Another scene is from the novel LIVE AND LET DIE, but wasn't in that film. Bond and Melina Havelock have been captured by Kristatos and are tied together face to face. Kristatos then pulls them by rope through the water behind his boat. His intention is that the couple will scrape over the sharp coral and attract sharks. (In the novel, it is Solitaire who shares this plight with Bond.) But in the film, they escape when Bond uses the coral to cut the rope binding his wrists during a pause as Kristatos' boat turns around for another run over the coral. Melina has left some air tanks on the ocean floor earlier, so she and Bond swim to them. Kristatos believes the two are dead when he sees that the rope is free. In no other sequence has a Bond heroine shared such a fiendish ordeal with 007.
Even something of a political statement is made in the new film. At the end, when General Gogol of the KGB arrives by helicopter from Moscow to retrieve the ATAC from Kristatos, Bond throws the machine off the mountain. The ATAC shatters into a thousand pieces. "Now neither of us have it," Bond says to Gogol. "That's détente, comrade." Gogol, after a pause, finally smiles. (Do these gentlemen forget they became allies during The Spy Who Loved Me?) Gogol turns, and leaves in his helicopter. Bond hasn't been successful in retrieving the ATAC for Britain, but he has kept it out of the Russians' hands. This passage cunningly suggests the possibility that the entire arms race could be the foolish pursuit of a MacGuffin.
As usual, there are some funny one-liners. One of the most memorable is when Bond unexpectedly finds young Bibi in his hotel bed. Bibi is a teenage Olympic ice skating protégée, and the ward of Kristatos. Bond avoids her advances gallantly, and finally tells her, "Now get dressed and I'll buy you an ice cream."
DIRECTION
John Glen follows in Peter Hunt's footsteps by making a very impressive directorial debut with For Your Eyes Only. Glen is immediately a good storyteller, and the technical aspects of the film are flawless. Above all, Eyes Only is a good action picture. It contains the best collection of stunt work in the series. There is a unique car chase; an exciting ski pursuit followed by a bobsled/ski/motorcycle romp; a fight on an ice hockey field; and plenty of fist fights and underwater battles. There are even a few old-fashioned shoot-em-ups with men running about and guns blazing, like the gypsy camp battle in From Russia With Love.
Glen maintains a serious tone in the film, despite the usual gags that always pop up in a Bond picture. The film does recall the feel of From Russia With Love and On Her Majesty's Secret Service; not only because of the outdoors look and the Fleming story, but because the characters treat everything seriously. It isn't only fantasy we're dealing with this time—the people are important.
This is especially true in Glen's handling of the Melma Havelock character. She is very serious about avenging the murder of her parents. There is a marvelous closeup of her teary-eyed face just after she has seen her parents murdered. The shot captures Melina's anger, sadness, and confusion in a swirling moment while dramatic music complements the beauty and rage in her face.
Deaths are presented more in the style of Terence Young—realistically. The Havelocks are shot down aboard their yacht by hit man Gonzales. Their bodies are riveted with bullets. Melina receives satisfaction when she shoots Gonzales in the back with an arrow just as he is diving into his swimming pool. A little more blood than usual is seen here. Contessa Lisl is hit by a jeep, and it certainly appears painful. But there is one moment of violence in the film which is extremely funny, and it's one of the best jokes. Bond, Columbo, and party are sneaking up to the monastery where Kristatos is hiding. Melina has wounded a guard in the arm with an arrow. He is gagged and tied, but is moaning and making noise. Melina wants to stay and help the man; but Columbo tells her to go on with the others, and that the man will be fine. As soon as she exits, Columbo knocks the man out and says, "Sorry."
Glen's tempo is slightly slower than that of Gilbert or Hamilton, but it complements the mood of the story. Glen succeeds in drawing good performances from his cast, as well as from his designers and technicians. He does a very admirable job indeed.
ACTORS AND CHARACTERS
One of the best things about For Your Eyes Only is that we finally are able to see Roger Moore get knocked about a bit. Bond goes through all kinds of hell in this one: he must hang on for dear life to a berserk helicopter as it tries to shake him off like a bug; he must survive a car wreck in a small Citroën; he is abused by three ice hockey players in full uniform on an empty ice field; he is attacked by an extremely powerful adversary in a "JIM" diving suit while underwater; he is dragged over coral; and he is dropped fifty feet from a cliff only to be caught by a rope tied around his waist. And Moore, for once, means business. It's his best performance as Bond to date.
Bond as human fly. Roger Moore climbs a steep cliff to the abandoned monastery used by Kristatos as a hideout in For Your Eyes Only. (Photo by Rick Sylvester, courtesy of Steven Jay Rubin.)
Moore told reporters at a press conference that he didn't particularly like the "toughening" of the character for this film. It is true that the film is devoid of many Moore-isms, and Bond relies on physical strength rather than gadgets and one-liners to overcome obstacles. But this is who Bond really is, and Moore is finally afforded an opportunity to be tough. There's a satisfying moment when Bond chases Emile Locque's car to the edge of a cliff. Earlier in the film, Locque (one of Kristatos' henchmen) killed Bond's friend Ferrara, and left Columbo's pin on the body in order to frame the Greek. Locque's car is balanced precariously on the edge of the cliff. Bond calmly walks to the car. Locque is shaking, for the slightest motion might upset the balance of the auto. Bond tosses Columbo's pin to Locque and says, "I believe this is yours." Moore delivers the line with contempt. He then kicks the car, and it falls over the cliff. Moore has never been meaner.
Additionally, Moore is looking his age in the film. (He's a little older than Sean Connery.) No attempts are made to cover this up, and it works very well. Bond in this film seems to be resigned to the fact that he's getting older. He appears more world-weary, and this accords neatly with the identity of the literary Bond. Sean Connery's Bond would probably have taken up Bibi's offer to hop into bed. But the new Bond resists the young girl's advances with fatherly amusement. It's almost as if we're finally seeing James Bond act his age.
Melina Havelock is played by the beautiful Carole Bouquet, who was "half" of Luis Bunuel's That Obscure Object of Desire. Miss Bouquet benefits from one of the best-written parts for a Bond heroine in quite a while. This time, she has a real purpose in the story, rather than acting as the sex object of the film. Melina is out for revenge, and her Greek background emphasizes this. Miss Bouquet's performance is one of conviction and strength. She is especially good with the dramatic scenes, such as the one in which Bond forces her to go home from Cortina and wait for him at her father's yacht. She knows he is right, but is fighting the will to continue her quest.
Kristatos, likewise, is the best-written villain in years, and Julian Glover's performance ranks with those of the early adversaries. Kristatos is not a megalomaniac hiding in a super headquarters with hordes of guards working for him. He is simply a rich crook. Glover plays Kristatos straight. The character is a human being, and a rational one at that Again, the emphasis in the script on real characters has given the actor something to work with, and Glover creates a menacing adversary.
Topol's performance as Columbo equals that of Pedro Armendariz's portrayal of Kerim Bey. It's the same type of character—an ally with a heart of gold. Kristatos, at first, attempts to lead Bond to believe that Columbo is the real villain. But Columbo proves this wrong by first abducting Bond, then explaining the situation, and handing back Bond's gun and ammunition. This, to Bond, is the act of a trustworthy fellow. Topol brings warmth, joviality, intelligence, and much depth to the character. His performance is a joy.
Lynn-Holly Johnson is Bibi. Bibi's sponsor and guardian is Kristatos, with whom she lives, along with her instructor Miss Brink (played by Jill Bennet
t). Bibi is a beautiful, precocious nymphet who falls all over Bond; she soon reveals to him that she isn't the innocent, virginal young thing she appears to be. The character was apparently added for comedy, and this Miss Johnson accomplishes. Her enthusiasm is infectious, and she provides some of the film's more humorous moments. Miss Brink, on the other hand, is cold and domineering. But she turns out all right in the end.
There are three important minor villains in the film. The first is Emile Locque, played by Michael Gothard. He is employed by Kristatos to kill the Havelocks. Locque is nothing but an assassin, and Gothard gives an intense performance. The second is Eric Kriegler, a Russian agent working with Kristatos and Locque. Kriegler, played by John Wyman, is a champion skier and rifle marksman. He is the film's obligatory super-strong henchman, but his character never goes beyond believability. The character also provides added dramatic tension when he turns against Kristatos toward the film's end and orders him to hand over the ATAC. The third is Gonzales, the Cuban hit man who is hired by Emile Locque to kill the Havelocks. Gonzales is played by Stephen Kalipha, but he doesn't stay around very long. Melina Havelock shoots him with an arrow in the first half hour.
John Moreno plays Luigi Ferrara, Bond's contact in Cortina. Ferrara is the first of the film's two Obligatory Sacrificial Lambs. Ferrara isn't on screen long—he's bumped off in a parking lot while Bond is inside a skating rink visiting Bibi. The second and more important Obligatory Sacrificial Lamb is Contessa Lisl, played by Cassandra Harris. Lisl is some kind of rich society lady and a friend of Columbo. Columbo asks Lisl to persuade Bond to come home with her so that he can abduct him and explain that it is Kristatos who is the true enemy. Lisl succeeds in getting Bond home and in bed, but the next morning she's not so successful getting out of the way of Emile Locque's jeep. The woman is brutally run over on the beach before Bond can save her. It's a classic Borid situation: after a night of love-making with a woman he has just met, Bond witnesses her death at the hands of the villains.
And of course, the series' regulars all make their appearances. General Gogol makes a third appearance. Q doesn't supply Bond with a gadget, but shows him how to work an Identigraph machine. This is actually from the GOLDFINGER novel (in which it is called the "Identicast"). The Identigraph's screen can illustrate a person's facial features as they are described to the machine. This sequence is an interesting variation on the Q Branch scenes. Lois Maxwell's Miss Moneypenny explains that "M is on leave," when 007 shows up at the office. In M's place are Minister of Defense Frederick Gray and Chief of Staff Bill Tanner (played by James Villiers). Villiers does not quite fit the picture of Tanner that is painted in the novels—Tanner should be a more athletic type, like Bond. But supposedly, this substitution for M was made at the last minute. Bernard Lee passed away just before his scenes were to have been shot.
OTHER ASPECTS
Technically, For Your Eyes Only has a polished, slick look. Peter Lamont makes his debut as production designer after working for the series in many capacities since Goldfinger, mainly as art director. His location work is outstanding, and the interiors of the St. Cyril monastery are worth mentioning. A former Bond second unit cameraman, Alan Hume, is director of photography. His work yields one of the most colorful of all Bond films. John Grover edits the picture with a steady pace which gains momentum throughout
The underwater photography by Al Giddings is especially beautiful. The film features two underwater fights in a row, and they are spectacular. The first is between Bond, in a deep sea diving suit, and a man wearing an armored "JIM" diving suit. The second is between Bond and Melina's two-man lockout submarine and an insectlike one-man Osel "Mantis" submersible with mechanical manipulators.
Remy Julienne orchestrated an interesting variation on the Bond car chase. This time, Bond has no souped-up car bristling with gadgets and weaponry. (In one of the movie's best humorous passages, Bond's "burglarproof" Lotus Esprit explodes in the faces of two overcurious guards.) Bond and Melina are forced to escape Gonzales' guards in her buglike 1980 Citroën. A Citroën can withstand tremendous punishment, and this one crashes at least three times during the pursuit. The original element of this chase is that the small size of the car becomes an advantage on the winding, downhill road on which the sequence is filmed.
The fantastic ski scenes were again filmed by Willy Bogner, Jr. At one point, Bond, on skis, escapes from Kriegler's motorcyclists by jumping onto a bobsled run. He just happens to jump onto the run behind a speeding bobsled! Much to his chagrin, the motorcycle follows him onto the run. Thus, we are treated to some dangerous stuntwork as a bobsled, a man on skis, and a motorcycle tail each other at tremendously high speed on a winding, curving bobsled chute.
But the best stunt in the film belongs once again to Rick Sylvester, who performed the ski/parachute jump at the beginning of The Spy Who Loved Me. Bond is climbing the columnar mountain on which the St Cyril monastery is perched. Using an elaborate set of ropes and stakes, Bond slowly makes his way up until a guard hears him. The guard begins extracting the stakes from the rock. When only one remains, Bond drops almost one hundred feet, jerking to an abrupt halt upon reaching the limit of the rope tied around his waist. Sylvester doubled Moore, using a special sandbag pully system to ease the impact of the fall. It could easily have broken his back.
The film features a new composer, Bill Conti. Conti's work is very brassy (witness Rocky). It is a different sound for a Bond film, but the score works because it is loud and energetic. The main title theme, with lyrics by Michael Leeson and sung by Sheena Easton, is terrific. It became a big hit single and was nominated for an Academy Award as well. Maurice Binder's accompanying credits design features Ms. Easton herself, swirling amidst the silhouetted female nudes and rotoscopes of Roger Moore. It is the first time the vocalist has been seen in the title design.
OCTOPUSSY (1983)
PRODUCTION
The thirteenth Bond film, released in June 1983, begins with an unfamiliar logo: that of the MGM lion. (MGM merged with United Artists in 1982.) But the United Artists logo immediately follows and the traditional gun-barrel sequence propels Roger Moore into his sixth outing as 007.
Advance word on the film had promised that it would follow the direction taken with For Your Eyes Only, i.e., a more serious approach akin to the early films. Director John Glen was quoted as saying that From Russia With Love was the style model. This all made sense, seeing that Octopussy would most likely be competing with the rival Bond picture, Never Say Never Again (which promised a "straight" approach), due to be released in the fall. For the most part, Octopussy delivers what was promised, but there are many moments in which the film regresses to the juvenile humor of the other Bond films of the seventies. As a result, Octopussy only captures the original essence of Fleming's Bond and/or the early films in scattered sections. Octopussy has nowhere near the merit of For Your Eyes Only, but it's much better than, say, Live and Let Die or The Man With the Golden Gun. One thing is certain, Octopussy contains even more variations on the ingredients which have made the series successful—hair-raising stunts, colorful locales, and beautiful women. Although producer Cubby Broccoli and executive producer Michael G. Wilson have given their audience nothing new, the crowds eat it up just the same.
India was chosen as the setting for Octopussy. Much of the film, including scenes at Octopussy's headquarters and Kamal Khan's Monsoon Palace, was shot at Udaipur, a bastioned city standing on the banks of Lake Pichola. Other locations included London; Checkpoint Charlie in West Berlin; the privately owned railway in the Nene Valley near Peterborough in Cambridgeshire; the United States Air Force base at Upper Heyford, Oxfordshire; and the Royal Air Base at Northolt, Middlesex. The Nene Valley Railway, a standard-gauge steam railway running five miles through Nene Park, between Wansford and Orton Mere, Peterborough, has many locomotives from different countries. A suitable one was selected to represent Germany. Reliable Pinewood Studios and the 007 Stage were used for the Monsoon Palace courtyard and h
elipad.
SCREENPLAY
Octopussy unfortunately does not contain as much Fleming material as did For Your Eyes Only. "Octopussy" was one of the short stories in the anthology, OCTOPUSSY AND THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS, published posthumously in 1966. The low-key tale involves a visit by James Bond to retired Major Dexter Smythe at his home in Jamaica. Smythe comitted a crime during World War II and the British Secret Service have only just learned about it Bond is sent to arrest the man, but instead, 007 grants him a bit of time—time for Smythe to commit suicide rather than face dishonor and a courtmartial. The title comes from the Major's pet octopus, which he affectionately calls "Octopussy."
The short story is referred to fleetingly in the film by a human character named Octopussy. At one point, Octopussy tells James Bond that she is the daughter of Major Dexter Smythe. She becomes an ally because she has always wanted to thank the British agent for presenting her father with an honorable choice. This reference is meaningless to anyone who has not read the story.
The Sotheby's auction scene in the short story, "The Property of a Lady," inspires a similar sequence in Octopussy. In a way, it is more clever than Ian Fleming's scene. In the original, Bond is at Sotheby's only to identify the Russian plant who will push the bid for the Fabergé egg to the highest limit. In the film, the Russians suddenly need to retrieve the particular egg being auctioned and the representative is forced by Bond (this time it is 007 who pushes the bid to the highest limit) to buy the egg at an extremely high price.
Writers George MacDonald Fraser (author of the Flashman series), veteran Richard Maibaum, and Michael G. Wilson create another globe-hopping scenario incorporating the usual elements of the Bond formula: a Bondian MacGuffin, a female villain who is number two to the main adversary, a nuclear crisis, and a climactic battle of two opposing armies—this time the villains are against a bevy of very tough, beautiful women!
The James Bond Bedside Companion Page 48
