For Your Eyes Only

"Moore in his finest hour" (SPOILER ALERT)

review of For Your Eyes Only (1981)- John Glen

Simply put, FYEO is an epic spy-caper of massive proportions. It's absolutely brilliant from start to finish, mainly due to the excellent direction of John Glen and beautiful score by Bill Conti. One of my major attractions to the film is the soundtrack, which I believe to be Conti's best work since Rocky. The early 80's mixture of jazz and classic tones makes this soundtrack unforgettable.

The film itself is eye-candy to any Bond fan. The locations in FYEO are some of the best we've seen in the franchise. The film spans from London, to Greece, to the beautiful Cortina in Italy.

The opening sequence is one if the best of the series. We see Bond laying flowers at Tracy's grave, who we have barely heard of since OHMSS, followed by one of the best stunts in an opening scene. The chase is on when Bond is duped into getting into the Universal Exports helicopter by the unofficial Blofeld.

Due to the failure of Moonraker, we see how down to earth FYEO is when it comes to plot and action. Although Moore is noticeably aged at this point, he pulls off the down to earth combination of style and substance with ease. Witty one liners and campy villains were left at the door with FYEO. Let me make a point of saying that the Bond girl, Melina (Carole Bouquet), also added to the drastic change in style. Rather than being a useless sidekick used solely for Bond's pleasure, Melina added a grittiness to the plot that makes FYEO comparable to a Dalton film. Melina's back story with her father and the discovery of the St. Georges fuses amazingly with Bond's mission to recover the ATAC system.

One of the major high points in FYEO, is not knowing who the actual villain is until the 2nd act of the movie. Aristotle Kristatos (played by the amazing Julian Glover) and Milos Columbo (Topol) play the perfect cold war rivals. By the latter half of the film, three of the major characters (Melina, Bond, and Kristatos) are all on the trail of Kristatos.

The action sequences were intense and extremely climactic. Locque and Kriegler's pursuit of Bond on the ski slopes was nothing short of brilliant. Beginning high atop the ski-jump and commencing through the beautiful snowy mountain range, this sequence has gone down in the record books. One part of this scene that I always enjoy pointing out is when Bond ruthlessly places the ski pole on the branch of the tree, knowing the ultimate outcome. That is easily one of the most brutal deaths throughout the film.

Who says Bond doesn't kill in cold blood? Emile Locque's death came as no surprise, but was pretty brutal. Preceding Locque's death, Bond says an unforgettable line: You left this with Ferrara, I believe.. A line like this brilliantly sums up the theme of FYEO: revenge. The ending of FYEO is one scene that has every Bond fan on the edge of their seat. Beginning with Bond's ascent to Kristato's mountaintop hideaway in St. Cyrils, the climax already has us drawn in. While the premise is a classic Bond evasive tactic, it is unique in every possible way. Rather than bringing in backup and forcing Kristatos to surrender the ATAC by using air tactics, Bond climbs his way up the mountainside. The scene ends with Kriegler's well deserved 'drop off' and the death of Kristatos which was absolutely poetic. He died in the manner that he lived, as a sneak.