The Bond Project - The Spy Who Loved Me - Part 1

This is the first article in the long promised Bond Project. I’ll warn everyone ahead of time that I am going to be talking about very specific plot points, so if you’ve never seen these movies before, you are forewarned.

I decided, for no particular reason other than I wanted to watch it again, to start with The Spy Who Loved Me. Because this is the first article, I will occasionally explain how certain numerical ratings are calculated. Also, these reviews are considerably longer than I anticipated, so I will be spreading them out over numerous parts. This part will concentrate on the opening of the movie.

Cold Opening - the sequence before the credits

Unlike a lot of Bond films, the cold opening to The Spy Who Loved Me sets up a lot of groundwork for the plot as well as showing off a good action scene.

The movie starts aboard a nuclear submarine that suddenly disappears. Since there were 16 Polaris missiles on board, it becomes an international incident and the Russian government contacts their best agent, XXX (Barbara Bach) to follow a lead in Cairo. Britain calls upon their best agent as well, and high atop a snowy cliff, in the throws of passion, James Bond is summoned. Too bad his cliff partner is out to double cross him and Bond must avoid the bad guys and ski away to survive (I’ll talk about this more in the action section).

What makes this section of the film effective is the careful way it introduces the conflicts of the film. It establishes the race between the Russians and the British to find the nuclear sub first, and it sets up the emotional journey for XXX, whose boyfriend is killed by Bond during the skiing sequence. This to-the-point intro helps to make The Spy Who Loved Me one of the fastest paced Bond films.

3.5 out of 4

The Credits Sequence

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Rc8G9R7q3s

The images – It’s a typical Roger Moore opening with lots of nude silhouettes doing simplistic gymnastics routines; trampoline jumps, cartwheels, and dipsy doodles around a large silhouette of a gun. The line up of Russian soldiers who let themselves by toppled over by Bond with one simple push gets an extra half star.

2.5 out of 4

The song – Nobody Does it Better – While a much schmaltzier song than is usually afforded the Bond films, it actually works quite nicely. I mean the movie is called The Spy Who Loved Me, so a love ballad is appropriate. I only wish there was a bit more of an edge to the song as it makes Bond look like the gentlest lover in the history of the world. Ahhhh, he holds you and you feel the magic inside him. Is it too much to ask for a single lyric about how he can simultaneously kill a guy with a swift karate chop to the neck?

2.5 out of 4

So two 2.5s give an average of 2.5 for The Credits Sequence