ARTICLES:
20 YEARS OF
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY
The
Man with the Golden Gun is considered by most as one of, if
not the, worst movies in what pretty
much otherwise has been a tremendous series. Certainly, its Box
Office figues were well down on the
Bond films starring Sean Connery. EON had other problems at the
time, such as the breakup of the
Broccoli / Saltzman partnership, leaving Broccoli as the sole
producer.
But
Bond rose to the challenge and the next film, the 10th of the
series The Spy who Loved me was an
all out terrific film, re-establishing Bond and a popular cinema
figure and silencing the critics who
believed that the series had run its course. At the end of The
Spy who Loved me was the now traditonal
"The End but James Bond will return in...." to announce
the title of the next film. On this occasinon,
the end credits announced For Your Eyes Only as the next
entry to the Bond canon.
Its
history now, that with the recent space craze, helped by films
such as Star Wars and Close
Encounters of the Thrid Kind, that producers desided on a
different kind of film for the 11th Bond
outing, an almost Science-Fiction type film in Moonraker. While
it was very succesful, fans complained
about the silliness and far fetchedness of the film. Apart from
the impossible Spacce battle and Space
station, there was Jaws's return as a Wile E Coyote from Road
Runner type character, pulling faces as
he crashed and bashed into everything, even worse was him falling
in love. Thrown in with other chessy
elements, Moonraker had drifted a long way from what many
considered Bond to be all about.
But
For Your Eyes Only would do what many appropratly
describe as 'Brining Bond back to earth'.
Apart from the pretitle scene where Bond uses a helicopter to
drop Blofeld in a smokestack,everything
in this film was played straight down the line. The slight plot
twist where the villian Kristakaos has
Bond convinced that Columbo is the culprit is very well down,
plus the vengeful Melinda Havelock
(played by Carole Boquet) is one of the best Bond girls yet. The
Soviets are thrown in to give the film a
more spy type feel and this time Bond has less gadgets at his
disposal. The Lotus, returning from The
Spy who Loved me blows up early in the film, leaving Bond to
get away in a less than adequate
substitute.
With
the bad gags, the double takes, Jaws and the general rubbish
disposed of and replaced with more
tension and better characters, For Your Eyes Only was
allowed to be a great film. We see Bond turn
down a girl, Bibi, who he rightly considers to be too young for
him, we see an exellent ski chase and
more than a few other things. After years of editing and second
unit work, John Glen gets the chance
to direct, doing a great job, Glen would continue on for the
enitre eighties.
The
Music was quite interesting, the main song, written by Bill Conti
and sung by Sheena Easton in
the main titles was nominated for an Oscar. The music during the
film is a mix of disco themes with
Bond touches, which while dated now, do make the film unique.
Another
interesting side note is that the film returns to the roots of
the character, Ian Flemings novels.
Elements from the short stories For Your Eyes Only and Risico
such the murder of the Havelock
parents and the battle between Kristatos were used very well. The
sixites films were very similar to
there novel counterparts, but in the seventies the films had
drifted a long way, using only the
occasional character name. It was very good to a Flemingish Bond
again.
Continuity
also features strongly in For Your Eyes Only. The
Pretitle scene was an exellent link to
Bonds past, seeing the gravestone of his late wife Tracey (who
died in OHMSS) and the return of who
we assume to be Blofeld, petting his cat and causing havoc one
final time. The Hat toss in
Moneypennys area returns, for the first time since the early days
and the Lotus from The Spy who
Loved me makes a breif appearance. Not returning from
previous outings, sadly, is Bernard Lee who
played the head of the Secret Service 'M'. He passed away not
long before production.
But
Bond is back, and while Box Office figures were slightly down
from previous outings, those who did
see were more than pleased. Faith in Bond had been renewed once
again and some great films
followed. Octopussy and The Living Daylights go
along with For Your Eyes Only to make the 80s one
of Bonds most memorable eras.