The film Text copyright Filmverdict 2006. Any film stills are copyright of their respective owners. Used without permission, sorry!
By the tenth instalment of EON's legendary franchise, co-producer Harry Saltzman had ended his relationship with Albert R. 'Cubby' Broccoli due to financial difficulties and the latter only had a working title by 1976. Luckily, the only real production error, simply because of hindsight, was the failure to continue negotiations with Steven Spielberg, stalling because Broccoli wanted to wait and see how "that shark picture turns out." However, Lewis Gilbert's second stab at the celebrated 007 series is his best effort after the universally mixed fondness of You Only Live Twice (1967). It also pushes Live and Let Die (1973) for Roger Moore's finest outing as James Bond in his third appearance as the uber-spy. The audience is treated to an acceptable level of Moore's tongue-in-cheek before the idiocies of his later efforts, and the gratifying storyline, even though outlandish, is most certainly suitable for a Bond picture. Jaws stands out as quite possibly the most famous henchman of the entire series, and even though he is a stone cold professional assassin, the comedic nature of the script encompasses his scenes in an almost David and Goliath nature with Bond. His boss, Karl Stromberg, is played very well by Austrian actor Kurt Jurgens, but the viewer is constantly thinking he is simply a poor man's Blofeld. The pre-credits sequence, Egyptian setting and Bond's underwater Lotus are brilliantly executed touches, but special credit goes to Barbara Bach in her role as Anya Amasova. This film marks quite possibly the worst portrayal of a heroine in a James Bond film, period.
The extras
Like all the 'Ultimate Editions', eagle-eyed collectors will not be overly enthusiastic about disc 2 for the simple reason that you always feel the distributors of these DVDs are still holding some extras back for possibly even more releases. Concern further grows when one notices the 'Special Edition' features are also included to make the new material look miniscule. However, you also have to realise that you cannot really get more complete than 'Ultimate', and virtually every avenue of where features could and would have been produced 30 years ago have been included. The Ken Adam tributes and production notes are excellent featurettes and, coupled with the overall improvement of the motion picture on DTS 5.1 Audio, make the DVD worth a buy for the devoted amongst you.
The summary
Like Connery's third outing in Goldfinger, The Spy Who Loved Me works a charm for Roger Moore. Everything about the film, ranging from the exquisite theme song to the vast, impressive sets makes this film a success, and, like every high-quality Bond film, it exceeds preliminary expectations.
