The Spy Who I Loved
[spoilers follow]
From the amazing cold open to the cheesy joke that ends it, The Spy Who Loved Me is Moore's peak. Oo-er.
When I was a kid, my dad took me to the pictures to watch this and I fell in love with Bond (the film not the dude). Every Christmas they would show one of the Bonds on telly and that was the highlight of my festive season. When I sat and marked what I wanted to watch in the Radio Times, that was alway the first thing I marked.
So I guess I was a bit trepidatious when I came to this one. Would I hate it? Would I drown in cheese? The answer is no. I was reminded all over again why -- apart from a love of genre in general and spy stories in particular -- I love Bond. It's close to perfect. Yes, you can quibble, but come on. The plot is balls in the right way. The script is full of silly jokes that Moore delivers with aplomb. And finally there's a leading lady who actually seems to like him.
And omg Caroline Munro. In a bikini. That'll keep the British end up.
It's campy without tipping over into the high camp that sometimes plagues Bond, the villain is uber creepy and the henchman -- Jaws, this time much less of a clown -- perfect, unbeatable and hard. There's plenty of action, and it's all stunty, not gimmicky, until tlhe end, when lots of things explode. But that's how it should be. Good action films end with a bit of a crescendo (not too much or for too long or you exhaust the viewer). There's a hungry shark. There's a frickin underwater car and it's cool rather than stupid.
Okay, Barbara Bach can't act *at all* but she's nice to look at and the character has a bit of zing, so you can forgive that. Curt Jurgens is of course excellent. And Moore is Moore. This is the Moore Bond par excellence. Nothing ruffles him. Nothing even puts a hair on his head out of place. He's cool, he's hard and he's almost... almost sexy. And when he tries to sexually assault Bach, she knocks him out with a fake cigarette case.
I was never sure why Stromberg kidnapped submarines but who cares? It makes for a fun romp, Bond as it should be. You know, if they'd stopped at four for Bond and let Dalton develop Bond into the character he, and us aficonados, know he can be, well, who knows? As it is, this is peak Moore and peak Bond. A/B. Not quite perfect but not far off. Yeah, it wouldn't rate that well were it not a Bond film. But it is. Oh yes, it is.
posted by Dr Zen @ 8:05 pm
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