For Your Eyes Only

Cast & Credits

Actor                                                       Character

Roger Moore                                        James Bond

Carole Bouquet                                   Melina Havelock

Topol                                                       Columbo

Lynn-Holly Johnson                           Bibi

Original running time:  2 hours and 8 minutes

Directed by John Glen

After the gunbarrel sequence we see James at a cemetary with flowers.  He is visiting his deceased wife, Tracy.  The grave stone says "We Have All The Time in the World".  Those that watched On Her Majesty's Secret Service will understand the importance of this line and have trouble not feeling for our favorite secret agent.  A priest approaches James and says that there is a call for for him and that it's an emergency.  A helicopter from Universal Exports is there to fly James off.  While flying off to his destination, a bald man with a white Persian cat is sitting in a wheel chair at a control console.  He pushes a button which shocks the pilot in the chopper to his death and takes control of it.  Tht's right!  Blofeld, the vile scum responsible for Tracy's death is still alive and in control.  Bond is flown to a factory where Blofeld toys with him by taunting him over the speakers and nearly flying him into several things.  Just when it looks like James is done for, he sees two cables with red tape on them begging to be pulled out from underneath the control panel.  He does so and commandeers the vehicle.  007 swoops down and picks up Blofeld who in turn begs for his life.  Bond will have nothing of it and drops him down to his death into a smokestack, I think.  I rather liked this scene and thought that it gave the epic struggle between Bond and Blofeld the closure that Diamonds Are Forever did not.  This leads into the credits which are once again very well done.  Highlights include the silhouette of woman sliding down the barrel of a gun, nude women swimming, and The gorgeous Sheena Easton singing the theme song.  *Hubba!  Hubba!*  The theme song is one of the better ones and will stick in your head for a month after hearing it.  The soundtrack this time is done by Bill Conti (of Rocky fame).  It is very good , but unfortunately at certain parts of the film I feel like I should be watching a Rocky montage training sequence instead of a Bond movie.  Let's just say that he has a signature sound sound which isn't a bad thing, but I think that at times it doesn't sound Bond-like.  Anyhow, back to the movie...

We see a British spy ship with something called the ATAC aboard.  It catches a massive mine into it's net and is sunk.  Next, we see a beautiful young woman is flown to a yacht to meet with her parents by sea plane in Greece.  As she embraces them, the pilot turns around and descends quickly toward the ship. Her parents are gunned down and she is barely missed while taking cover.  Then Bond is called into M's office by his number two, Bill Tanner, and Minister of Defense Frederick Gray since M is away on vacation (unfortunately Bernard Lee, the actor that played M, died shortly before the movie was filmed and his dialogue was give to two men out of respect).  They explain that one of their spy ships was sunk that contained the ATAC.  It turns out that the ATAC is a device that can take control of the firing of missiles from any of the ships in the British Naval fleet.  Also, a marine archaeologist named Havelock and his wife that were investigating where the spy ship was sunk had been murdered.  Bond is told that a Cuban hit man, Hector Gonzales, was identified by their daughter, Melina.  It is said that he is staying at his place just outside of Madrid.  Meanwhile, General Gogol, Head of the Soviet Secret Service, also is seen to be interested in the ATAC.  

After James arrives at Gonzales' estate, we realize that he has an affinity for pretty ladies and really bad disco music.  He has a briefcase full of money delivered to him by a man with light brown hair and octagonal rimmed glasses.  While observing the transaction, Bond is captured by one of the guards.  He is brought to the Cuban hitman who tells his men to take him away instead of killing him right there on the spot.  As he dives into his massive swimming pool, an arrow hits his back.  Bond uses this distraction, his hand to hand combat profiency, a little of ingenuity, and an umbrella to get away.  He meets up with Melina who is armed with a crossbow.  As they make there way to Bond's Lotus we see random baddies trying to get into it.  The car explodes!  *Let's have a moment of silence for the Lotus.  It was my second favorite Bond car ever next to Connery's Aston Martin.*  Melina leads James to her car, a little Citroen that has approximately 1/2 a horse power.  Through some creative driving and, once again ingenuity,  Bond escapes.  This is a common theme in this film.  This movie has Bond using his wits and not outlandish gadgets.  Melina is still not happy and now wants the man that paid off Gonzales dead.

Bond returns to MI6 and uses Q's Identograph machine to find out who the man with octagonal glasses is.  It is a smuggler named Emile Leopold Locque.  He is suspected to be in Cortina.  There Bond meets Italian agent, Luigi Ferrara, who tells him that a former smuggler named Kristatos has information on Locque.  During a brief meeting,  Kristatos tells 007 that Locque works for a man Columbo who is nicknamed "The Dove".  Also we learn that he sponsors a teenage figure skater named Bibi Dahl who immediately develops a crush on fifty something year old James.  Not only is this creepy and unbelievable, but she also is one of the most annoying "Bond Girls" in history.  She asks Kristatos if she can watch a guy named Kriegler perform at the biathalon.  He agrees.  Bond resists her advances and offers her an ice cream.  Soon James decides to go skiing as he always does whenever there's snow.  Men on motorcycles with machine guns chase Bond.  One of them is Kriegler.  This is one of the best stunt sequences in the series.  It includes 007 skiing down a bobsled run followed by a guy on a motorcycle.  I don't know which would be harder, skiing or riding a bike down a bobsled run and never want to find out.  After saying goodbye by Bibi, getting more information on Kriegler, getting attacked by hockey players, and finding Luigi dead Bond goes to find out more about Columbo and goes to a club where he hangs out.

Bond spies upon Columbo with Kristatos.  They witness him getting yelled at by a lady.  James uses this opportunity to talk to her in order to find out more about Columbo.  After quickly getting Countess Lisl (that's her name if anyone cares) into bed he finds out that Columbo put her up to the performance since he already knew that James is a spy and wanted to know why he was investigating him.  Shortly afterwards, they are walking along the beach and a dune buggy speeds after them.  Countess Lisl is killed by being run over by Loque.  Next thing you know, Bond is shot by a tranquilizer dart by a man wearing a dove symbol on his wet suit.  James wakes up aboard a ship with Columbo.  He plays a tape of the conversation that he and Krstatos had back at the club.  Colombo explains that Locque worked for Kristatos and that he is the one that he wants.  He also claims that Kristatos is an adversary that wants him out of the way.  Colombo admits to smuggling gold, diamonds, and pistachios, but not heroin.  He draws the line there, but says that Kristatos does not.  He also tells James that they plan on raiding a factory place where the heroin is being shipped and he will see that he is telling the truth.  It turns out that Columbo was not lying and huge amounts of heroin are being smuggled through there.  A gunfight between both smugglers' men ensues.  This leads into a scene where Bond chases down Locque.  It winds up with Locque hanging precariosly over a cliff and Bond killing him in cold blood.  We are reminded that 007 has a license to kill and will use it if need be.  I thought that it was cool to see Roger Moore's Bond do this since his portrayal of Bond had been often been light-hearted up until this point.

007 meets Melina in Greece to look for clues about the sunken spy ship with the ATAC.  They find her father's charts showing where it is.  They soon skindive and find the device in the spy ship's wreckage.  Promptly they are attacked and barely escape to he suface where guess who's waiting on the suface with his yacht?  It's Kristatos and his men.  He takes the ATAC and ties both Bond and Melina to the back of the boat and decides to use them as shark bait by dragging them across corral and attracting the sharks to their blood.  Needless to say, Bond and Melina narrowly escape and make it back to her ship.  While looking for clues and talking about the ATAC, her parrot says that the ATAC in at Saint Siro.  Columbo knows where the place is.  It's a lair on top of a huge rock formation that has one basket leading up to the top.  James has to prove to us that he is proficent at rock climbing and then lower the basket down to Kristatos, his men, and Melina.  Before the inevitable raid on the fortress, we find out that Kriegler is up there and is a Soviet agent that is paying Kristatos for the ATAC.  Also, General Gogol will be arriving soon by chopper.  The climactic scenes are very well done and there is a wonderful part featuring Bond and Gogol.

All in all I really liked this movie.  While it doesn't break much new ground, what it does do is undo most of the the silliness in Moonraker.  Bond doesn't depend on any gadgets, but his own ingenuity instead.  This is most welcomed by me.  Also, there are refences to On Her Majesty's Secret Service and the ATAC machine is used in a similar way to the Lector machine in From Russia With Love.  For the first time in a while, the villain isn't hell bent on world domination and the plot is more down to earth.  Don't get me wrong, I like the more outlandish plots in these movies but they all don't have to be "Guy hijacks nuclear waepons and holds the world hostage".  Too much of that sort of thing gets stale eventually.

4 out of 5 - Above average for a Bond movie.  While not the best, it is very good.  This movie is infinitely better than Moonraker.  It is well written and has a more down to earth plot.  Bond's reliance on himself without 75 gadgets from Q is also welcome.  The ski chase is phenomenal and is one of the top action sequences in the franchise's history.  Carole Bouquet's Melina Havelock is a character with substance and not just a throwaway character like many of the Bond girls in the earlier Moore films.  Also, Moore gives a solid performance, even if he is gettting long in the tooth.  The only thing that I really didn't like about this movie was Bibi Dahl.  Every time that she comes on the screen, hit the fast forward button.

Cool thing to know:  Cassandra Harris, who played Countess Lisl was married just before filming her scenes.  The groom?  A young actor named Pierce Brosnan who she introduced to producer Cubby Broccoli for the first time.  Sadly, she died of ovarian cancer in 1991.

Another cool thing to know:  The password to get into the room with the Identograph is the first few notes to "Nobody Does It Better".  The theme from The Spy Who Loved Me.

Yet, another cool thing to know:  The movie used sequences from Ian Fleming's short stories For Your Eyes Only and Risico.  Also, the scene where Bond and Melina are dragged behind the boat ts the climactic scene in the book, Live And Let Die.  This was originally intended to be the climax for that movie, but the filmmakers couldn't figure out a safe enough way to perform the stunt.

James Bond will return next Monday in Octopussy.

Love the movie & especially the theme song. Funny two of my fav bond theme songs came in movies one after the other.

Which is the other one?  All time High from Octopussy?

I really hated the first part before the title screen... getting rid of "the bald guy with a cat but we don't call him blofeld" the way he did seemed so cheap... no epic fight but bonds drops a guy in a wheelchair in a chimney with a helicopter... also blowing up the Lotus was not cool.. loved that car.. otherwise a fine movie except for that underaged Bibi girl... Bond didn't need his spy skills to notice she wasn't legal..

Yes!!! I just checked this and what's even weirder is that the next bond movie after Octopussy has my 3rd fav theme song from bond movies (View to a kill)

Maybe I just like the 80's music a lot. 

No crime there.  View To A Kill is one of my favorite Bond theme songs. 

It's definitely Duran Duran's best song.

This is my second favourite Roger Moore Bond film. I loved the car/ski chase scenes, and the title song is great. Although this is one of Moore's more serious outings as Bond, the film still has some humorous moments that keep things fun, which is something I wish they would do with the newer Bond films.

Pretty good Moore Bond I thought. It was also a shrewd film that repaired the backlash to the direction Moonraker took. After this Bond film I knew they'd adjust the formula/role as needed to keep it popular.

When I was about to rewatch Thunderball I was really looking forward to it but was very disappointed because it was not as good as I remembered... reading your review I think I was confusing it with For Your Eyes Only which is a much better Bond film.

Although, I agree NikkoM that the opening scene was a really cheap way of getting rid of Blofeld. Kinda like they got fed up of having him around and wanted to kill him off without having to spend another movie with him as the vilain.

At the time EON pictures was in a legal dispute with Kevin McClory that owned the rights to Thunderball.  Long story short - He got to do a Thuderball remake and the official Bond films were no longer able to use SPECTRE or Blofeld.  This was their way of getting rid of Blofeld without actually using his name.