Remake of The Spy Who Loved Me?

Its always seemed strange to me that this film came directly after TSWLM. The plot is so similar that I would almost consider it a direct remake of the former. In TSWLM we had a villain who was planning on causing mass destruction by provoking nuclear war between world superpowers. The result of this would be his underwater colony that survivied the aftermath. In Moonraker we have Drax, who wants to kill of all humans on Earth and repopulate the planet with his select crew.

Was the goal here to remake TSWLM, or was it just to continue a successful Bond formula?

I think MR certainly aims to follow the same formula used in TSWLM since it became one of the biggest Bonds at the time. Bond films are quite formulaic anyway, but the resemblance here is very similar, as you point. There's a good video that sheds light on the similarities.

FieldsMan wrote:

I think MR certainly aims to follow the same formula used in TSWLM since it became one of the biggest Bonds at the time. Bond films are quite formulaic anyway, but the resemblance here is very similar, as you point. There's a good video that sheds light on the similarities.

Thanks for posting that! I thought the movies were similar before I watched that, but I didnt even notice a lot of those similarities. They even repeated the same joke of a water/car vehicle showing up and forcing a civilian to do a double take and check their alcohol bottle.

Formulas dont always work well for franchises, but I think it was pulled off well in this situation. MR and TSWLM are the same movie in a lot of aspects, but they are both worth watching and MR doesnt feel like a lazy remake of TSWLM.

There's a beautiful romantic undertone to Moonraker, and the narrative is quite interesting for the majority of the film. It's fluid and capitalises on what works in TSWLM. Had they tamed the jokes and prevented Bond from entering space (despite the excellent special effects, music, photography and tense scene when Bond shoots down the globes, it's not exactly in line with the essence of James Bond), it would definitely be a lot higher on fan's list. Jaws, for example, should have been a threat as opposed to comic relief. The only moment this is fully captured is when he walks down the laneway during the carnival - genuinely eerie imagery.

For TSWLM, had Anya been played by a more competent actress, and they tightened the script (i.e. cut the train sequence - Egypt to Sardinia?!), it would definitely rise in my estimations. Though I do understand it's a popular film amongst the public and fans alike, so I may be on my own on that one.

Of the two I now much prefer Moonraker, for all the mentioned reasons but particularly if you can overlook the excesses there are some terrific scenes/sequences in compensation, Lonsdale's Drax is infinitely better than Jurgens and the model work by Derek Meddings is exemplary for the most part.

As for the sense of remake the critical component seems to be Lewis Gilbert because there is equal parity (in different areas) with YOLT.......

The other hidden bonus is that Moonraker the novel could still, imo be adapted and form the basis of a truely great Bond.

Indeed ... I know that they felt that they had to keep pace with Star Wars back then, but it's nice to think of them going with the 'Drax is planning to drop an atomic bomb on London' plot of the novel instead.