This is another guilty pleasure movie. It is rediculous over the top, but unlike DAF or DAD, I enjoy this one a lot more. Maybe because I love the locations so much, I love Rio and Venice, 2 amazing cities. I liked Dr Goodhead also, she is quite fine and Lonsdale gave a cool performance as Drax, with some of the best one-liners in the Bond history. Music is great also of course. This movie is like fast food, the quality isnt great but still very tasty at certain times.
I agree Rio and Venice have never looked better than in Moonraker. Gorgeous film. And yes, great cast and one of John Barry's finest soundtracks. As for the "low quality" of the film I would disagree considering the HUGE production values of Moonraker and the impressive set design and special effects. I would say it's not a very "deep" film if that's what you mean. There's no subtext or deeper meaning involved. Just a very straightforward plot that's easy to follow and fun to watch. Perfect example of a Bond blockbuster.
My current 10 favorite:
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
This is another guilty pleasure movie. It is rediculous over the top, but unlike DAF or DAD, I enjoy this one a lot more. Maybe because I love the locations so much, I love Rio and Venice, 2 amazing cities. I liked Dr Goodhead also, she is quite fine and Lonsdale gave a cool performance as Drax, with some of the best one-liners in the Bond history. Music is great also of course. This movie is like fast food, the quality isnt great but still very tasty at certain times.
I agree Rio and Venice have never looked better than in Moonraker. Gorgeous film. And yes, great cast and one of John Barry's finest soundtracks. As for the "low quality" of the film I would disagree considering the HUGE production values of Moonraker and the impressive set design and special effects. I would say it's not a very "deep" film if that's what you mean. There's no subtext or deeper meaning involved. Just a very straightforward plot that's easy to follow and fun to watch. Perfect example of a Bond blockbuster.
Yes, it is exactly what I mean. Set designs are amazing, and shooting a picture like this today would be a fortune with the different locations, the models etcetera. I am sure it was in 1979 the same. With quality I definately mean plot. It is a direct copy of other Bond movies, more than others. Hence, the cheap quality remark.
I see [MR] as the ultimate reworking of Bond's 60s and 70s cinematic 'spectaculars', TB, YOLT and TSWLM. For example, the sabotaged centrifugal force training session elaborately reworks the TB Shrublands sequence with the rack/stretching machine, and the laser gun fight in space harks back to the operatic underwater fight at the climax of TB. Bond's relationship with Holly Goodhead - with questions of trust, joining forces and his reference to "detente" - evokes his relationship with Anya in TSWLM (but the tension seems somewhat odd in the context of MR, since the spirit of friendly cooperation between Bond and the CIA had long been established in previous movies).
I like MR. For me, Ken Adam and John Barry alone are worth the price of admission. It's a shame that reaction against the obvious examples of broad comedy sometimes obscures the film's more serious dramatic moments and spectacle... For example, I love Bond's disorientation when he leaves the centrifugal force training machine - he's visibly shaken and, for once, he's too affected, or too disgusted, to make a quip. It's one of Moore's best moments as Bond. Indeed, the whole sequence is immensely exciting - especially on the big screen, with the sound ramped up. When Bond is on the point of losing consciousness, the subjective flashback to Q in M's office, and the demonstration of the dart-firing wrist gadget, is brilliantly edited in.
The pursuit and death of Corinne in the woods is shot and scored with a beauty which is really quite disturbing given the nature of her killing. M's quiet faith in Bond when Frederick Grey says he should be taken off the case is touching - especially with hindsight, knowing that this was to be Bernard Lee's last Bond movie. There's genuine tension in the scene where Bond has to destroy the last of Drax's pods using the shuttle laser on manual. And I remember just how special the PTS seemed when I first enjoyed the movie in 1979. The aerial stunts were amazing, like nothing we'd ever seen. Last but not least, Manuela's really hot, even though her scream when Jaws picks her up like a rag doll isn't the most convincing!
Despite my overall liking of MR, there's no doubt that its moments of broad comedy occasionally take it into 'spoof' territory. A piece of business like Alfie Bass spluttering and discarding his cigarette as he sees a coffin floating along the canal is actually quite witty, but stuff like the double-taking pigeon in the square is groan-inducing. Nevertheless I'd like to say a word in support of the Jaws/Dolly romance. The couple's corny love-at-first-sight moment is pure "Carry On Moonraking", yet the romance seems more tolerable when one considers the film-makers' problem of how exactly to end the Jaws arc. The joke about Jaws, established in TSWLM, is that he just won't die - he'll always survive and come back for more (for Moore!) By MR, he's become rather endearing as a henchman. So killing him off, even lightheartedly, couldn't really have seemed an option. Some sort of plot device, like the relationship with Dolly, was necessary to see him out of the series. At least the pretext for Jaws changing sides is thematically linked to Drax's Hitlerian ideas about physical purity: Lonsdale and Moore, as well as Jaws and Dolly, play this crisis 'straight'. After the battle, when Jaws opens a bottle of Bollinger and says "Well... here's to us!" he's really toasting the conclusion of the TSWLM/MR cycle, and the end of his own part in the series: it's as if he foresees that, in the next Bond picture, 007 would seriously have to come back 'down to earth'. (Moore's line of dialogue that Jaws and Dolly will "make it... it's only a hundred miles to earth" is necessary to complete the Jaws story happily: after all, that's only good manners!)
For me, the most cringeworthy moment in MR is not any of the sight gags or Jaws business but the dated scene of tourists indulging some outdoors disco dancing below Sugarloaf mountain. To use Mark O'Connell's term, in 'Chasing Bullets', this is SUCH a "Cinzano" moment! (Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say "7 Up" moment, given MR's shameless product-placing.) This is not the only time we see awful outdoor boogie-ing in a Bond film of this era: cf. the 'boppy' ladies by Gonzales' pool in FYEO, or the middle-aged dancers at the wedding party in the PTS of LTK. I can almost see Lewis Gilbert and John Glen as the perennial uncles who dance dreadfully at weddings or on package-tour holidays - probably to the disco version of the MR song as played during MR's end titles, or to Bill Conti's/Rage's 'Make It Last All Night'!
Critics and material I don't need. I haven't changed my act in 53 years.
I agree, but the Jaws/Dolly spin-off movie, only shown in a handful of cinemas in South America, should have been avoided; it had them opening a B&B in a Californian town, a B&B with a denture theme, with hilarious consequences.
I agree, but the Jaws/Dolly spin-off movie, only shown in a handful of cinemas in South America, should have been avoided; it had them opening a B&B in a Californian town, a B&B with a denture theme, with hilarious consequences.
Yeah, unlike Bibi Dahl, at least Dolly managed to have an impact on the actual narrative of the film.
Haha....Outdoor disco dancing rocks! Catching Bullets is such a great read...it had me cracking up. O'Connell clowns all those middle-age dancers in LTK.
For ME the most cringeworthy parts of Moonraker are:
1. Meeting Agent Manuela and casually undressing her only minutes later. Maybe this was normal in the 70's, but doesn't seem very professional in 2013.
2. Bond finishing Dr. Goodhead's sentences about re-entering the earth's orbit. It's cool that Bond is super smart, but this scene he just came across as obnoxious. Perhaps the idea was to set Bond up as overly-confident and then really knock the piss out of him in the Centrifuge.
3. Identifying the rare orchids. Could we please just have a scene where Bond is listening attentively without knowing the answers? At least in M's office Bond answered, "Only what I read in the papers" which I believe came from the novel?
I was also thinking a bit more about the relationship with Bond and Goodhead. One thing to keep in mind is that Bond recently had a bad experience with a CIA agent Rosie Carver in Live and Let Die. You never know who to trust in this spy business. I wonder if Bond suspected Holly was involved in the Centrifuge malfunction.
"You are very suspicious Mr. Bond"
"I find I live much longer that way"
(TSWLM)
My current 10 favorite:
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
I was also thinking a bit more about the relationship with Bond and Goodhead. One thing to keep in mind is that Bond recently had a bad experience with a CIA agent Rosie Carver in Live and Let Die. You never know who to trust in this spy business. I wonder if Bond suspected Holly was involved in the Centrifuge malfunction.
The way Bond brushes Holly Goodhead off when she tries to help him suggests to me that he initially suspects she could have been (if not actually) involved in the Centrifuge malfunction.
Moore Not Less 4371 posts (2002 - 2007) Moore Than (2012 - 2016)
I can see why initially Bond might have been suspicious of Holly Goodhead: she's apparently working on secondment to Drax and Bond might well question where her true loyalties lie. The audience, too, is invited to wonder whether she's on the side of the villain when we see her on the phone to Drax confirming that Bond is being taken "good care of..." But I don't see why she, as a CIA agent, would have been suspicious of Bond. In MR, Bond's reputation precedes him: she should have known from the outset that he's a dependable friend and ally of the CIA. The tension between them is as much to do with sexual politics as anything else. Bond's surprise/amusement that she, as "a woman", has a doctorate would have seemed reactionary and sexist even in 1979. No wonder she bristles.
Critics and material I don't need. I haven't changed my act in 53 years.
Perhaps it was a matter of pride for the CIA to find out was Drax was up to and Holly was reluctant to give that up by allowed Bond to "tag along"
I like the scene where Bond meets Holly, because she quickly puts him in his place, "Your powers of observation do you credit" And even the notion that Dr. Goodhead could have been a man makes her last name seem slightly less...offensive?
We can't help but make pre-conceived notions as to the male/female of certain jobs. I still do it... In fact right now I am assuming that Shady Tree is a man.
My current 10 favorite:
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
Dr Goodhead is the same as Gala Brand in the novel of MR. Gala was also deep undercover in the Drax organisation and was not very happy that this slick MI-6 agent came to the Moonraker facilities, afraid that her cover might be blown. Precisely the same as with Dr Goodhead.
I despise the way Moore finishes the sentences of Dr Goodhead. It was obnoxious, annoying and he sounded like a real dick. And the orchid part of course was of the same level as during OHMSS when Bond recognized the type of butterfly M was studying. Totally unreal and unnecesarry.
For ME the most cringeworthy parts of Moonraker are:
1. Meeting Agent Manuela and casually undressing her only minutes later. Maybe this was normal in the 70's, but doesn't seem very professional in 2013.
As Manuela shakes Bond's cocktail in his hotel room and reveals that she works for the Secret Service, Bond quips, "M thinks of everything." Given Bond's instant sexual designs on Manuela, his remark makes M sound like a pimp! Bond's being facetious, of course, but perhaps there are shades here of the sleazy M with whom Bond once had an 'interesting experience' in Hong Kong (as comically hinted in FRWL). Manuela is immediately available for bedding; more like an 'escort' than a co-worker. For Bond, it seems, any working relationship with a fertile woman in the field has to be accompanied by at least the suggestion, and usually the consummation, of a sexual union. In the real world, women working with male colleagues might take issue with that particular mindset. The sequence with Manuela in the hotel room presents itself as the sort of fantasy which might have been harboured by a 70s travelling salesman type - a businessman abroad lacking Bond's magical charisma with women and who probably would resort to calling up an escort. I still think Manuela's hot, though!
I despise the way Moore finishes the sentences of Dr Goodhead. It was obnoxious, annoying and he sounded like a real dick.
Professional one upmanship, perhaps: showing off knowledge of technical manuals issued not only within one's own service but also within foreign or rival agencies. It's irritating, I agree: the 'Christopher Wood' in Moore's Bond doesn't always make him seem as likeable as, for example, he is in FYEO. At least in TSWLM Anya gave as good as she got when (despite her initial expression of shock as Bond drove the Lotus into the Med) she revealed that she'd already read the car's prototype manual because the Soviets had snaffled it. In the 1970s, the professional rivalry between Bond and Anya/Holly was meant, I suppose, to gain its frisson not only from questions about Britain's status relative to the superpowers of the post-war world, but also from the unease of men about the emerging role of women in the professions - 'Christopher Woodisms' drawing from similar tensions in earlier Bond movies. Yet Mr_Osato's observation of a similarity of situation between Holly and Gala Brand is very astute.
Firemass, I'm happy to confirm that I'm indeed a man.
Critics and material I don't need. I haven't changed my act in 53 years.
Does anyone have a favourite scene? Mine is the scene where Bond is led to the temple by one of Drax's girls, only to be tipped into a pool with a deadly Python. The whole scene is just awesome and Barry's score helps too.
Have you ever heard of the Emancipation Proclamation?"
Does anyone have a favourite scene? Mine is the scene where Bond is led to the temple by one of Drax's girls, only to be tipped into a pool with a deadly Python. The whole scene is just awesome and Barry's score helps too.
But of course. That's a wonderful scene, beautifully shot and scored.
But of course. That's a wonderful scene, beautifully shot and scored.
Barry's idyllic score here, with the sweeping strings and the trilling effect, reminds me of his 'The Girl With The Sun In Her Hair' for the Harmony Hairspray commercial. Very atmospheric. It's odd to think that all of Drax's alluring beauties will end up as (off-screen) corpses in space...
Critics and material I don't need. I haven't changed my act in 53 years.
Barry's idyllic score here, with the sweeping strings and the trilling effect, reminds me of his 'The Girl With The Sun In Her Hair' for the Harmony Hairspray commercial. Very atmospheric.
Yes, very much so. Both are beautiful and enjoyable both onscreen and off. The MR score is one of its chief assets.
I think the sets in Moonraker are amazing. Truly out of this world.)
and with Barry's score playing over them. What more could you need.
It's almost Bond Porn. )
"I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
This may seem a strange comparison to make, but Drax's beauties' ethereal silence as they beckon Bond through the forest, and the way their faint smiles drop when Bond betters the python in the pool, make me think of Oddjob in GF: Oddjob's a mute, and, memorably, his pleased expression turns to a frown when Bond sees an advantage and picks up the steel-rimmed bowler hat during the fight in Fort Knox. (In MR, the Asian henchman Cha affects a similar look when disappointed by Bond's last-minute disabling of the centrifugal force training machine.)
Critics and material I don't need. I haven't changed my act in 53 years.
My favourite scene is a horror one: The death of Corinne. Beautifully filmed, amazing music and than the transfer to the bells of Saint Marc's square in Venice. Excellent work. Scary, but excellent.
Comments
I agree Rio and Venice have never looked better than in Moonraker. Gorgeous film. And yes, great cast and one of John Barry's finest soundtracks. As for the "low quality" of the film I would disagree considering the HUGE production values of Moonraker and the impressive set design and special effects. I would say it's not a very "deep" film if that's what you mean. There's no subtext or deeper meaning involved. Just a very straightforward plot that's easy to follow and fun to watch. Perfect example of a Bond blockbuster.
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
Charming couple! I wish them the best of luck in this cruel, close-minded world.
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
As long a he gives no (deadly) hickies!
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
Yes, it is exactly what I mean. Set designs are amazing, and shooting a picture like this today would be a fortune with the different locations, the models etcetera. I am sure it was in 1979 the same. With quality I definately mean plot. It is a direct copy of other Bond movies, more than others. Hence, the cheap quality remark.
1. Connery 2. Craig 3. Brosnan 4. Dalton 5. Lazenby 6. Moore
" I don't listen to hip hop!"
Despite my overall liking of MR, there's no doubt that its moments of broad comedy occasionally take it into 'spoof' territory. A piece of business like Alfie Bass spluttering and discarding his cigarette as he sees a coffin floating along the canal is actually quite witty, but stuff like the double-taking pigeon in the square is groan-inducing. Nevertheless I'd like to say a word in support of the Jaws/Dolly romance. The couple's corny love-at-first-sight moment is pure "Carry On Moonraking", yet the romance seems more tolerable when one considers the film-makers' problem of how exactly to end the Jaws arc. The joke about Jaws, established in TSWLM, is that he just won't die - he'll always survive and come back for more (for Moore!) By MR, he's become rather endearing as a henchman. So killing him off, even lightheartedly, couldn't really have seemed an option. Some sort of plot device, like the relationship with Dolly, was necessary to see him out of the series. At least the pretext for Jaws changing sides is thematically linked to Drax's Hitlerian ideas about physical purity: Lonsdale and Moore, as well as Jaws and Dolly, play this crisis 'straight'. After the battle, when Jaws opens a bottle of Bollinger and says "Well... here's to us!" he's really toasting the conclusion of the TSWLM/MR cycle, and the end of his own part in the series: it's as if he foresees that, in the next Bond picture, 007 would seriously have to come back 'down to earth'. (Moore's line of dialogue that Jaws and Dolly will "make it... it's only a hundred miles to earth" is necessary to complete the Jaws story happily: after all, that's only good manners!)
For me, the most cringeworthy moment in MR is not any of the sight gags or Jaws business but the dated scene of tourists indulging some outdoors disco dancing below Sugarloaf mountain. To use Mark O'Connell's term, in 'Chasing Bullets', this is SUCH a "Cinzano" moment! (Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say "7 Up" moment, given MR's shameless product-placing.) This is not the only time we see awful outdoor boogie-ing in a Bond film of this era: cf. the 'boppy' ladies by Gonzales' pool in FYEO, or the middle-aged dancers at the wedding party in the PTS of LTK. I can almost see Lewis Gilbert and John Glen as the perennial uncles who dance dreadfully at weddings or on package-tour holidays - probably to the disco version of the MR song as played during MR's end titles, or to Bill Conti's/Rage's 'Make It Last All Night'!
Roger Moore 1927-2017
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
Yeah, unlike Bibi Dahl, at least Dolly managed to have an impact on the actual narrative of the film.
Haha....Outdoor disco dancing rocks! Catching Bullets is such a great read...it had me cracking up. O'Connell clowns all those middle-age dancers in LTK.
For ME the most cringeworthy parts of Moonraker are:
1. Meeting Agent Manuela and casually undressing her only minutes later. Maybe this was normal in the 70's, but doesn't seem very professional in 2013.
2. Bond finishing Dr. Goodhead's sentences about re-entering the earth's orbit. It's cool that Bond is super smart, but this scene he just came across as obnoxious. Perhaps the idea was to set Bond up as overly-confident and then really knock the piss out of him in the Centrifuge.
3. Identifying the rare orchids. Could we please just have a scene where Bond is listening attentively without knowing the answers? At least in M's office Bond answered, "Only what I read in the papers" which I believe came from the novel?
I was also thinking a bit more about the relationship with Bond and Goodhead. One thing to keep in mind is that Bond recently had a bad experience with a CIA agent Rosie Carver in Live and Let Die. You never know who to trust in this spy business. I wonder if Bond suspected Holly was involved in the Centrifuge malfunction.
"You are very suspicious Mr. Bond"
"I find I live much longer that way"
(TSWLM)
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
The way Bond brushes Holly Goodhead off when she tries to help him suggests to me that he initially suspects she could have been (if not actually) involved in the Centrifuge malfunction.
away because he's been hurt and acts almost as a wounded animal.
I like the scene where Bond meets Holly, because she quickly puts him in his place, "Your powers of observation do you credit" And even the notion that Dr. Goodhead could have been a man makes her last name seem slightly less...offensive?
We can't help but make pre-conceived notions as to the male/female of certain jobs. I still do it... In fact right now I am assuming that Shady Tree is a man.
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
I despise the way Moore finishes the sentences of Dr Goodhead. It was obnoxious, annoying and he sounded like a real dick. And the orchid part of course was of the same level as during OHMSS when Bond recognized the type of butterfly M was studying. Totally unreal and unnecesarry.
1. Connery 2. Craig 3. Brosnan 4. Dalton 5. Lazenby 6. Moore
As Manuela shakes Bond's cocktail in his hotel room and reveals that she works for the Secret Service, Bond quips, "M thinks of everything." Given Bond's instant sexual designs on Manuela, his remark makes M sound like a pimp! Bond's being facetious, of course, but perhaps there are shades here of the sleazy M with whom Bond once had an 'interesting experience' in Hong Kong (as comically hinted in FRWL). Manuela is immediately available for bedding; more like an 'escort' than a co-worker. For Bond, it seems, any working relationship with a fertile woman in the field has to be accompanied by at least the suggestion, and usually the consummation, of a sexual union. In the real world, women working with male colleagues might take issue with that particular mindset. The sequence with Manuela in the hotel room presents itself as the sort of fantasy which might have been harboured by a 70s travelling salesman type - a businessman abroad lacking Bond's magical charisma with women and who probably would resort to calling up an escort. I still think Manuela's hot, though!
Professional one upmanship, perhaps: showing off knowledge of technical manuals issued not only within one's own service but also within foreign or rival agencies. It's irritating, I agree: the 'Christopher Wood' in Moore's Bond doesn't always make him seem as likeable as, for example, he is in FYEO. At least in TSWLM Anya gave as good as she got when (despite her initial expression of shock as Bond drove the Lotus into the Med) she revealed that she'd already read the car's prototype manual because the Soviets had snaffled it. In the 1970s, the professional rivalry between Bond and Anya/Holly was meant, I suppose, to gain its frisson not only from questions about Britain's status relative to the superpowers of the post-war world, but also from the unease of men about the emerging role of women in the professions - 'Christopher Woodisms' drawing from similar tensions in earlier Bond movies. Yet Mr_Osato's observation of a similarity of situation between Holly and Gala Brand is very astute.
Firemass, I'm happy to confirm that I'm indeed a man.
" I don't listen to hip hop!"
But of course. That's a wonderful scene, beautifully shot and scored.
Barry's idyllic score here, with the sweeping strings and the trilling effect, reminds me of his 'The Girl With The Sun In Her Hair' for the Harmony Hairspray commercial. Very atmospheric. It's odd to think that all of Drax's alluring beauties will end up as (off-screen) corpses in space...
Yes, very much so. Both are beautiful and enjoyable both onscreen and off. The MR score is one of its chief assets.
I suppose a similar fate awaited most of Hitler's Aryan race as they perished in Russia. Tragic, really.
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
and with Barry's score playing over them. What more could you need.
It's almost Bond Porn.
1. Connery 2. Craig 3. Brosnan 4. Dalton 5. Lazenby 6. Moore
" I don't listen to hip hop!"