Because the source book was a short-story collection, FYEO is a clever hodgepodge of scenes from various Fleming stories, all welded together within an original framework. It turns out this is a pretty good way of constructing a Bond movie as the constituent Fleming elements are faithfully reproduced without compromising the overall cinematic plot. It also means that the film is very down to Earth, and is perhaps the least fantastical of all the Bond movies. Melina's mission for revenge comes from the eponymous short story For Your Eyes Only, where Bond, sent on a personal mission by M to kill the assassin of some friends, bumps into a woman trying to do the same thing and avenge her parents' death. The Mediterranean feud between smugglers Colombo and Kristatos, complete with Anglo/Soviet proxies and plot twist, is lifted from Risico, from the same collection, whilst the keel-hauling scene (and to some extent the sunken treasure plot) are left over from the novel of Live and Let Die. It's a bit of a mixture but they are fused very effectively and together they set the tone for the film, blending a manageable amount of melodrama with some mildly grubby Cold War espionage. Apart from the PCS and some small quibbles about the A.T.A.C. MacGuffin (see Eh? below) everything that happens is completely credible - in fact when compared to the rest of the series, FYEO is practically cinéma vérité.
Hang on, but aren't Bond films really dull when all the fantasy is stripped out? Isn't that the problem with the first half of DRNO? Well, no, not if what's left is full of tension and action and cleverness, which is what we have here (and in FRWL too). Don't forget it's Bond's style, resourcefulness and wit that makes him such a great action hero - if he has to employ a gadget then it's the way he uses it that matters. The fantasy is great if it is cool and clever (the Lotus Sub/the DB5) and annoying as all hell if it is crass and stupid (the gondola), but it's always best when he brilliantly extemporises.
Here the decision is taken to do away with all gadgets whatsoever and leave Bond to cope instead with whatever is to hand. This is very clear in the first major action sequence, the escape from Gonzales' villa. There's a reason that Bond's Lotus has such a ridiculously over-sensitive burglar alarm (it explodes when an inquisitive guard breaks a window) and that is to force 007 instead to get away in a roughed up Citroen 2CV. The audience gets an immediate double-whammy: whilst our anticipation of the Lotus's (and Bond's) superiority are blown up we get a sight gag as Bond does a double-take at Melina's car. And then we get an excellent car chase - bereft of technological gimmicks and totally reliant on some high-precision stunt driving.
The rest of the film continues in this vein, serving up the usual series of fights and chases, but never allowing Bond's presumed invincibility to diminish the tension. Instead he's repeatedly shown at vulnerable moments: pinned down behind a tree by a rifle marksman; deep underwater, unaware of the armoured assailant bearing down upon him; hanging from a rope whilst far above his pitons are being knocked from the cliff-face, one by one. Most tellingly, we even see him at his wife's graveside - a very rare reminder indeed that there is supposed to be a man inside the suit. This isn't normal Bond fare and, in another shocking departure, the action sequences are interspersed by scenes where characters properly interact thus advancing the story! When Bond warns Melina about the personal cost of her desire for revenge or Colombo persuades Bond to trust him we are light years away from the standard one-dimensional conversations elsewhere in the series. It's good stuff.
Moore is very good here too. In fact he comes much closer to playing James Bond (rather than the character he normally plays, 'Roger Moore playing James Bond') than at any other point in his tenure. Although he looked both podgy and creaky in Moonraker, he is completely credible here, even at 54. He's an older Bond to be sure, but he looks grizzled and weathered rather than merely decrepit. Being thrown into a romantic clinch with twenty-two year old Lynn Holly-Johnson (playing ice skater Bibi Dahl) should make Moore look impossibly old, but somehow it doesn't and the thirty-two year age gap merely makes Dahl look stupidly young and naive in contrast to Bond. The familiar Moore smugness is almost non-existent and, slim and seemingly in better physical shape than ever, he is more convincing in the fights than he has been previously.
Two things help him here. Firstly, Moore benefits enormously by having a female co-star who can convincingly sell her interest in him (especially as he gets older) and Carole Bouquet as Melina Havelock excels at that. Straight away, in the 2CV chase, he fires off a weak joke and she really laughs, as if helplessly exhilarated by the adventure into which she has fallen (I've a suspicion that it's a natural laugh from Bouquet that they kept in, but all the same). In fact throughout the film there's a coherence to her characterisation and, even better, she doesn't end up in a bikini, needing to be rescued! Secondly, there's much less humour in FYEO and as a result Moore's natural twinkle becomes charismatic rather than smug. It's the corollary of DAF where Connery, having played Bond straight for five films, becomes suddenly funny.
Because it's all so straight Julian Glover's villainous Kristatos doesn't have a lot to do which is rather a shame as he's one of the better actors in the series. [BONUS FACT: Julian Glover also played baddies in The Empire Strikes Back, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and classic Tom Baker Doctor Who story, City of Death. Don't think anyone else has achieved that. What I'm saying is, he's kind of a big deal.] It does however make him one of the more believable Bond villains and there is something satisfying about that. Chaim Topol does good work as Bond's comrade in arms, Colombo, and tradition demands that I describe this as 'evoking the spirit of Pedro Armendáriz' from FRWL. There's a whole thesis to be done on the supporting male characters in the Bond stories, but suffice to say the one thing they all have in common is a 'warm, dry handshake' - knowing this perhaps helps make more sense of the scene where Colombo persuades Bond to trust him: it looks as if Bond changes his mind rather easily if you miss the significance of that handclasp.
* * *
Pre-Credits Sequence: Well isn't this strange? Blofeld pops up out of nowhere and tries to kill Bond with a remote control helicopter. I say Blofeld but, for legal reasons, the bald, white cat-fondling villain is never formally identified. Around this time Kevin Mclory was trying to get a rival Bond film made based upon rights he claimed from Thunderball - which included Ernst Stavro and SPECTRE. Broccoli's response was to drop Blofeld down a chimney. Interestingly, this sequence was scripted as an introduction to the new Bond, should Moore not return. Interesting because it's so unlike other Bond introductions - but maybe it would have been shot differently if a new actor had actually ended up involved? By the way, Mclory's film project eventually popped out as Never Say Never Again starring everyone's third favourite 007, Sean Whatshisface.
Theme: It's another sedate theme song gently lulling us to sleep whilst Binder does his stuff. His stuff's a little better this time - gentle swimming silhouettes - and there's some real novelty in having Sheena Easton sing at us on-screen.
Deaths: 53, holding pretty steady. Three of those deaths go unseen but are reported. One guy is shot in the chest with a cross bow bolt but, somewhat miraculously, doesn't seem to be terribly injured. However he is stuck atop a Greek mountain and his criminal comrades are all dead. It's a fifty/fifty call but I like to think that Bond handed him over to the proper authorities promptly enough that he was able to get medical attention he needed.
Memorable Deaths: Gonzales gets a cross-bow bolt in the back as he dives into his pool. Bond kicks Locque's car off of a cliff and throws a piton into a guard so that he falls off a cliff. A chap in a hi-tech diving suit gets blown up underwater. And, of course, someone who may or may not have been Ernst Stavro Blofeld is dropped down an industrial chimney.
Licence to Kill: 14. Again holding steady.
Exploding Helicopters: 0. For the eighth time in twelve films!
Shags: 2. But it might have been three had he not disappointed young Bibi Dahl.
Crimes Against Women: Hardly any! All right, a bit. Dahl gets slapped about by the baddies, but then they're baddies (and she is the closest thing to Scrappy Doo that we'll ever see in a Bond film - apart from possibly Rowan Atkinson in Never Say Never Again. Ah, you'd forgotten about that hadn't you!). No FYEO is very unsexist. Considering. The two women Bond beds, Melina and Lisl, have distinct characters without being either damaged damsels or twisted sexpot stereotypes. And Bond doesn't patronise them - hell, he and Lisl even exchange small-talk, as if she was a real person that he was a bit interested in. Melina's desire for revenge is hackeneyed as a characterisation possibly, but it's one we haven't seen so far in a Bond film (no, I'm not counting Tilly Masterson or Amasova) and it means she has valid emotional reactions throughout. Yes, Bond does take over the driving duties from her during the 2CV chase, but there's no snide comments about women drivers this time - the distinction being drawn is not man versus woman, but spy versus amateur. And when Colombo expresses regret that they are attacking St. Cyril's with 'only six men', Melina immediately responds, brandishing her cross bow, 'and one woman'. Yes, it's clichéd dialogue but the implicit sexism, that Colombo doesn't count her as a combatant, is immediately corrected. This new spirit has even reached MI6 where Q Branch is very obviously an equal opportunities employer, even if Sharon does end up making the tea. It is just a little sad though that Moneypenny's gadget is a make-up kit hidden in her filing cabinet.
Casual Racism: Very little. Kriegler the KGB agent is rather obviously a stereotypical (East) German: a giant blond strongman who excels at winter sports. But I'm clutching at straws really. In fact the film does try and subvert some prejudices - there's a real moment of understanding between Bond and (the Russian) Gogol at the end that suggests they can share a joke even as their governments point nuclear missiles at each other.
Out of Time: Q Branch's Indentigraph uses data discs the size of pizza boxes. Meryl who? Janet Brown, the definitive Margaret Thatcher, pops up alongside John Wells as Dennis.
Fashion Disasters: For the third film in a row Moore gets dressed up in bright yellow and this time it's rubber pyjamas. Bleurgh. Bibi skis in a cowboy hat and ear muffs, which is frankly unforgivable. . .
Eh?: I'm given to understand (thanks Wikipedia) that Greek Orthodox churches do not have confessionals. I suppose there are plenty of Catholic churches in Greece but surely it's just as likely that Q knocked up a confession box for the sole purpose of briefing Bond? And whilst we're here I note that the habit of recklessly sending high-ranking intelligence officers out into the field has not yet been rethought. Can't they use the bloody phone? >> According to Melina, the ruins on the sea bed are 5,000 years old, which is just about feasible although it would put it right on the fringe of the Early Helladic I or (more likely) Early Cycladic I eras. This claim is however undermined by the Roman-looking mosaics and statuary, and the Doric columns. I'll leave that one with you then. >> Bond, playing Baccarat and having drawn five, is told by Kristatos that "the odds favour standing", to which Bond replies "if you play the odds." This is all nonsense as any Bond fan worth their salt will tell you. In fact as no less an authority than James Bond himself explains in Casino Royale, (1953): "Five is the turning point of the game. According to the odds, the chances of bettering or worsening your hand if you hold a five are exactly even." >> Right then, this A.T.A.C. device. It's some sort of code control thing for giving orders to nuclear submarines yes? Fair enough, I can see why the UK would feel the need to retrieve such a device before the USSR can get their hands on it, but at the end, having dashed it on some rocks, Bond claims to Gogol "That's detente comrade. I don't have it. You don't have it." That's rubbish surely? The Royal Navy didn't just make one A.T.A.C. did it? Are there not blueprints? Schematics? >> Nobody seems to mind that Kriegler has bunked off from his biathlon to chase Bond across a ski resort, but presumably he's facing a DNF after all that. >> Why does Melina leave that oxygen cylinder on the sea bed? And why does Bond drop it back into the sea when they're done with it? I call that littering. >> Bond is spotted by a guard as he climbs up the cliff. Why doesn't the guard just shoot him? Why doesn't he raise the alarm? No, much more sensible to climb down and knock the pitons out. Some people don't half make things difficult for themselves.
Worst Line: The ersatz Blofeld cackles "I hope you had a pleasant... fright?" and then, pleading for his life, makes this utterly bizarre offer to Bond: "I'll buy you a delicatessen! In stainless steel!" Really?
Best Line: There aren't many zingers here so the best line comes from my nine year old son. He watched the 2CV chase which ends with 007 introducing himself. "Wait," he says, "he did all that before he even told her his name? Wow, that James Bond really does have a way with the ladies."
Worst Bond Moment: Getting propositioned by Bibi. Although, to be fair Bond looks as uncomfortable about it as we are.
Best Bond Moment: The 2CV chase is a classic, but there's one moment in the middle of it that is just brilliant: a swerving braking manoeuvre from Bond that sends the little yellow car shooting backwards and causes the two pursuing vehicles to smash together. Executed at high speed, it's a breath-taking balletic piece of stunt driving and, though it only lasts two seconds, deserves a lot of attention.
Overall: It's hardly John Le Carré, but this is the first Bond film since FRWL that has any chance of being considered a straight espionage thriller. It works very well, with some excellent chases and action set-pieces almost making up for the missing flash of the spectacular that, say, TSWLM or Goldfinger can provide. It's the best of the Moore Bonds, or at least joint best with TSWLM, depending on what you want: each is an excellent example of, respectively, the fantastic and the more realistic versions of Bond.
James Bond Will Return: ... in Octopussy.
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