Review 138: For Your Eyes Only
For Your Eyes Only is thriller, exciting, tightly plotted James Bond thriller that injects so welcome and much needed espionage and reality after several camp instalments.
A British spy-ship, the St. Georges, accidently hits a mine and sinks in the Ionian Sea. On aboard is the Automatic Targeting Attack Communicator (ATAC), a communications device
that could order Western subs to attack friendly areas. 007 is sent to
recover the ATAC and the Russians, interested in getting ATAC, send a
message to their local "contact". Bond's investigations leads to Greece
and he meets Melina Havelock (Carole Bouquet), out for revenge, as the "Contact" has had
her parents murdered. Bond also meets Aristotle Kristatos (Julian Glover) and Milos
Colombo (known as "The Dove") (Topol) and evidence leads that one of them is the
Russian's "Contact" but both accuses the other. Melina and Bond sets
out to recover the ATAC and not only goes up against the "Contract" but
also against Bibi (Lynn-Holly Johnson), a young ice-skater, who has a major crush on 007...
The plot is brilliantly intriguing, constructing and weavering elements from Bond short stories For Your Eyes Only and Risico to create a film more focussed on realism and espionage, a far cry from the outlandish scif fi narrative of Moonraker and brings the series back to to it's gritty, realistic, hard edged roots.
Unusually for a Bond film, it follows a strong central theme of revenge and its consequences: Melina wants revenge on who killed her parents but Bond tells her to caution her actions. As he puts it "Before setting out on revenge, you first dig two graves"
The plot is brilliantly intriguing, constructing and weavering elements from Bond short stories For Your Eyes Only and Risico to create a film more focussed on realism and espionage, a far cry from the outlandish scif fi narrative of Moonraker and brings the series back to to it's gritty, realistic, hard edged roots.
Unusually for a Bond film, it follows a strong central theme of revenge and its consequences: Melina wants revenge on who killed her parents but Bond tells her to caution her actions. As he puts it "Before setting out on revenge, you first dig two graves"
All of that's fine on its own, but within the larger context of Bond series, while For Your Eyes Only is a refreshingly back to basics film, it's really nothing more than that; There's nothing really remarkable about it. It's mearly competent entertainment and not a spectacularly good Bond film. I did end up missing some of that
First time director John Glen's (he was the film editor and second unit director on, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker) direction is stylish, bringing a much more hard edged tone to the cinematography is gorgeous and captures the beauty of the European/Mediterranean locations and brings out the intensity of the action scenes.
First time director John Glen's (he was the film editor and second unit director on, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker) direction is stylish, bringing a much more hard edged tone to the cinematography is gorgeous and captures the beauty of the European/Mediterranean locations and brings out the intensity of the action scenes.
The production design is very impressive, the costume design is gritty and gets the films tone right (with the exception of the scuba gear Bond and Melina use when they retrive the ATAC which looks really silly) The action scenes are thrillingly exciting, the stunt work is very terrific, the props are top notch, the score by Bill Conti (filling in for regular composer, John Barry, who was unable to work in the UK for tax reasons) is funky, upbeat, unusual and unique, for it's use of disco, dance and funk elements. The locations (Spain, Cortina - Italy, Albania and Greece) are beautiful, there are some brilliant scenes of sly humour, the title song by Sheena Easton is passionate and lively and the ending puts a smile on my face.
The performances are outstanding, Roger Moore, so often the centrepeice of lightheart Bond fair, reminds us that he can be a serious actor, as subdued and suitabley less jovial carefree than he is in prior films.
The performances are outstanding, Roger Moore, so often the centrepeice of lightheart Bond fair, reminds us that he can be a serious actor, as subdued and suitabley less jovial carefree than he is in prior films.
He maintains the same lighthearted portrayal of the character he's known for but gives it an edge and shows us a darker side we've never seen before.
Carole Bouquet is earnest and dangerous as Melina Havelock, having witnessed her family murdered by hitman, Hector Gonzalez, she's hell bent on revenge and will stop at nothing to get is. What separates Melina from previous Bond girls is she has a drive and a sense of urgency that you almost don't get in other Bond girls, making her just as much of a essential drive of the narrative as Bond himself.
Carole Bouquet is earnest and dangerous as Melina Havelock, having witnessed her family murdered by hitman, Hector Gonzalez, she's hell bent on revenge and will stop at nothing to get is. What separates Melina from previous Bond girls is she has a drive and a sense of urgency that you almost don't get in other Bond girls, making her just as much of a essential drive of the narrative as Bond himself.
Bouquet portrays that with determination and commitment.
As expected, Julian Glover makes for a splendidly intimidating villain playing Aristotle Kristatos.
Topol is a very likeable as Colombo,
As the henchmen, Michael Gothard's Emile Locque easily makes his mark with a chilling, body language driven performance whereas John Wyman's Eric Krieger hardly stands out; basically amounting in the Red Grant mold.
Lynn-Holly Johnson is annoying but cute Bibi,
For Your Eyes Only successfully brings 007 back down to earth and the perfect Bond film for a night in, 4/5.
The Anonymous Critic
Topol is a very likeable as Colombo,
As the henchmen, Michael Gothard's Emile Locque easily makes his mark with a chilling, body language driven performance whereas John Wyman's Eric Krieger hardly stands out; basically amounting in the Red Grant mold.
Lynn-Holly Johnson is annoying but cute Bibi,
For Your Eyes Only successfully brings 007 back down to earth and the perfect Bond film for a night in, 4/5.
The Anonymous Critic
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