Bond Revisted

The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
Bond 10

A shipping magnate, Karl Stromberg, has employed two brilliant scientists to develop a submarine tracking system. Once it is finished, he assures them of multimillion-dollar payouts to their Swiss bank accounts, but not before ruthlessly murdering his young assistant by dumping her into a tank inhabited by a man-eating tiger shark. Shortly afterwards, British & Soviet submarines vanish while on routine moves, and Bond (Roger Moore) is called into action. Also called to duty is his Soviet counterpart, Major Anya Amasova (Barbara Bach). Though they are initially working against each other, the British Secret Service & KGB begin to work together to find the microfilm contains the tracking system. Bond & Anya must deal with Stromberg's goons who have been ordered to eliminate anyone who comes into contact with the microfilm. One of these is Jaws (Richard Kiel), a 7' towering goliath with metal teeth. When a U.S. submarine is also hijacked, Bond & Anya must move quickly to avert World War 3, which Stromberg is hoping to start...hilarity ensues.

Trivia: None of the original novel was supposed to be used except its title due to a clause in the arrangement between the owners of the works of Ian Fleming and the filmmakers. It was not a James Bond novel that Fleming particularly liked and James Bond does not feature prominently in the story until late in the piece. However, the two henchmen in the movie, Jaws and Sandor are loosely based on the henchmen from the novel, Horror and Slugsy respectively. In the novel, Horror has metal braces. The idea of the Jaws villain with metal teeth belonged to producer Albert R Broccoli, inspired by the Fleming character Horror. During the Egyptian shoot, the catering didn't arrive. Producer Albert R Broccoli jumped into action and took a jeep and some crew, went into town and got some tomatoes, pots, pans and pasta was flown in from Cairo. Broccoli, well known as an amateur chef at home, cooked up a feast for the cast and crew, served by him and Roger Moore. A sign was painted in the mess-room: "Trattoria Broccoli."

Jaws actor Richard Kiel could only keep the metal teeth in his mouth for about half a minute at a time due to the excessive pain and discomfort. He often had to show comic expressions which was quite contradictory to the way he was feeling wearing the extremely uncomfortable braces. The original script called for Jaws to perish after Bond used an industrial magnet aboard the Super Tanker to drop him into the tanker's furnace. The scene was storyboarded using Richard Kiel and Roger Moore as models, and apparently rehearsed, but ultimately scrapped in favor of bringing Jaws back for the next film. When the film was previewed, audiences cheered when they saw Jaws swimming away in the end.

The Characters:

• James Bond - Roger Moore, James Bond is a British Secret Agent with a license to kill, stop me if you have heard this before...oh, okay.
• Karl Stromberg - Curd Jergens, Stromberg was a successful self-employed businessman as head of his own shipping firm. Stromberg's obsession and passion was the ocean where he lived in his palace, named Atlantis, that could submerge itself underwater so as not to be seen or detected. Located off of Sardinia, Italy, Atlantis had everything to support life above and below water for any length of time. In fact, Atlantis was more like a city, able to support dozens if not hundreds of people.
• Jaws - Richard Kiel, In addition to having steel teeth, Jaws was also 7 feet, 2 inches tall and extremely strong, which forced Bond to be especially inventive while fighting him. In combat, Bond found himself caught in an unbreakable death grip by Jaws, who was about to fatally bite him; Bond only escaped by using a broken electric lamp to send an electric shock through the assassin's teeth to stun him. Jaws also has an uncanny ability to survive any misfortune seemingly unscathed and come back to challenge Bond again. Jaws survives an Egyptian structure's collapse on top of him, being thrown from a rapidly-moving train, sitting in the passenger seat of a car which drives off a cliff (landing in a hut below, to the owner's dismay, though the height of the cliff is not established), and a battle underwater with a shark and the destruction of Stromberg's lair.
• Anya Amasova (Triple X) - Barbara Bach, She is the KGB's top agent and was assigned to investigate the disappearance of a Russian nuclear submarine. She encounters Bond along the way, he himself investigating the disappearance of a British submarine. The two, despite their initial conflict and competition, soon realized a third party is involved. Amasova is supposedly depicted as a female version of Bond, every bit as resourceful, intelligent, and self-reliant as he is. However, Amasova spent the last part of the film tied up by Stromberg and let Bond save the world by himself.
• Naomi - Caroline Munro, English model turned actress Caroline Munro portrays Stromberg's helicopter pilot and assistant Naomi. In the film, it seemed her job was primarily playing hostess or escorting and greeting Stromberg's guests. However, later, when she appeared in a helicopter mounted with machine guns, it seems she also gets rid of unwanted guests as well. Bond's killing of Naomi (via a missile from his Lotus sub) marks the first time 007 clearly and deliberately kills a woman in the film series (see also Fiona Volpe in Thunderball), and it would be the last time until his fateful final encounter with Elektra King in The World is Not Enough.

The Theme Song:

The title song, "Nobody Does it Better" was performed by Carly Simon and was the first theme song to be titled differently than the name of the movie, although the phrase "the spy who loved me" is in the lyrics. The song became a hit that is still popular today and has been featured in numerous movies including the recently released Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), Little Black Book (2004), Lost in Translation and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004). In 2004, the song was honoured by the American Film Institute as the 67th greatest song as part of their 100 Years Series.

The Vehicles & Gadgets:

• Lotus Esprit — Including all of the usual Q refinements, this car was equipped with surface to air missiles. The main feature of the car however was the ability to transform into a submarine. Once transformed it could unleash depth charges and smoke screens. The car was nicknamed Wet Nellie, a reference to the autogyro provided by Q for Bond's use in You Only Live Twice. Within the second unit production team, it was also known as Margie Nixon, A 'wet' submarine. There were three vehicles — a waterproofed Esprit able to drive into the water without excessive damage to engine or occupants (for scenes driving onto the beach, and escaping from the helicopter by diving into the water, though there is contention that the scene in question was filmed by sacrificing an Esprit for the shot); a second vehicle which could only transform from car to submarine — technical critics will see that the vehicle was extremely uni-functional, despite being very well built; and Margie Nixon, the wet submarine whose body was constructed from an Esprit donor car.
• Wetbike — a hydrofoil "water motorcycle" used by Bond to travel from the US Submarine to Stromberg's Atlantis to save Triple X. Built by a subsidiary of Minnesota-based Arctic Enterprises.
• XXX's Cigarette — The cigarette used by Triple X contained knock-out powder.
• Seiko Quartz watch — Basically working like a pager, it had a built-in telex that allowed MI6 to send important messages to Bond, printing them out like a miniature teletype. (It actually looked more like a label-maker tape.)
• Ski pole gun — Was used to fire a projectile at his pursuers. He uses it to kill Triple X's lover while escaping from him in the pre-credits sequence.
• Microfilm viewer disguised as a cigarette case and lighter. Bond uses it to examine the microfilm (in the film - the microfilm container has the Minolta logo) of the submarine tracking system. [Source]

The Pretitle Sequence:

The film begins in Austria, where Bond escapes an ambush by Soviet agents, killing one of them in a downhill ski chase. This end up being one of the most amazing pretitle sequences because of how the chase ends. Bond skis off the shear side of the mountain and free falls for several seconds before employing a parachute decorated with the Union Flag. The iconic moment is referenced in two Pierce Brosnan Bond films: in The World Is Not Enough, 007 appears put out when a pursuer he's forced off a cliff pulls the same trick; in Die Another Day, the villain, Gustav Graves, arrives at Buckingham Palace via Union Flag parachute.

Well, so far this is the best of the Moore Bonds. The action was good, the story line solid, and the henchman iconic. Jaws is probably the best known Bond Henchman just ahead of Oddjob from Goldfinger. Jaws will appear in the next Bond pic, Moonraker. I can't think of another henchman that can boast being in two of the Bond movies. It could have been better if Triple X would have had a little more bravado though, she is very sedate all the way through the film and you start to wonder how she got to be so highly regarded as an equal to Bond. If Bond had gotten to Atlantis for the showdown and found her standing over Stomberg's body, or if she had killed Stromberg at the moment right before he tries to kill Bond with the undertable rifle, it would have been great, but Bond finds her tied to a sofa. Not much punch, but then again, Bond couldn't be the knight in shining armour to come to her rescue.

This is the tenth Bond film and I am not even half way through yet. Up Next: Bond 11, Moonraker, Bond investigates the mid-air theft of a space shuttle and discovers a plot to commit global genocide.