Peak Moment
The opening of The Spy Who Loved Me was arguably the apogee of the Roger Moore 007 films. I remember watching this with a girlfriend in ’77 and saying, “Okay, I get it…this is going to be good.” It encapsulated the fresh idea that Bond films could and should be exercises in self-parody, and perhaps even out-and-out comedies with action sequences that deliberately challenged the laws of elemental physics (a new concept back then).
It’s the movie that said (a) “we’re throwing out any allusions whatsover to the serious-stud Bond playbook and going for a much more playful tone” and (b) “you’ll never see a Bond film as rugged and muscular as From Russia With Love ever again…get used to it. We’re in the mid ’70s now and nobody will buy a straight-with-no-chaser 007, so we’re having fun.”
Nothing said this as much as Richard Kiel‘s dopey Jaws character, who could have been a regular on the Jack Benny Show. Kiel’s giant lug could have fit right into Abbott and Costello Meet The Mummy. And he anticipated the cool-monster attitude of Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s Terminator character in the ’84 original.
The movie, directed by the comedically inclined Lewis Gilbert, delivered all this but the opening — the idiotic ski chase followed by the main title with Carly Simon singing the title song — was a kind of overture or preamble that conveyed the new approach. It said “Okay, fans, here we go…new game!” And it had the most self-aware, self-amused and cocksure vibe since the hard-swagger days of the first three films — Dr. No, From Russia With Love and Goldfinger.
For me it was a long slow downhill trek after this. The Pierce Brosnan 007 films never quite figured a way to re-think the franchise as radically as The Spy Who Loved Me.
The song is cut off at the tail end of the above video. Here’s a version to plays it to the end. I love the chord changes when Simon sings “is keepin’ all my secrets safe tonight.”
I saw this on the opening weekend at the Odeon Leicester Square in London. When the Union Jack parachute opened up the entire theater rose up in a spontaneous standing ovation.
Inarguably the best of the Moores. Held up very well when I watched it with family this summer. Dalton had some of that Connery hardness but his scripts lacked the coolness; CASINO ROYALE was the much-needed rethink after the profitable, forgettable Brosnan tenure, but QUANTUM folllowed by limbo leave the series at another uncertain junction. (Well, except that there’s still an audience for this 50-year-oldish franchise.)
It also had, for my money, the second coolest Bond car after Goldfinger/Thunderball’s Aston Martin DB 5: the submarine Lotus, which is also incredibly silly but endearing.
Most, including myself, seem to regard FOR YOUR EYES ONLY as the only Moore Bond film worth a damn. Stripped down after the expensive MOONRAKER, EYES jettisons the outlandish sets and take-over-the-world plots for more realistic stunts and the very basic 20th Century spy MacGuffin of keeping a code machine out of Soviet hands.
Silly spys. Stay on the hilltop, find Bond in your telescopic sight, squeeze the trigger. No more Bond.
I love these silly, over the top openings. That jump into nothingness, the Union Jack. Fun stuff.
I wish I could tell the Bonds apart – I’ve seen them all at one point or another, mostly in my childhood and early teens. Aside from Goldfinger and the most recent ones, though, I couldn’t tell you what happened in which ones.
I need to have a one-man, in-order film festival.
So you’re saying the original Casino Royale was ahead of it’s time? I prefer either The Man with the Golden Gun or even Live and Let Die. Bottom line though, clearly Roger Moore couldn’t kick anyone’s ass and I wasn’t roller skating around in knee high gym socks listening to the Gap band, so I hated it then and would probably hate it now. In fact, I’d prefer OHMSS over any Moore Bond flick.
It reminds me though: remember when all a hero like Bond had to do to knock a guy out was give a him a quick karate chop to the back of the neck? When did that little movie convention die out?
This is screening in the Bay Area next Friday with a Richard Kiel Q&A afterward:
http://www.caiff.org/classicfilm.html
Man, such a great action scene, except for those ridiculous-looking rear-projection inserts.
Maximus: the “quick chop to the neck” probably died (if it wasn’t dead by this point already) when it was effectively parodied by Mike Myers in the Austin Powers movies. “JUDO CHOP!”
Also think GOLDEN GUN had a ton of moments of parody, and that was well before SPY WHO LOVED ME. (And I second Deathtongue — FOR YOUR EYES ONLY really is the best of the Moore films)
Moore is the most underrated Bond, and this is his best one. If they just didn’t chicken out on the ending, it would be a near-equal to Goldfinger.
Regardless, the car/sub vs. chopper bit is the best chase scene in the entire franchise. Period.
OHMSS is the best Bond film.
No silly gadgets, totally self aware, the best Bond girl, terrific score, and a great ending.
GOLDENEYE is one of the top 5 best Bond films, if not top 3, for me.. Classic stunt work, a powersliding tank, Xenia Onatopp…
Certainly better than any Moore in a bloody clown outfit, aged 58.
Josh: “I wish I could tell the Bonds apart -”
http://www.somethingawful.com/d/photoshop-phriday/the-bond-recyclery.php But yeah, that’s how I feel about Dr. Who.
Quantum of Solace is totally underrated. Its a great companion piece to Casino Royale and sets up Craig’s evolution to the stereotypical “Bond” perfectly. As for Spy, its saved by Bach, one of the top three hottest Bond women of all time.
For Your Eyes Only was certainly stripped down – they even took out anything that looked remotely like an interesting villain or memorable action sequence.
The Spy Who Loved Me is Moore’s personal favourite amongst his Bond movies and with good reason. And forget monotone Barbara Bach – this film has CAROLINE MUNRO in it, at the height of her Lamb’s Navy Rum peak. The wink that she gives 007 whilst machine-gunning his Lotus from her helicopter is an unbelievably sexy moment.
Bach and Munro…be still my heart. Sorry, but EYES, while a well-intemtioned, loses for boring submersible action and the underwhelming Lynn-Holly Johnson.
Spy was my favorite Bond and I particularly loved Marvin Hamlisch’s soundtrack.
Yeah… I can’t deny that there’s much in EYES that’s either “boring” or “underwhelming”… and yet I still prefer it. But I guess that just shows the contempt I generally have for the Moore Bonds. (And no, I don’t think SPY is awful)
When they announced the CASINO ROYALE “reboot”, I thought it would be great to do a literal rebooting of Bond — make a really expensive, exciting, thoughtful *period* movie. Bond really is a man of the Sixties — celebrate it. No more villains who are billionaire industrialists… billionaire ex-military… billionaire media moguls… bring back the Soviets! I need Smersh, circa 1962! The early Bonds work so well not just because of Connery, but because of the Cold War backdrop. (The one thing I love about GOLDENEYE are the nods to this history — M calling Bond a “misogynist dinosaur,” a “relic,” that kind of thing… good stuff)
Of the Roger Moore Bonds, I would say For Your Eyes Only was #2 and The Spy Who Loved Me is #1, and they’re the only ones worth watching. I watched all the Bonds in order on DVD the week leading up to The World Is Not Enough.
In order the best ten were From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, GoldenEye, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Casino Royale, You Only Live Twice, The Spy Who Loved Me, Dr. No, For Your Eyes Only and Die Another Day. The worst ten were Diamonds Are Forever, Octopussy, Moonraker, A View to a Kill, The World Is Not Enough, The Man w/ the Golden Gun, The Living Daylights, Live and Let Die, Quantum of Solace and License to Kill.
What does that leave? Tomorrow Never Dies and Thunderball in the middle.
(I don’t count the non-Broccoli previous two Casino Royales or Never Say Never Again).
Greetings all — Great thread all around and evidently Mr. F is quite the Bond aficionado so I wouldn’t even attempt to challenge him there but I must say that the last two Craig vehicles, Casino Royale and Quantum totally missed the essence of James Bond. They simply stripped away all the things that make Bond, Bond – much in the way Star Trek the next generation ”fixed” all the problems with the first show – the sexism, the captain leaving the ship to go fight untold baddies on the planets surface, etc., etc. What I found the most disappointing in the last two films was the simple exchange of the sexuality of Bond with violence. This trend, violence in place of sex, might allow a film to slip under the radar into a PG13 rating but in my opinion it undermines a more rounded, interesting, and appealing story. Sure, action-thriller types embrace this replacement but it goes a long way to replace the Bond we know and grew up with with this new guy who wouldn’t know suave if it bit him on the…Another sad trend in remakes, this idea that the new kids on the block are going to ”fix” the stale and stagnant originals when if forced to create something new they’d fall all over themselves with the flops we’ve been seeing lately poring out of Hollywood.
Rorydean, that’s a very astute observation about the new Bond. I really like Craig in the role, but your observation regarding the neutering of Bond in exchange for violence is dead on.
This is sure to be a minority view, but in my opinion the opening of Moonraker is the best of the Moore Bond openings: the parachute ‘chase’ scene caused an overt positive response in the theater, and it was just a sensational stunt featuring real doubles.
Roger Moore leaves me cold, but the films got so silly by the time he took over the franchise. I like the reboot, because they jettison all the stupid sci-fi/bad sets/over the top villains for more visceral thrills. Though, I agree that it’s not the bond created by Ian Fleming.
Even when Bond movies are horrible, there are always moments of greatness — take the opening of MOONRAKER than 62 Lincoln cites, for example, or the title song to LIVE AND LET DIE (I’m reaching, but it’s been a while), or Lana Woods’ chest in DIAMONDS.
It’s a little funny how the final Bond movie for each actor in the series is also the worst of their particular runs, so they end up leaving on a turkey:
Connery – DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER (and just think, he could have gone out on YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE)
Moore – VIEW TO A KILL (though to be fair, MOONRAKER and OCTOPUSSY are also horrible)
Brosnan – DIE ANOTHER DAY (invisible car??!!)
Dalton – LICENCE TO KILL (Bond says no to drugs)
Craig – QUANTUM (which isn’t terrible… but is definitely a letdown after ROYALE)
I’m sure the Broccolis always blamed the actors for those movies failing… when it’s really the crappy screenplays that bear the most blame. All of those stories truly are weak… with Bond being a pretty boring character in each of them.
Mr. F (and Jeff) – how can you say Octopussy is horrible? It clearly follows the template that Jeff sees as starting with The Spy Who Loved Me — but Jeff, it actually started much earlier in the series, and not even with Moore but with Connery – otherwise, Jeff, you are suggesting that Diamonds Are Forever is a “rugged”, “straight-no-chaser” Bond flick which it most certainly is not. Are you suggesting that a film that features the Aston Martin and a villain with a deadly bowler hat is not being “playful” or “self-amused”.
Jeff it may be best for you to stick to providing windbag-comments-as-film theory with regards to the more serious films you clearly favor and leave analysis of more commercial pop films to others.
Yes I know my scribblings seem to suggest that Diamonds Are Forever featured the Aston Martin etc – I know that Goldfinger featured these things – I should have added to the sentence that this template sees as being fresh in 1977 was actually started way back in 1964.
I wish I had the time to sit in a coffee shop like Jeff so I can focus and rewrite endlessly until everything is pitch-perfect but…
Mr. F, LICENCE TO KILL is awesome, it’s just not really a James Bond movie.
LOVED ME is indisputably one of the best, and Moore’s masterwork. The way he offs Jurgens at the end is cold as shit and harkens back to Connery’s sociopathic take.
MOONRAKER lost me at the opening when they tried to get away with stealing a space shuttle by firing up the engines BS. This was the last time the space program had many people’s attention and at this point anyone who was following it knew without that big tank the shuttle was basically a glider. In fact, it was what the reporters covering the practice landings kept repeating when people asked why the engines weren’t being tested at the same time.
See also, SUPERMAN RETURNS.
Surprised Jeff hasn’t pulled up his old post about how the Bond franchise needed to start over, but as period pieces. One of the sharper observations he has made (back when non-film postings were a weekly instead of daily/hourly occurance).
The US vs the Soviets, world on the brink of annihilation so the stakes are very, very high backdrop made Bond’s antics acceptable. “Look, the man is fighting the good, dangerous fight that will possibly get him killed any day so let him have all the booze and tail he can handle,” was the very acceptable rationale.
“When they announced the CASINO ROYALE “reboot”, I thought it would be great to do a literal rebooting of Bond — make a really expensive, exciting, thoughtful *period* movie. Bond really is a man of the Sixties — celebrate it. No more villains who are billionaire industrialists… billionaire ex-military… billionaire media moguls… bring back the Soviets! I need Smersh, circa 1962! The early Bonds work so well not just because of Connery, but because of the Cold War backdrop. (The one thing I love about GOLDENEYE are the nods to this history — M calling Bond a “misogynist dinosaur,” a “relic,” that kind of thing… good stuff)”
Yes, yes, and yes.
“Quantum of Solace is totally underrated.”
No, no, and no.
“When they announced the CASINO ROYALE “reboot”, I thought it would be great to do a literal rebooting of Bond — make a really expensive, exciting, thoughtful *period* movie. Bond really is a man of the Sixties — celebrate it. No more villains who are billionaire industrialists… billionaire ex-military… billionaire media moguls… bring back the Soviets! I need Smersh, circa 1962! The early Bonds work so well not just because of Connery, but because of the Cold War backdrop. (The one thing I love about GOLDENEYE are the nods to this history — M calling Bond a “misogynist dinosaur,” a “relic,” that kind of thing… good stuff)”
Yes, yes, and yes.
“Quantum of Solace is totally underrated.”
No, no, and no.
“Surprised Jeff hasn’t pulled up his old post about how the Bond franchise needed to start over, but as period pieces.”
It’s a fun idea – James Bond reboot ala Mad Men.
Something else about watching the Bond movies in order… Ms. Moneypenny was never a looker, but Lois Maxwell didn’t age as well as Connery or Moore, and by A View to a Kill, she was looking like James’s mother, which made their banter creepy.
A 1960′s reboot of Bond is a good idea. Would that mean they have him go back to smoking, wearing a hat, and slapping women?
ohhhhhh yes, a James Bond post. One of my favorite film series, for sure.
Top 10 Bond films:
From Russia With Love
Goldeneye
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
Casino Royale
Goldfinger
The Spy Who Loved Me
Licence to Kill
Thunderball
Live and Let Die
For Your Eyes Only
Bottom 5 (from best of worst to worst of worst):
A View to A Kill
The World is Not Enough
Octopussy
The Man With the Golden Gun
Die Another Day
Top 5 Hottest Bond Girls:
Tatiana Romanova (Daniela Bianchi), From Russia With Love
Natalya Simonova (Izabella Scorupco), Goldeneye
Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), Casino Royale
Solitaire (Jane Seymour), Live and Let Die
Teresa “Tracy” di Vicenzo (Diana Rigg), On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
Best Recurring Player:
Q (Desmond Llewelyn), From Russia With Love to The World is Not Enough
Best Felix Leiter:
the original, Jack Lord, Dr. No
(with special mention for Jeffrey Wright in Casino Royale)
Best gadget ever:
Little Nellie, You Only Live Twice
Top 10 villains:
Franz Sanchez (Robert Davi), Licence to Kill
Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean), GoldenEye
Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi), Thunderball
Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya), From Russia With Love
Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Donald Pleasance/Telly Salvalas/Charles Grey), You Only Live Twice/On Her Majesty’s Secret Service/Diamonds Are Forever
Dr. Julius No (Frederick Wiseman), Dr. No
Auric Goldfinger (Gert Frobe), Goldfinger
Francisco Scaramanga (Christopher Lee), The Man With the Golden Gun
Le Chiffre (Madds Mikkelsen), Casino Royale
Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce), Tomorrow Never Dies
Top Henchmen
Donald “Red” Grant (Robert Shaw AKA GOD), From Russia With Love
Oddjob (Harold Sakata), Goldfinger
Xenia Onatopp (Famke Jansen), GoldenEye
JAWS (Richard Kiel), The Spy Who Loved Me/Moonraker
Baron Samedi (Geoffrey Holder), Live and Let Die
Fiona Volpe (Luciana Paluzzi), Thunderball
May Day (Grace Jones), A View to a Kill
Boris Grishenko (Alan Cumming), GoldenEye
Miranda Frost (Rosamund Pike), Die Another Day
Professor Dent (Anthony Dawson), Dr. No
Favorite Implausible Villain Weapon:
The “Dragon”, Dr. No
Favorite Commandeered Vehicle:
Moon Buggy, Diamonds Are Forever
Worst Villain/Most Boring:
Dominic Greene (Matthieu Amalric), Quantum of Solace
Single Worst Scene in Any Bond Film:
Fake Third Nipple, The Man With the Golden Gun
Most Unfortunate Sound Effect:
THE FUCKING SLIDE WHISTLE DURING THE AWESOME CAR STUNT, The Man With the Golden Gun
Least Effective Henchman:
NickNack (Herve Villechaize), The Man With the Golden Gun
Least Plausible Scientist Ever:
Christmas Jones (Denise Richards), The World is Not Enough
Fun Bond trivia that isn’t common knowledge that I realized while watching YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE on cable recently:
It’s the only Bond movie (as far as I know) with not one, but TWO actors who play different characters in other Bond films.
Charles Gray plays a fellow Brit spy in Japan; he’d go on to play Blofeld in DIAMONDS.
Meanwhile, Burt Kwouk played Mr. Ling in GOLDFINGER, and was a member of Spectre in YOLT.
Makes you think! (Well… not really. But interesting nonetheless)