For Your Eyes Only

For Your Eyes Only is a Bond film from 1981, starring Rodger Moore as Agent 007. The movie starts out curiously in that we first find James at his wife’s gave, before he is quickly dragged back into his peril filled life. The title is interesting because it also appears on the file that James is given before his mission. It is a typical Bond movie with car chases, many explosions, an inexplicably complicated plot, fancy gadgets from Q, the overly burly but essentially brainless henchman, and some one line quips. This movie also has a common theme for the 80’s, the villain is always a Russian communist, in 1981 the Regan administration was in place and tensions between the USSR and the United States were high. Actually when the ‘bad guy’ has escaped Bond comments that he must be ‘halfway to Havana or Moscow by now’, which shows who the enemy countries were at the time. The movie also shows the typical fear of shark attacks as James and Melina frequently face the possibility of being eaten by sharks and a couple of henchmen are actually eaten by them. This could be because the movie is coming out only six years after Jaws. Considering the time period and the fact that it is a Bond movie, the female character Melina is surprisingly interesting, the movie begins with the murder of her parents, which is how she gets dragged into the plot. It turns out she is surprisingly capable with a crossbow, and shoots people with it quite often. She is out for revenge as she claims that Greek women are like Electra and always avenge their loved ones. All together the movie was entertaining, as always, although I will admit by the end I had forgotten what they were all fighting over to begin with, but that’s Bond for you.