For Your Eyes Only (1981)

Genre

Action | Thriller

Director

John Glen

Country

UK

Cast

Roger Moore, Carole Bouquet, Julian Glover, Chaim Topol, Lynn-Holly Johnson, Michael Gothard, Cassandra Harris, John Wyman, Desmond Llewelyn, Jill Bennett, Jack Hedley, Lois Maxwell, Geoffrey Keen, James Villiers, John Moreno, Walter Gotell, Toby Robins, Jack Klaff, Stefan Kalipha, Charles Dance, Janet Brown, John Hollis, Bob Simmons

Storyline

This time James Bond (Roger Moore) is sent to recover a communication device, known as an ATAC, which went down with a British Spy ship as it sunk. He must hurry though, as the Russians are also out for this device.

Opinion

After the 1979 Star Wars wanna-be "Moonraker", Albert Broccoli and the other producers went back to Ian Fleming's James Bond with "For Your Eyes Only", a quite enjoyable and down to Earth entry in the franchise.

By far the best in Roger Moore's era, the story is grounded, very interesting, more believable and goes back to basics, actually involving some spying, and leaves gadgets behind. It isn't much complex and this allows the film to focus on some realistic and human characters, among which the beautiful Melina Havelock stands out as one of the few Bond girls with some real personality. 

The main topic of the film is revenge: while James Bond finally get the chance to revenge on Blofeld for the assassination of his first and only wife Tracy, Melina wants to avenge the murderer of her parents. 

The villains, Aristotle Kristatos and Emile Locque, are way more realistic than previous James Bond villains, but unfortunately they are not very threatening, but quite forgettable. Also Bibi Dahl is quite annoying and rather pointless as she has no place in the film.

The action is also more down to Earth, and the locations in Greece and Italy are absolutely gorgeous. The theme song by Sheena Easton is also quite enjoyable.

Roger Moore really nails the character after one awful performance, Carole Bouquet is fine as the main female lead - and it's a real shame that she had to be dubbed -, and Julian Glover excellently plays Kristatos, despite the character's flaws.