For Your Eyes Only (1981)

Back Down to Earth

Moonraker, in 1979, had sent Bond into space, with laser guns, a space station and a plot to wipe out humanity. It made a fortune, and it was completely ridiculous. For Your Eyes Only, two years later, is a deliberate correction: a smaller, tougher, more realistic Bond, built on Fleming’s short stories and focused on espionage, revenge and old-fashioned stunts.

John Glen, who’d edited several Bond films and directed their second units, stepped up to direct for the first time, and he brought a lean, practical, action-focused style. He’d go on to direct every Bond film of the eighties.

The result is the best of the Moore films, or close to it. It’s still got some silly moments, but underneath them it’s a real spy thriller, with a real plot and a Bond who, for once, is allowed to be cold.

The Pre-Title Problem

The film opens with Bond visiting his wife’s grave, a rare acknowledgement of Tracy, murdered on their wedding day years earlier. Then he’s lured aboard a remote-controlled helicopter by a bald villain in a wheelchair, stroking a white cat, who tries to kill him. Bond takes control, scoops the villain up with the helicopter’s skid and drops him down a factory chimney.

The villain is obviously Blofeld, though he’s never named, because of the long legal dispute over the character’s rights. The scene is a gleeful, slightly spiteful way of disposing of him, and of telling audiences the series is moving on. It’s also out of keeping with the rest of the film’s grounded tone.

ATAC

The plot is simple and credible. A British spy ship, disguised as a fishing trawler, sinks in the Ionian Sea carrying ATAC, a system used to communicate with Britain’s submarine fleet. Whoever recovers it can command Britain’s missile submarines, and the Soviets want it badly.

Bond’s search leads him through Spain, Italy and Greece, into a web of Greek smugglers, double agents and old wartime rivalries. There’s no plan for world domination. Just a race for a stolen device, and a lot of ruthless people willing to kill for it. After Moonraker‘s space lasers, the smallness of the stakes is refreshing, and oddly it makes the film more tense, because the danger feels like something that could happen.

Melina

Carole Bouquet plays Melina Havelock, whose parents, a marine archaeologist and his wife, were murdered while helping the British search for the ATAC. She wants revenge, and she pursues it with a crossbow, coolly and without hesitation.

Melina is one of the better Bond heroines of the era: determined, capable and driven by her own goals. Her relationship with Bond is built on a shared mission more than on seduction, and there’s a sad moment where Bond warns her that revenge requires digging two graves. Bouquet is elegant and a little stiff, and the character works anyway.

Moore Gets Tough

The most memorable scene for a lot of fans is a moment of cold ruthlessness. Emile Locque, a hitman who’s murdered Bond’s ally, crashes his car on a cliff edge, and it teeters on the brink. Bond walks up, tosses a dove pin onto the dashboard, and kicks the car over the edge.

Roger Moore reportedly didn’t like the scene, feeling it was out of character for his Bond. He was wrong. It gives his performance an edge it had lacked, and it reminds the audience that Bond is a killer. Moore is excellent throughout, still charming, relaxed and witty, and more serious than he’d been in years.

The Chases

The action is superb, and most of it is practical. There’s a car chase in Spain with Bond and Melina in a battered yellow Citroën 2CV, bouncing through olive groves and villages. It’s funny and exciting. His Lotus, by contrast, blows itself up when a thief tries to break into it.

There’s a thrilling sequence at the Italian ski resort of Cortina d’Ampezzo, with Bond chased by killers on motorbikes with spiked tyres down ski slopes and a bobsled run. There’s an underwater search for the wreck, a battle with a diving suit and a keelhauling scene where Bond and Melina are dragged behind a boat over coral.

The Climb

The film’s climax is the best sequence of all. Bond climbs a sheer rock face to reach the monastery of St. Cyril’s, perched on top of a towering pinnacle, where the villain is hiding with the ATAC. It was filmed at the Meteora monasteries in Greece, and the location is breathtaking, even before anybody starts climbing.

The climb is filmed with real stunt climbers on a real cliff, and it’s terrifying. When a henchman knocks Bond off the face and he dangles by his rope, swinging over the drop, the tension is almost unbearable. There’s no gadget and no trick, just a man on a rope over a cliff, and the series has few action sequences to match it.

Topol and Kristatos

Julian Glover plays Aristotle Kristatos, a Greek businessman who seems to be Bond’s ally and turns out to be working for the KGB. Topol plays Milos Columbo, a flamboyant smuggler Kristatos accuses of being the villain, who turns out to be an ally. The switch is well handled, and Topol, bursting with charm, appetite and pistachio nuts, is great fun.

The villains are grounded, human and motivated mostly by money, and the plot’s twists are believable. This is a real spy story, and all the better for it.

Fleming’s Short Stories

The film draws on two of Fleming’s short stories from his 1960 collection, For Your Eyes Only and Risico. The first gave the film Melina’s revenge for her murdered parents, and the second supplied the smugglers Columbo and Kristatos and their double game. Richard Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson wove them into a single plot.

That grounding in Fleming’s own material shows. The film feels closer to the books than any Moore film before it, with their mix of cold violence, Mediterranean sunshine and shifting loyalties. The film shows how good the source stories could be when the films trusted them.

No M

Bernard Lee, who’d played M in every Bond film since Dr. No, died before his scenes could be shot, and out of respect the producers didn’t recast the role for this film. His lines went to Bill Tanner, M’s chief of staff, and to the Minister of Defence.

The absence gives the London scenes a slightly lost quality, and it marks the end of an era. Q, as ever, is on hand, with a gadget called the Identigraph that builds a picture of a suspect’s face, and a final disguise as a Greek Orthodox priest. It’s a small, affectionate touch in a film that’s otherwise determined to be serious.

Glen’s Decade

John Glen directed five Bond films in a row, from this one to Licence to Kill, making him the most prolific director in the series’ history. His style, lean and practical, with a strong focus on stunts and set pieces, defined the Bond films of the eighties.

For Your Eyes Only is his most successful balance of action and story. Later Glen films, especially Octopussy and A View to a Kill, drifted back toward silliness, but this one shows what his approach could do when the script gave him something solid to work with.

Figure Skates and Parrots

The film has some weaknesses. Lynn-Holly Johnson plays Bibi Dahl, a teenage figure skater who throws herself at Bond, and the subplot is uncomfortable and embarrassing, even though Bond, to his credit, turns her down. The final scene, with a parrot and a Margaret Thatcher impersonator, is silly and dated.

Sheena Easton’s title song is lush and romantic, and she’s the only Bond singer to appear on screen in the opening titles. The song is fine, and the score by Bill Conti, with its disco touches, has dated more than the rest of the film.

Craft Note

Bond on a Rope

For Your Eyes Only is an 8: a lean, grounded and exciting Bond with Roger Moore at his toughest, a vengeful Melina with a crossbow, a terrific Citroën chase and one of the series’ greatest climbing sequences. A few silly moments remain, and it ranks near the top of the Moore era.

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