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Posted: |
Mar 27, 2015 - 9:40 PM
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By: |
Richard-W
(Member)
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I don't understand how you can like both MOONRAKER and FOR YOUR EYES ONLY. They are the antithesis of each other. MOONRAKER is an airheaded self-ridiculing cartoon that represents everything that had gone wrong with the series. FOR YOUR EYES ONLY was a return to form, a down-to-earth espionage thriller in which one can believe James Bond is in jeopardy for the first time since OHMSS.
Roger Moore is just coasting in MOONRAKER, although he does have one scene in which he's required to act. When he stumbles out of the centrifuge and refuses the lady doctor's help, it's the only moment when the film is worth a damn. In FOR YOUR EYES ONLY, Moore takes his business more seriously and the result is that audiences become engaged in the drama instead of merely amused by the comedy.
The pre-title sequence was an afterthought, shot after the film had wrapped. The original pre-title was to be the sinking of the spy trawler, followed by the airplane assault on the yacht which segued into the opening titles with the theme song. The push into Melina's eyes matched the lyric "... for your eyes only" etc. References to OHMSS were more subtle in the original script before Michael Wilson hacked it up and added his name as co-writer. In the Maibaum version, when Bond sees the priest crossing himself as the helicopter lifts at his wife's grave, he becomes spooked that this may be his last mission. "Before you seek revenge you must first dig two graves," he says, quoting an old proverb that was to be the underlying theme of the film. Bond is supposed to be spooked. He remains spooked throughout, with various events reinforcing his growing fear, such as the murder of the countess on the beach, who reminds Bond of Tracy. It was in how the scenes were played rather than more exposition, but Wilson and his crony John Glen didn't grasp it and cut all that out.
Wilson turned the ice skater into a leading character when she was only to be supposed to be glimpsed in background. Her purpose was suggest Kristatos' perverse attraction to little girls, nothing more. She had no dialogue. The romance was to be between Bond and the Countess, then between Bond and Melina, not with the obnoxious skater. Wilson brought Melina to Cortina, added the motorcycle fight in the town square, the sleigh ride back to the airport, and in the process he also lost track of the killing of Luigi, and turned the bobsled hunt for Bond on skies into an overlong farce.
To get an idea of the lean mean romantic thriller that Richard Maibaum intended, cut the helicopter pre-title, replace it with the sinking of the spy trawler, the assault on the yacht, and go straight from the push into close-up on Melina's eyes into the main title sequence, then pick up with Bond at the cemetery and match that to Moneypenny in her office. Let the film play out until Bond goes to Cortina. Cut all of the Cortina interlude except the interaction with Luigi at the hotel and the meeting with Kristatos at the rink, cutting the bit where the skater comes up to the table to make eyes at Bond and chat, then end with Bond finding the pin on Luigi's body. Most importantly, cut Melina from Cortina. The Cortina interlude was so thoroughly screwed up by Wilson and Glen that it can't be entirely rescued, unless there is footage we haven't seen. Then go straight to the Mediterranean and let it play out until the end, cutting only the Margaret Thatcher impersonation at the end. That's a really good Bond film.
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I don't understand how you can like both MOONRAKER and FOR YOUR EYES ONLY.
Why not? I like them both, even though I know Moonraker isn't nearly on the same level of quality. Moonraker is a movie I find to be fun. Stupid, but fun. FYEO is a great cold war thriller that's engaging and suspenseful with great acting. It's not a fun movie, spectacle wise, but it's good cinema. I enjoy both styles of Bond films the same way I can enjoy a good, hard sci-fi movie as well as a cheesy B flick. One's enjoyment doesn't have to be so exclusive.
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