Review of For Your Eyes Only (1981) by Filipeneto — 18 Feb 2018

Directed by John Glen and produced by Albert Broccoli, it has script by Richard Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson, and is the twelfth film in the franchise. In this film, James Bond must investigate the sudden sinking of a British spy ship in Greece and recover a machine that, if it falls into the wrong hands, can compromise the British submarine defense system. To fulfill the mission and prevent the Soviets from obtaining the lost system, the spy will take the help of a girl who seeks to avenge the death of her parents.

This is another movie where Bond will protect his country in the context of the Cold War. As seen in "The Spy Who Loved Me", the threat of open war between Russians and Americans was already a situation that both powers sought to avoid, in so-called policy of "détente". In fact, Bond mentions that policy in this film, in one of the final scenes, addressing the Russian General Gogol. This is probably one of the most memorable scenes in this film. In another, Bond scale an almost vertical mountain, in order to get to villain's lair. And how can we forget the famous chase scene where Bond, at the wheel of a disjointed Citroen 2CV, makes cross-country by the Andalusian hills? In addition to that famous scenes, we must appreciate the good performance of the cast, particularly Roger Moore, which achieved to harmonized well his comic vein with the pure action scenes, showing much more the aggressiveness that he seemed to tempered in previous films. The opening theme, "For Your Eyes Only", sung by Sheena Easton, is also unforgettable.

Besides the central cast, inherited from the previous films, and the continuation of Roger Moore in the role of 007, in this film participated Carole Bouquet, in the role of the Bond-girl Melina; Topol gave life to Columbus; Julian Glover represented the villain, Kristatos; Cassandra Harris took the role of Countess Lisl and Lynn- Holly Johnson gave life to the nymphet Bibi Dahl.