‘For Your Eyes Only’ at 40: The Best Of The Roger Moore-Era James Bond Films

Forty years ago, the James Bond franchise was desperately needed back on earth.

The previous film, Moonraker, the 11th in the franchise, was certainly a box office hit, but we’ve got to be honest here: it is one dumb-ass movie. Don’t get me wrong, it has its charms (Desmond Llewelyn exclaiming “I think he’s attempting re-entry!” may in fact be the greatest line reading in all of cinema), but laser battles in orbit and Richard Kiel as a proto-WWE Superstar was preposterous even by 007 standards. The series absolutely had to settle down.

For Your Eyes Only (which had been teased as next in line after The Spy Who Loved Me, before Star Wars got the producers looking to the heavens and Moonraker) finds the perfect balance between the slick international intrigue of the early Sean Connery pictures and the high tech bombast of the ’70s entries. It is, I feel, the best of the Roger Moore-era Bonds, offering space for the actor’s natural sarcasm without tipping over into pure smarm. In fact, I say it’s a contender for top five in the whole series. (We’d need to meet over some vodka martinis for the rest of that argument.)

The action takes us to a tiny Spanish town, a winter sports facility in the Italian mountains, the island of Corfu in the Ionian Sea, and a monastery atop a cliff somewhere in Greece that looks too Middle Earth to be real, but it is. Bond has got to recover an electric gizmo that’s sunk to the bottom of the sea before smugglers can sell it to the Russians. If they get their hands on it, they’ll be able to control all of Britain’s nuclear-power subs, which just goes to show how much audiences were willing to buy anything if you said “it’s a computer!” (The device in question is really just a keyboard, you’d need something to plug it into to communicate with any missiles, and by then someone would change the password, not to mention it’s now waterlogged, and — oh, forget it.)

Anyway, with this as the starting gun, Bond is off fighting baddies as he’s skiing down mountains, playing Baccarat, wooing Countesses, and diving for ancient Hellenic artifacts with Carole Bouquet. He finds himself in the crossfire of two Greek smugglers, one played by British actor Julian Glover, the other by Israeli actor Topol. There’s also the rare case of James Bond saying “no” to the advances of a young woman, an erstwhile Olympic skater played by Lynn-Holly Johnson. Though she was around 21 or 22 when the movie was shot, and Roger Moore was 53, the exuberant blonde can’t stop flinging herself at him. It’s a hell of a thing to watch.

The script had its roots in two Ian Fleming short stories, which were published in 1960, called “For Your Eyes Only” and “Risico.” In the director’s chair was John Glen, who worked up the ranks of the British film industry, starting in sound department, before shooting second unit and editing Bond pictures. The first thing he does in For Your Eyes Only is offer a rare callback to 007’s slain wife, then dispatch Bond’s longtime foe, the possibly toxoplasmotic Blofeld.

But before anyone saw a frame, there were two shots fired into the entertainment ecosystem to let everyone know James Bond had entered the 80s: that song and that poster.

The title song, performed by Sheena Easton, is still an even-tempo ballad, but it trades the piano and lush strings of the recent Carly Simon’s Marvin Hamlisch-penned Bond smash “Nobody Does It Better” for just a scintilla of synthesizer. It’s not New Wave, but it’s definitely making overtures to what’s modern.

The poster, designed by the legendary Bill Gold, is an all-time classic, a bold and provocative image that grabbed viewers and, um, directed their gaze. Whether one considers it a piece of marketing that exploits and objectifies women, or is sexually empowering is, of course, entirely up to you.

From the first scene, the movie absolutely doesn’t let up. The chase scenes still pop, and the blend of “classy” Bond with some extremely ’80s moments (that red Lotus! Q’s absurd “identigraph” device) are extremely entertaining. The climb up the cliff at the end is extraordinarily edited, and we need to mention that the gorgeous raven-haired Carole Bouquet does a lot of damage with a crossbow. Even giggly Lynn-Holly Johnson is better than the role requires; there’s some solid comic timing in her ski bunny gags.

Roger Moore’s next Bond was the legendary Octopussy, and when your movie is called Octopussy it’s going to get a lot of attention, much like Moonraker and its idiotic space motif. But right in the middle there is a fast-paced, dazzling, and even a little bit elegant movie that sometimes gets forgotten. On its 40th birthday, maybe find eyes for it.

Jordan Hoffman is a writer and critic in New York City. His work also appears in Vanity Fair, The Guardian, and the Times of Israel. He is a member of the New York Film Critics Circle, and tweets about Phish and Star Trek at @JHoffman.

Where to stream For Your Eyes Only