6. For Your Eyes Only
So, for all my slating of Moores films, and dismissal of them just being fun, there is actually a reason this is so high up. If we take away the appalling, I mean
appalling, inclusion of Denis and Margaret Thatcher which ruins the sterling work that has come before it, you have Moores best performance as Bond. And it is a seriously good performance- Moore acts his heart out and gives us a vulnerable and very human Bond we hadnt seen since On Her Majestys Secret Service, and wouldnt see unti, Timothy Dalton arrived on the scene. There are three very important scenes in the film- the first is the opening, when Moore put flowers on his dead wifes grave. The second is when he turns down a naked young girl telling her she is far too young for him. And the third is when Bond decides to push a car containing a sadistic lead henchman off a cliff. These are things wed never expect from Moore, and by primarily isolating the locations to just Italy and Greece, we have a really focused, engaging and totally believable plot. Melina Havelock is a wonderful Bond girl- intelligent, and driven by revenge for the death of her parents. There are twists and turns you wouldnt expect from a Bond film of this time, and there are some serious meditations on the motivations of revenge. This is heavy stuff, emotional and intelligent stuff. Despite a slightly lacklustre villain, there are two incredible scenes in the film- Bond and Melina investigate a sunken british ship, in a scene that is shot beautifully and beats The Abyss to the punch. Secondly is the remarkable stuntwork as Bond tries to scale a huge cliff face to get to Kristatos hideout. Oh, and there is the creepy insinuation that Kristatos is grooming his young prodigy that Bond turned down earlier. Simply put, its unexpected and brings the series back to its roots. In this, I really and truly believe that Moore
is Bond, and is better in this than Connery was in some of his performances. Though its slightly watered down and not quite the departure one would hope for, Moore is believably old, vulnerable and tired. Its a stunning film and perhaps the most underrated and overlooked of the entire series, tied with Licence To Kill.