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IT'S HERE! IT'S FINALLY HERE!

For Your Eyes Only- 1981.

The 80s started off on a good foot for the Bond franchise as a whole and for Roger in particular. While not widely regarded as one of his best films, it is, in my honest opinion his best overall and definitely my personal favorite Bond film EVER (by a wide margin!).

Why though?

Since the Spy Who Loved Me, Bond was on a fast track to utter absurdity. The twin epics of TSWLM and Moonraker were no doubt great technical achievements and breathed vital new life into the franchise, they did have their... weaknesses, at least in hindsight. They tended to gloss over such trivial matters as plot and screenplay (especially Spy) in favor of humorous light-hearted adventure whether the supporting cast was up to it or not (again, particularly Spy).

FYEO shook Bond out of all that and returned him to his roots- Earthly spy-driven intrigue and mystery. It's not the extermination of the human race we are dealing with, it's the theft of a national security asset and possible sale to the Soviets. Bond gets out of his dilemmas not with fancy gadgets from Q, but by hard physical work and ingenuity. The scene where he is trying to ascend St. Cyril's monastery and Apostis is kicking away the anchors for example. Ingenuity, hard work, and a shoelace! And what do we get? Perhaps the most nail-biting stunt sequence in the entire franchise at that point.

Carol Bouquet is beautiful. While her acting may have been only a marginal improvement on Barbara Bach, it seems to suit her character better. The strong silent type.

I love Topol. I love Colombo. I wish he could have been a recurring character. He ranks up there with some of my favorite of Bond's allies, right next to Kamran Shah from The Living Daylights. Julian Glover is perfect. An almost Bondian suave in his own right.

The motives for all the characters are clear. The plot is simple allowing more time to be spent on the incidentals in each scene that add the precious realism to the story. No scenes like Bond's meeting with Stromberg where you are left wondering 'what was the point of that'??

Even the song by Sheena Easton- more than 40 years later, one of the most listen-able and just greatest songs in the franchise. And a woman so beautiful she had to be included in the opening credits! Never before or since.

The scenes in Cortina recall my love of Olympic sports.

Lynn Holly Johnson is an hilarious and welcome addition to the film as we see Roger, always so fond of the ladies as to treat every one of them like a potential lover, suddenly trapped trying to AVOID the obvious advances of a very under-aged girl! The scenes between them in Cortina provide welcome (and comical) contrast to the "Moore-mythos", which itself was simply a reflection of the free sex movement of the 1970s.

But this was the 80s now. And I would argue that, while the previous twin films -Spy and Moonraker- were the most financially successful of the franchise, the "new twins" of FYEO and Octopussy were, in fact, Roger's finest.

====================================================
As for KP, I decided to leave Ron out of this one. Not because I'm a Kigo-shipper. I am not. But because the physical parallels between Sheego and Carol Bouquet are too glorious to ignore.

So to all you Kigo shippers out there, this Bond is for your eyes only!

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Description
IT'S HERE! IT'S FINALLY HERE!

For Your Eyes Only- 1981.

The 80s started off on a good foot for the Bond franchise as a whole and for Roger in particular. While not widely regarded as one of his best films, it is, in my honest opinion his best overall and definitely my personal favorite Bond film EVER (by a wide margin!).

Why though?

Since the Spy Who Loved Me, Bond was on a fast track to utter absurdity. The twin epics of TSWLM and Moonraker were no doubt great technical achievements and breathed vital new life into the franchise, they did have their... weaknesses, at least in hindsight. They tended to gloss over such trivial matters as plot and screenplay (especially Spy) in favor of humorous light-hearted adventure whether the supporting cast was up to it or not (again, particularly Spy).

FYEO shook Bond out of all that and returned him to his roots- Earthly spy-driven intrigue and mystery. It's not the extermination of the human race we are dealing with, it's the theft of a national security asset and possible sale to the Soviets. Bond gets out of his dilemmas not with fancy gadgets from Q, but by hard physical work and ingenuity. The scene where he is trying to ascend St. Cyril's monastery and Apostis is kicking away the anchors for example. Ingenuity, hard work, and a shoelace! And what do we get? Perhaps the most nail-biting stunt sequence in the entire franchise at that point.

Carol Bouquet is beautiful. While her acting may have been only a marginal improvement on Barbara Bach, it seems to suit her character better. The strong silent type.

I love Topol. I love Colombo. I wish he could have been a recurring character. He ranks up there with some of my favorite of Bond's allies, right next to Kamran Shah from The Living Daylights. Julian Glover is perfect. An almost Bondian suave in his own right.

The motives for all the characters are clear. The plot is simple allowing more time to be spent on the incidentals in each scene that add the precious realism to the story. No scenes like Bond's meeting with Stromberg where you are left wondering 'what was the point of that'??

Even the song by Sheena Easton- more than 40 years later, one of the most listen-able and just greatest songs in the franchise. And a woman so beautiful she had to be included in the opening credits! Never before or since.

The scenes in Cortina recall my love of Olympic sports.

Lynn Holly Johnson is an hilarious and welcome addition to the film as we see Roger, always so fond of the ladies as to treat every one of them like a potential lover, suddenly trapped trying to AVOID the obvious advances of a very under-aged girl! The scenes between them in Cortina provide welcome (and comical) contrast to the "Moore-mythos", which itself was simply a reflection of the free sex movement of the 1970s.

But this was the 80s now. And I would argue that, while the previous twin films -Spy and Moonraker- were the most financially successful of the franchise, the "new twins" of FYEO and Octopussy were, in fact, Roger's finest.

====================================================
As for KP, I decided to leave Ron out of this one. Not because I'm a Kigo-shipper. I am not. But because the physical parallels between Sheego and Carol Bouquet are too glorious to ignore.

So to all you Kigo shippers out there, this Bond is for your eyes only!

Previous entry

Next entry