Totally agree. One of their frequent points of disagreement was the use of the "James Bond Theme". A couple of further examples:
YOLT helicopter battle: when Bond takes off in Little Nellie, Barry uses "007". Once Bond meets the enemy helicopters, the music switches to an edited and looped version of the original recording of the "James Bond Theme"- definitely Hunt's decision, the end result being totally unmusical.
OHMSS Piz Gloria raid: Hunt insisted on using the "James Bond Theme" during part of this sequence, much to Barry's chagrin. This turned out to be the last time the original recording was used in a Bond film- not by coincidence, since Hunt left the series at this point.
Totally agree. One of their frequent points of disagreement was the use of the "James Bond Theme". A couple of further examples:
YOLT helicopter battle: when Bond takes off in Little Nellie, Barry uses "007". Once Bond meets the enemy helicopters, the music switches to an edited and looped version of the original recording of the "James Bond Theme"- definitely Hunt's decision, the end result being totally unmusical.
OHMSS Piz Gloria raid: Hunt insisted on using the "James Bond Theme" during part of this sequence, much to Barry's chagrin. This turned out to be the last time the original recording was used in a Bond film- not by coincidence, since Hunt left the series at this point.
Still my favourite movie of the entire series, only possible flaw would be that the underwater scenes go on a bit too long. Other than that, no complaints.
Still my favourite movie of the entire series, only possible flaw would be that the underwater scenes go on a bit too long. Other than that, no complaints.
In comparison to the underwater sequences in Thunderball, those in FYEO are a brisk. Perhaps the sub vs sub section was unnecessary, but that's fairly minor. Apart from that, I have no complaints with the underwater sections in FYEO.
So my Bond marathon continues as I have just finished watching FYEO. This is my all time favourite Roger Moore Bond film.
There are a couple of reasons for that which I will go into later.
The first and main reason for it being my favourite is the campness and comedy which was used exstensively in the previous Bond film MR, is gone.
Ok there are a couple of one liners but back in line with the Connery one liners of the early films.
Moores Bond is more gritty and for the first time he acts like the trained assassin is meant to portray.
The plot too is back and grounded firmly in reality.
I was in my mid to late 20's when the film came out and there were often stories in the news of Spy fishing boats. So this element of the film was authentic.
This film was predominantly filmed in the Greek Island of Corfu in the September of 1980.
Me and my brother went on a three week diving holiday in the October of 1980 when filming on the Island had just wrapped.
Don't forget all the scenes portraying to be Spain are actually Corfu.
We got to know the local diving school instructer, and I helped him out bearing in mind I was a fully qualified Commercial diver at this time.
I can't remember his name now, but his school was based in Dacia, and he taught Roger Moore how to dive. I remember all the bars and nightclubs at time had Bond memorabillia and apparently the cast and crew including Moore partied into the night both there and Corfu Town which wasn't that far away.
We were given a guided tour of where all the filming took place. The road were the CV turns over was on the way to Kavos back in 1980 it was just a very small place with a couple of Tavernas. The beach buggie scenes were filmed on a lovely sandy beach called St Georges (maybe thats why the boat was called St Georges, I guess we'll never know).
All the ropes and pullies that had been used in the car chase scenes were up in the hills above Dacia.
My brother nearly killed himself when he fell off his scooter that we had hired to get about the island to see the locations.
This was the last holiday I had as a single chap before marriage soon after.
Consequently I absolutely love this film because I have been to every single location thats featured in Corfu/Spain.
I've stood where Bond kicks the car over the cliff enjoyed an oozo looking at the same view that Bond and Melina shared of Corfu harbour.
For obvious reasons I have to try and ignore most of the underwater sequences for pretty much the same reasons as I explained in my Thunderball review,this is difficult but not impossible.
Bond does give a brief explanation of the JIM suit. Basically this diving equipment means a frogman can keep an interior pressure of 1 atmosphere, thats sea level to the un intiated. So that there is no need to decompress on the way back to the surface eliminating the physiological dangers of nitrogen narcosis (pissed up as divers reffer to it) and decompression sickness aka The Bends.
It is well documented that all scenes showing actress Carole Bouquet had to be faked as she had sinus problems. Apparently they were filmed in the studio in slow motion, a wind fan was used to simulate floating hair and Alka-Seltzer tablets created the bubbles.
The diving helmets used by Bond and Melena are Kirby Morgan's.
I have to ignore that they are supposed to be diving at 584 feet or 178 metres
By 275 feet all colour has gone, and the underwater landscape is just different shades of grey.
There is a simple experiment you can do, and that is take something red into the diving pool of your local swimming baths and once on the bottom the colour of the item will no longer be red, but be a transition colour on it's way to becoming grey.
Again as with Thunderball as Bond and Melena go to get into their sub you clearly see a quick shot of the surface, that sequence was filmed in no more than 10 feet of water, they once again have used clever camera angles to give the impression of depth.
I remember reading reviews of SPECTRE and members on here who are obviously experts in certain fields regarding that movie, criticised Bond being able to shoot a helicopter down with the gun he was using.
This is the same for me everytime Bond goes diving I'm afraid. However I don't let it spoil my enjoyment as you can't expect actors to go to any depth beyond 20 feet for safety reasons.
So back to the film. It has everything for me, a great villian, a good henchman, good fight scenes, great stunts, remember a stuntman died whilst they were filming the bobsleigh chase.
In the cinema everyone jumped up cheered and clapped when the lotus car blew up. Manchester in the early 80's had terrible car crime and even going to a football match you had to pay local kids to "Mind yer car"
Overall I loved watching this movie again. my number one Moore Bond film and in my top 6 of the 24 that have so far been made.
Next up Octopussy, with no diving scenes so I can just watch it as a punter.
In the cinema everyone jumped up cheered and clapped when the lotus car blew up. Manchester in the early 80's had terrible car crime and even going to a football match you had to pay local kids to "Mind yer car"
This used to be one of my least favorites. Now i consider it Moore's second best.
Pros:
.I actually like the PTS.
.One of Binder's best title sequences.
.Feels like a precursor to TLD.
.Includes lots of Fleming material.
.Beautiful locations.
.The action is great.
.The climbing scene is intense.
.Classic casino scene.
.Topol.
.Bibi is annoying but cute as hell. I think she inspired Anka Schlotz from Archer.
.The no head for heights scene. Moore at his coldest.
Cons:
.The cinematography is a little soft at times. Especially during the London and casino scenes.
.Melina's attitude toward the guard after shooting him.
watching another of Sir Roger's films, I believe this and the Spy Who Loved Me are his best films, and its good that they each exemplify completely different aspects of his era
pros:
-the most Fleming content since OHMSS, the most Fleming content of any Moore film, Risico is especially closely adapted and takes up a good chunk of the film (at least twenty minutes uninterrupted)
-more serious tone after five comedies, and something much more like a proper spy story, with all the complexity, the confusion, the moral ambiguity
-Melina is the best written female character up til this point, at least in the Moore films, she has a good storyline, grows as a character (character development in a Bond film !?!) and takes part in the action - note that her choice to kill Gonzales results in Bond getting in trouble from his superiors for screwing up his mission
-Citroen chase is very good, makes good use of the geography and the problems and potentials of this funny car, a well choreographed action sequence ... it served to remind me the previous car chases, at least in Moore's films, were very gimmicky
-Topol's performance as Colombo - his broad take on the character vs Julian Glover's understatedness adds to the confusion as to who is actually the villain, a clever acting choice
-note that Locque's death, a muchdiscussed scene, follows directly after the last bit of the lengthy Risico adaptation
-the film is much more episodic than the epics that preceded it, almost following a sequence of random events in Bond's life, with him being a walk-on in the middle of these other peoples adventures - note Colombo kills the villain, not Bond, and only because Melina didn't kill him first ... I think this is appropriate to the adaptation of a book of short stories, the film is almost like a collection of interrelated short stories
-keelhauling - note they actually did try to represent this bit in Moore's first film, with a lot of compromises, but its good they filmed this properly once they figured out how to do it for real
-the ending: the rockclimbing may not be directly from anything Fleming wrote, but he was into mountaineering as a hobby since teenagehood, I'm sure he would have liked this sequence a lot
-I think this film and Spy both borrow from Colonel Sun, in the case of this film, its all the island hopping in the Aegean, the chase scene through classical ruins, and the setup of the final scene: Bond and his allies have to plan an approach to an inaccessible location in Greece, the Bondgirl is part of the assault, and there is a swarthy avuncular type with a personal vendetta against one of the villains dating back to WWII resistance days
cons:
-the music is really dreadful, dragging down a lot of scenes ... compare the underwater scenes with Thunderball, Barry's music told the story where the photography and action was dragging, this music makes better filmed underwater scenes drag worse
sad that Moore's best films both lack Barry, and if you like Live and Let Die, that's three key Moore films that lack Barry
-Sheena Easton's image is very distracting during the credits, much more so than Madonna's muchmocked cameo years later
-no more Bernard Lee... and I think the condescending Chief of Staff does not resemble Fleming's Bill Tanner character
-how understated is Julian Glover's peformance? in the end credits he is bllled fifth, after Bibi! really there are four other villains in this film, and they are all more memorable, but to be billed after Bibi, thats pathetic
-what is Bibi even doing in this film? what does she add to the plot? I think she inadvertantly lures Bond into an attack on the mountain, and her trainer helps the heroes infiltrate Kristato's HQ at the end, thats it. Otherwise she's a distraction from the proper story, an ultimately irrelevant subplot adding to the film's episodic nature.
I think she sort of fills the role of Domino, in Thunderball, as the villains's "protege", and the suggestion Bond be her escort when the villain can't make it, leading to an attempt on Bond's life, thats Thunderball.
More notably, she underlines how old Moore is and subverts Bond's longstanding reputation as a lady's man who can pick up any chick, all of a sudden the audience is rooting for him to please keep it in his pants this time. I think this is the beginning of the deconstruction of Bond's shameless heterosexuality, he was never the Austin Powers type again.
The scene where Bibi is in Bond's bed and he kicks her out is nothing to do with Fleming, but it is a scene out of Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep (Carmen Sternwood). Also Paul Newman and Melanie Griffith share an almost identical scene in the Drowning Pool, which I am sure is a deliberate Chandler tribute, so maybe this is too. Fleming and Chandler were friends.
sad that Moore's best films both lack Barry, and if you like Live and Let Die, that's three key Moore films that lack Barry
I was thinking about this the other day…thankfully for me I like TMWTGG, MR,OP and AVTAK way more than FYEO/LALD. So lacking the John Barry scores isn't as noticeable since those two are among my least watched Bond films.
In the quest to make TSWLM like the ultimate Bond film it's really kind of surprising they couldn't get Barry. In every other way, TSWLM is a quintessential Bond film.
-what is Bibi even doing in this film? what does she add to the plot?
This is a question I have asked on here before and still haven't figured it out. Like why was she even in the script?
Plus, being so similar in age to Melina just adds confusion….
My current 10 favorite:
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
"For Your Eyes Only" is a movie that unlike "Her Majesty's Secret Service" or "Licence To Kill", I can't "get"...or love for that matter.
I mean, sure it has Moore's most serious approach to the role but that is not what I want when I sit down to watch a Moore-era movie. It can't define Moore's era because he never was a harder-edged Bond, even if there were moments in "Golden Gun" and "Spy" that he did show his true colours. This doesn't, however, mean that there aren't positives to the movie, so let's run them down (sick pun not intended).
Pros:
Roger Moore's performance
Melina Havlock
Several brutal scenes which very likeable characters got killed. It's like they made clones of Kerim Bey just to murder them.
Personal favourite John Glen direction
Bill Conti's music is excellent in some parts but there are some places in the film that he took it too far. My favourite non-Barry score of a Moore film.
The keypad sound...wish that was a running gag in all of Moore's movies in one way or another.
Cons:
Defence Minister and Chief Of Staff. I hate both of them. Bottom of my list for sure (or top depending on how you look at it, because if you want hate-able bosses for Bond, they're your guys)
Moneypenny looks much, much older between Moonraker and Eyes Only. She looked younger in OP than here but in View To A Kill she looked even worse. Not necessarily a con per se, but I think that I should've pointed it out.
Takes place in Corfu, Greece for a good chunk of the movie. A place I don't particularly think of to be exotic, coming from Greece. Even if I'm sort of the exception in that remark.
This film has a soft filter in the Casino scenes that I do not like and makes the film looked washed out and look more like the music video for Betty Davis Eyes than a big-budget Bond film.
Bibi exists for the sole purpose of Bond's brilliant line.
The song for Eyes Only. Wish they used the Blondie song, even if it wasn't much better. I love Blondie but it just isn't as good as Heart of Glass, for example.
Least favourite villains of the series.
I can't think of any more. Not my favourite Moore-era movie.
kind of funny going from Minister of Defence to head of the Secret Service, isn't that a demotion?
usually retired cabinet ministers take plush jobs sitting on corporate boards, not returning to the frustrations of the civil service
I think he's the defence Minster, or a "shorthand" character
For "The Government "
I see.
That doesn't stop me from hating the both of them.
Edited it!
Haha, I can't stand them either. Even the hideous color of their office irks me.
And this is coming right after Moonraker which featured the best M's office scene in the series.
FYEO's overall step down in quality is jarring.
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 think he's the defence Minster, or a "shorthand" character
For "The Government "
I see.
That doesn't stop me from hating the both of them.
Edited it!
Haha, I can't stand them either. Even the hideous color of their office irks me.
And this is coming right after Moonraker which featured the best M's office scene in the series.
FYEO's overall step down in quality is jarring.
"Why don't you try the identigraph?"
"Gaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh"
"Yes, Sir"
"Well, gut cracqing duble o seven!"
"Gaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh"
Whoever thinks that that is quality acting need a shot in the mouth. (the bad kind)
Did they spend all of their money on Moonraker?
Do they have two separate piggy banks for profit and budget?
Octopussy was an upgrade on so many levels...
Yes, the identigraph is dysmal...from start to finish...
But the film belongs in the upper half of the rankings imho. It's my No 11.
Melina is fantastic. Her first scene on the boat...simply fantastic and makes my heart stop every time. A perfect piece of directing too.
FYEO has beautiful cinematography. The score can be debated but I have grown to love it. It's still Bond and EONs better than the elevator music we get in SF and SP.
I think he's the defence Minster, or a "shorthand" character
For "The Government "
I see.
That doesn't stop me from hating the both of them.
Edited it!
Haha, I can't stand them either. Even the hideous color of their office irks me.
And this is coming right after Moonraker which featured the best M's office scene in the series.
FYEO's overall step down in quality is jarring.
That's the Minister's office. My grandmother would have loved his decor. We don't see Tanner's office, since he just uses M's office in the film.
The bit with the mine at the beginning was sometimes confusing for audiences then -- they thought that someone had purposefully sunk the ship, a la a SPECTRE mission.
I, too, always thought it was an accident. The KGB takes advantage of this accident and hires Kristatos to retrieve the ATAC. There's nothing that suggests the mine was used to blow up the St. George on purpose. If the Russians had blown up the ship on purpose that could have started a war, and there's nothing like that in the film.
I've never really thought about this before, but its true, the whole plot is an accident. The reason why I've never thought about it before is because the McGuffin disappears completely for a whole hour, nobody worries about it again until the underwater scenes, after the Risico section is done and Locque is dead
I been overanalysing some more about how this film is itself almost a collection of overlapping short stories, and this insight that the very plot that ties it all together is not a plot at all but an accident adds to that sense
Melina has a story, she wants vengeance on whoever killed her parents, Bond wanders into her story by accident
Colombo has a story, he's had a bitter rivalry with Kristatos dating back to WWII resistance days (the math there doesn't actually make sense), Bond wanders into his story by accident
Melina's story and Colombo's story overlap, just slightly, but they don't know it and they don't actually meet until the final assault on the mountain
Bond's mission overlaps only slightly with these other two stories, its like a Venn diagram, and this mcGufffin at the bottom of the Agean is the one thing that ties them all together, and as you say, the search for the McGuffin is because of an accident, not some megalomaniac's sinister plot to rule the world ... this is actually some pretty small scale stuff
and who is the "big baddy"? Kristatos is the least megalomaniacal villain we've seen since, ever ... but really he's a paid contractor, just as Gonzales and Locque are ... he's working for Gogol, who wants the McGuffin
but can Gogol be the big baddy? isn't he Bond's friend? at least they're frenemies, rivals in the same line of work who have more in common than what sets them apart? when Bond throws the whatsit over the cliff, Gogol just shrugs, like "c'est la vie" and gets back in his helicopter. it didn't mean all that much to him anyway. After all this bloodshed and major drama and property destruction in the other characters lives, all it was about was a rivalry between two professional frenemies who didn't really care that much about their precious gadget.
also adding to the random, overlapping short story structure of the film is the pre-credits. The final death of Blofeld is the first precredits unrelated to the rest of the film since, when, Thunderball? even Goldfinger and Thunderball's precredits had some causal link to what followed, the death of Blofeld is truly its own independent short feature
The bit with the mine at the beginning was sometimes confusing for audiences then -- they thought that someone had purposefully sunk the ship, a la a SPECTRE mission.
I, too, always thought it was an accident. The KGB takes advantage of this accident and hires Kristatos to retrieve the ATAC. There's nothing that suggests the mine was used to blow up the St. George on purpose. If the Russians had blown up the ship on purpose that could have started a war, and there's nothing like that in the film.
I've never really thought about this before, but its true, the whole plot is an accident. The reason why I've never thought about it before is because the McGuffin disappears completely for a whole hour, nobody worries about it again until the underwater scenes, after the Risico section is done and Locque is dead
I been overanalysing some more about how this film is itself almost a collection of overlapping short stories, and this insight that the very plot that ties it all together is not a plot at all but an accident adds to that sense
Melina has a story, she wants vengeance on whoever killed her parents, Bond wanders into her story by accident
Colombo has a story, he's had a bitter rivalry with Kristatos dating back to WWII resistance days (the math there doesn't actually make sense), Bond wanders into his story by accident
Melina's story and Colombo's story overlap, just slightly, but they don't know it and they don't actually meet until the final assault on the mountain
Bond's mission overlaps only slightly with these other two stories, its like a Venn diagram, and this mcGufffin at the bottom of the Agean is the one thing that ties them all together, and as you say, the search for the McGuffin is because of an accident, not some megalomaniac's sinister plot to rule the world ... this is actually some pretty small scale stuff
and who is the "big baddy"? Kristatos is the least megalomaniacal villain we've seen since, ever ... but really he's a paid contractor, just as Gonzales and Locque are ... he's working for Gogol, who wants the McGuffin
but can Gogol be the big baddy? isn't he Bond's friend? at least they're frenemies, rivals in the same line of work who have more in common than what sets them apart? when Bond throws the whatsit over the cliff, Gogol just shrugs, like "c'est la vie" and gets back in his helicopter. it didn't mean all that much to him anyway. After all this bloodshed and major drama and property destruction in the other characters lives, all it was about was a rivalry between two professional frenemies who didn't really care that much about their precious gadget.
This is what makes FYEO such an amazing film. It's a real spy story, and you'd think it came out of the 1960s if it weren't for Conti's music. The characters feel like real people, especially Bond.
"Why don't you try the identigraph?"
"Gaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh"
)
It's always surprising how many fans seem to regard FYEO as a huge improvement over MR.
Instead of John Barry, we get Bill Conti.
Instead of a top villain like Drax, we get the bland, nondescript Kristatos.
Instead of a dashing 007 we get a much older, worn out looking 007.
Instead of breathtaking cinematography, we get scenes that look like a low-budget TV show.
Instead of Bernard Lee as M, we get a pair of bumbling morons.
The scene where Bibi is in Bond's bed and he kicks her out is nothing to do with Fleming, but it is a scene out of Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep (Carmen Sternwood).
In the Big Sleep film, Bogart says, "Then she tried to sit in my lap while I was standing up."
Personally, I would have taken her over Lauren Bacall. Little sister was a total babe.
My current 10 favorite:
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
Comments
YOLT helicopter battle: when Bond takes off in Little Nellie, Barry uses "007". Once Bond meets the enemy helicopters, the music switches to an edited and looped version of the original recording of the "James Bond Theme"- definitely Hunt's decision, the end result being totally unmusical.
OHMSS Piz Gloria raid: Hunt insisted on using the "James Bond Theme" during part of this sequence, much to Barry's chagrin. This turned out to be the last time the original recording was used in a Bond film- not by coincidence, since Hunt left the series at this point.
Don't ya hate when that happens!
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
1. Dalton 2. Moore 3. Connery 4. Lazenby 5. Craig 6. Brosnan
John Glen states in his book that he felt the underwater scenes in Thunderball dragged on too long.
(Does he realize he made the same mistake in FYEO?)
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
Tell me about it. Now I'm unsure whether I should go back and explore some of the other films I haven't seen in a while...
In comparison to the underwater sequences in Thunderball, those in FYEO are a brisk. Perhaps the sub vs sub section was unnecessary, but that's fairly minor. Apart from that, I have no complaints with the underwater sections in FYEO.
8. TMwtGG 9. AVtaK 10. TSWLM 11. SF 12. LtK 13. TND 14. YOLT
15. NTtD 16. MR 17. LaLD 18. GF 19. SP 20. DN 21. TB
22. TWiNE 23. DAD 24. QoS 25. DaF
There are a couple of reasons for that which I will go into later.
The first and main reason for it being my favourite is the campness and comedy which was used exstensively in the previous Bond film MR, is gone.
Ok there are a couple of one liners but back in line with the Connery one liners of the early films.
Moores Bond is more gritty and for the first time he acts like the trained assassin is meant to portray.
The plot too is back and grounded firmly in reality.
I was in my mid to late 20's when the film came out and there were often stories in the news of Spy fishing boats. So this element of the film was authentic.
This film was predominantly filmed in the Greek Island of Corfu in the September of 1980.
Me and my brother went on a three week diving holiday in the October of 1980 when filming on the Island had just wrapped.
Don't forget all the scenes portraying to be Spain are actually Corfu.
We got to know the local diving school instructer, and I helped him out bearing in mind I was a fully qualified Commercial diver at this time.
I can't remember his name now, but his school was based in Dacia, and he taught Roger Moore how to dive. I remember all the bars and nightclubs at time had Bond memorabillia and apparently the cast and crew including Moore partied into the night both there and Corfu Town which wasn't that far away.
We were given a guided tour of where all the filming took place. The road were the CV turns over was on the way to Kavos back in 1980 it was just a very small place with a couple of Tavernas. The beach buggie scenes were filmed on a lovely sandy beach called St Georges (maybe thats why the boat was called St Georges, I guess we'll never know).
All the ropes and pullies that had been used in the car chase scenes were up in the hills above Dacia.
My brother nearly killed himself when he fell off his scooter that we had hired to get about the island to see the locations.
This was the last holiday I had as a single chap before marriage soon after.
Consequently I absolutely love this film because I have been to every single location thats featured in Corfu/Spain.
I've stood where Bond kicks the car over the cliff enjoyed an oozo looking at the same view that Bond and Melina shared of Corfu harbour.
For obvious reasons I have to try and ignore most of the underwater sequences for pretty much the same reasons as I explained in my Thunderball review,this is difficult but not impossible.
Bond does give a brief explanation of the JIM suit. Basically this diving equipment means a frogman can keep an interior pressure of 1 atmosphere, thats sea level to the un intiated. So that there is no need to decompress on the way back to the surface eliminating the physiological dangers of nitrogen narcosis (pissed up as divers reffer to it) and decompression sickness aka The Bends.
It is well documented that all scenes showing actress Carole Bouquet had to be faked as she had sinus problems. Apparently they were filmed in the studio in slow motion, a wind fan was used to simulate floating hair and Alka-Seltzer tablets created the bubbles.
The diving helmets used by Bond and Melena are Kirby Morgan's.
I have to ignore that they are supposed to be diving at 584 feet or 178 metres
By 275 feet all colour has gone, and the underwater landscape is just different shades of grey.
There is a simple experiment you can do, and that is take something red into the diving pool of your local swimming baths and once on the bottom the colour of the item will no longer be red, but be a transition colour on it's way to becoming grey.
Again as with Thunderball as Bond and Melena go to get into their sub you clearly see a quick shot of the surface, that sequence was filmed in no more than 10 feet of water, they once again have used clever camera angles to give the impression of depth.
I remember reading reviews of SPECTRE and members on here who are obviously experts in certain fields regarding that movie, criticised Bond being able to shoot a helicopter down with the gun he was using.
This is the same for me everytime Bond goes diving I'm afraid. However I don't let it spoil my enjoyment as you can't expect actors to go to any depth beyond 20 feet for safety reasons.
So back to the film. It has everything for me, a great villian, a good henchman, good fight scenes, great stunts, remember a stuntman died whilst they were filming the bobsleigh chase.
In the cinema everyone jumped up cheered and clapped when the lotus car blew up. Manchester in the early 80's had terrible car crime and even going to a football match you had to pay local kids to "Mind yer car"
Overall I loved watching this movie again. my number one Moore Bond film and in my top 6 of the 24 that have so far been made.
Next up Octopussy, with no diving scenes so I can just watch it as a punter.
"Do you expect me to talk? "No Mister Bond I expect you to die"
Obviously having powerful lights brings back the colour it's just sunlight gets absorbed by water simple case of physics at the end of the day.
"Do you expect me to talk? "No Mister Bond I expect you to die"
I don't think fish have powerful lights.
John Glenn strikes again eh!?
"Better make that two."
Pros:
.I actually like the PTS.
.One of Binder's best title sequences.
.Feels like a precursor to TLD.
.Includes lots of Fleming material.
.Beautiful locations.
.The action is great.
.The climbing scene is intense.
.Classic casino scene.
.Topol.
.Bibi is annoying but cute as hell. I think she inspired Anka Schlotz from Archer.
.The no head for heights scene. Moore at his coldest.
Cons:
.The cinematography is a little soft at times. Especially during the London and casino scenes.
.Melina's attitude toward the guard after shooting him.
This is a classic.
9/10 -{
pros:
-the most Fleming content since OHMSS, the most Fleming content of any Moore film, Risico is especially closely adapted and takes up a good chunk of the film (at least twenty minutes uninterrupted)
-more serious tone after five comedies, and something much more like a proper spy story, with all the complexity, the confusion, the moral ambiguity
-Melina is the best written female character up til this point, at least in the Moore films, she has a good storyline, grows as a character (character development in a Bond film !?!) and takes part in the action - note that her choice to kill Gonzales results in Bond getting in trouble from his superiors for screwing up his mission
-Citroen chase is very good, makes good use of the geography and the problems and potentials of this funny car, a well choreographed action sequence ... it served to remind me the previous car chases, at least in Moore's films, were very gimmicky
-Topol's performance as Colombo - his broad take on the character vs Julian Glover's understatedness adds to the confusion as to who is actually the villain, a clever acting choice
-note that Locque's death, a muchdiscussed scene, follows directly after the last bit of the lengthy Risico adaptation
-the film is much more episodic than the epics that preceded it, almost following a sequence of random events in Bond's life, with him being a walk-on in the middle of these other peoples adventures - note Colombo kills the villain, not Bond, and only because Melina didn't kill him first ... I think this is appropriate to the adaptation of a book of short stories, the film is almost like a collection of interrelated short stories
-keelhauling - note they actually did try to represent this bit in Moore's first film, with a lot of compromises, but its good they filmed this properly once they figured out how to do it for real
-the ending: the rockclimbing may not be directly from anything Fleming wrote, but he was into mountaineering as a hobby since teenagehood, I'm sure he would have liked this sequence a lot
-I think this film and Spy both borrow from Colonel Sun, in the case of this film, its all the island hopping in the Aegean, the chase scene through classical ruins, and the setup of the final scene: Bond and his allies have to plan an approach to an inaccessible location in Greece, the Bondgirl is part of the assault, and there is a swarthy avuncular type with a personal vendetta against one of the villains dating back to WWII resistance days
cons:
-the music is really dreadful, dragging down a lot of scenes ... compare the underwater scenes with Thunderball, Barry's music told the story where the photography and action was dragging, this music makes better filmed underwater scenes drag worse
sad that Moore's best films both lack Barry, and if you like Live and Let Die, that's three key Moore films that lack Barry
-Sheena Easton's image is very distracting during the credits, much more so than Madonna's muchmocked cameo years later
-no more Bernard Lee... and I think the condescending Chief of Staff does not resemble Fleming's Bill Tanner character
-how understated is Julian Glover's peformance? in the end credits he is bllled fifth, after Bibi! really there are four other villains in this film, and they are all more memorable, but to be billed after Bibi, thats pathetic
-what is Bibi even doing in this film? what does she add to the plot? I think she inadvertantly lures Bond into an attack on the mountain, and her trainer helps the heroes infiltrate Kristato's HQ at the end, thats it. Otherwise she's a distraction from the proper story, an ultimately irrelevant subplot adding to the film's episodic nature.
I think she sort of fills the role of Domino, in Thunderball, as the villains's "protege", and the suggestion Bond be her escort when the villain can't make it, leading to an attempt on Bond's life, thats Thunderball.
More notably, she underlines how old Moore is and subverts Bond's longstanding reputation as a lady's man who can pick up any chick, all of a sudden the audience is rooting for him to please keep it in his pants this time. I think this is the beginning of the deconstruction of Bond's shameless heterosexuality, he was never the Austin Powers type again.
The scene where Bibi is in Bond's bed and he kicks her out is nothing to do with Fleming, but it is a scene out of Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep (Carmen Sternwood). Also Paul Newman and Melanie Griffith share an almost identical scene in the Drowning Pool, which I am sure is a deliberate Chandler tribute, so maybe this is too. Fleming and Chandler were friends.
I was thinking about this the other day…thankfully for me I like TMWTGG, MR,OP and AVTAK way more than FYEO/LALD. So lacking the John Barry scores isn't as noticeable since those two are among my least watched Bond films.
In the quest to make TSWLM like the ultimate Bond film it's really kind of surprising they couldn't get Barry. In every other way, TSWLM is a quintessential Bond film.
This is a question I have asked on here before and still haven't figured it out. Like why was she even in the script?
Plus, being so similar in age to Melina just adds confusion….
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
Tax reasons, unfortunately.
I mean, sure it has Moore's most serious approach to the role but that is not what I want when I sit down to watch a Moore-era movie. It can't define Moore's era because he never was a harder-edged Bond, even if there were moments in "Golden Gun" and "Spy" that he did show his true colours. This doesn't, however, mean that there aren't positives to the movie, so let's run them down (sick pun not intended).
Pros:
Roger Moore's performance
Melina Havlock
Several brutal scenes which very likeable characters got killed. It's like they made clones of Kerim Bey just to murder them.
Personal favourite John Glen direction
Bill Conti's music is excellent in some parts but there are some places in the film that he took it too far. My favourite non-Barry score of a Moore film.
The keypad sound...wish that was a running gag in all of Moore's movies in one way or another.
Cons:
Defence Minister and Chief Of Staff. I hate both of them. Bottom of my list for sure (or top depending on how you look at it, because if you want hate-able bosses for Bond, they're your guys)
Moneypenny looks much, much older between Moonraker and Eyes Only. She looked younger in OP than here but in View To A Kill she looked even worse. Not necessarily a con per se, but I think that I should've pointed it out.
Takes place in Corfu, Greece for a good chunk of the movie. A place I don't particularly think of to be exotic, coming from Greece. Even if I'm sort of the exception in that remark.
This film has a soft filter in the Casino scenes that I do not like and makes the film looked washed out and look more like the music video for Betty Davis Eyes than a big-budget Bond film.
Bibi exists for the sole purpose of Bond's brilliant line.
The song for Eyes Only. Wish they used the Blondie song, even if it wasn't much better. I love Blondie but it just isn't as good as Heart of Glass, for example.
Least favourite villains of the series.
I can't think of any more. Not my favourite Moore-era movie.
No M here, DP. Chief of Staff (Tanner) replaces him, owing to Bernard Lee's sad death before filming.
For "The Government "
That doesn't stop me from hating the both of them.
Edited it!
usually retired cabinet ministers take plush jobs sitting on corporate boards, not returning to the frustrations of the civil service
Haha, I can't stand them either. Even the hideous color of their office irks me.
And this is coming right after Moonraker which featured the best M's office scene in the series.
FYEO's overall step down in quality is jarring.
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
"Gaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh"
"Yes, Sir"
"Well, gut cracqing duble o seven!"
"Gaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh"
Whoever thinks that that is quality acting need a shot in the mouth. (the bad kind)
Did they spend all of their money on Moonraker?
Do they have two separate piggy banks for profit and budget?
Octopussy was an upgrade on so many levels...
But the film belongs in the upper half of the rankings imho. It's my No 11.
Melina is fantastic. Her first scene on the boat...simply fantastic and makes my heart stop every time. A perfect piece of directing too.
FYEO has beautiful cinematography. The score can be debated but I have grown to love it. It's still Bond and EONs better than the elevator music we get in SF and SP.
That's the Minister's office. My grandmother would have loved his decor. We don't see Tanner's office, since he just uses M's office in the film.
I been overanalysing some more about how this film is itself almost a collection of overlapping short stories, and this insight that the very plot that ties it all together is not a plot at all but an accident adds to that sense
Melina has a story, she wants vengeance on whoever killed her parents, Bond wanders into her story by accident
Colombo has a story, he's had a bitter rivalry with Kristatos dating back to WWII resistance days (the math there doesn't actually make sense), Bond wanders into his story by accident
Melina's story and Colombo's story overlap, just slightly, but they don't know it and they don't actually meet until the final assault on the mountain
Bond's mission overlaps only slightly with these other two stories, its like a Venn diagram, and this mcGufffin at the bottom of the Agean is the one thing that ties them all together, and as you say, the search for the McGuffin is because of an accident, not some megalomaniac's sinister plot to rule the world ... this is actually some pretty small scale stuff
and who is the "big baddy"? Kristatos is the least megalomaniacal villain we've seen since, ever ... but really he's a paid contractor, just as Gonzales and Locque are ... he's working for Gogol, who wants the McGuffin
but can Gogol be the big baddy? isn't he Bond's friend? at least they're frenemies, rivals in the same line of work who have more in common than what sets them apart? when Bond throws the whatsit over the cliff, Gogol just shrugs, like "c'est la vie" and gets back in his helicopter. it didn't mean all that much to him anyway. After all this bloodshed and major drama and property destruction in the other characters lives, all it was about was a rivalry between two professional frenemies who didn't really care that much about their precious gadget.
also adding to the random, overlapping short story structure of the film is the pre-credits. The final death of Blofeld is the first precredits unrelated to the rest of the film since, when, Thunderball? even Goldfinger and Thunderball's precredits had some causal link to what followed, the death of Blofeld is truly its own independent short feature
This is what makes FYEO such an amazing film. It's a real spy story, and you'd think it came out of the 1960s if it weren't for Conti's music. The characters feel like real people, especially Bond.
It's always surprising how many fans seem to regard FYEO as a huge improvement over MR.
Instead of John Barry, we get Bill Conti.
Instead of a top villain like Drax, we get the bland, nondescript Kristatos.
Instead of a dashing 007 we get a much older, worn out looking 007.
Instead of breathtaking cinematography, we get scenes that look like a low-budget TV show.
Instead of Bernard Lee as M, we get a pair of bumbling morons.
+1 OP was a return to form.
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
In the Big Sleep film, Bogart says, "Then she tried to sit in my lap while I was standing up."
Personally, I would have taken her over Lauren Bacall. Little sister was a total babe.
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK