Bradley Ruzicka

The third post in my “James Bond at 60” series focuses on the Roger Moore Years.

My first exposure to the James Bond franchise was Roger Moore’s 1979 hit Moonraker. Admittedly, Moonraker was not one of the better Bond films but, for me, it was the beginning of a whole new world. To this day, when I think of Bond, my first recollection is Moore’s portrayal of the character as well as the seven Bond films he did between 1973 and 1985. I have to admit, I’m somewhat biased as the 1970s and 1980s encompassed my high school, college, and early adult years, many of the most memorable of my life!

Because of his commitment to several television shows, in particular the long running series The Saint, where he played the character Simon Templar, Moore was unavailable to the Bond franchise during most of the 1960s. It was only after Sean Connery declared in 1967 he wouldn’t play Bond any longer that Moore became aware he might be a contender. However, after George Lazenby was cast in 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and Connery played Bond again in 1971’s Diamonds Are Forever after Lazenby’s departure, Moore did not further consider the possibility of playing the role until it was abundantly clear that Connery had, in fact, stepped down for good.

After Connery’s last film, producers Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli and Harry Saltzman tried to convince him to return for a seventh time, but he declined. Having considered Jeremy Brett, Michael Billington, and Julian Glover, the producers turned to Moore. In his autobiography, Moore wrote that he had to cut his hair and lose weight for the role, which he resented. Finally, in August 1972, he got the opportunity to play Bond, accepting Eon Production’s offer of $1M for each of his first three films. This despite the fact that, in real life, Moore was a pacifist.

“Hardly the right background for someone who is playing Bond” according to Moore. His first film was 1973’s Live and Let Die. Based on Ian Fleming’s 1954 novel of the same name, the movie was both a critical and financial success. Unfortunately, according to the documentary Everything or Nothing: The Untold Story of 007, it was during this time that Broccoli and Saltzman began to differ on their respective visions for the Bond character, resulting in confusion over the future direction of the films. With the producers increasingly divided, the quality of the movies began to suffer.

The second Moore film, 1974’s The Man with the Golden Gun, saw reviewers criticize the movie as a whole, particularly the comedic approach. Some critics described it as the lowest point in franchise history. Although the film was profitable, it was the fourth lowest-grossing Eon-produced Bond movie in the series. Maud Adams, who played Andrea Anders in the film, said “There was a scene in The Man with the Golden Gun where they tried to make [Moore] look like Sean. It didn’t work at all, in my opinion. Roger is a gentleman. He will charm women into bed. He didn’t have to force his way around.”

During the filming, Broccoli believed the Saltzman wasn’t paying enough attention to Bond. Saltzman had branched out into other businesses and Broccoli didn’t understand why he was so determined to do other things. Ultimately, when ventures such as Technicolor began to fail, Saltzman had to sell his 50% stake in Eon’s parent company, Danjaq, in order to pay off his debts. The tensions between the two producers became too much for either man, making The Man with the Golden Gun the final film they would co-produce.

Saltzman was determined not to sell his Danjaq shares to Broccoli, even though Broccoli very much wanted to buy them. The subsequent legal battle delayed the next 007 film, The Spy Who Loved Me, for almost three years. Ultimately, Saltzman sold his shares to their financial backer, United Artists, tying the fate of Bond to the fate of the studio. UA would now be Broccoli’s partner, leaving him very bitter with his former partner for many years thereafter. It wasn’t until the release of For Your Eyes Only in 1981 that Broccoli and Saltzman would see each other again.

Meanwhile, Moore continued to play Bond in The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, and A View to a Kill. His portrayal was very different from the version created by Fleming. Screenwriters like George MacDonald Fraser developed scenarios in which Moore was cast as a seasoned, debonair playboy who would always have a trick or gadget in stock when he needed it. His character became known for a sense of humor and witty one liners. At the same time, Moore’s Bond was an extremely skilled detective with a cunning mind. This new incarnation was designed to serve the contemporary tastes of a post-1960’s audience.

When playing Bond, Moore tried not to imitate either Connery or his previous roles. Screenwriter Tom Maniewicz fitted the screenplay around Moore’s persona by providing more comedy scenes and a light-hearted feel to Bond. This approach led Raymond Benson, author of nine Bond novels, to describe Moore’s Bond as “a rather smarmy, eyebrow-raising international playboy who never seemed to get hurt”. Film writer Andrew Spicer considered Moore to be the most elegant and mannerly of the Bonds, with the voice and style of an English debonair country gentleman.

Benson agreed, stating that Moore was “too nice and well-mannered to be a James Bond of any real substance”. Movie critic Doug Pratt said that “the writers worked out an amenable personality for Roger Moore and found a breezy balance between comedy and action”. Spicer says, “Roger Moore re-created Bond as an old-style debonair hero, more polished and sophisticated than Connery’s [version], using the mocking insouciance he had perfected in his role as Simon Templar. Moore’s humor was a throwaway and, certainly in the later films, verged on self-parody.”

Spicer continued, “It was an essential strand in the increasingly tongue-in-cheek direction of the series which became more light-hearted, knowing, and playfully intertextual”. Additionally, Moore’s one-liners were delivered in a way to suggest that the violence inherent in the films was a joke as opposed to Connery’s, which was used to mitigate the violence. Moore explained his approach to the humor by saying “to me, the Bond situations are so ridiculous… I mean, this man is supposed to be a spy, and yet everybody knows he’s a spy… it’s outrageous. So, you have to treat the humor outrageously as well.”

A number of Moore’s personal preferences were transferred into his characterization of Bond. His taste for Cuban cigars and his wearing of safari suits were assigned to the character. Moore’s use of cigars in his early films put him in contrast to the cigarette-smoking Connery, Lazenby, and Timothy Dalton. By the time of Moore’s fifth movie, For Your Eyes Only, his characterization had come to represent an old-fashioned character in contrast to the fashionability Connery had brought to the role in the 1960s. Moore’s Bond was defined by his cool attitude and sense of humor, which fit well the 1970s and the early 1980s.

In 1985, Moore appeared in his final Bond film, A View to a Kill. Critics focused primarily on his age. The Washington Post said “Moore isn’t just long in the tooth – he’s got tusks, and what looks like an eye job has given him the pie-eyed blankness of a zombie. He’s not believable anymore in the action sequences, even less so in the romantic scenes”. In December 2007, Moore admitted that, by that time of his last movie, he “was only about four hundred years too old for the part.” In fact, the actor originally wanted to leave the role after 1979’s Moonraker for that very reason.

Actor James Brolin was briefly hired as Moore’s replacement, beginning with Octopussy in 1982. However, for various reasons, Moore was twice asked to return until finally leaving the role for good. To this day, he’s the oldest actor to play 007. Moore was age 45 in his first film and 58 in his last. He’s also the second longest-serving Bond actor, having spent twelve years in the role, behind only Daniel Craig’s fifteen years. Moore stared in seven Eon-produced movies, earning a total of $24.3M. He holds the record for the most films of any Bond actor. (Connery also starred in seven Bond movies but only six were produced by Eon.) In 2004 and again in 2008, Moore was voted ‘Best Bond’ in an Academy Awards poll.

Sadly, Moore passed away on May 23, 2017, at the age of 89. Said producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, “We are heartbroken at the news of Sir Roger Moore’s passing. On the screen, he reinvented the role of James Bond with tremendous skill, charisma, and humor,” they wrote in part. “In real life, he was a genuine hero working as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for many years dedicating his life to alleviating the suffering of children all over the world. He was a loyal and beloved friend, and his legacy shall live on through his films and the millions of lives he touched.”

Following is a brief description of each of Moore’s Bond films.

— Live and Let Die (Released June 27, 1973): Bond is sent to investigate the murder of three British MI6 agents, all of whom had been killed within 24 hours. He discovers the victims were each separately investigating the operations of Dr. Kananga (Yaphet Kotto), the dictator of a small Caribbean Island, San Monique. Bond establishes that Kananga also acts as Mr. Big, a ruthless and cunning gangster. He flies to San Monique, where he meets Rosie Carver (Gloria Hendry), a CIA agent. However, Bond suspects Rosie of working for the dictator. She is subsequently killed by Kananga after he discovers her association with Bond.

When visiting San Monique, Bond determines that Kananga is producing two tons of heroin and is protecting the poppy fields by exploiting locals’ fear of voodoo and the occult. Through his alter ego, Mr. Big, Kananga plans to distribute the heroin free of charge through his Fillet of Soul restaurants, increasing the number of addicts. Bond and Solitaire (Jane Seymour), a beautiful Tarot card reader employed by Kananga who ultimately turns against him, are captured in New Orleans and taken back to San Monique. Bond escapes, killing Kananga and saving Solitaire, while destroying the poppy crop.

Live and Let Die was the third Bond film directed by Guy Hamilton, after Goldfinger and Diamonds Are Forever. It was a box office success with $161.8M, the most since 1965’s Thunderball, on a budget of $7M. However, it received mixed reviews from critics. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 65% from 52 reviews, just ahead of the lowest-rated Connery Bond movie, Hamilton’s Diamonds Are Forever. The site’s consensus reads: “While not one of the highest-rated Bond films, Live and Let Die finds Roger Moore adding his stamp to the series with flashes of style and an improved sense of humor.”

Released during the height of the Blaxploitation era, it used many archetypes and clichés from that genre. Also, screenwriter Mankiewicz thought it would be daring to use black villains, as the Black Panthers and other racial movements were active at that time. The film departs from the plots of the earlier Bond films, focusing instead on drug trafficking, and is set in African American cultural centers such as Harlem and New Orleans as well as the Caribbean Islands. It was also the first Bond movie featuring an African American woman to be romantically involved with the British agent, Rosie Carver.

The film received a 1974 Best Original Song Academy Award nomination for Live and Let Die. Written by former Beatle Paul McCartney and his wife Linda, it reunited McCartney with Beatle’s producer George Martin, who produced the song and arranged the orchestra. Martin was brought in after composer John Barry, who scored the previous seven Bond films, was unavailable. Performed by McCartney and his band, Wings, Live and Let Die was the most successful Bond theme up to that point, reaching No. 1 on two of the three major U.S. charts and No. 9 on the U.K. Singles Chart.

— The Man with the Golden Gun (Released December 19, 1974): After receiving a golden bullet with Bond’s code “007” etched into its surface, M (Bernard Lee) relieves Bond of a mission to locate a British scientist. The scientist is the inventor of the “Solex agitator”, a device to harness solar power, thereby solving the energy crisis. The bullet signifies Bond is a target of assassin Francisco Scaramanga (Christopher Lee) and he sets out unofficially to find him. From a spent golden bullet, Bond tracks Scaramanga to Macau. There he sees Scaramanga’s mistress, Andrea Anders (Maud Adams), collecting golden bullets at a casino.

Bond and his assistant, Mary Goodnight (Britt Ekland), follow her to Hong Kong. He witnesses the murder of the scientist, the theft of the Solex agitator, and the kidnapping of Goodnight. Bond is subsequently assigned to retrieve the agitator, rescue Goodnight, and assassinate Scaramanga. He meets with Hai Fat (Richard Loo), a wealthy Thai entrepreneur suspected of arranging the scientists’ murder. Bond is captured but subsequently escapes. He tracks Scaramanga and his accomplice, Nick Nack (Herve Villechaize), to an island in Red Chinese waters. The two men fight a duel, with Bond killing Scaramanga.

The Man with the Golden Gun, the fourth and final film directed by Hamilton, was made with a $7M budget. It grossed only $97.6M worldwide, the lowest since 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, while receiving unflattering reviews from most critics. Many dismissed the film and Moore’s performance as being only a shadow of the great Connery movies. One described both as “uninspired, tired, and boring” while wondering if “enough was enough”. Tom Milne, writing in The Observer, was even more caustic, writing that, “This series, which has been scraping the bottom of the barrel for some time, is now through the bottom.”

Opinion on the movie has not changed with the passing of time. On Rotten Tomatoes, only 39% out of 51 critical reviews about the film were positive. Surprisingly, it would not be the lowest rated of the Moore films on the site. The consensus states, “A middling Bond film, The Man With the Golden Gun suffers from double entendre-laden dialogue, a noteworthy lack of gadgets, and a villain that overshadows 007.” Film critic Danny Peary wrote “[it] lacks invention … is one of the least interesting Bond films” and “a very labored movie, with Bond a stiff bore.” Imagine Games Network (IGN) Entertainment, among others, labeled it the worst Bond film ever in 2012.

— The Spy Who Loved Me (Released July 7, 1977): Bond is tasked with investigating the disappearance of British and Soviet ballistic missile submarines. He’s forced to work alongside Soviet KGB Major Anya Amasova (Barbara Bach), whose husband Bond killed on a previous mission. The pair travel across Egypt and ultimately identify the person responsible for the thefts as shipping tycoon, scientist, and anarchist Karl Stromberg (Curd Jurgens). While tracking Stromberg, they escape his seemly indestructible henchman, Jaws (Richard Kiel), known for his steel teeth.

Bond and Amasova subsequently follow a suspicious tanker owned by Stromberg and establish it captured the missing submarines. Unfortunately, the submarine in which they are travelling is also captured. Stromberg admits he plans to destroy Moscow and New York using missiles from the captured submarines, triggering nuclear war. In the aftermath, he then intends to establish a new civilization. But Bond escapes, frees the captured submariners, and stops the attack. Stromberg also escapes, taking Amasova hostage. Bond follows them to his ocean headquarters, where he shoots the tycoon and frees Amasova before a torpedo destroys his base.

The Spy Who Loved Me was directed by Lewis Gilbert, his first Bond film since 1967’s You Only Live Twice. The movie grossed $185.4M worldwide on a budget of $14M, the first to exceed $10M. Eon executive Charles Juroe said that, at a screening attended by Charles, Prince of Wales, during the Union Jack-parachute scene in the film’s opening sequence, “I have never seen a reaction in the cinema as there was that night. … You could not help but stand up. Even Prince Charles stood up.” The scene came in second in a 2013 Sky Movies poll for greatest moment of the Bond franchise, beaten only by the “No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!” sequence from Goldfinger.

Many critics consider it Moore’s best installment. The actor himself stated it was his favorite Bond film of all time. Albert Broccoli indicated it was one of his top three, along with Goldfinger and From Russia With Love. On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie has an approval rating of 81% based on 56 reviews, the highest rating for any Moore Bond film and ninth highest on the site. The consensus reads: “Though it hints at the absurdity to come in later installments, The Spy Who Loved Me’s sleek style, menacing villains, and sly wit make it the best of the Roger Moore era.” Peary described the movie as “exceptional … For once, the big budget was not wasted”.

Marvin Hamlisch, who filled in for veteran Bond composer Barry, was nominated for several awards including the 1978 Academy Award for Best Song, Original Music Score for Nobody Does It Better. The song, with lyrics by Carole Bayer Sager and sung by Carly Simon, was also nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Score for a Motion Picture. In 2004, it was honored by the American Film Institute as the 67th greatest song as part of their 100 Years Series. In 2012, the song ranked No. 3 on Rolling Stone’s list of the Top 10 James Bond Theme Songs, behind only Shirley Bassey’s Goldfinger and Paul McCartney’s Live and Let Die.

Questions about the future of the franchise, raised by critics after The Man With the Golden Gun as well as the legal battle between Broccoli and Saltzman, had been answered. Bond would live on.

— Moonraker (Released June 26, 1979): A Drax Industries Moonraker space shuttle, on loan to England, is hijacked and Bond is ordered to investigate. Bond meets the owner of the company, Hugo Drax (Michael Longsdale) and one of Drax’s scientists, Dr. Holly Goodhead (Lois Chiles). Bond follows the trail to Venice where he establishes that Drax is manufacturing a nerve gas deadly to humans but harmless to animals. Bond is once again pursed by now mercenary assassin Jaws (Richard Kiel). While in Venice, Bond meets up with Goodhead and finds out she’s a CIA agent.

Bond and Goodhead travel to the Amazon looking for Drax’s research facility, where they are captured. The two escape and pose as pilots on one of six space shuttles being sent by Drax to a hidden space station. There, Bond finds out that Drax plans to destroy all human life by launching fifty globes containing the nerve gas into the Earth’s atmosphere. Goodhead disables the radar jammer hiding the station from Earth and the U.S. sends a platoon of Marines in a military space shuttle to stop Drax. During the battle, Bond kills Drax before destroying the globes and the station. He and Goodhead escape in one of Drax’s shuttles.

Monracker was directed for the third and final time by Gilbert. The film cost $31M, more than twice as much as its predecessor, including a salary of $4M for Moore. It was the most expensive of all his films. Yet it also became the highest grossing movie of the Moore series, with $210.3M worldwide, a record that stood until 1995’s GoldenEye. Although reviews were mixed, the film’s visuals were praised, with Derek Meddings being nominated for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 60% approval rating based on 53 reviews.

The site’s consensus reads, “Featuring one of the series’ more ludicrous plots but outfitted with primo gadgets and spectacular sets, Moonraker is both silly and entertaining.” Many critics consider Moonraker one of the lesser films in the series, largely due to the plot, which takes Bond into space. Peary wrote, “The worst James Bond film to date has Roger Moore walking through the paces for his hefty paycheck”. The producers had originally intended to film For Your Eyes Only but instead chose Moonraker due to the rise of the science fiction genre in the wake of the Star Wars phenomenon.

On a sad note, Moonraker was the final film for Bernard Lee, who played the character M in all the Bond films since Dr. No. M is the Head of the Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6. Author Ian Fleming based the character on a number of people he knew who commanded sections of British intelligence. A number of Bond scholars have noted the Lee’s interpretation of the character was in line with the original literary representation. For instance, movie critics Cork and Stutz observed that Lee was “very close to Fleming’s version of the character”. Rubin also praised the serious, efficient, no-nonsense authority figure.

Smith and Lavington remarked that Lee was “the very incarnation of Fleming’s crusty admiral.” The actor died of cancer in January 1981, four months into the filming of For Your Eyes Only and before any of his scenes could be shot. Out of respect, no new actor was hired to assume the role. Instead, the script was re-written so that the character is said to be on leave, with his lines given to either his Chief of Staff Bill Tanner or the Minister of Defense, Sir Frederick Gray. Later films recognized Lee’s tenure as head of the service. Robert Brown would assume the role of M beginning with Octopussy.

— For Your Eyes Only (Released June 24, 1981): After a British spy boat sinks, a marine archaeologist, Sir Timothy Havelock (Jack Hedley), is tasked to retrieve its Automatic Targeting Attack Communicator (ATAC) system before the Russians do. After Havelock is murdered by Hector Gonzales (Stefan Kalipha), a Cuban hitman, Bond is ordered to find out who hired him. While investigating, Bond is captured but escapes when Gonzales is unexpectedly killed by Havelock’s daughter, Melina (Carole Bouquet). Later, working with Q (Desmond Llewelyn), Bond identifies one of those present with Gonzales as Emile Leopold Locque (Michael Gothard).

He follows Locque to Italy and meets with Luigi Ferrara (John Moreno), his MI6 contact. Ferrara introduces Bond to a well-connected Greek businessman and intelligence informant, Aris Kristatos (Julian Glover). Kristatos tells Bond that Locque is employed by Milos Columbo (Chaim Topol), Kristatos’ former organized crime partner. After Ferrara is murdered by Locque, Bond is captured by Columbo, who proves that Locque was actually hired by Kristatos. Columbo then convinces Bond that his former partner is working for the Soviet KGB to retrieve the ATAC. Bond subsequently kills Locque as retribution for the killing of Ferrara.

Bond agrees to team up with Columbo to recover the device. Bond and Melina together dive on the St. Georges’ wreck and retrieve the ATAC. But Kristatos is waiting for them when they surface and retakes it. He then attempts to kill the pair, but they escape. Along with Columbo and his men, the two follow Kristatos to St Cyril’s, an abandoned mountaintop monastery in Greece. They infiltrate Kristatos’s hideout and once again recover the device. During their escape, Krisatos is killed by Columbo when he attempts to knife Bond, who then destroys the ATAC before the Russians can take it.

John Glen made his Bond directorial debut with For Your Eyes Only. At the time, reviews were mixed. The Guardian’s Derek Malcom disliked the film, saying it was “too long … and pretty boring between the stunts”, although he admitted that the stunts themselves were of a high quality. However, opinion improved with the passing of time. On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie holds a positive 73% rating based on 52 reviews. The site’s consensus reads, “For Your Eyes Only trades in some of the outlandish Bond staples for a more sober outing, and the result is a satisfying adventure, albeit without some of the bombastic thrills fans may be looking for.”

The film was a financial success, generating $195.3M worldwide on a budget of $28M, with Moore’s salary increasing to $4.6M. After the science fiction-focused Moonraker, the producers wanted a conscious return to the style of the early Bond films and the works of Fleming. For Your Eyes Only followed a grittier, more realistic approach. As co-writer Michael G. Wilson pointed out, “If we went through the path of Moonraker things would just get more outlandish, so we needed to get back to basics”. The theme song For Your Eyes Only, sung by Sheena Easton, was nominated for Best Original Song at the 1981 Academy Awards.

A side note. The opening sequence of For Your Eyes Only features the only references in the Moore films to past Bond movies. It recognized Bond’s wife Tracy, killed at the end of the film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, by showing him at her gravesite. Also included was a fight between Bond and Spectre mastermind Ernst Stavro Blofeld, both introduced in the Connery films. For legal reasons, there wouldn’t be another reference to either Spectre or Blofeld until the 2015 release of Craig’s fourth Bond film, Spectre, although hints of a secret organization would be made in each of his first two films.

— Octopussy (Released June 6, 1983): Bond investigates the murder of 009, killed in East Berlin while dressed as a circus clown and carrying a fake Faberge egg. An identical egg appears at auction and Bond establishes the buyer is exiled Afghan prince Kamal Khan (Louis Jourdan). Khan is discovered to be working with General Orlov (Steven Berkoff), a renegade within the Soviet military, who’s seeking to expand Soviet borders into Europe. Bond also discovers Khan is working with a wealthy woman named Octopussy (Maud Adams), leader of an all-female Octopus cult.

Bond establishes that Orlov has been supplying Khan with priceless Soviet treasures. Khan subsequently replaces the originals with replicas while he smuggles the real versions into the West via Octopussy’s circus troupe. Bond infiltrates the circus and finds Orlov has replaced this particular batch of Soviet treasures with a nuclear warhead, hidden in a cannon. The bomb is primed to explode at a U.S. Air Force base in West Germany. Orlov assumes that, in the aftermath of an explosion, Europe would disarm, believing the bomb was an American one detonated by accident. Without American protection, the West’s borders would be vulnerable to a Soviet invasion.

Bond finds and deactivates the warhead, foiling Orlov’s plan. In doing so, he convinces Octopussy she was betrayed by Khan, leaving her and her associates to die in the blast. The pair follow Khan back to India and lead an assault on his palace. Khan flees, abducting Octopussy in the process. Bond pursues them as they attempt to escape in an airplane, clinging to the fuselage before disabling one of the engines. As the plane descends, Bond and Octopussy jump out onto a nearby cliff. Moments later, the plane crashes into a mountain, killing Khan.

Octopussy was the second consecutive film directed by Glen. It grossed $183.7M worldwide, down slightly from For Your Eyes Only. However, the $27.5M cost was also down slightly, despite another $600,000 salary increase for Moore. Critics gave it mixed to negative reviews. Movie critic James Berardinelli claimed that the film was long and confusing, and strongly criticized Steven Berkoff’s performance, describing it as “offensively bad” and the worst performance of any Bond villain. On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie has an approval rating of just 43% based on 49 reviews. The site’s consensus reads: “Despite a couple of electrifying action sequences, Octopussy is a formulaic, anachronistic Bond outing.”

Octopussy was released the same year as the non-Eon Bond film, Never Say Never Again, starring Sean Connery. Although it earned less than Octopussy, the movie was still a commercial success, grossing $160M worldwide. However, reviews were much more positive, with a 70% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The only Moore Bond films that ranked higher on the site were The Spy Who Loved Me and For Your Eyes Only. In 1995, Michael Sauter of Entertainment Weekly admitted that “even past his prime, Connery [age 52 at the time of the film’s release] proves that nobody does it better”.

— A View to a Kill (Released May 22, 1985): Bond is sent to Siberia to locate the body of 003 as well as recover a microchip originating from the Soviet Union. Upon his return, Q (Desmond Llewelyn) analyses the microchip, establishing it to be a copy of one designed to withstand an electromagnetic pulse made by government contractor Zorin Industries. 007 investigates the company’s owner, millionaire industrialist Max Zorin (Christopher Walken). Unbeknownst to Bond, Zorin is planning to corner the world market in microchips by destroying Silicon Valley.

Bond travels to San Francisco to meet with CIA agent Chuck Lee (David Yip). Lee informs Bond that Zorin was previously trained and financed by the KGB but has now gone rogue. He may also be the product of medical experimentation with steroids, performed by Zorin’s physician, Dr. Carl Mortner (Willoughby Gray), a former Nazi scientist. Meanwhile, Bond tracks down a woman Zorin attempted to bribe, California State Geologist Stacey Sutton (Tanya Roberts). Working together, Bond and Sutton determine Zorin is detonating explosives beneath lakes along the Hayward and San Andreas faults, causing the faults to flood.

They also find a larger bomb in a mine designed to destroy a “geological lock” that prevents the two faults from moving at the same time. As the mine floods, Sutton escapes while Bond fights Zorin’s henchwoman, May Day (Grace Jones). Bond ultimately turns May Day against Zorin after he leaves her to die in the blast. She helps Bond evacuate the bomb from the mine, dying in the subsequent explosion. His plan in ruins, Zorin kidnaps Sutton and attempts to escape in his zeppelin. But Bond gains access to the zeppelin while in flight, using the mooring lines, subsequently rescuing Sutton and killing both Zorin and Mortner.

A View to a Kill, with Glen directing his third consecutive Bond film, grossed $152.4M worldwide. It was a commercial success, although the movie made the least amount of money since The Man With the Golden Gun. The $30M cost was the second highest of the Moore series after Moonracker, with the star receiving an almost 30% raise, to $7.5M. On the plus side, the Duran Duran title song was a hit, the only one to reach number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. Walken was praised by online critic Christopher Null for portraying a “classic Bond villain”. Unfortunately, positive reviews were few and far between.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film received a 38% approval rating based on 61 reviews, the lowest rated of any Eon-produced Bond film on the site. The consensus reads, “Absurd even by Bond standards, A View to a Kill is weighted down by campy jokes and a noticeable lack of energy.” Typical of the comments came from Pauline Kael of The New Yorker, “The James Bond series has had its bummers, but nothing before in the class of A View to a Kill.” The most common criticism was that Moore had visibly aged in the two years since Octopussy. Even Connery agreed, stating “Bond should be played by an actor 35, 33 years old. I’m too old. Roger’s too old, too!”

Moore said that A View to a Kill was his least favorite Bond film. He was mortified to find out he was older than the mother of his co-star, Tanya Roberts, just 30 at the time of filming. Moore was also quoted as saying “I was horrified on the last Bond I did. Whole slews of sequences where Christopher Walken was machine-gunning hundreds of people. I said, ‘That wasn’t Bond, those weren’t Bond films.’ It stopped being what they were all about.” With Moore no longer believable and with movie quality and revenue in apparent decline, the time had come for a change. A new James Bond would need to be chosen to lead the franchise into the 1990s.

A side note. A View to a Kill would be the last to feature Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny, M’s private secretary. A close confidante of her boss, she enjoys a flirtatious, though never consummated, relationship with Bond. Maxwell had played the character in every Bond film since Dr. No. Moneypenny would be played by Caroline Bliss in both of Timothy Dalton’s films and by Samantha Bond in all four of Pierce Brosnan’s movies. Beginning with Craig’s third Bond film, the character was reintroduced as part of the 2006 reboot. Moneypenny, played by black actress Naomi Harris, is given a backstory as well as a first name, Eve.

To end this post, I’m including a compilation video showing Moore’s “40 Great James Bond Quotes” including Bond’s famous introduction; “Bond, James Bond”.

Enjoy!

As always, your feedback is appreciated!