The James Bond Bedside Companion (74 page)

PRODUCTION

W
hen
For Your Eyes Only
was released in the summer of 1981, it appeared that the James Bond of the eighties would be more like the Bond of the sixties—certainly a change for-the better. Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson steered the production back down to earth to present a James Bond film that concentrates on its characters and plot rather than set pieces. The intention was to make another
From Russia With Love
or
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
type of film, both of which are heavily inspired by Fleming's original material.

Ken Adam and his futuristic sets are gone, and so is the Jaws character. There are not many gadgets in the film. Most of the action takes place outdoors, pro
viding opportunities for underwater and ski photography. The story is based in reality, and there is a good deal of suspense in the film. The characters are the most developed in a long while, and the humor is kept to a sophisticated, subtle level. And the picture contains one of the best collections of stunts and action scenes in the series. As a result,
For Your Eyes Only,
save for an out-of-place and disappointing pre-credits sequence, is the best Bond film since
On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
As a mailer of fact, the new film is similar in mood and texture to the former. This is perhaps due to the work of new director John Glen. Glen, you will recall, was second unit director/editor for
On Her Majesty's Secret Service, The Spy Who Loved Me,
and
Moonraker.
It was he who supervised the thrilling ski and bobsled sequences from
On Her Majesty's Secret Service,
and the opening ski chase in
Spy.
There are similar exciting ski scenes in
For Your Eyes Only.

The film is beautiful to look at, and is another globetrotter incorporating new territory: Corfu, Cortina d'Ampezzo in Northern Italy, the Bahamas, the Meteora mountains in central Greece, and Pinewood Studios in England. One scene was shot in a six-hundred-year-old Byzantine monastery high atop a slender mountain near the village of Kalambaka in Greece. Permission was granted Broccoli to film on the site by the abbot, but there were a couple of monks who severely protested. The monks did everything they could to ruin shots, such as hang their laundry outdoors to mar the scenes. But the shots were finally finished and this sequence is one of the film's most impressive.

Public reaction to
For Your Eyes Only
was good. Though it didn't rival
Moonraker
in terms of ticket sales, the film did phenomenal business. And it was much less expensive, with a budget of under twenty million dollars. The gamble paid off. Bond was just as successful as before.

SCREENPLAY

V
eteran Richard Maibaum was hired again to pen the screenplay to
Eyes
Only,
with the help of Michael G. Wilson. The inspiration for the script came from two Fleming short stories that appeared in the 1960 anthology, FOR YOUR EYES ONLY. And for the first time in quite a while, a Bond film is more or less faithful to the Fleming originals.

The title story of the collection provided Maibaum and Wilson with the heroine, Judy Havelock, who seeks revenge for the murder of her parents. James Bond encounters her in the woods surrounding the villain's hideout and joins forces with her. In the film, her name is Melina Havelock, and her assassination of the killer is taken almost verbatim from the story (but it's in a different context). The main plot of the film comes from the story, "Risico," which involves the rivalry between two Italian smugglers: Kristatos and Colombo. The film shifts the locale from Italy to Greece, and changes the spelling of the latter smuggler to Columbo. The script writers linked the two stories together by means of another Bondian MacGuffin: a typewriterlike computer known as the ATAC system, which can be used to override manual controls on Polaris submarines. At the beginning of the film, a British surveillance ship carrying an ATAC device is sunk off the Albanian coast. Both the British and the Russians want the ATAC, and they send their best men to retrieve it. The Havelock girl becomes involved because her parents, who are British undercover agents working in Greece, are assassinated after Mr. Havelock locates the sunken ship. The assassin is a man named Gonzales and is employed by Kristatos, the true villain of the film. Kristatos is a freelancer working for the Russians to retrieve the ATAC. Columbo becomes a Bond ally to seek revenge on Kristatos, an old rival from the war. This strong theme of revenge provides a unity to the film which the last several Bonds have lacked. The story is played straight. There are moments of humor, but they do not regress into slapstick.

The pre-credits sequence is the film's only problem, and it doesn't relate to the rest of the picture at all. The scene opens with Bond visiting his wife Tracy's grave in a small church cemetery. A helicopter from Universal Export arrives to fetch him, but it has been sabotaged. Once the copter is in the air, the pilot is electrocuted in his seat and the controls are operated by an unseen force. A voice on a speaker in the cockpit informs "Mr. Bond" that there is nothing he can do to save himself. Then we see who the culprit is. On a rooftop is a wheelchair containing a bald-headed man holding a white cat. The camera never reveals his face, but it appears to be Ernst Stavro Blofeld (along the lines of Donald Pleasence or Telly Savalas). He is sitting in front of some kind of control panel, maneuvering the helicopter with a joystick. We are then treated to some outstanding flight stunts with the copter, as it weaves in and out of the chimneys and smokestacks of the Becton Gasworks in London's East End. Bond eventually crawls out of the back seat of the copter onto the outside of the craft. He clambers into the cockpit and tosses the dead pilot from the vehicle. He
finally locates and pulls the power cable responsible for the dirty work. Blofeld loses control of the aircraft. It is here that the only instance of silliness appears in the film. Bond flies the copter down to Blofeld and scoops up his wheelchair with the landing strut of the craft. There is some clumsy makeup here, because it's obvious that the stuntman in the wheelchair is wearing a rubber bald cap. Bond then proceeds to drop the wheelchair, Blofeld and all, down a smokestack.

First, the sequence makes no sense because it isn't revealed whether or not this villain is actually Blofeld. We don't know why he's tampering with the copter, or why he's in the wheelchair. We could assume that it's Blofeld (we're certainly meant to) and that he's in the wheelchair because he was hurt at the end of
Diamonds Are Forever
. Second, after the breathtaking helicopter stunts, the sequence is marred by the unbelievable scooping up of the wheelchair. One explanation for the sequence could be that it is a nightmare of Bond's. He has just been visiting his wife's grave—perhaps the memory of Blofeld is haunting him, and the entire incident with the copter is in Bond's imagination. But if this is the case, Bond should "awaken" from his nightmare at the end of the sequence—which would have worked well, silliness and all.

But after this disappointing pre-credits sequence, the remainder of the film is top-notch.

There is one particular scene in the film which is lifted almost directly from "Risico." In the short story, Bond meets Kristatos at a restaurant and observes Colombo at another table with Lisl Baum. But Colombo is recording their conversation by means of a machine planted in an extra chair at their table. In the film, the tape recorder is in the table candle rather than the chair, and Lisl Baum has become Contessa Lisl. But the dramatic action of the scene is the same, and it's one of the best sequences in the film. At this point, we do not yet know that it is Kristatos who is the villain and Columbo who is friendly. (Actually, Bond is suspicious of both.) It is a perfect onscreen example of a Fleming situation. Also lifted directly from the short story is the subsequent conversation aboard Columbo's fishing vessel in which the truth about Kristatos is explained to Bond. Columbo gains Bond's trust by returning Bond's Walther PPK which was taken from him earlier.

Another scene is from the novel LIVE AND LET DIE, but wasn't in that film. Bond and Melina Havelock have been captured by Kristatos and are tied together face to face. Kristatos then pulls them by rope through the water behind his boat. His intention is that the couple will scrape over the sharp coral and attract sharks. (In the novel, it is Solitaire who shares this plight with Bond.) But in the film, they escape when Bond uses the coral to cut the rope binding his wrists during a pause as Kristatos' boat turns around for another run over the coral. Melina has left some air tanks on the ocean floor earlier, so she and Bond swim to them. Kristatos believes the two are dead when he sees that the rope is free. In no other sequence has a Bond heroine shared such a fiendish ordeal with 007.

Even something of a political statement is made in the new film. At the end, when General Gogol of the KGB arrives by helicopter from Moscow to retrieve the ATAC from Kristatos, Bond throws the machine off the mountain. The ATAC shatters into a thousand pieces. "Now neither of us have it," Bond says to Gogol. "That's détente, comrade." Gogol, after a pause, finally smiles. (Do these gentlemen forget they became allies during
The Spy Who Loved Me
?) Gogol turns, and leaves in his helicopter. Bond hasn't been successful in retrieving the ATAC for Britain, but he has kept it out of the Russians' hands. This passage cunningly suggests the possibility that the entire arms race could be the foolish pursuit of a MacGuffin.

As usual, there are some funny one-liners. One of the most memorable is when Bond unexpectedly finds young Bibi in his hotel bed. Bibi is a teenage Olympic ice skating protégée, and the ward of Kristatos. Bond avoids her advances gallantly, and finally tells her, "Now get dressed and I'll buy you an ice cream."

DIRECTION

J
ohn Glen follows in Peter Hunt's footsteps by making a very impressive directorial debut with
For Your Eyes Only
. Glen is immediately a good storyteller, and the technical aspects of the film are flawless. Above all,
Eyes Only
is a good action picture. It contains the best collection of stunt work in the series. There is a unique car chase; an exciting ski pursuit followed by a bobsled/ski/motorcycle romp; a fight on an ice hockey field; and plenty of fist fights and underwater battles. There are even a few old-fashioned shoot-em-ups with men running about and guns blazing, like the gypsy camp battle in
From Russia With Love
.

Glen maintains a serious tone in the film, despite the usual gags that always pop up in a Bond picture.
The film
does
recall the feel of
From Russia With Love
and
On Her Majesty's Secret Service;
not only because of the outdoors look and the Fleming story, but because the characters treat everything seriously. It isn't only fantasy we're dealing with this time—the
people
are important.

This is especially true in Glen's handling of the Melma Havelock character. She is very serious about avenging the murder of her parents. There is a marvelous closeup of her teary-eyed face just after she has seen her parents murdered. The shot captures Melina's anger, sadness, and confusion in a swirling moment while dramatic music complements the beauty and rage in her face.

Deaths are presented more in the style of Terence Young—realistically. The Havelocks are shot down aboard their yacht by hit man Gonzales. Their bodies are riveted with bullets. Melina receives satisfaction when she shoots Gonzales in the back with an arrow just as he is diving into his swimming pool. A little more blood than usual is seen here. Contessa Lisl is hit by a jeep, and it certainly appears painful. But there is one moment of violence in the film which is extremely funny, and it's one of the best jokes. Bond, Columbo,
and party are sneaking up to the monastery where Kristatos is hiding. Melina has wounded a guard in the arm with an arrow. He is gagged and tied, but is moaning and making noise. Melina wants to stay and help the man; but Columbo tells her to go on with the others, and that the man will be fine. As soon as she exits, Columbo knocks the man out and says, "Sorry."

Glen's tempo is slightly slower than that of Gilbert or Hamilton, but it complements the mood of the story. Glen succeeds in drawing good performances from his cast, as well as from his designers and technicians. He does a very admirable job indeed.

ACTORS AND CHARACTERS

O
ne of the best things about
For Your Eyes Only
is that we finally are able to see Roger Moore get knocked about a bit. Bond goes through all kinds of hell in this one: he must hang on for dear life to a berserk helicopter as it tries to shake him off like a bug; he must survive a car wreck in a small Citroën; he is abused by three ice hockey players in full uniform on an empty ice field; he is attacked by an extremely powerful ad
versary in a "JIM" diving suit while underwater; he is dragged over coral; and he is dropped fifty feet from a cliff only to be caught by a rope tied around his waist. And Moore, for once, means business. It's his best performance as Bond to date.