Movie Review: For Your Eyes Only (1981) directed by John Glen
James Bond (Roger Moore) is visiting his wife Tracy’s grave when he’s informed that a helicopter has come to take him to “the office.” This turns out to be a trap, as the pilot is murdered by his own headphones so that a man who is clearly Blofeld (John Hollis), having survived the end of Diamonds Are Forever though with severe permanent injuries. The villain flies the helicopter by remote control, taunting Bond with almost-death, but gloats too long and 007 is able to disable the remote and turns the tables. Blofeld is probably really dead this time.
Meanwhile, the St. Georges, a British Navy surveillance ship disguised as a fishing trawler, is sunk in the Aegean Sea off the coast of Greece. It happened to have on board the ATAC, a device for controlling Britain’s ballistic missiles. The Soviet Union in the person of General Gogol (Walter Gotell) would be very interested in obtaining the device, and commission “our Greek friend” to pick it up. Marine archaeologist and crossbow champion Melina Havelock (Carole Bouquet) witnesses her parents being assassinated by Cuban hitman Hector Gonzales (Stefan Kalipha). She does not know that this is because they were helping the British locate the sunken ship.
Bond is called in to investigate the murder of the Havelocks and find the ATAC. While he’s surveilling the pool party Gonzales is hosting in Spain, he witnesses someone hand the killer a suitcase full of money. He then allows himself to be captured, but before he can learn more, Melina in disguise murders Gonzales and they’re forced to escape together.
James and Melina argue about her revenge plans, as her bloodthirst has temporarily left Bond without solid leads. She’s focused on her personal loss, while 007 sees a slightly larger picture, but won’t at this moment tell her about it.
Using a fancy identikit-type program guided by Q (Desmond Llewellyn), Bond is able to determine that the payoff man is Belgian mercenary Locque (Michael Gothard). He jets off to Italy and the former Winter Olympics site of Cortina. There he meets with his local contact Luigi Ferrara (John Moreno), who introduces him to wealthy Greek businessman and informant Aris Kristatos (Julian Glover). James is also introduced to Bibi Dahl (Lynn-Holly Johnson), an aspiring figure skater sponsored by Kristatos, and her exacting coach Ms. Brink (Jill Bennett). Kristatos suspects his former partner in the Greek resistance, now his business rival and smuggler, Milos Columbo (Topol) of employing Locque.
The baddies have figured out who Melina is, and lured her to Cortina with a faked telegram from James. This sparks several winter sports-themed assassination attempts by Locque and his associates, including Eric Kriegler (John Wyman) East German bi-athlete and KGB agent. Bond and Melina survive, but Luigi does not, and that man’s body has a dove pin on it, symbol of Columbo’s organization.
So it’s off to Corfu, Greece, where Columbo owns a casino. Columbo’s mistress, Countess Lisl von Schlaf (Cassandra Harris) and Bond seduce each other for information. As they walk along the beach afterwards, the “Countess” (she’s actually from Liverpool) is assassinated by Locque, and then Bond is captured by Columbo’s men. The smuggler claims that Kristatos, not him, is Locque’s employer!
Now James Bond must figure out who’s telling the truth, recover the ATAC, and make sure that Malina’s revenge doesn’t kill the wrong people.
Roger Moore plays 007 with more humor than his two predecessors, not just hardboiled one-liners, but as aware of how silly some of the situations he gets in to are. By this point, his fifth or so Bond movie, he was beginning to feel his age, and James very pointedly does not sleep with Bibi, who’s depicted as too young for his tastes.
After a couple of very flashy films, including outright science fiction in Moonraker, it was decided to dial back the stakes and the use of gadgets in this movie. The tricked-out car is blown up very quickly, and the climax involves Bond using standard climbing gear and improvisation to get up a mountainside. We’re back to the Cold War with the Soviet Union as the larger scale villains, but they’re not planning to destroy the world, even if they do get the Macguffin of the plot.
The opening song is cool, sung by Sheena Easton, who actually appears in the opening credits.
As always with the Eon series of James Bond movies, excellent action and chase scenes, with a good variety of locations. The hockey assassins are very silly, but make Luigi’s death just afterwards more of a gut punch.
Oh, and there’s also a silly bit with (unnamed) Margaret Thatcher, who is depicted as a housewife who just so happens also to be Prime Minister. Your mileage may vary on just how much of a mis-portrayal this is.
Content notes: Women in skimpy outfits, implied nudity. Bond and several other characters have extramarital sex. Bibi mentions she’s not a virgin, but specifically doesn’t do it with Bond or Kristatos. Lots of murder and violence, as per usual, some bloody. Sex trafficking is mentioned.
This isn’t one of the great James Bond movies, or the most memorable. But it’s still plenty interesting and does what it sets out to do.
