For Your Eyes Only

For Your Eyes Only (1981) begins with a British spy ship sinking. On board is a system able to send launch orders to submarines, and Bond has to reach it before the Soviets do. The story runs between Greece and Italy. The tone was deliberately pulled back. The previous film, Moonraker, had gone into space and the series had reached the edge of fantasy; this one returns to Fleming's short stories, cuts the number of gadgets, and puts Bond to work walking, climbing and skiing. The climb at the Meteora monasteries is at the centre of it and was shot on location; objections from the monks made the news at the time. The pre-title sequence exists because of a legal problem. The rights to Blofeld could not be used because of the long dispute with Kevin McClory. So the film opens with a bald man with a cat who is never named and drops him from a helicopter down a chimney, burying a series character without saying his name. It is John Glen's first film as director. He had been the series' editor and second unit director, and he went on to direct the next four Bond films. It is Roger Moore's fifth. It runs 128 minutes. Good for: a more grounded Bond, location work, and eighties action. Less good for: the plot is tangled and for a long stretch it is unclear which side is which. The subplot involving the teenage skater is uncomfortable. The pace drops in the middle.