FOR YOUR EYES ONLY (FILM)

'''For Your Eyes Only''' is a 1981 spy film. It is the 12th film in the James Bond series, and the fifth to star Roger Moore as MI6 agent James Bond. It is based on two short stories from Ian Fleming's collection ''For Your Eyes Only'': the title story "For Your Eyes Only" and "Risico". It also includes elements from the novel ''Live and Let Die''. In the film, Bond and Melina Havelock become tangled in a web of deception spun by Greek businessman Aristotle Kristatos. Bond is after a missile command system known as the ATAC, whilst Melina is out to avenge the death of her parents.

Contents

Plot

Cast

Production

Shooting locations

Soundtrack

Release and reception

Comic book adaptation

References

External links

Plot

After the pre-title sequence in which Bond escapes after being trapped inside a helicopter that is remotely controlled by Blofeld — Bond turns the helicopter on his enemy, who is in a motorized wheelchair, picking him up, and dumping him down a smokestack — the film proper turns its focus to the recovery of the vital Automatic Targeting and Attack Communicator (ATAC). This device is lost in the Ionian Sea after the British spy ship ''St. Georges'' is sunk by an old mine hauled up in its fishing nets (a distinct reminiscent of the so called "Corfu channel case" of 1946). The ATAC system is used by the Ministry of Defence to communicate and co-ordinate the Royal Navy's fleet of Polaris submarines. If ATAC was retrieved underwater by another superpower, the submarines' ballistic missiles could be used against major western cities.

Sir Timothy Havelock, a marine archaeologist hired by the British Secret Service, and his wife are murdered by a Cuban hitman, Hector Gonzales, while he is searching for the wreck of the St Georges. Gonzales pilots the seaplane that brings Havelock's daughter Melina to Havelock's yacht, then turns the plane's hidden machine guns on the Havelocks. Only Melina survives. Bond is subsequently sent after Gonzales to find out who hired him but is beaten to it by Melina, who kills him before Bond can find out.
After identifying a hitman in Gonzales' estate (Locque) who appeared to be paying him, Bond is led to a well-connected Greek businessman and intelligence informant, Aris Kristatos, who tells Bond that the man he saw is employed by Milos Columbo, a Greek smuggler. But when Bond confronts Columbo it emerges that Locque is actually in the employ of Kristatos who himself is in the employ of the KGB. Kristatos is attempting to recover the ATAC for the KGB, and had set up Columbo as the villain as the latter knew too much about Kristatos' KGB leanings. Columbo proves this connection to Bond by allowing Bond to take part in a raid on one of Kristatos' factories where they find Locque. After attempting to escape, Locque becomes trapped in his car on the edge of Corfu's Venetian fortress. Bond tosses Locque his trademark dove pin, which he leaves on his victims, and then gives the car a kick over the edge.
Bond, Columbo's team, and Melina break into a mountaintop monastery being used by Kristatos to meet Gogol where he will turn over the ATAC. In order to gain access to the mountaintop, one would normally use an open basket that is winched up into a building hanging over the edge of the mountain, but this is being guarded.
So Bond climbs up the sheer face of the mountain and, after reaching the top, helps his team up in the open basket. Bond eventually retrieves the ATAC system and then subsequently throws it over a cliff (where it is dashed to pieces on the rocks below) rather than keep it and risk losing it to the KGB chief General Gogol, with the quip "That's détente, comrade. You don't have it, I don't have it."

Cast

Main articles: List of James Bond henchmen in For Your Eyes Only , List of James Bond allies in For Your Eyes Only



★ 'Roger Moore' as 'James Bond'

★ 'Julian Glover as 'Aristotle Kristatos'

★ 'Carole Bouquet' as 'Melina Havelock'

★ 'Topol' as 'Milos Columbo'

★ 'Michael Gothard' as 'Emile Locque'

★ 'Lynn-Holly Johnson' as 'Bibi Dahl'

★ 'John Wyman' as 'Erich Kriegler'

★ 'Lois Maxwell' as 'Miss Moneypenny'

★ 'Desmond Llewelyn' as 'Q'

★ 'James Villiers' as 'Chief of Staff Bill Tanner'

★ 'Walter Gotell' as 'General Gogol'

★ 'Geoffrey Keen' as 'Fredrick Gray' ('Minister of Defence')

★ 'Cassandra Harris' as 'Countess Lisl von Schlaf'

★ 'Jill Bennett' as Jacoba Brink

★ 'Stefan Kalipha' as Hector Gonzales

★ John Hollis and Robert Rietty (voice) (both uncredited) as 'Ernst Stavro Blofeld'
♦

Production

''For Your Eyes Only'' is noted for its pre-title sequence which sees what is believed to be the final comeuppance of the supervillain Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Bond's enemy in five previous films. The sequence of the film was initially scripted to aid the introduction and establishment of a new actor to portray James Bond since Roger Moore, who had starred in four previous films as Bond, was reluctant to return. The sequence begins with Bond laying flowers at the grave of his wife, Teresa de Vincenzo alias Tracy Bond, but ends with Blofeld attempting to get even with Bond for foiling his plans and for the downfall of his criminal organization SPECTRE. The industrial chimney in the opening scene was part of the North Thames gasworks in London.
For this film, Blofeld is deliberately not named due to copyright issues with Kevin McClory, who owns the film rights to ''Thunderball'' which supposedly includes the character Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the organization SPECTRE, and a number of other material associated with the development of ''Thunderball''. The demise of Blofeld was added to show that the James Bond series did not need Blofeld and was also done after a number of attempts by Kevin McClory to produce a rival Bond film based on his ownership of the screen rights to ''Thunderball''. This includes a failed attempt in the late 1970s of an original Bond film that resulted in a lawsuit brought about by EON Productions and United Artists. Nevertheless McClory was able to film a remake of ''Thunderball'' entitled ''Never Say Never Again'' which was released opposite ''Octopussy'' in 1983.

Initially it seemed Roger Moore would not return as 007 for this outing, so interviews and screentests were held for a replacement. At the forefront were Lewis Collins, famous for his role as Bodie in ''The Professionals'', Michael Billington and Ian Ogilvy, who like Moore had made his name playing Simon Templar in ''Return of the Saint''. Eventually, however this came to nothing as Moore signed on to play the superspy once again.
Other controversial incidents also occurred with the release of ''For Your Eyes Only''. The first involving the film's teaser poster artwork, which showcased a model in thong-like shorts holding a crossbow with Bond framed between her long legs. This was deemed in some U.S. states as indecent exposure. A later version of the teaser was released with a superimposed pair of shorts painted over the original artwork. The other controversial incident wasn't revealed until some time after the release, in which it was discovered that one girl, Caroline Cossey (aka Tula), that was used in a pool scene turned out to be transsexual. Urban legends about the incident greatly exaggerated Cossey's role, from a non-speaking "girl at pool" to someone who had "heavy love scenes" with Moore.^[1] In reality, Cossey appears only fleetingly and is only clearly visible in one or two shots.
''For Your Eyes Only'' marked a creative change of direction for the Bond film series. John Glen was promoted from his duties as a film editor to director, a position he would occupy throughout the 1980s. A result of this was a harder-edged directorial style, with less emphasis on gadgetry and large action sequences in huge arenas (as was favoured by Lewis Gilbert). More emphasis on tension, plot, and character was also added in addition to a return to Bond's more serious roots.

An example of this is a scene in which Bond kicks a car with a villain inside over a cliff, essentially murdering him in cold blood, though it is clearly in retaliation for the earlier cold-blooded murder of Agent Ferrara. This was, and still is to this day, somewhat controversial amongst fans to whether Ian Fleming's James Bond would commit such an act. Roger Moore was also strongly opposed to the aforementioned scene in which Bond kills the villain Emile Locque, claiming ''his'' Bond wouldn't do such a thing. (The scene does appear more at home in a Sean Connery or Timothy Dalton 007 film.) This, however, contradicts the fact that his Bond kills at least two, possibly three, people in cold blood in an earlier film, ''The Spy Who Loved Me'' (a thug whom Bond lets fall from a roof, the villain Karl Stromberg whom Bond executes after he's been disarmed, and possibly a woman whom Bond is seen to use as a human shield during an assassination attempt). Nonetheless, this scene was the strongest display of Bond exercising his licence to kill since the killing of Professor Dent by Sean Connery's Bond in ''Dr. No''.
Throughout the entire James Bond series of films, this is the only film where M is absent. Bernard Lee had died while preparing for the film, and instead of recasting, the role was left vacant out of respect. Miss Moneypenny, M's personal secretary claims that he is on leave, and his chair is filled by his 'Chief of Staff', Bill Tanner, with M's lines being shared between Tanner and Sir Fredrick Gray (Minister of Defence). The role was recast for ''Octopussy''.
In order to blend the plots of the two short stories, several changes were made for the film. Since the film is set in Greece, closer to the location of ''Risico'' than to that of ''For Your Eyes Only'', the Havelocks were changed from being Jamaican, as in the short story, to an Anglo-Greek couple (Mr. Havelock being English and Mrs. Havelock being Greek). Havelock's daughter, "Judy," was also renamed "Melina" in the film to give her a more ethnic sounding name. The film also contains elements from several Ian Fleming stories: The warring smuggler characters Kristatos and Columbo come from ''Risico''. The keelhauling sequence comes from the novel ''Live and Let Die'', a scene unused in the previous film adaptation. The Identograph comes from the novel ''Goldfinger'', where it was originally called the "Identicast".
Today ''For Your Eyes Only'' is often cited as one of the strongest films of the series and is usually considered a contender alongside ''The Spy Who Loved Me'' as Moore's best Bond film. Overall, ''For Your Eyes Only'' accumulated a box office gross of $195,300,000, and became the second highest grossing Bond film after its predecessor, ''Moonraker''. This was the last James Bond film to be solely released by United Artists. Following the MGM and United Artists merger, the films were released by "MGM/UA Distribution Co". Beginning with ''Tomorrow Never Dies'', the films were released by "MGM Distribution Co.".

Shooting locations

Many of the underwater scenes, especially involving close-ups of Bond and Melina, were actually faked on a dry soundstage. A combination of lighting effects, slow-motion photography, wind, and bubbles added in post-production, gave the illusion of the actors being underwater. Apparently actress Carole Bouquet had a preexisting health condition that prevented her from actually attempting any underwater stuntwork.

★ Pinewood Studios / 007 Stage

★ England

★ Italy

★ Greece (Meteora, Island of Corfu, and the Achilleion)

★ The Bahamas

Soundtrack

Main articles: For Your Eyes Only (soundtrack)

Sheena Easton appears on screen singing the title song, the only artist ever to do so in a Bond film. The producers of the film wanted Blondie to perform the title song written by Bill Conti and Michael Leeson. Blondie declined, and the song was recorded by Sheena Easton instead. Blondie's version of ''For Your Eyes Only'' can be found on their album The Hunter (Blondie album).

Release and reception

''For Your Eyes only'' is often cited by fans as Roger Moore's best entry in the series against 1977's The Spy Who Loved Me. The reception was, however, mixed by fans. Many criticised the death of Emile Locque, as it showed Bond coldly kicking his car over a cliff. This was controversial as to whether Roger Moore's Bond would commit such an act.
The respected and noted Bond historian, the late John Brosnan (who wrote "James Bond in the Cinema") noted in his review for the magazine 'Starburst' that the movie was similar to 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service with all the skiing action and 1973's Live and Let Die for essentially being one long chase. Brosnan also noted that the MacGuffin for the movie (the ATAC) had actually been added to the movie after the main plot had been written.
Reviews were mixed, as shown on Rotten Tomatoes, with a score of 62% "Fresh" rating.

Comic book adaptation

Main articles: James Bond comic books

Prior to the film being released Marvel Comics was given permission to publish a two-issue comic book adaptation. The first issue was released in October 1981 and was soon followed by the second issue in November of the same year. It was also reprinted the same year in magazine and paperback book form. Both issues of the adaptation were written by Larry Hama and edited by Dennis O'Neil.
Two major differences in the comic book include the addition of M, who was technically in the initial drafts of the screenplay until Bernard Lee's death in early 1981 and the villain's given name, which for unknown reasons was "Ari Kristatos" instead of the film version's "Aris Kristatos" (or "Aristotle Kristatos"), although he is referred to as "Uncle Ari" both by Bond and Bibi Dahl in the movie. The comic also includes additional suggestive dialogue by Bibi Dahl (aimed at Bond) that was never used in (or was perhaps edited from) the film.

References

1. Caroline Cossey in For Your Eyes Only

External links

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★ MGM's official ''For Your Eyes Only'' website