tricky when Bond realizes just how many people are out to get it. A pair of Greek smugglers get in on the game, with each telling Bond the other is up to know good. A beautiful woman wants a piece of the action, as one of the men involved killed her parents. Then, of course, Soviet General Gogol (M's counterpart who's back for the third consecutive film) sees an opportunity, and Bond is dispatched to clean it all up with as little mess as possible.

For Your Eyes Only is very reminiscent of From Russia with Love in scope and tone. Moore's patented brand of "suave goofiness" is reined in, and though it didn't quite work in the mostly silly Live and Let Die and The Man with the Golden Gun, it feels appropriate here. You won't mistake this Bond for Craig's or Dalton's, but it's a far cry from what came right before (and what will come immediately after).

Carole Bouquet (see also: Buñuel's That Obscure Object of Desire) is, like the film in general, underrated. Her Melina Havelock is incredibly determined and has an emotional backstory that makes much more appealing than some generic bimbo whose ass Bond likes. For the third time in three films, the filmmakers have given Bond a woman who's capable of holding her own—a reflection of how things were changing in the real world. It's quite nice.

I can't go any further without pointing out one major void in For Your Eyes Only. The character M makes no appearance in this film out of respect for Bernard Lee, the man who played 007's boss in every Bond film to this point, who passed away between this film and the last. I really haven't talked much about Lee; His time in each film is pretty minimal, actually, but his screen presence is so strong. Two M's have followed, but none touches Lee in terms of wit or entertainment value.

There was question whether Moore would return to the series following For Your Eyes Only, but the promise of a competing Bond film in 1983 made his inclusion (at least in the eyes of the producers) a must. The backstory is long and involves a writer named Kevin McClory, who was one of the men who originally penned the script for Thunderball, which, at the time, was meant to be the first James Bond film. Broccoli and Saltzman, instead, went with Dr. No, and a few years later, when it was time for a Thunderball movie, McClory sued. To sum up the aftermath, McClory was legally named the sole producer on the fourth official James Bond film, and all these years later, he thought it was time to remake that film in the image he originally intended. As such, Octopussy competed in the summer of 1983 against another James Bond film—Never Say Never Again. Who did McClory nab to play 007 for this film? None other than Sean Connery.

This is why Broccoli and Saltzman felt it might not be the time to test audiences with a new Bond. And they were right—it needed to be Moore. Octopussy is far from a great film, but the man is just terrific. It's right up there with his smarmy work in The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker. Tonally, this film is way too zany; Moore somehow manages to both reel it in and play up to it at the same time.

For a while, Octopussy was my least favorite James Bond movie. I thought the comedic touches were just disastrous (note especially Bond's jungle escape from villain Kamal Khan and his The Most Dangerous Game-esque hunting party), and the plot was impossibly convoluted. I've since come around to it a bit—thanks to Moore more than anything else—but there are so many other good or great 007 movies that, unless you're a completist, you probably don't need to waste your time with this one. (And a final note on Octopussy: As problematic as it is, it won the Bond vs. Bond competition of 1983 handily both in terms of money and quality. Never Say Never Again bombed and blows.)

That brings us to Moore's final film: A View to a Kill. This one is generally bandied about as the series' nadir. I'd argue it's not the worst film of the series, but it contains some of the worst sequences. In it, Bond is following a trail that involves some fixed horse races, microchip smuggling, and dangerous geology. Max Zorin (Christopher Walken) is the villain; His hench(wo)man is the mysterious May Day (Grace Jones).

For 45 minutes, the film moves along swimmingly. Bond races through Paris after a masked assassin who jumps off the Eiffel Tower. Then, he visits Zorin's stables under the guise of James St. John Smythe (pronounced, hilariously, about 5,000 times as "Sin-Jin Smithe"). He orders around his partner, Tibbett, around like a real asshole. And he's involved in a steeplechase that's both exciting and completely absurd.

Then, Tanya Roberts shows up. She plays a geologist (only the second-most ridiculous female casting in a Bond film...more on that later this month) on Zorin's trail, and she's as shrill and irritating as anyone who's ever appeared in one of these movies. She's not the only problem with the second half of this film. The action is limp, the antagonists are lame, and Moore has most definitely overstayed his welcome.

We say goodbye to Lois Maxwell in this film. She's played Moneypenny a whopping 14 times, and like Bernard Lee's M, her presence in the series will be missed. Beyond that, there's not much to say about this one. It's about on par with Octopussy, which means Moore (as good as he was in that one) probably should have exited after For Your Eyes Only. His tenure as Bond was long (as the title of this post suggests) and rocky, but he changed Bond at a time when the character really needed to change, and he gave us quite a bit of joy along the way.

And my ratings:
Moonraker—Stirred
For Your Eyes Only—Shaken
Octopussy—Stirred
A View to a Kill—Stirred

THE END
OF
"MOORE THAN ANY OTHER"

JOHN GILPATRICK WILL RETURN
in
"WHY SO SERIOUS?"