For Your Eyes Only (1981)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

John Glen

Writers:

Richard Maibaum (screenplay) and
Michael G. Wilson (screenplay)

Release Date:

26 June 1981 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Thriller

Tagline:

Bond Has Everything - James Bond Agent 007 Is Back

Plot:

Agent 007 is assigned to hunt for a lost British encryption device and prevent it from falling into enemy hands.

Plot Keywords:

British | James Bond | Ship | Agent | Spy

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 2 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Roger Moore	...	James Bond
Carole Bouquet	...	Melina Havelock
Topol	...	Milos Columbo
Lynn-Holly Johnson	...	Bibi Dahl
Julian Glover	...	Aristotle Kristatos
Cassandra Harris	...	Countess Lisl von Schlaf
Jill Bennett	...	Jacoba Brink
Michael Gothard	...	Emile Leopold Locque
John Wyman	...	Erich Kriegler
Jack Hedley	...	Sir Timothy Havelock
Lois Maxwell	...	Miss Moneypenny
Desmond Llewelyn	...	Q
Geoffrey Keen	...	Minister of Defence (Sir Frederick Gray)
Walter Gotell	...	General Anatol Gogol
James Villiers	...	Bill Tanner

Runtime:

127 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English | Greek | Italian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Certification:

Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | Iceland:12 | Canada:A (Nova Scotia) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Australia:M (DVD rating) | Australia:M (video rating) | UK:PG (video rating) | South Korea:15 | Brazil:12 | New Zealand:PG | Portugal:M/12 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Ireland:15 | Norway:15 | Norway:16 (1981) | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | USA:PG (Certificate #26343) | West Germany:12 | Singapore:PG | UK:A (original rating)

Filming Locations:

Achillion Palace, Gastouri, Corfu, Greece

Company:

Danjaq

Trivia:

Director Trademark: [John Glen] [pigeon]Bond almost loses his footing during his climb to the monastery when a pigeon from a nest unexpectedly flies in his face.

Goofs:

Factual errors: When Bond and Melina are to do the deep dive Bond mentions that they must use a mixture of helium and oxygen but when they communicate through the helmet radios there voices sound normal not high pitched like it should be.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Vicar: Mr. Bond, Mr. Bond. I'm so glad I caught you. Your office called. They're sending a helicopter to pick you up. Some sort of emergency.
James Bond: It usually is. Thank you.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (2008) (VG)

Soundtrack:

For Your Eyes Only

Very Enjoyable & Down to Earth

I've never been a member of the James Bond fandom. Although I've seen "Dr. No", "Goldfinger", "From Russia with Love", "The Man with the Golden Gun" and others into the 1980's and 1990's (I haven't seen them all, though), I always preferred Indiana Jones as an action hero. He bumbles and stumbles through his adventures and doesn't have any neat gadgets to help him escape. Just a matter of personal choice. I've never read an Ian Fleming James Bond novel and I know almost no Bond trivia.

However, I found "For Your Eyes Only" a very entertaining adventure that wisely, after the ridiculous "Moonraker", brought James Bond down to earth.

A Greek fishing trawler strikes a sea mine off the coast of Greece and sinks into the Mediterranean Ocean. British intelligence is thrown into a panic. Why? Because the Greek fishing trawler was actually a British spy ship with a super secret code encryption device on board. Enter 007 (Roger Moore), who must retrieve the device before Soviet KGB employed agents do. Along the way, there will be double dealing, a young American Olympic skater (Lynn-Holly Johnson) with the teenage hots for Bond, an edge of your seat ski chase involving snowmobiles and high powered rifles, exploding burglar proof cars (a great bit of humor here!), tense cliff scaling, and underwater action. All the elements of high Bond adventure is here, it's all fast paced by director John Glen and, believe it or not...believable.

Here is a 007 adventure where we get a more human James Bond who must think his way through situations with almost no gadgetry. It's amusing to watch James fend off the sexual advances and attempted seductions brought on Olympic skater Bibi in a twist of Bond's regular romantic life. And best of all, the plot framework does not involve larger than life villains attempting to dominate the world through various diabolical (and unbelievable) schemes. Here is a 007 mission straight out of the real world Cold War. This story is grounded.

I've read that director John Glen, recognizing the excesses of "Moonraker", decided on this completely down to earth tone. I've also read that "For Your Eyes Only" is the most debated about Bond film among fans of the series. I don't know how much of the above is true, but I do know that "For Your Eyes Only" is a very enjoyable and down to earth adventure film.