For Your Eyes Only is a 1981 spy film, the twelfth film in the James Bond franchise produced by Eon Productions, and the fifth to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film also co-stars Carole Bouquet, Chaim Topol, Lynn-Holly Johnson and Julian Glover, and marked the feature directorial debut of John Glen, who had served as a film editor and second unit director on previous films in the series.
The film was written by Richard Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson. Although the script is principally based on two Ian Fleming short stories, "For Your Eyes Only" and "Risico", some elements of the plot were also inspired by the novels Live and Let Die, Goldfinger and On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The film follows Bond as he attempts to locate a missile command system while becoming tangled in a web of deception spun by rival Greek smugglers along with Melina Havelock, a woman seeking to avenge the murder of her parents.
After the science-fiction-focused Moonraker, the producers wanted a return to the style of the early Bond films and the works of 007 creator Fleming. For Your Eyes Only followed a grittier, more realistic approach and a narrative theme of revenge and its consequences, rather than the fantasy narrative of Moonraker. Filming took place from September 1980 to February 1981, and locations included Greece, Italy and the United Kingdom, while underwater footage was shot in the Bahamas. Sheena Easton performed the title theme song.
For Your Eyes Only was released in the UK on 24 June 1981 and in the US two days later; it received a mixed critical reception. The film's reputation has improved over time, with reviewers praising the more serious tone in comparison to previous entries in the series, with others saying it was the best of Moore's films after The Spy Who Loved Me. The film was a financial success, generating $195.3 million worldwide.
For Your Eyes Only was the final Bond film to be distributed solely by United Artists; the company was absorbed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer soon after this film's release. It was followed by Octopussy in 1983.
Plot
The British information-gathering vessel St Georges, which holds the Automatic Targeting Attack Communicator (ATAC), the system used by the Ministry of Defence to co-ordinate the Royal Navy's fleet of Polaris submarines, is sunk after trawling an old naval mine in the Ionian Sea. The British ask marine archaeologist Sir Timothy Havelock secretly to locate the St Georges. However, he and his wife are then murdered on their yacht (Triana) by Cuban hitman Hector Gonzales. Havelock's daughter Melina witnesses the murders, and vows revenge.
The head of the KGB, General Gogol, also has learned of the fate of the St Georges and has notified his contact in Greece. MI6 agent James Bond is ordered by the Minister of Defence, Sir Frederick Gray, and MI6 Chief of Staff Bill Tanner to retrieve the ATAC before the Soviets do so, for the transmitter could order attacks by the submarines' Polaris ballistic missiles. Bond goes to Spain to learn who hired Gonzales.
While spying on Gonzales's villa, Bond is captured by his men, but escapes as a crossbow bolt kills Gonzales. The assassin was Melina, who escapes with Bond. Aided by Bond, Q uses the computerised Identigraph to identify the man Bond saw paying off Gonzales as Emile Leopold Locque and goes to Locque's possible base in Cortina, Italy. There, Bond meets his contact, Luigi Ferrara, and a well-connected Greek business magnate and intelligence informant, Aris Kristatos, who reveals that Locque is employed by Milos Columbo, known as "the Dove" in the Greek underworld, Kristatos's former Greek resistance partner during the Second World War. After Bond goes with Kristatos's protégée, figure skater Bibi Dahl, to a biathlon course, a group of three men, which includes East German biathlete Eric Kriegler, chases Bond, trying to kill him. Bond escapes and goes with Ferrara to bid Bibi farewell in an ice rink, where he fends off another attempt on his life by three men in ice hockey gear. Ferrara is killed in Bond's car, with a dove pin in his hand. Bond then travels to Corfu in pursuit of Columbo.
There, at the casino, Bond meets Kristatos and asks how to meet Columbo, not knowing that Columbo's men are secretly recording their conversation. After Columbo and his mistress, Countess Lisl von Schlaf, argue, Bond offers to escort her home with Kristatos's car and driver. The two spend the night together and the next morning, Lisl and Bond are ambushed on the beach and Lisl is killed by Locque, who mows her down in a beach buggy before speeding away. Bond is captured by Columbo's men before Locque can kill him; Columbo then tells Bond that Locque was actually hired by Kristatos, who is working for the KGB to retrieve the ATAC. Bond accompanies Columbo and his crew on a raid on one of Kristatos's opium-processing warehouses in Albania, where Bond uncovers naval mines similar to the one that sank the St Georges. After the base is destroyed, Bond chases Locque and kills him by shoving his car off a cliff while he is trapped inside.
Afterwards, Bond meets Melina, and they recover the ATAC from the wreckage of the St Georges, but Kristatos is waiting for them when they surface and takes the ATAC. The two escape an assassination attempt and discover Kristatos's rendezvous point when Melina's parrot, Max, repeats the phrase "ATAC to St Cyril's". Aided by Columbo and his men, Bond and Melina break into St Cyril's, an abandoned mountaintop monastery. Bond scales the peak and dispatches Apostis, a henchman of Kristatos. As Columbo confronts Kristatos, Bond kills Kriegler.
Bond retrieves the ATAC system and stops Melina from killing Kristatos after he surrenders. Kristatos prepares to kill Bond with a hidden flick knife, but is killed by a knife thrown by Columbo; Gogol arrives by helicopter to collect the ATAC, but Bond throws it off the cliff, maintaining the relatively peaceful status quo, and Gogol departs in amused understanding. Bond and Melina later spend a romantic evening aboard her father's yacht while Melina's parrot fields a call from MI6 and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Cast
Roger Moore as James Bond, MI6 agent 007, who is sent to retrieve a stolen "ATAC" system that could be misused for controlling British submarines.
Carole Bouquet as Melina Havelock, the daughter of marine archaeologists who are murdered while tracking down the ATAC's whereabouts. Bouquet had auditioned for the role of Holly Goodhead in Moonraker, but was unsuccessful. Chaim Topol as Milos Columbo, Kristatos's enemy and former smuggling partner. He convinces Bond to side with him. Named after Gioacchino Colombo, the Ferrari engine designer, specifically Ferrari 125, which Fleming admired. Topol suggested the pistachios as a trademark of the character, which are used in the warehouse assault scene to orient Columbo's men on where to shoot. Lynn-Holly Johnson as Bibi Dahl, an ice-skating prodigy who has a crush on Bond; she is training with the financial support of Kristatos. Johnson was an ice skater before turning to acting, and achieved second place at the novice level of the 1974 United States Figure Skating Championships. Michael Wilson explained that she was written as "a character that antagonised Bond." Julian Glover as Aristotle Kristatos, a former war hero turned smuggler. Initially shown as an ally, later as the main villain, planning to expand his fortune by selling the ATAC to the KGB. Glover had been shortlisted as a possible Bond for Live and Let Die, eventually losing out to Moore.
Cassandra Harris as Lisl, The Countess Von Schlaf, Columbo's mistress. At the time of filming Harris was married to future Bond actor Pierce Brosnan, and the couple lunched with the film's producer Albert R. Broccoli during filming. Michael Gothard as Emile Leopold Locque, a Belgian hired assassin known by his octagonal-rimmed glasses. He turns out to be an associate of Kristatos. Jill Bennett as Jacoba Brink, Bibi's skating coach. Jack Hedley as Sir Timothy Havelock, Melina's father and a marine archaeologist hired by the British Secret Service secretly to locate the wreck of St. Georges. Walter Gotell as General Anatoly Gogol, head of the KGB.
James Villiers as Bill Tanner, MI6 Chief of Staff. The role of Tanner first appeared on film in The Man with the Golden Gun, although in an un-credited capacity. Villiers presumed he would play the role of M in subsequent films and was disappointed not to be asked; the producers thought him too young for the role and wanted an actor in his 70s. Desmond Llewelyn as Q, the head of MI6's technical department. John Moreno as Luigi Ferrara, 007's MI6 contact in northern Italy. Geoffrey Keen as Sir Frederick Gray (credited as Minister of Defence), a politician in the British government. The role, along with Bill Tanner as Chief of Staff, was used to brief Bond in place of M, following the death of Bernard Lee. Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny, M's secretary. John Wyman as Erich Kriegler, an East German Olympic class biathlete. He is revealed to be Kristatos's second in-command and a KGB contact.
John Hollis plays the bald villain in a wheelchair, voiced by Peter Marinker. The character appears in the pre-credits sequence and is both unnamed and uncredited. The character contains a number of characteristics of Ernst Stavro Blofeld, but could not be identified as such because of the legal reasons surrounding the Thunderball controversy with Kevin McClory claiming sole rights to the Blofeld character, a claim disputed by Eon. Bob Simmons, who previously portrayed Bond in the gun barrel sequences in the first three films and SPECTRE agent Colonel Jacques Bouvar in Thunderball, cameos as another villain as Gonzales's henchman who falls victim to Bond's exploding Lotus. Victor Tourjansky, the assistant director, has his third cameo in the Bond films as a drinking tourist; he is credited as part of the Ski Team for Stunts. Charles Dance appears as Claus, Locque's right-hand man in the ski slope sequence, who is later killed by one of Columbo's frogmen while holding Bond at gunpoint after the beach chase where Locque kills Lisl. Janet Brown plays Margaret Thatcher, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, who appears in the closing scene alongside John Wells as her husband, Denis Thatcher.
Production
Ian Fleming wrote the original story "For Your Eyes Only" as an episode of a cancelled James Bond television series at CBS in 1958. Eon Productions originally intended to produce For Your Eyes Only after The Spy Who Loved Me. However, after the success of Star Wars in 1977 the producers decided to produce Moonraker instead. Moonraker was successful yet had been very expensive to produce, and shortly afterwards United Artists suffered a major financial flop with Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate. This, along with the early 1980s recession, required For Your Eyes Only to have a lower budget. For Your Eyes Only marked a change in the make up of the production crew. The previous series directors Terence Young, Guy Hamilton, Lewis Gilbert and Peter Hunt were unable to direct because the studio could not afford to hire them, and John Glen was promoted from his duties as a film editor to director, a position he would occupy for four subsequent films. Glen brought on much of his second-unit direction team from The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker, including cinematographer Alan Hume. The transition in directors and lower budget resulted in a harder-edged directorial style, with less emphasis on gadgetry and large action sequences in huge arenas as was favoured by Gilbert in the previous two films. Emphasis was placed on tension, plot and character in addition to a return to Bond's more serious roots, whilst For Your Eyes Only "showed a clear attempt to activate some lapsed and inactive parts of the Bond mythology."