Movie Notes: The Spy Who Loved Me
= 5 stars
Starring Roger Moore, Barbara Bach
Directed by Lewis Gilbert
Roger Moore (James Bond)
Barbara Bach (Major Anya Amasova)
The Spy Who Loved Me is easily the best Roger Moore Bond outing. It evokes From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, and Thunderball — my favorite of the Sean Connery Bond adventures, but adds new elements that keep things varied, entertaining, and in a few spots, surpasses the earlier Bonds.
In this spy adventure, the arch enemy is Karl Stromberg (Curd Jurgens), the world’s richest man, who steals nuclear armed submarines from the British and the Russians. Bond (Roger Moore) voyages to Egypt where he finds Soviet agent Major Anya Amasova (Barbara Bach) and are nearly killed by the seven-foot tall, metal-mouthed evil henchman Jaws (Richard Kiel). They eventually make their way to Sardinia, and Stromberg’s secret underwater base, which looks like a robot out of a Godzilla movie. Anyhow, Stromberg wants to use the nuclear missiles to blow up Moscow and Manhattan, starting World War III, after which the population of his underwater base will take over the world.
As for the typical Bond film elements: Bond has a pretty slick car which transforms into a submarine, complete with its own sea-to-air missile which naturally is used at a key moment.
The opening of The Spy Who Loved Me is one of the most audacious ever. Following a ski chase, Bond flies right over a cliff to certain death, only to open a parachute as he plummets down — remember, this was before CGI.
The excitement continues. Another area where the film outdoes others is its evil henchman: Jaws. Other Bond movies had their scary, evil sidekicks before (Odd Job, Number Two, Nick Nack) but never the likes of Jaws (Richard Kiel). This guy is seven feet tall with a metal mouth, tears apart a car with his bare hands, and chomps both people and Thunderball–esque sharks. He’s so cruelly cool that an easy death would have been disrespectful, and so Jaws would make another appearance in Moonraker (the only Bond henchman to appear in more than one film).
The female Bond lady Anya Amasova is also of a different breed; a bit reminiscent of the Russian element in From Russia With Love (there’s even a scene on a train) except taken further. Amasova is a peer that Bond must cooperate with for his survival, instead of the usual dreamy-eyed women that Bond usually beds and abandons.
Lastly, I must mention the theme song Nobody Does It Better, sung by Carly Simon, which breaks from Bond tradition in that it’s a ballad and isn’t named after the title of the film. All the Bond songs up until this point were active, exciting tunes meant to evoke explosions, espionage, and tense emotions. Instead, The Spy Who Loved Me features a wistful song that highlights the romantic side of Bond.
IMDB: The Spy Who Loved Me
Wikipedia: The Spy Who Loved Me
Next Bond Movie: Moonraker
Previous Bond Movie: The Man With The Golden Gun
[…] 004. The Spy Who Loved Me […]
Roger Moore was good in this one. He still can’t carry off a fight scene for toffee, but he seems a lot more likeable, and genuinely appears ‘involved’ in the general plot. The main title theme was a good one, too. Not at all to one’s own personal taste in music, but in context as a Bond theme, one of the best. Unfortunately, like Bond in the bad blue-screen shots which assault the pre-credit sequence’s believability, we’re off downhill from there. Jaws wasn’t scary enough. What was wrong with doing a wee in-joke like introducing him bit-by-bit, a la the shark in the Spielberg movie? Way scarier than seeing him all at once. Barbara Bach sure was one hot tamale to look at, but acting was all too evidently beyond her capability. Then again, maybe she simply thought that essaying ‘Russian’ was equal to ‘talking zombie with a well dodgy accent’. Evidently the director did. Same old ‘mad scientist/would-be dictator with a superweapon and a secret base’ plot from back in the day, too. We got a little of that dear ‘ol Bond Film Racism as well, with the painful ‘Lawrence Of Arabia’ references and white people painted brown dancing in a bizzare ‘Dervish’ manner at an Egyptian nightspot which apparently hosts only Caucasian guests. Listen out for the toe-curlingly approximated ‘Moslem singing’ just before you get there, too. Oh, and towards the end, note the evil submarine crew in the campy red uniforms. They just can’t get enough of that pink blusher and lipstick. Oh well, it’s Stromberg’s operation and if he wants his sub crew to look like the Pet Shop Boys, then nobody’s going to argue. One reads the books, goes scanning the blogsites and emerges with the widely-held opinion that this was the best Moore Bond movie. Heven’t seen them all, but yes, that is true so far. Moore was good, but little else about it was.
This is one great movie and I love watching it again and again.
Thanks for bringing it up.
[…] Bond Movie: The Spy Who Loved Me Previous Bond Movie: Live And Let […]
[…] With Love, Goldfinger, and Thunderball being the triumphant trilogy. Roger Moore peaked out with The Spy Who Loved Me and then turned in a few entries where he resembled a walking corpse. Dalton didn’t get […]
Yeah i just love this movie– The spy who loved me. Its damn good. I bought the dvd. and i watch it everyday .
And its really great that you brought this up. Thanks you!
In the state of california is it illegal to have a hidden camera in a bathroom?Some pervert was caught at my work for having a hidden camera in our ladies bathroom. He looked like he was being arrested as I left work. What happens now?Can the people being violated press charges and how well would it hold up in court if there is sufficient evidence of this?
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This one’s a classic… I’ve watched it at least 20 times… Just awesome…
The name’s Bond… James Bond…
LOL
Yes it’s illegal to have a spy camera in the bathroom. It would hold up in court, but I’m not sure what you would get out of it.
The Spy Who Loved me is probably the icon for James Bond. Ian Fleming must have been ahead of his time because not only has he created a base that rises out of the water from beneath the sea surface but he has also created a car that transforms into a submarine. Very clever! Roger Moore again portrays James Bond with elegance, suave and sophistiaction! The russain agent Anya Amasova was very beautiful and very sophistiacted! Her acting was the worst of all the bond girls. She attempted to play a russian but it came of robotic! The villain was played by Curt Jurgens. He was well known for playing a part in the 1950’s war films. He did bring mischieveous and a real sense of madness when he tries to destroy land using nuclear missiles which he took from stealing submarines, and this would leave the human race having to live beneath the sea. His death wasn’t very amusing though considering the major fiendish plot that he had planned. He could have lived through that cause there was no sign of blood as he was being shot several times. Good film and very ahead of it’s time. The soldiers under Stromberg’s orders were dressed in very camp clothing but this was filmed in the 70’s. Bright colour was all the rage.