Bondathon: For Your Eyes Only

After the space-set adventure with Moonraker, the Bond franchise literally comes back down to Earth with the most grounded film during the Roger Moore era.

A British spy ship sinks in Albanian waters when it strikes a sea mine. Onboard is the Automatic Targeting Attack Communicator (ATAC) device and the British need to find it before it falls into the wrong hands. When a marine archaeologist hired by the British is killed, Bond is sent on the mission to find out who did it and find the ATAC device. The archaeologist’s daughter, Melina (Carole Bouquet), goes on the hunt so she can avenge her parents’ deaths.

When the Bond series gets too excessive with being a massive and ridiculous affair, the follow-up acts as a counterbalance. You Only Live Twice and Die Another Day were followed up with On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and Casino Royale (2006). This was done to counter spiralling budgets and fan backlash. Moonraker was the most expensive Bond film and was seen as too far-fetched because it saw Bond go into space.

The aim of For Your Only Eyes was to bring the series back to its roots. It was the most grounded film during Moore’s tenure in the role. There were fewer jokes and the plot was a Cold War thriller. The Soviets played an antagonist role in this film. It was one of the most realistic films in the Bond series.

For Your Eyes Only counters the stereotype that all of Roger Moore’s Bond films were all campy. Bond was more ruthless in this film. A key scene was when Bond coldly kills Emile Leopold Locque (Michael Gothard). Bond seemed to take pleasure because Locque had killed two people Bond was close to. Whilst Bond was ruthless with dispatching the baddies, he tried to dissuade Melina from seeking revenge. He states ‘Before setting off on revenge, you first dig two graves.’ Bond doesn’t want Melina to go down the same path and it’s his odd way of caring for the woman.

Melina was one of the best Bond girls so far. She has a lot more urgency than other Bond girls because she has a personal mission. Melina was a tough character who was well versed with the crossbow. She has a character journey and was one of the better written female characters in the franchise.

The film’s realism extended to most of the action scenes. John Glen, who was an editor and second unit director on the franchise was promoted to director. A statement of intent was during Bond’s first action scene in Spain because the Lotus Esprit from The Spy Who Loved Me was blown up. Bond and Melina had to drive a more modest Citroën 2CV in a fun car chase. The action highlight was at the ski resort in Italy where there were lots of skiers and motorbikes. The scene towards the end where Bond climbed up to the Monastery of the St. Cecil’s was tense as his climbing gear failed and a henchman fought Bond near the top.

For Your Eyes Only was not without issues. The biggest came during the middle of the film because it seemed to have forgotten its plot involving the ATAC. It detoured with Bond getting involved with a rivalry between Kristatos (Julian Glover) and Columbo (Topol) with 007 needing to find who he should trust. Columbo was similar to Marc-Ange Draco from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service because both characters were crime lords with tons of personality who allied themselves with Bond.

When the film did attempt humour it was really bad. The pre-title sequence had Bond killing a copyright-friendly version of Blofeld who tried to kill our beloved spy. However, this was forgivable when put in context because of the rights issues involving Blofeld and SPECTRE. EON Productions were saying to Kevin McClory ‘we don’t need Blofeld.’ The other comical scene came at the end when Margaret Thatcher spoke to a parrot thinking he was Bond. It was not just an odd scene in the film, it was odd for the franchise. It’s best when there’s some distance between Bond and political figures.

The final issue involved the character of Bibi (Lynn-Holly Johnson). Bibi looked like a teenager, and she wanted to bang the super-spy. It felt icky and wrong. Even Bond thought she was too young. Johnson was only a year younger than Bouquet but Bouquet looked and acted more mature.

There are fans who argue that For Your Eyes Only was Roger Moore’s best Bond film. It’s up there with Live and Let Die and The Spy Who Loved Me. It’s great for fans who prefer more realistic and character-driven Bond films.