A Drive in the Country: 40 Years of For Your Eyes Only (1981-2021)

Damn. Now if they'd used that in the film, that'd be really something.

Yeah, I went into the movie really thinking they were going to knuckle down and keep it tonally apart from the previous couple of flicks, but that PTS -- aside from the virtuoso foreground miniature work and the surprisingly catchy music -- really put all my defenses back up. I don't think I really let myself enjoy the movie fully till the second or third time through. It's my fave Moore Bond by far, though there are large stretches of OCTOPUSSY that really work as well.

I do remember getting into it with my friends opening night, who thought the Kristatos/Columbo switch didn't work, which kind of made me defend the film (shoot, we'd been to see CANNONBALL RUN and HISTORY OF THE WORLD in recent weeks, and they're choosing to pick on the Bond movie?) I pointed to the fact that when Kristatos suggested a wine that Bond found a trifle too scented, that was a clear pointer -- I assume from Richard Maibaum -- that all was not right with Glover's character.

The little Kristatos flourishes are all there when he's assuming the guise of rich a-hole Ferrara and the British had previously utilized. It's really quite something when closely examined. Being standoffish to Ferrara at the ice rink, playing up the adoration of Bibi and the truth of his lustful plans for her, the byplay with Bond at the casino to set up Columbo's assassination. The subtle wordplay and nuances of the dinner scene complete with wit and sideways talk around what is actually being discussed does the same thing the original story does but the added veneer of sophistication makes Kristatos less rough and more believable than Fleming's incarnation. Once the mask falls away Glover's performance changes by adding a sort of sadistic glee in places but never letting the sophistication drop until the climax when Bibi rejects him and he makes the final run with the ATAC.

Basically Donovan in Last Crusade's script is a half assed, watered down, pitiful reworking of the same character and plot twist. I've felt that way ever since seeing the film the first time and can't understand how more do not see it just as I can't understand why they hate Temple so much.


I adore this film and the darker return to earth and always praise it to the heavens. But it does come lower in my ranking when I'm forced to do a series rank. I think Maibaum was right in that Glen didn't focus on the relationship being developed and felt. I like Melina in the film and Bouquet has the iconic eyes and long hair...but you don't really feel anything from her other than buying crossbows and staring. Whereas in just a few pages Fleming makes me truly care for Judy Havelock every time I reread the short story. She has fire, spirit, grit, determination and is there to literally kill her parent's murderer and this James Bond can just get out of her damn way.

I think FYEO is the ultimate nuts and bolts Bond film. Everything is there, the story is great and two fisted spy adventure, Roger is fantastic as always, the Fleming connection is strong, the action is great, the score is great, you get the globetrotting, skiing and underwater scenes....but ultimately there is a certain spark missing. It IS a great film and a great Bond film but it doesn't have the wild spark of FRWL for example which was the film Maibaum was always chasing.

FYEO lacks the Benign Bizarre and, perhaps, the larger-than-life villain, although, like hgtb, I actually rate Glover's performance highly. Not his fault Kristatos was written as little more than an urbane common man with a yen for crime and espionage. But, outside of those two facets, it's got everything you could want in a Bond film.

FYEO is like a nice hardwood floor that someone put down ceramic tile over. Great backbone and then all of a sudden Bond's scoring people into a hockey net and a parrot is giving him crucial plot info.

hegottheboot wrote:

I like Melina in the film and Bouquet has the iconic eyes and long hair...but you don't really feel anything from her other than buying crossbows and staring. Whereas in just a few pages Fleming makes me truly care for Judy Havelock every time I reread the short story. She has fire, spirit, grit, determination and is there to literally kill her parent's murderer and this James Bond can just get out of her damn way.

Yes, agree here. I think Camille in QOS is a far better realization of Judy.

I don't understand the cars self defense system in this one or why it was set to explode. I keep thinking what if that was just some kids playing road hockey or something and gave it a good ding.

You don't want the tech falling into enemy hands. See also Bond self-destructing the Aston in The Living Daylights (only for the wonders of a reboot timeline to reassemble it so he can drive it in NTTD, lol).

Sarai wrote:

I don't understand the cars self defense system in this one or why it was set to explode. I keep thinking what if that was just some kids playing road hockey or something and gave it a good ding.

If you're particularly solicitous of public safety, Bond definitely is not your man.

hegottheboot wrote:

....but ultimately there is a certain spark missing. It IS a great film and a great Bond film but it doesn't have the wild spark of FRWL for example which was the film Maibaum was always chasing.

I agree, but I don't expect many would agree with either of my proposed solutions:

1: Take the word "tomorrow" out of Colombo's speech and move the dockside fight to the end of the film, making it a final mop-up of the remnants of Kristatos' organization (there's a twist - Bond going after the last surviving henchman).

or:

2: Tighter editing between the Persuaders-style punchup at the Meteora monastery and Gogol's approaching helicopter, accompanied by a tympani-laden 'countdown' cue on the soundtrack (perhaps a reprise of Run Them Down, as it appears on the expanded OST disc).

For all Glen's skill as an editor and second-unit director, I find FYEO oddly paced. His editor on this one dropped the ball with the overlapping reaction shots of the bobsled team and the jerky stop-motion animation of Bond's last piton slipping loose. Octopussy was much more smoothly paced and the transitions from location to location less jarring.

The first solution using the dock side fight at the end would go a long ways for me in a film I feel lacks that spark too. the mountain climb while cool the first time becomes a drag on repeat viewings, lacks intensity

AMC Hornet wrote:

1: Take the word "tomorrow" out of Colombo's speech and move the dockside fight to the end of the film, making it a final mop-up of the remnants of Kristatos' organization (there's a twist - Bond going after the last surviving henchman).

I really like this idea a lot. It takes the curse off the ICE STATION ZEBRA everybody-loses ending FYEO presents, which kind of trivializes all the people who died during the course of the film. (I like the ZEBRA novel more, since we 'win' at the end of that one, though I understand the detente-mindedness in 1968, and given the state of the world in 81 with Reagan in office, I kinda get that too, but don't like seeing it in Bond.)

By showing that after the ATAC mission concludes, Bond at least gets some personal satisfaction from kicking Locque off the cliff. If you spent a couple minutes making the film's sacrificial lamb Luigi just a little more Kerim-like, this payoff would be even stronger.

The only objection I can see is that it puts a lie to Bond's 'when you set out for revenge, dig two graves,' thing, because obviously Bond isn't going to be losing sleep over Locque. Then again, I never bought that line coming from that Bond anyway. If it were Dalton talking to Kara Milovy, then yeah, I'd buy it, because there's a bit of, 'this is coming from somebody who knows cuz he's already damned' with Dalton.