For Your Eyes Only: Review By slysnide

After the mixed to negative responses on "Moonraker" (1979), the producers chose to take the franchise back to its routes, placing Bond in a more realistic setting to contrast from the gargantuan sets pieces and action sequences the franchise was known for. Ian Fleming's short story collection "For Your Eyes Only" (1960) was chosen, in which elements from "Risico" & "For Your Eyes Only" were employed in the script by Richard Maibaum and executive producer Michael G. Wilson. They also culled unused elements from previously adapted Bond novels, such as a scene that was meant to be featured in "Live And Let Die" (1973) for a memorable stunt involving a towrope in shark infested waters. Due to the smaller scale of the film, Bond editor and second unit director John Glen was promoted to director on the film. He would remain in the position in all five Bond films in the eighties.

In his twelfth adventure, 007 James Bond (Roger Moore) is assigned to retrieve the missing Automatic Targeting Attack Communicator (ATAC) which was lost in the sinking of the spy boat Saint Georges in the Ionian Sea via naval mine. Bond's journey will pit him against two international eastern european smuggling rings. One or both may be working for the Soviets to retrieve it for the KGB's General Gogol (Walter Gotell) and may even be employing assassins within their own criminal organizations to assassinate any rival groups interested in locating the ATAC. But rather than being a beautiful trip through Albania or northern Greece (not that they're prime locations for exotica), or any beautiful areas in the regions, it's rather a bland adventure that's devoid of the fantasy that earlier Bond films employed, and is also dialogue heavy.

The two smuggling ring leaders are the posh and elegant Aristotle Kristatos (Julian Glover) and the somewhat stereotypical cuban drug lord type smuggler Milos Columbo (Chaim Topol). Glover had been considered for Bond himself in the past when he was too young, but now was too old to replace Roger Moore when it was unclear whether he'd renew his contract after "The Spy Who Loved Me" (1977). Topol was chosen by the suggestion of Cubby's wife Dana Broccoli. Unfortunately, there's not much else to say about those two characters' personalities. They were just too stereotypical of their roles. One smuggler is masquerading as a rich pompous ass with numerous henchmen, and the other is very honest and outgoing about who he is. Guess which one is working for the Soviets, if not both, and you can see the problem here.

Typical to the Moore Era, two Bond girls were chosen. The first was Bibi Dahl (Lynn-Holly Johnson) who is Kristatos' niece, whom Bond shares a bizarre liking for. It's your call on what type of attraction there is there besides that he's working on a lead, but Roger even thought for being fifty-three and moving on a twenty-two year old figure skating expert. The other was Melina Havelock (Carole Bouquet) whom was daughter to a murdered marine biologist who was seeking out the Saint Georges for MI6. Because she has a vendetta, it was a very different, though pleasing change for the Bond girls as she wasn't distracted by Bond's usual promiscuous antics. Bouquet had previously auditioned for Dr. Goodhead in "Moonraker," but wasn't chosen. She was ultimately cast when Cubby & Glen saw her in a spanish film "The Obscure Object of Desire" (1977) under the suggestion of UA publicist Jerry Juroe.

Production began on 2 September 1980 in the North Sea for three days of filming the Saint Georges exteriors, with interiors shot at Pinewood Studios with the help of the large water tank. Principal photography began in Corfu Town, Greece on 15 September 1980 for filming of the spanish villa, with surrounding buildings being painted white. During a shootout sequence, a live bullet found its way into the blanks, and Topol was grazed by the forehead, and no sooner had it happened, Cubby pulled him out of the scene to take him to a hospital before Glen could even call cut. This also served as the location for the car chase featuring a Citroen 2CV and Peugeot 504s. Stunt driver Remy Julienne joined the franchise here and would remain on it through "Goldeneye" (1995). The 2CVs were modified with flat-four engines and a revolving roof plate so it could flip upside down. And while shooting at the villa, supporting actress Cassandra Harris' husband Pierce Brosnan paid a visit. He made an impression on everyone, most notably the producers who mentally catalogued the chance meeting for possible casting later on. In October, filming of the climax at the 'Monastery of the Holy Trinity' in Meteora. The building was constructed in 1476, and had decorations and manuscripts looted in WWII. However, only exteriors were used as two devious monks attempted to sabotage the production by unloading the storage rooms to clutter the monastery grounds and place ugly plastic bags across the roofs as they were displeased with the local government's decision to allow them to film there. Matte paintings would resolve this issue. The Greek Supreme Court sided with the government's choice, and a replica monastery was built on the adjacent vertical rock face which gave Roger Moore vertigo to the point where he took valium and had some drinks before his rock scaling scenes. So it was up to stuntman Rick Sylvester who'd performed the daring jump in "The Spy Who Loved Me" (1977) to take a tumble off the cliff on a bungee cord. No camera tricks or miniatures were employed in the daredevil stunt. The actors also had to be sure to be exacting in their performance to match interior shoots at Pinewood Studios the following month.

In November, production moved to Pinewood Studios where Peter Lamont from the art department was promoted to production designer to replace the unavailable Ken Adam for specific interior shooting. Meanwhile, the second unit work was conducted in the Bahamas for underwater shoots. On New Year's Day 1981, production moved again, this time to Cortina D'Ampezzo; the city featured as the super cool side of ski resort life in "The Pink Panther" (1964) and other scenes in the Sylvester Stallone actioneer "Cliffhanger" (1993). Unfortunately, that super cool ski resort town atmosphere that was needed in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1969) wasn't employed here either. But without any snowfall for six weeks, then it wouldn't have worked properly anyway. Right? Wrong. Truckloads of snow arrived to make the city a winter wonderland for the chase sequences which were filmed and choreographed by Willy Bogner Jr who worked on chases in "The Spy Who Loved Me" & "On Her Majesty's Secret Service." He found a way to combine skis, motorcycles, and bobsleds in a single chase through shallow snow and through bobsled courses, even tying himself to the bobsled to slow it down so as not to run over the actors. In the end, the artificial snow made no difference when combined with matte paintings to bring the allusion of winter snowfall to the screen.

As production neared its end, Bernard Lee, who'd played Bond's boss 'M' in every Bond film passed away on 16 January 1981. Out of respect, the role was not recast, and instead his scenes were handled by 'Q' (Desmond Llewelyn), the Minister of Defense (Geoffrey Keen), and another Fleming character, Bill Tanner (James Villiers). Production wrapped that February with more filming on the bobsleigh chase, and on the final day of the shoot, a twenty-three year old stuntman was killed when he became trapped under the sleigh. So two deaths ended the production on a low note.

While the film returned Bond to his more realistic roots, and the action was very realistic, the bizarre pairing of Bond with women far younger than he stretched the believability in their chemistry. The locations weren't that spectacular, and neither were most of the supporting roles. The fantasy elements of Bond seemed missing, and not because of the realism, for "From Russia With Love" (1963) was among the most realistic and well liked films, but this didn't come close to it in my opinion. Ultimately it was Moore's character, charm, and humor which kept me watching the film. There was even a moment of hesitation by Moore as to whether or not he should kill an already trapped villain in a car, as for Moore, it didn't seem like something his Bond would do, and he was absolutely right. But Glen had him do it anyway as he wanted a more edgy Bond out of the english gentleman. It was one of the reasons he was promoted in the first place. So overall, the characters, locations, on screen chemistry, and overall feeling just wasn't cutting it for me. Bond didn't seem to be himself. It seemed more like an independent film starring Roger Moore than a Bond film, or at least a Bond rip off, and despite the mixed to positive reviews which haven't changed much, this still doesn't do it for me. Produced on a much slimmer budget, it garnered an Oscar nomination for the title song by Sheena Easton, and grossed an impressive $195,300,000. While I appreciate the producers' recognition that they needed to get Bond more down to Earth (no pun intended), it was a bit too toned down for my tastes, for as Michael G. Wilson warned, never lose the fantasy, or you've lost your audience.