Bondathon: A View To A Kill

A View To A Kill makes the final time Roger Moore played Ian Fleming’s iconic superspy. But was it one film too many for Moore?

MI6 discovers the Soviets have been using microchips from Zoran Industries, one of the biggest microchip manufacturers in the world. They believe the company owner, Max Zoran (Christopher Walken), has been secretly working with the Soviets, and Bond is sent to investigate. It turns out Zoran’s intentions involved more than working with the Soviets.

A View To A Kill has often been seen as one of the worst Bond films. It is often near the bottom of Bond film ranking lists. One of the biggest issues for the film was Moore himself. He was 58 when A View to A Kill was filmed and he was past it. He had to be doubled a lot, especially during the stunt scenes. The filmmakers had to accommodate Moore’s age by having several allies and villainous henchmen being older gentlemen. It was really sad because in Octopussy Moore was still convinced in the fight sequences like when he had to battle Khan’s henchmen who raided Octopussy’s palace.

Even Moore admitted that he was too old for the role at this point. One of his realisations was when he found out he was older than Tanya Roberts’ mother. Tanya Roberts was meant to be his love interest. Moore was prepared to leave after the Bond role after For Your Eyes Only but was convinced to return because of the threat of Never Say Never Again. He would have been allowed to retire after Octopussy.

A View to A Kill did not accommodate Moore’s age. He was still going around doing all the action and seducing all the young ladies like he was a young man. It looked like the series went backward because For Your Eyes Only Bond was a more mature man and he acted like a paternal figure to Melina. In Octopussy the title character was a more age-appropriate love interest for Moore. The unofficial Bond film, Never Say Never Again, made a point that their version of Bond was older.

The other issue affecting A View to A Kill was the plot. It was a repeat of Goldfinger. Zoran’s plot was similar to Goldfinger’s – destroy a valuable area of America so his products and business could increase in value. A View To A Kill was structured like Goldfinger because Bond had to go to a fancy British location, this time Ascot, Bond has to go to a European nation to investigate and completes his mission in the States. Some more specific similarities were Bond going to villains’ horse racing stables and both Goldfinger and Zoran had some aggressive methods of persuading people to join their schemes. Like Goldfinger and Diamonds Are Forever, A View To A Kill’s plot centred around a valuable resource, this time silicon. If a Bond film had to reuse a plot, then Goldfinger isn’t a bad one to use.

A View to A Kill does have issues, it also had some virtues. Even the weakest Bond films had some redeeming features (except Casino Royale (1967)). A View To A Kill’s redeeming feature were the villains. Christopher Walken and Grace Jones stole the show. Walken’s Zoran was literally a psychopath: he was the result of Nazi experimentation because his mother was injected with steroids when she was pregnant. Zoran was a genius but also psychotic.

Zoran was the most unhinged villain in the series. He did one of the evillest acts in a Bond film where he flooded a mine and then gunned down all the miners as they swam for their lives. And that would have been minor if he succeeded because he would have killed thousands if he flooded San Francisco and Silicon Valley.

Grace Jones as May Day was a highlight of the film. She got jacked for the film and looked like she could kick anyone’s ass. Jones played unhinged really well because her character was passionate and crazy when in action. May Day’s most memorable moments came at the end of the film because of Zoran’s betrayal. She was distraught when she saw her friend’s body floating in the water. May Day sacrificed herself to stop the bomb from blowing up the underground. It was one of the most memorable moments in the film.

Whilst Walken and Jones were strong members of the cast, these compliments cannot be extended to Tanya Roberts. She was miscast in the role. As already stated there was a big age difference between Moore and Roberts which made them look like father-and-daughter rather than lovers. Roberts was playing a geologist and she did not seem like the academic type. Roberts looked more like a waitress at Hooters. It was a similar case to Denise Richards playing a nuclear scientist in The World is Not Enough. It doesn’t help that I’m most familiar with Roberts in her role in That’s 70s Show where she played a ditzy bimbo.

A criticism against Bond as a character is he’s a psychopath who only wants to kill. Paul Greengrass famously said ‘James Bond is the secret agent who likes being a secret agent and likes killing people.’ A View to A Kill disproves this idea because of Bond’s reaction to May Day’s sacrifice where he tried to stop her. Someone who likes killing people wouldn’t react that way.

A View to A Kill got its tone right. Octopussy was too silly for my taste and A View to A Kill did tone this down. The humour during the action sequences was more like The Spy Who Loved Me. There were jokes during the action, but the filmmakers didn’t linger too long.

The car chase in San Francisco felt like it was influenced by the Louisiana chase in Live and Let Die. They both had a knockabout quality to them and A View To A Kill took the idea of using a police chief as a comic-relief character.

There were some silly moments during the action. The two prime examples were during the pre-title sequence when a Beach Boys song briefly plays and by the end of the car chase in Paris where Bond was only driving half a car. Other action sequences and stunts were impressive. The biggest stunt was May Day BASE jumping off the Eiffel Tower. The other major action set pieces were the aforementioned chase in San Francisco and the climax on the top of the Golden Gate Bridge.

A humorous highlight in the film was the way Bond treated his ally Sir Godfrey Tibbett (Patrick Macnee). Bond seemed like he had a sadistic pleasure at making Tibbett his put-upon valet and making this 60-year-old man do things like carrying all of his cases.

A View To A Kill was not a triumphant end to the Moore era, but it wasn’t a disaster either. Sean Connery had a worst send off with Diamonds Are Forever and Moore made worst Bond films (The Man With the Golden Gun). There was enough well-made action and character development to make A View To A Kill worthwhile.