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For Your Eyes Only
(1981)
Reviewer: Joel
Version: Ultimate Edition
Number of discs: 2
Roger Moore's fifth appearance as James Bond is one of vast change from the disaster of 1979's Moonraker. The producers certainly made the correct decision with the realistic route the superspy takes with debutant director John Glen serving up a passable balance of fantastic sets, fewer gadgets and more believable villains. Moore can seem frustrated with his grittier alter-ego, but he ultimately delivers one of his best performances in the role with Glen and Albert R. Broccoli's vision dominating proceedings to a relatively successful degree. With silliness present in appearances both before and after this 12th EON film, Bond is obviously going to contain some elements of absurdity, but luckily scenes involving the 'youthful' nymphomaniac Bibi Dahl, Margaret Thatcher and Ernst Stavro Blofeld are kept to a minimum. The stunts are excellent though and cancel out the outlandishness of the aforementioned plot devices. A car chase involving a Citroen 2CV, a helicopter pre-credits sequence involving a certain "bald" villain (the term "Ernst Stavro Blofeld" is exempt from the credits due to legal trouble with Thunderball co-owner Kevin McClory), a ski chase, and extreme rock climbing all provide extra tension. These are all overshadowed however by a wonderfully executed scene of keelhauling as a well-portrayed but, for some reason, forgettable villain, Julian Glover's Aristotle Kristatos, sends Bond and heroine Melina Havelock (played with little flair by Carole Bouquet) for a trip along the shark-infested sea bed. Notably, this excursion underwater is the only interesting scene shot around the gorgeous coastlines of the film as the rest are overlong and seemingly unnecessary quests involving ugly yellow suits and robots.
As with most screenplays worked on by Michael G. Wilson, the actual plot about recovering an ATAC does take a back seat and it appears that only sheer acting and delivery of mediocre dialogue rescue the film. One of the lines of the series does crop up however as Bond calmly says to Bibi, "Yes, well, you get your clothes on and I'll buy you an ice-cream!" but not even classic lines like this can disguise the fact that Moore was becoming ridiculously older than his co-stars. Nevertheless, experience in the role never dwindles when it comes to the finished characterisation and Moore does deliver a fine performance. His scenes with Topol are memorable and he somehow makes the silent assassin Emile Locque, played by Michael Gothard, seem even more vicious with great eye interplay and reactive customs which one cannot imagine from Connery or Brosnan. Glen holds the whole thing together though at a time when the fan base could not cope with another misfire on the scale of Moonraker. Moore obeys his director's urges and creates a practical and sensible Bond adventure reminiscent of Connery's debut in Dr. No (1962), especially in the manner with which he kills Locque, exercising the character's "licence to kill" in a similar way to how Professor Dent was killed in the franchise's first outing. Roger Moore is very nearly "Ian Fleming's James Bond" for a change.
The extras
This 2-disc set is definitely one of the poorest in the whole series of 'Ultimate Editions' because of the lack of volume. The three commentary tracks are good, especially Moore's individual contribution. The 'Bond in Greece/Cortina' featurettes show a nice behind the scenes look at the shooting process but are only about five minutes long each. 'Neptune's Journey' illustrates the publicity tours the machine has been on and is a welcome inclusion, if only three minutes long. John Glen's introduction into the death of Locque is very average, even though we are additionally treated to the expanded scene and different camera angles. The first of the two deleted scenes is very interesting as we see Bond and Melina talk of the uber-spy's sex life, and in Hindsight, the producers were correct to exclude it from the finished film. The standard 'Inside' documentary basically just illustrates what true fans already know about how Bond kicking Locque's car of a cliff portrays a harder edge and helped strengthen the character and film as a whole. Also worthy of note, Glen states how he has a pigeon trademark in his films. The quote from Moore though, "There are two monks there who do not want us to film. I have no idea why!" is absolutely hilarious and definitely brightens the half an hour effort. Animated storyboards, a Sheena Easton music video and the standard image database round off an inferior package.
The summary
A pleasant trip back to old school 007 with John Glen managing to gain a good balance between the 'comical' and the 'gritty' Roger Moore.
