FYEO revisited
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SydneyPosts: 371MI6 Agent
I just watched FYEO after quite a long absence and quite enjoyed it. It has great suspense, great chase sequences and beautiful cinematography of the Mediterranean etc. Great Bond girl.
It seems to be almost the classic Bond film as it has a great mixture of danger and suspense, action comedy and sensuality. The phone call to Margaret thatcher at the end is a bit much but fairly forgivable. The old stunt sequences also look a lot more realistic and dangerous than stuff in more recent films where wires and CGI are used so much. Good editing in the suspense scenes.
The plot is also not bad - the prize (the ATAK machine) is huge in its implications and I like the old political scene where the villains are always playing East and West off.
Its quite a modest film in many ways and its hard to believe that it came after MR and TSWLM which were so over the top. It feels like it belongs with the earlier Moore films.
I like it a lot.
It seems to be almost the classic Bond film as it has a great mixture of danger and suspense, action comedy and sensuality. The phone call to Margaret thatcher at the end is a bit much but fairly forgivable. The old stunt sequences also look a lot more realistic and dangerous than stuff in more recent films where wires and CGI are used so much. Good editing in the suspense scenes.
The plot is also not bad - the prize (the ATAK machine) is huge in its implications and I like the old political scene where the villains are always playing East and West off.
Its quite a modest film in many ways and its hard to believe that it came after MR and TSWLM which were so over the top. It feels like it belongs with the earlier Moore films.
I like it a lot.
Comments
Personally, I find the action to be top notch in this film because it seems so real. The ski chase scene is great and the rock climbing scene is also magnificent. That part was wonderfully directed because you feel as though Bond is truly at the mercy of the man cutting his rope.
Another thing, I liked how there was some references to OHMSS with the visit to the cemetery to see his wife's grave and the beach scene that takes place. That latter scene reminds me of it because he was out on the beach with a girl, which is followed by being attacked by swarming vehicles.
One thing you forgot to mention was the music in the film. A lot of people say the music from this film is lost in age, but it has to be some of my favorite songs from any of the bond films. The title song by Easton Sheena is still one of my favorites and the score by Bill Conti is very well done, even if Jon Berry is the most iconic music composer of the Bond films.
This film was a nice start to John Glen's five film tenure as director, even if the rest of his films sort of dragged on from here. Overall, it is definitely one of the better Bond films to date and remains one of Moore's best.
It has great underwater scenes, and the skiing scenes are brilliant. The only thing I hate is the dealing with Blofeld in the pre-title credits. It was as if winding up any loose SPECTRE ends was given almost no consideration until last minute. And I hate Blofeld's "I'll buy you a delicatessen... In stainless steallllllllllllllllll!" as he drops down the chimney stack. Almost nobody would get, or gets now, the mafia connotations of that statement. I always hated Maggie and Dennis Thatcher at the end, but find it quite funny now.
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Welcome aboard RogerMoore007.:) I'm not going to ask who your favourite Bond is...
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Dare I say that I love the score too!
Thanks for the greeting thesecretagent! I've been reading these forums for a few months now, but felt the urge to throw in my two cents on FYEO. And as for my name, I noticed all the Sean Connery fans that are here and Sir Roger Moore needs a few fans to stick up for him
P.S. - The ending of MR was a little over the top though
lol, I have no issue with Sir Roger, it's the standard of most of his 7 movies I struggle with; having said that FYEO is a very good stab at 007, the most down to earth Bond for some time ( and some time since!) and I think most of your comments opening the thread are spot on.
I too really enjoy Bill Conti's music, chiefly because it doesn't try to "do John Barry" or "do James Bond." It's a fun effervescent score, and is particularly good during the ski chase.
But I am always ready to stand up and praise it's virtues! No matter how merciless and predictable the Roger Moore "complimementers" and their back-handed praises endlessly try to kill the party - In my heart and brain I know how great a adventure FYEO really is.
Every hater can go hang! I love this one like nobody's business!
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That Film made me a 007 fan in 1981!
Take away the 2CV car chase (I would have loved to see the white Lotus there), give the Casino scene more room (I still don't understand the cut right after Melina sees 007 with Lisl), take away the silliness with the bald guy and we have a perfect film!
And this: could not be said better -{ -{ -{
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
Ta
If I recall the casino-restaurant scene looks a bit ham fisted because it tries to do 3 things
1. introduce us to Lisl
2. introduce us to Colombo
3. create a "romantic friction" between Bond and Melina
The scene achieves the first two but the third isn't clear because no explanation is offered as to why Melina is there.
On my DVD there is an edited scene which occurs on Melina's boat, after the events in Albania, Bond returns to Capri and Melina is very frosty because she saw 007 leave with Lisl, she accuses Bond of "sleeping around" (my phrase) and Bond offers a fairly trite response. It doesn't sit well with the film adn John Glen was right to edit it out.
For me the view of Melina in the casino should also have been edited out of the movie
Additionally, the whole chemin de fer interlude is a little unnecessary; in the short story FYEO, Bond merely approaches Lisl after the wine throwing incident, and as he does this in the movie anyway, I fail to see the need for the earlier Bond-Bunky-Lisl triangle.
It's a slow scene anyway and serves little purpose other than to suggest Lisl isn't a prostitute, which we all kinda figure out she is.
A superfluous scene.
I thought that was utter genius in itself. Probably not appropriate in a Bond film though.
Quite paradoxical, that---I wasn't a fan of Moore's Bond in general, and I disliked the OTT humour in particular...but I love the Maggie and Denis Thatcher bit
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM