In love with AVTAK
Muston
Huncote, Leicestershire Posts: 228MI6 Agent
I found myself the other night talking with a fellow work mate for about an hour about AVTAK. Half way through the conversation I suddenly had an epiphany. I love this film! It has almost everything. A granddad Bond, a mass murder of a villain, a great Bond song, some fantastic lines, "Does anyone else want to drop out?" It has Bond cooking, Bond in a fire engine, Bond doing Bond things! It has now jumped my other fav Moore outing FYEO. In fact, I'm going to go and watch it again now!
"Thank you very much. I was just out walking my RAT and seem to have lost my way... "
Comments
1 - Moore, 2 - Dalton, 3 - Craig, 4 - Connery, 5 - Brosnan, 6 - Lazenby
Even though it's not my favorite Bond film, I have a soft spot for it and it's a fun movie.
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
I don't think it deserves all the attacks it gets.
As a side note.. I think it would have been great to replace the the Pola Ivanova character with Barbara Bach in a cameo instead!
1. GoldenEye 2. Goldfinger 3. Skyfall 4. OHMSS 5. TWINE
Though I'd have loved to have seen Dalton take on Walken, the fact that old man Moore is up against such a nasty, evil villain is amusing in a way that probably wasn't intended.
BUT, it is never boring, it's beautifully shot, it has a great villain and Sir Rog is just brilliant even though
he creaks. Love the PTS, love the song, love the whole fire in the town hall/fire engine chase thing and
the golden gate bridge scenes. Not the greatest of the Bond films but enjoyable when there's absolutely nothing else to watch.
Funny you should say that. The role was actually intended to be Anya Amasova. When Barbara Bach declined the invitation to return, they changed to role to "Pola Ivanova". Would have been a nice bit of continuity.
11- TB. 12- OP. 13- LALD. 14- TMWTGG. 15- FYEO. 16- YOLT. 17- TND. 18- QoS.
19- TWINE. 20- AVTAK. 21- MR. 22- DAF. 23- DAD.
about AJB you'll always find out something new.
I was never a huge fan of Anya Amasova, but man, that would have been awesome!
1 - Moore, 2 - Dalton, 3 - Craig, 4 - Connery, 5 - Brosnan, 6 - Lazenby
I'd of loved to see agent XXX again.
AVTAK, I thought Sir Roger was looking really Old.
Now as I'm getting older myself He doesn't look
as Old to me.
to read.
Jeff writes: "After the dangerous, dark masculinity of Sean Connery, Moore's 007 was a more urbane character."
No argument here, but why the needless comparison to Sean after SEVEN films! This is not Live and Let Die we are talking about here.
Jeff writes: "The formula once again turned back to glamour, gadgetry and laughs."
John Cork made a similar statement in his Legacy book. As if AVTAK simply reverted to a tried-and-true formula without offering anything new. I agree the film has plenty of glamour, but the gadgets are toned way down to a modest assortment of spy tools like polarizing glasses and a mini-camera. This Bond is more reliant on his wits and resourcefulness. The laughs are also almost non-existent, especially compared to the broad humor in Octopussy. Instead, there is a harder edge to the violence and many of the kills are cold blooded murder.
AVTAK is in many ways a revisionist Bond film that flips the usual formula upside-down. Just one of many examples below:
FYEO Citroen chase: Bond makes the bad guys look like fools and escape scot-free.
OP Rickshaw chase: Bond makes the bad guys look like fools and escape scot-free.
AVTAK May Day persuit: Bond's car gets demolished, the bad guy gets away, and Bond ends up looking like a fool.
Jeff writes: "After largely self-reliant Bond heroines, Tanya Roberts' Stacy was a helpless damsel in distress."
At times yes. But so were many other Bond girls . Octopussy in Kamal's plane and dangling from the cliff. Barbara Bach strapped to a chair in Stromberg's lair. Solitaire about to be scarified at San Monique.
Dismissing Stacy as "helpless" is not doing her character justice. Finally we have a down-to-earth Bond girl who is just a regular 9-5 gal with her own house and pets. She defends herself against Zorin's stooges with a shotgun and provides Bond with her Geological expertise. A revolutionary Bond girl for the 80's and the first of her kind in the series. She served as a prototype for later 90's Bond girls such as Natalya and Christmas.
Jeff writes: "Tibbet suffers an ignominious fate in a carwash at the hands of May Day."
Really, ignominious? and why was this Deserving or causing public disgrace or shame.
Like many of the cold blooded kills in AVTAK, Tibbet's death was one of the most chilling and scary in the whole series. Especially how it was set up with Tibbet splashing water on the Rolls, exiting the gate while Mayday disappears, being followed by Jenny Flex, and finally the silent assassin emerging in the back seat. I get chills just thinking about it. This is great film making.
Only in the last couple paragraphs does Jeff actually discuss the soundtrack and he does have some interesting tidbits including "Duran Duran knew more about Barry's film scores than Barry himself could remember."
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
the Death of Tibbet was Brilliantly filmed, pure Hitchcock. -{
Bearing in mind that I haven't actually read the liner notes you reference, I agree with many of the quotes from Jeff Bond that you posted, and I don't consider them to be "mass generalizations and lazy misconceptions" at all. Just because AVATK is Moore's 7th film and Connery was long gone from the series by that time, I can see why the comparison to Connery is still useful. It provides a shorthand way of setting forth the contrast between the Moore's Bond and the Bond character as he was portrayed previously. Maybe you consider that "lazy", but I think it's a clear way to make the point. And I'm sorry, but I have seen the "she was just a regular, down-to-earth working girl" defense of Stacy before, but that doesn't change the fact that she often comes across as a relatively helpless, not-very-bright damsel in distress. The mere fact that she is supposedly a learned professional (a geologist) doesn't make her any more credible than Denise Richards as Christmas Jones, who is supposed to be a nuclear physicist! Maybe that's due more to the acting of Tanya Roberts than to the way the character is written, but that's what I see on the screen. And to me, her calling for help and screeching "James!" the way she does makes her an extremely annoying, although good-looking, Bond Girl, the worst IMHO. You also mention that the laughs are virtually non-existent, and that might be true, but not for lack of trying. The insertion of "California Girls" in the PTS was certainly an attempt at humor, and it failed miserably, and the fire engine chase was played largely for laughs, again, with miserable results. But more than that, the movie draws unintentional chuckles for many of the action scenes because Moore is definitely showing his age (although he isn't particularly good at the action stuff even at the beginning of his stint as Bond), and the stunt doubles are more obvious than usual. I could go on, but my point is that I believe the criticisms of AVTAK are legitimate, and not merely the result of some folks not being able to understand or appreciate the merits of the film. I can agree that perhaps the makers of AVTAK were attempting to do something more than fall back on the old tried and true formula, and there are apparently many fans such as yourself who believe they came up with a gem. But to me, the end result is far less than impressive.
* A day at the races. NEVER seen that before or since in a Bond film.
* Patrick Macnee. Awesome to have John Steed himself in a Bond film. He and Moore had such a great chemistry. I wish Macnee played Tibett in another Moore Bond film.
* Christopher Walken as Max Zorin. I think he was the last of the great over the top Bond villains. Zorin turned me on to Walken. ANY villain that laughs as he mows down his OWN people is a psycho.
* Jenny Flex. Nuff Said
* The final battle on the Golden Gate Bridge. Epic!
* John Barry's score had it all. Fresh, powerful but very tender when it needed to be. PLUS the last best theme song ever.
* Roger Moore played Bond with the skill and style of an old pro. He looked like he had fun doing this movie.
* Bond uses cover names.
* Bond using a tire to breathe.
That's all off the top of my head. There's some not so great stuff, but I think it's really the last of the feel good Bond romps EVER! I enjoy the return to Fleming feel of the Dalton and Craig eras, but we need a 007 film like this once in a while, too.
Anyway, yeah I love the film but it's all memories. Some of came to Bond in a family atmosphere, and my Mum loved AVTAK and it had a great opening night for us at Odeon Leicester Square plus it was a heck of a lot better than NSNA; pts of AVTAK knocks any action scene from that movie into a cocket hat, Beach Boys and all.
Moore seemed less oily, less Peter Allliss in this film, more David Niven-ish. It was as though OP's success over Connery's film had laid a few ghosts to rest and he didn't have to try so hard. Love the settings of Chantilly in France and headed out there in my early 20s, lovely visit. Ticks the boxes of the 'view' of the title; Eiffel Tower and Golden Gate Bridge, great villains and no pretentious dialogue. Agree that Tibbett's death is a chiller, almost Hitchcock (there's a similar thing going on in Frenzy in mood with one death).
However, Blu Ray might show up the stunt doubles more than you'd like.
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
AVTAK has a negative balance when it comes to the good, the bad and the ugly (Grace Jones.)
The good:
Location wise it is good. Nice to have Bond in Paris and San Francisco, the nicest city in the US
Th etheme song is great frm Duran Duran
Patrick MacNee is a great addition and has a nice chemistry with Moore.
Walken is great as you can be expected. He is Moonraker's Drax from the Fleming novel.
The bad.
Moore is old. Too old. Way too old.
Tanya Roberts is the most horrible Bond girl. At least bottom 3. And I dont fancy her looks either, unlike other horrible Bond girls like Christmas Jones
The middle part is exceptional boring, with Bond cooking a quiche/omelet as lowpoint. Yawn.
The part where Zorin is shooting like a hysterical maniac is totally out of place.
The ugly
Grace Jones. Although, admittingly, she is a character. The sex scene with Moore was however gross.
All in all, probably my least favourite Moore Bond. But still watchable.
1. Connery 2. Craig 3. Brosnan 4. Dalton 5. Lazenby 6. Moore
Well the action kicks in with AVTAK, it never does with NSNA, it's pathetic. Also, yes, Barry v Legrand no contest. I'd even argue Moore looks better in AVTAK than Connery does in NSNA, then you have lovely locations like Chantilly, fully utilised, against an oddly overcast Nassau and underused South of France, plus you have Max Zorin better than Largo, though both are good actors, I can go on... May Day doesn't rub me up the wrong way compared to Fatima Blush, though it's clear the odd, psychotic relationship Day has with her boss is ripping off the strange vibe Blush has with Largo (seen briefly in the casino scene).
Roger Moore 1927-2017
I thought Fatima Blush was really Overacted, almost something from a Panto.
and agree there is so little action in NSNA, that it was ( untill QOS ) the only
Bond film I got bored watching.