For Your Eyes Only (1981)

Director:

John Glen

Writers:

Richard Maibaum (screenplay) and
Michael G. Wilson (screenplay)

Release Date:

26 June 1981 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Thriller

Tagline:

Bond Has Everything - James Bond Agent 007 Is Back

Plot:

Agent 007 is assigned to hunt for a lost British encryption device and prevent it from falling into enemy hands.

Plot Keywords:

British | James Bond | Ship | Agent | Spy

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 2 wins & 3 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Fri. Nov. 27

12:00 AM

SYFY

Cast

Roger Moore	...	James Bond
Carole Bouquet	...	Melina Havelock
Topol	...	Milos Columbo
Lynn-Holly Johnson	...	Bibi Dahl
Julian Glover	...	Aristotle Kristatos
Cassandra Harris	...	Countess Lisl von Schlaf
Jill Bennett	...	Jacoba Brink
Michael Gothard	...	Emile Leopold Locque
John Wyman	...	Erich Kriegler
Jack Hedley	...	Sir Timothy Havelock
Lois Maxwell	...	Miss Moneypenny
Desmond Llewelyn	...	Q
Geoffrey Keen	...	Minister of Defence (Sir Frederick Gray)
Walter Gotell	...	General Anatol Gogol
James Villiers	...	Bill Tanner

Runtime:

127 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English | Greek | Italian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Certification:

Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | Iceland:12 | Canada:A (Nova Scotia) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Australia:M (DVD rating) | Australia:M (video rating) | UK:PG (video rating) | South Korea:15 | Brazil:12 | New Zealand:PG | Portugal:M/12 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Ireland:15 | Norway:15 | Norway:16 (1981) | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | USA:PG (Certificate #26343) | West Germany:12 | Singapore:PG | UK:A (original rating)

Filming Locations:

Achillion Palace, Gastouri, Corfu, Greece

Company:

Danjaq

Trivia:

The title song is the first in the Bond series in which we see the person who is singing, in this case Sheena Easton. The song was a Top 10 hit in both the UK charts (#8) and US charts (#4, 25 July 1981). It received an Academy Award nomination for Best Song, and was featured in a song and dance number at the Oscars on 29 March 1982. It featured dancers dressed as villains and henchman such as Dr. No and Ernst Stavro Blofeld as well as the real Harold Sakata and real Richard Kiel reprising their roles as Oddjob and Jaws respectively. A dancer played James Bond and at the end of the sequence he took off in a rocket with Sheena Easton who had been singing the title song live. This was just one of a medley of five song and dance numbers for each Best Song nominee on the night and it also acted as a preamble to the presentation by Roger Moore of the Irving Thalberg Honorary Award to 'Albert R Broccoli' in honour of the James Bond movie series. Starting with this film and the rise of the MTV Generation, all Bond films have had music video tie-ins.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Bond is climbing up the rock towards St. Cyril's, he anchors his rope to a spring-loaded camming device, and subsequently drives pitons into the rock as he goes. When the henchman has dislodged all the pitons so that Bond is swinging from one final anchor - the first one he placed - that anchor has changed from a spring-loaded camming device to a piton.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Vicar: Mr. Bond, Mr. Bond. I'm so glad I caught you. Your office called. They're sending a helicopter to pick you up. Some sort of emergency.
James Bond: It usually is. Thank you.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Silhouettes: The James Bond Titles (2000) (V)

Soundtrack:

For Your Eyes Only

The best Roger Moore Bond, and a lot of fun.

The discarding of Blofeld at the beginning (he is humorously depicted--to the offense of many!) serves another purpose besides being just the discarding of Blofeld--it is almost as if the film is making a statement about choosing to discard cartoonish villains and goofy humor, in one move. This scene provides a convenient rug to yank out from under the audience: The film that we get is more straight serious than we might suspect, based on this introduction. So the beginning of this film really sets us up for a surprise.

Out of all the Roger Moore Bond films, this one is most reminiscent of Connery's Bond. The violence repeatedly shows a mean, hard edge, and the joking (while there) is kept to a minimum. Guess what? This film works very nicely!

There are a lot of things I liked about this one. The requisite special effects, models and stunts are there, but used to surprisingly subtle effect. The story is simple and small, and allows the film to focus on believable human character details. Carole Bouquet's vendetta-driven "Melina Havelock" is well-acted and believably serious. She's excellent.

Character actor Michael Gothard (THE DEVILS, WARLORDS OF ATLANTIS) is very memorable as gun-for-hire Locque, who has no lines of dialogue whatsoever! Gothard delivers his performance entirely through visual expression. I imagine he must have had a wonderful time with this role, easily one of his best. Roger Moore's character, generally cool and under control, nonetheless grows impatient with Locque and seems to display some genuine, heartfelt anger when he finally...well, I don't want to spoil it, so you'll have to see the movie. Suffice it to say that it is one of my favorite "the bad guy gets it" moments in just about any movie.

I also recall that when the film was new, the application of synthesizers in the music (most obvious in the title song, and more subtly applied in the score) was very cutting-edge and tasteful; there were clearly synthetic effects to be heard, but they were not poured on liberally.(Everything in moderation?) It's a little harder to notice in this day and age of synthetic everything, but the careful incorporation of obviously synthetic sounds lent extra style. (Take note of those moments involving the "Dove" pin.) It helped the film achieve a modern character, and is doubly interesting and appropriate because the action scenes do not depend primarily on high-tech gadgetry. All in all, a classy application of synthesizer. Maybe I'm going on about nothing here, but I remember noticing this quality when the film was new, and I've always liked it.

So basically, without rambling on further, this film is good, and very enjoyable.