For Your Eyes Only is the first Bond film I remember seeing, ever. I was about eight, and probably saw it on cable. While the opening sequence was lost on me, not knowing the series' history, but the rest - fabulous pool parties, deep sea diving, sensuous love feasts - I totally got. I wanted to be a Bond girl. I wanted to live on a yacht in the Caribbean and drive in fast cars and get romanced. I remember Sheena Easton was a huge deal. Yet the one scene that stood out in memory was Bond finishing off the main henchman, trapped in a car hanging over a cliff, kicking him over as his eyes screamed for help through his glasses.
The basic plot of For Your Eyes Only is: a British intelligence trawler carrying a top secret missile control computer surreptitiously sinks in the Aegean Sea. A local underwater archaeologist is looking for it, but is assassinated by the bad guys just as his daughter (the girl) arrives to visit. Sent to investigate, Bond tracks the assassin and eventually hooks up with the girl. Meanwhile, the Russians watch the black market to see about buying the device.The bad guy eventually steals the device from Bond, attempting to drown him and the girl in the process, but they escape. Bond, the girl, and some retired Greek counterinsurgents sneak into the lofty lair of the bad guy, destroying the device before it can be given to the Russians.
For Your Eyes Only is the beginning of Eighties Bond, and Eighties decadence. It's not a bad Bond film, and the plot more or less makes sense. The main henchman plays a larger role than most and serves as Bond's primary nemesis, a and is a more serious, equally silent Jaws. This is a lethal Bond film, and while it has some ridiculous moments, it skips the camp of its predecessors and successors. It's not a great Bond film; Roger Moore by this point was near fifty, and better at conveying a wry cordiality in his mayhem than straight-up action, but he is determined. Of the Bond films from the late seventies and eighties, this is one of the most watchable ones.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment