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The
Spy Who Loved Me Review by Jake

"All those feathers and he still
can't fly!"
The Spy Who Loved Me is the tenth entry in the James Bond franchise and
the third to feature Roger Moore in the lead role. The film is one of
the most famous and pivotal in the series and is generally regarded to
be the one that established Moore as 007. The backstory to the film, as
you are probably aware, is that The Man With The Golden Gun met with a
very apathetic reception in 1974 and shortly after Harry Saltzman left
the franchise because of financial difficulties. Not for the first (or
last!) time people started to wonder if the Bond series had ran its
course. The Spy Who Loved Me, destined to arrive in 1977, was seen as a
make or break film for Cubby Broccoli.
The Spy Who Loved Me marked a return to the epic extravaganza Bond
pictures of the sixties like Thunderball and You Only Live Twice, with
incredible fantastical sets by Ken Adam and lavish photography. Lewis
Gilbert, responsible for directing You Only Live Twice, was brought in
to handle the most ambitious and complicated film yet attempted in the
series. The Spy Who Loved Me cost twice as much as any previous Bond
and the money is on the screen. It feels like a big and ambitious film
compared to many previous - and subsequent - Bond entries. Broccoli
built the largest soundstage in the world at Pinewood and spared no
expense with the special-effects and spectacular locations, which
include Sardinia, Egypt and Austria. Baffin Island in Canada was used
for the pre-credit ski sequence and the Bahamas was used for key
underwater scenes.

The film opens with probably the most famous and iconic stunt in Bond
history. After a fantastic ski chase with funky music by Marvin
Hamlisch, 007 (in a banana yellow jumpsuit) skis off a mountain top
cliff and seems to fall forever before a Union Jack parachute opens.
According to the DVD extras they thought they had actually missed the
stunt (by Rick Sylvester) through technical problems with the various
cameras but one managed to capture everything and a shaft of sunlight
at the right moment, which seems to illuminate Bond as he reaches the
edge, made it all almost too good to be true. The amazing stunt is an
audacious start to The Spy Who Loved Me and an early sign that Broccoli
meant business after being written off. The confident beginning is
continued by Maurice Binder's pre-credit sequence and theme 'Nobody
Does It Better', sung by Carly Simon. Both continue the impression that
everyone has worked hard to make The Spy Who Loved Me special and not
just another Bond film. The sequence at the start of the PTS onboard a
British nuclear submarine is also well done and reasonably tense. To go
off at a tangent for a moment, the PTS of The Spy Who Loved Me was
memorably described by Steve Coogan's Alan Partridge in the following
way!:
"I'll tell you
about "The Spy
Who Loved Me". All do that with your fingers round your eye. I am Roger
Moore. Bang! Blood dribbles down. We're on a submarine. Two sailors sit
down and have a game of chess. Then the cups start wobbling and then a
man who used to be in "The Onedin Line" comes in and goes, "Why are the
cups wobbling? What's going on?" And then... yeah, you can stop doing
that now. And then he peers down the periscope thing and looks through
it and goes, "Oh my God. The submarine's being eaten by a a giant
tanker!" And then we cut to Moscow. And there's a man there and he's
Russian - he's got eyebrows, you know - and he's on the phone going,
"What, a whole submarine? You're joking! I'm gonna have to tell some
other Russians. See ya!" Right, and then, and then, it cuts to James -
Roger Moore - and er, yes, he's with a lady. Yeah. Yeah. He's, he's
necking with her. And he goes, "I've got to go, love. Something's come
up. Anyway, then he puts on his underpants and his ski suit and he gets
on his skis and he starts skiing. And he's being chased by these
Russian shits in black jumpsuits with lemon piping. And, er, he's just
skiing along like that, and they start shooting at him, and he goes,
"Right! I've had enough of that! Just stop it!" And he turns round with
his gun and then he does a backward somersault off this ramp, and he,
he lands on his feet - I'm not sure why, but he's not showing off. And
then, then he goes over a cliff and he's falling and you think, oh God,
James Bond's going to die! He's going to die! But then at the last
minute..."

The
Spy
Who Loved Me, in the best tradition of James Bond films, features a
megalomaniac with a grand-scheme to alter the planet. Carl Stromberg
(Curt Jurgens) is a potty shipping tycoon who has been capturing
nuclear submarines using a gigantic supertanker! He also has an
undersea base called Atlantis which majestically rises from the sea
like a giant spider as he listens to classical music. The futuristic
Atlantis and production design give the film a sci-fi feel much more in
the spirit of the gilt-edged sixties Bonds like You Only Live Twice,
whose plot is borrowed here. Atlantis and the hijacking of the nuclear
submarines are superbly realised by the model work of Derek Meddings. I
am often nostalgic for the days before CGI when models ruled the world
of film and FX and The Spy Who Loved is great fun for this reason
alone.
Stromberg wants the nuclear missiles from the submarines to destroy the
human race and build a new future for mankind under the sea. Jurgens is
nicely deadpan as Stromberg and has some good lines; "Farewell, Mr
Bond. That word has, I must admit, a welcome ring of permanence about
it." Sadly for him, he's made a big mistake by hijacking a Royal Navy
submarine. This means that James Bond 007, in the suave guise of Roger
Moore in a pair of cream flares, is sent to investigate by the British
government. Moore is soon dispensing quips and throwing people off
roofs in Egypt before straightening his tie in his usual unflappable
syle.

The humour in Spy is up on previous Bond films and Moore seems much
more at home than his previous entries where he was still required to
play agaisnt his personality a little. Moore was lighter in tone than
the other Bonds but provides a suave, funny and, amidst great mayhem
and silliness at times!, commanding presence throughout the film. He
seems to have a better grasp here of when to play it straight and when
to wink at the audience in contrast to his first couple of 007
adventures. After a vague attempt to avoid comparisons with Connery by
stressing Bondian traits, Moore is seen in Naval Uniform here and a
reference to his (Bond's) dead wife is made. The Spy Who Loved Me
explicity states that Roger Moore IS James Bond and feels much more
Bondian than his first two adventures.
Bond has to team up with Soviet Agent 'XXX' (Major Anya Amasova),
played by Barbara Bach, after they cross swords both chasing a vital
submarine tracking system. The chase takes them to the pyramids where
they first meet Henchman for hire, and killer, Jaws, played by the 7ft
2 Richard Kiel. Jaws' indestructability is used for a lot of jokes,
Kiel often dusting himself down and walking off with a stoic expression
after crashing his car through someone's roof or being thrown out of a
moving train! Jaws sums up the comic book and sci-fi themes running
through the film. I think the character is great fun and the film
hugely entertaining. The Spy Who Loved Me's funky seventies feel and
lavish production design make a winning combination for me.

The photography is superb and it's great fun to see Roger Moore walking
around in the desert in a tuxedo. Barbara Bach, a bit like Jane Seymour
in Live and Let Die, is not the world's greatest actress but is one of
the more memorable Bond ladies, not least walking around the pyramids
in a slinky black dress. There is a sub-plot where XXX finds out that
Bond killed her lover during the (pre-credit) ski-chase and promises to
kill him when the mission is over but it never quite works because Bach
isn't very convincing and Roger Moore's Bond doesn't seem like the
stressful type! XXX and 007 do have amusing moments of one-upmanship as
they work together.
After another classic Roger Moore Bond train punch-up, this time with
Jaws, Bond literally being pinned to the ceiling before deploying
elecrical sparks from a lamp on Jaws' metal teeth!, 007 and XXX
investigate Stromberg's Sardinian base. This section of the film is
about as much fun as a Bond film can get. Bond recieves his iconic
seventies white Lotus Esprit and has a typical encounter with Q.
"Now I want you to take good care of this equipment."
"Have I ever let you down, Q?"
"Frequently!"
Bond poses as marine biologist Robert Sterling and is allowed to meet
Stromberg on Atlantis. Jurgens and Moore are good fun together in this
scene. Back on dry-land Bond and XXX return to Q's gadget-laden Lotus
Esprit and, in a fantastic chase sequence that lasts for ages, survive
numerous attempts on their life by explosive motor-cycle side-cars,
gunmen and a helicopter! Roger Moore is in his element here, dispensing
quips and deadpan looks at Caroline Munro's seductive helicopter pilot
as she tries to kill them. There is some great model work with lorries
exploding and the chase between the Lotus and helicopter is amazing.
Most people remember this film as the one with the underwater car. This
is superbly done (by Meddings again) and leads to another action
sequence underwater! The music by Marvin Hamlisch for this sequence is
great fun. Hamlisch wisely came up with some action cues of his own and
avoids overdoing the James Bond theme. The Sardinia section really
highlights the intention and spirit of The Spy Who Loved Me.
The climax of The Spy Who Loved Me features a spectacular battle scene
in the submarine dock located within Stromberg's supertanker as the
submarine crews are released and fight a battle against Stromberg's
men. The return to grand production design and over the top sets pays
dividends and the technical complexity of shooting such an
action-packed scene is well handled by Lewis Gilbert. The final
encounter between Bond and Jaws is memorably funny too; "How does that
grab you?"
Atlantis blows to smithereens and Bond disposes of Stromberg before
rescuing XXX. Bond and XXX use an escape pod and are picked up by a
warship. The final scene is a bit Carry On, but it's Roger Moore
afterall!
How would I describe The Spy Who Loved Me? Colourful, fantastical, and
action-packed. It's the best of the films that Roger Moore starred in,
the mixture of humour and technological escapism striking a better
balance than some other slightly silly entries in the series.
The Spy Who Loved Me is carried off with considerable panache and style
and is as grandly entertaining as any film in the long running series.
Perfect bank holiday fare and a reminder of the days when James Bond
films were tremendous fun.
c
2007
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