Bondathon: For Your Eyes Only

It’s plain and obvious that Moonraker was a disaster, and no one knew it more than EON productions. After hearing the reviews and starting to notice just how much they jumped the shark, they quickly re-evaluated the James Bond situation, and the first solution was to find a new actor for the role. By 1980, Moore was starting to show his age, and everyone knew that soon, he would have to step down from the role (which he ended up not doing until 1985). So, EON started playing around with new actors, but had no luck finding anyone who was available or wanted to play the role. So, Moore ended up coming back, and they just decided to take a more serious and down to earth tone with this next entry: For Your Eyes Only.

The film largely deals with Bond investigating the sinking of a British government ship named the St. Georges (which housed a very important missile guiding device known as the ATAC), and the sudden death of the last man to see her: a marine biologist known as Havelock. As he checks out Havelock’s killer, Gonzales’s villa, he comes across a man who paid Gonzale known as Emile Locque, wearing a dove pin which is revealed as the sign that he works for a man named Columbo (Topol), as revealed by Kristatos (Julian Glover).  Along the way he meets Havelock’s daughter Melina (Carole Bouquet), who’s out to get revenge on her father’s death. Eventually we find that Kristatos is the man behind it all, wanting to get the ATAC device found on the ship for himself. Bond, Columbo and Melina team up to take Kristatos down, killing Emile Locque along the way, and discovering that Kristatos has intentions to sell the ATAC device to the USSR, who would use it to control British missiles and possibly release world destruction. However, Bond eventually makes it to Kristatos, with aid of Columbo, and kills him, taking the ATAC for himself. The film ends with Bond throwing the device off a cliff, claiming, “détente,” to the USSR’s General Gogol.

I honestly can say with a straight face that this is my favorite film coming out of the Roger Moore era. I like the dark tone that it wore, and many of the scenes (including the death of Emile Locque, which involved Bond kicking his car off of a cliff in cold blood) fit a more realistic edge not found with most other Moore films. However, the movie isn’t without its comedic moments, most of which are well maintained, and don’t really upstage the settings and the events happening on screen, unlike Moonraker, that seemed to be more about the slapstick than anything.

The casting of the film is also well done. Moore is fantastic this time around as Bond, and even though he’s starting to show his age by this point, he manages to still pull off a rather dapper detective in most scenes. Julian Glover has always been one of my favorite actors in classic cinema, and it’s no different here. While he doesn’t particularly look very sinister, he pulls off being a double agent so brilliantly…it’s almost a precursor to his role in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade eight years later. Precision acting from Carole Bouquet and Topol also have a hand in making this one of the best ensembles in a Bond film for a long, long while. There’s no absence of  talent in anyone.

You may have guessed that I’m giving For Your Eyes Only a 5/5 stars. You have guessed correctly. I love it when Bond takes a darker image like this, because it shows some depth of reality to the character, and it kind of shows how such an event could possibly happen any day in this world. Very, very nicely done…if only you can keep it up. Such is the life of the Moore Bonds.