Despite the incredible worldwide success of MOONRAKER, it was decided in the pre-production phase of the next Bond film to return back to basics and make a serious attempt at a Bond-style cold war thriller. When John Glen was hired as the director of FOR YOUR EYES ONLY, he would make choices for the Bond films that would redefine the character of James Bond. Bond would go back to being a tough professional and be less of a playboy. (Still, Glen directed all of the Bond films of the 1980s and would allow a varying degree of humour to influence the story.)
In order to do away with the past, the film opens at a grave site where Bond is visiting the grave of his late wife. Being picked up by a helicopter, an unidentified villain overpowers the controls of the helicopter via remote control and nearly crashes Bond with the helicopter on several locations. The unnamed villain looks very much like (Telly Savalas’s) Blofeld but no mention is made of his name. The reason for this of course is that Blofeld was part of the Thunderball legacy awarded to Kevin McClory after THUNDERBALL. 10 Years after the release of this film, McClory would regain the film rights of Thunderball and McClory would try again and again to remake the film. He finally succeeded in 1983 with NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN (more on that film later) but EON of course wanted to make a statement that they could do without the legacy of Blofeld and SPECTRE. So a humorous ending for Blofeld was devised in the opening sequence of FYEO, in which Bond drops the unnamed villain off in a chimney, finally doing away with him in a rather undignified way.
Going back to a more serious note, the film then moves to a British spy vessel apparently being sunk by an old second world war mine, which is being brought aboard in its fishing nets. As the ATAC technology aboard this vessel could be used to target NATO vessels and/or planes, Bond is ordered to recover the ATAC unit but finds his efforts thwarted by different parties, who also have designs for this technology. And this wouldn’t be a cold war thriller if the KGB wouldn’t finally show up at the finale as well.
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY was a solid hit for EON to start the 1980s off with and although Roger Moore did admit he had a bit of a problem with the tougher depiction of Bond, (Moore objected to coldheartedly kicking a car off a precipice, condemning the marooned driver to death but relented after being convinced by the director it fit the story) he probably was at his best in this film. However from this moment on, Moore was contracted per film and this allowed Broccoli to be on the lookout for other actors to take over the part of Bond.
(Interesting side note to this last bit is that Pierce Brosnan’s (then) wife was in the cast of the film and when Brosnan was visiting the set, Broccoli was eyeing him heavily as a possible contender for the Bond role later on. Unfortunately, when Moore was out of the picture after VIEW TO A KILL, Brosnan was still stuck on a contract to the American television show REMINGTON STEELE, so the part went to Dalton. When Dalton called it quits in 1994, the offer went out to Brosnan again.)
Despite the more serious nature of the film, the story does allow for quite some humour in the plot to come through, but nevertheless the film stays off the comedic path. Memorable moments with humour include the car chase in a Renault 2CV thru the mountain roads of Spain, a spectacular bob sled and skiing chase and the phone conversation of Bond with the Prime Minister at the end of the film.
Sheena Easton’s title song was a big hit on the radio yet Blondie had also been approached to record a title song for the film, which can be found on a 1982 album of theirs. The dramatic music of the film was this time handled by Bill Conti, previously famous for his scores for the ROCKY films. Conti handled the score with a contemporary feel but injected quite some 80s pop music influences here and there as well.
One tragic note during the production was that Bernard Lee, the actor who had played M in all of the previous films, had died shortly before this film went into production. Instead of recasting him, they merely hinted M was on leave.
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY was the biggest box office hit for United Artists of 1981 and saved the studio from a disastrous loss over the previous year’s HEAVEN’S GATE. However, United Artists would merge with MGM and henceforth the Bond films would be presented by MGM/UA from Octopussy on. Marvel Comics also did a comic book adaptation of the film that was quite successful.
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