Bond, James Bond: Roger Moore
The thing about the Roger Moore era of Bond is that it is marked by being, for lack of a better word, silly. This was the era when the plots got outrageous, the action became less believable, and there was a huge reliance on gadgets. What I have come to realize in this project is that your enjoyment of these movies comes down to how much you like the specific elements of the Bond movie. I know what you are thinking, “Well, doesn’t that apply to every movie?” You aren’t wrong, but when a series has 25 movies, there are elements that viewers come to expect, and those elements can either enhance or hinder your enjoyment of a particular entry in the franchise. For this chapter in my Bond series, instead of looking at the specific movies Moore was in, I am going to look at how they utilized a specific element: the gadgets. For me, how they are used is make-or-break.
These gadgets are anything given to Bond by Q to use in his mission, including any modifications to a vehicle he drives. I am not against the use of gadgets by any means; it is more what they are and how they are used. For instance, one of the gadgets I am fine with comes from “Live and Let Die.” Bond is given a watch by Q that contains a powerful electromagnet. It is a bit of a stretch that it would work as it does in the movie (he uses it to pull the spoon from M’s teacup to demonstrate), but that is fine. It is a believable gadget. There is even a version from “The Spy Who Loved Me” that receives and prints out messages from MI6, and in “For Your Eyes Only” it allows Bond to radio MI6. I am also fine with the bug detectors that Bond uses: in “A View to a Kill” it is disguised as an electric razor. These do not stretch credibility, and I could see them being used in real life.
Then we have examples like the gondola from “Moonraker.” Bond is in Italy and gets into a boat chase. Eventually, to lose the bad guys, his gondola becomes a hovercraft, and he can get out of the water and drive his boat through the streets. Bringing it back to “The Spy Who Loved Me,” the ski pole gun that Bond uses to kill the people chasing him down the slopes. And don’t even get me started on the laser guns from “Moonraker.” This should technically not count since it is not from Q Branch and, as far as I remember, Bond doesn’t fire one; they are used by the space marines and the bad guys in the final fight. Those just made me so furious that they get a special exemption. I will not be talking about the gadgets that are shown being tested by Q Branch, but never used by Bond (and there are plenty of dumb ones there).
This problem is going to persist when I get to Dalton and Brosnan in a little bit, but the ones used in Craig’s are more realistic (defibrillator in his car, for example). As I looked over my Letterboxd reviews of the Bond movies, the more outlandish the gadgets, the less I liked the movie. “Moonraker” had a bunch of dumb gadgets, and the aforementioned laser guns, and it got two stars (my lowest rating for a Moore Bond movie). On the other end of the spectrum, there was “For Your Eyes Only,” which featured Bond using one gadget (the watch communicator), and it was easily my favorite at four stars. It had some silly moments: at one point, Bond is fighting some hockey players, and when he knocks them out, they slide into the goal, and the alarm goes off, but I still really enjoyed it. It had some silly moments like that, but it stayed more serious, and the story benefited from that.
There are some more elements I could analyze these movies from (the ridiculousness of the plot or how prominent the womanizing is), but it is the gadgets that affect my enjoyment most. I think the, frankly, misogynistic way women get treated in these movies is gross, but I also understand that it was a different time (not that that should be an excuse). Being 25 movies into a franchise makes certain things stand out, and for better or worse, Bond tends to lean into those things. It is going to be very interesting to go from these siller Bond movies to Craig’s grounded take on Bond in just a few movies.
Next Time: Timothy Dalton
