Review – Moonraker

January 3, 2011

Moonraker – UK, 1979

Moonraker was not supposed to be the next Bond film. That honor was supposed to go to For Your Eyes Only, but Star Wars changed that, as it did many things. Bond simply had to be in a science fiction film. And it was not enough for the film to simply have space crafts, which You Only Live Twice does. This time, Bond had to physically go into space, and since Bond is not a trained astronaut – that would have been simply too preposterous, even for Bond – he had to be paired with someone that knew something about space shuttles. In Moonraker, that person is none other than a beautiful female scientist named Dr. Holly Goodhead (Lois Chiles). I’m not joking. That’s her name. It’s almost puts “Pussy Galore” to shame.

It’s hard to know what Moonraker was intended to be. At times, it seems to be paying tribute to classic science fiction films, yet at others it seems to be blatantly ripping them off. It seems to want to be taken seriously; however, then it throws in moments that can only be described as sophomore attempts at humor, which take away from the film’s more dramatic elements. I have a feeling that if the audience laughs, though, it won’t be for the intended reason. For example, there’s a moment when a villain pulls too hard trying to open a parachute and the cord breaks. Instead of being panicked and fearful, the expression on the character’s face is comical. Soon, he’s flapping his arms, trying to fly as he plunges further and further to the ground. In a Road Runner cartoon, this might be humorous, but in a Bond film? The people trying to kill Bond should be menacing and dangerous. The men assigned that task in Moonraker seem as if they belong in a slapstick comedy rather than a spy mystery.

It’s not just that Moonraker is bad; it’s that it doesn’t seem to be trying at all to be original. It begins with yet another woman that Bond is seducing pulling a gun on him, has a character that announces himself as the villain about two minutes after he appears on screen, and is full of action scenes that are either predictable or are given no build up at all. One of these scenes involves Bond getting into a space flight simulator just to try it out. The scene serves no purpose but to enable the villain’s evil henchman, Chang (Toshiro Suga), a man whose mannerisms resemble Nick Nack’s a bit too much, to make his first of many failed attempts to assassinate Bond. Eventually Bond puts this character out of his misery, and the villain has to literally call for a replacement, as if somewhere there’s a company that rents them out to whoever is trying to take over or destroy the world this week. In another scene, Bond is shown driving a speed boat through a river in the Amazon, and in the blink of an eye, he’s being pursued by other speed boats. Usually we would see people hiding in the waters, biding their time, while Bond begins noticing clues. Not this time though. The chase begins practically the moment the scene begins.

This is unfortunate because Moonraker actually has a promising premise. In the film, Bond is assigned to discover how a space shuttle on loan from the U.S. was stolen while it was being transported to the UK. The theft is cleverly executed, and it is obvious why an event such as this would be embarrassing for two political allies. Bond’s investigation takes him to California, where it appears that every woman wears a shirt with a long, revealing v-neck and pants that allow their slender legs to practically shine in the sunlight. The villain is quickly revealed to be a wealthy man determined to conquer space named Drax (Michael Lonsdale). He runs Drax Industries, a company that among other things builds space shuttles, a fact that makes his motives a mystery, for why would he have to steal something his company manufactures? The answer to this puzzling question is less interesting than it should have been. The first half of the film, which is predictable and unspectacular, involves Bond’s investigation, and it takes him from California to Rio; the second half of the film takes Bond into space and attempts to dazzle the audience with its special effects and its elements of science fiction, including a impressive-looking space station, a skirmish in space between American astronauts and Drax’s soldiers, and an apocalyptic plan for world domination involving both positive and negative eugenics. The space station is reminiscent of the one in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the space battle, replete with Atari-like sound effects, resembles the underwater battle from Thunderball – slow and slightly silly looking. The inclusion of eugenics is interesting, yet it comes too late in the film to save it. In fact, it may have been used simply because it enabled screenwriter Christopher Wood to give a pivotal character a change of heart. Later, Bond and Goodhead wander through the space station looking for a device that must be turned off if Drax’s plan is to be thwarted. Sound familiar?

As I watch films, I often scribble down notes to remind myself of interesting parts that I might want to include in my reviews. Here are a few of the things I scribbled down for Moonraker: “again?” “henchman like a taller Nick Nack,” "why?” and “odd cut from ambulance.” Not a word of praise among them. Maybe the film played better in 1979, when the Cold War was still being waged and space was being talked about as a possible future battleground. Maybe audiences enjoyed seeing blatant references to much better films. However, I’ve always believed that a director shouldn’t remind an audience of a classic film unless his film matches it in quality, which Moonraker doesn’t even come close to doing. It’s also not a good sign when an audience member begins to imagine something that mocks what he is watching, and as the film progressed, I half expected a narrator to say in a loud Muppet-like voice, “Bond in Space!” If Moonraker did not kill off the Bond series, I’m convinced that nothing will. In fact, according to Wikipedia, it had the highest gross of any Bond film until 1995’s Goldeneye. At least, in this one, the villain doesn’t invite Bond to sit down after telling him he’d been expecting him. (on DVD)

2 stars

Review – You Only Live Twice

July 1, 2010

You Only Live Twice – U.K., 1967

You Only Live Twice begins with the incredibly ludicrous notion of a U.S. spacecraft being swallowed by a much larger spacecraft, and when I say swallowed, I mean it literally. We see the big ship creep up from behind, its nose opens in an odd-beaklike shape, and in goes the U.S. craft. It brought to mind cartoon images of big fish gobbling up smaller fish, which underwater makes perfect sense. But in outer space? Couldn’t the big ship have been equipped with a tractor beam instead? I imagine the image would stand up better if it had been, for these days the scene is more likely to illicit a chuckle than shock and dread.

The fifth James Bond film takes place at a time of both great tension and impressive technological progress. The Cold War is underway, and the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. are locked in a race to see who will be the first to conquer space, a feat that no doubt would give the victor a military advantage. Therefore, after the U.S. rocket disappears, the U.S. government wastes no time blaming the U.S.S.R. It further states that should its next rocket meet the same fate, there will be war between the two superpowers. At the same time, Japan has undergone enormous changes since the end of the Second World War. It is a rising economic power, especially in industry, and the U.K. suspects that the rocket that took the U.S. craft actually landed somewhere in Japan, a notion that both the U.S.S.R. and the United States scoff at.

Therefore, it’s up to James Bond (Sean Connery) to uncover the truth in time to prevent an all-out war from starting. This involves first staging his own death, for apparently the world’s greatest spy is so well known that people are constantly trying to kill him. In Japan, he assumes the identity of Mr. Fisher, a businessman interested in purchasing chemicals. The disguise doesn’t fool anyone, and in no time at all, Bond is trying to outrun gunmen who are armed with automatic weapons, which no villain has ever had success shooting at James Bond. Bond suspects that SPECTRE is somehow involved in the disappearance of the rocket, and his contact in Japan, “Tiger” Tanaka (Tetsuro Tamba), agrees with his assessment. Together, they begin investigating a chemical company run by a wealthy man named Mr. Osato (Teru Shimada). Assisting them is a beautiful young Japanese agent named Aki (Akiko Wakabayashi). She has the uncanny knack of being in exactly the right place at exactly the right time, and she and Bond become well acquainted very quickly. However, something is different about Bond’s relationship with Aki; he seems to have genuine feelings for her, a fact that makes his attraction to another woman later on seem rather awkward.

Two aspects of You Only Live Twice may cause present-day audiences to experience a bit of discomfort as they watch the film, and so it is important to remember when the film was made and what people were like at that time. The film was released in 1967, ten years after Sayonara and just seven years after The World of Suzie Wong, two films that have been criticized by contemporary audiences as being problematic in their portrayals of Asian characters. I imagine that some people will equally disapproving of the way the Asian characters in You Only Live Twice are depicted, and there are plenty of reasons for people to feel this way. The film contains a scene in which Bond wonders aloud, “Why do Chinese girls taste differently than other girls?” Later, Tanaka tells Bond two things about Japan: 1) Never do for yourself what others can do for you and 2) In Japan, men come first; women come second. A moment later, he says of the woman Bond has chosen to give him a massage, “She’s very sexable.” Still later, Aki tells Bond, “I think I will very much like serving under you.” She’s aware of the double entendre. I doubt some of these statements could be said in films nowadays, yet the film is set at a time when people may have been more likely to say such things. In addition, it’s equally important to note that Tanaka, Aki, and Kissy Suzuki (yes, that’s a character’s name) are all extremely brave characters who save Bond’s life more than once. The women are not simply eye candy, and Tanaka is not just a male chauvinist.

The second problematic part of You Only Live Twice has to do with Bond “becoming Japanese,” a story line that may make people recall earlier films in which Caucasian actors played Asian characters. I remember years ago seeing a presentation on all that was wrong with the way Asian characters were portrayed in films. The presentation included a brief clip from You Only Live Twice – the scene in which Bond is told that he has to become Japanese and has to take a Japanese bride, a remark that fills Aki with a great amount of excitement. As they showed the scene, some of the people in the audience giggled; others let out deep sighs of disappointment. Shown as a brief snippet, it’s not hard to see why the scene would elicit such responses. However, what the presenters failed to explain was why Bond has to do this. Bond has to get onto an island that is likely teeming with people working for SPECTRE, and the only way to do this is to go as the husband of one of the locals. He can’t do this as a Westerner, so he is made to look Japanese. It’s important to note that he does not act in a way that could be described as demeaning towards Japanese people. He simply gets on the island and begins searching for an area that could be used as a launching pad.

If there is one overriding problem with the film, it is that what we see in front of us often lacks logic. For one thing, why does Bond have to be tricked in order for him to be able to meet Tanaka? Why do Osato’s assassins try to kill Bond just outside their boss’s company? Surely, that would have been bad for business. In addition, there are a few too many moments in which characters have ample opportunity to kill Bond yet don’t. In one scene, Bond sits tied to a chair, and a woman named Helga Brandt (Karin Dor) interrogates him. She eventually gets the information she wants from Bond, and then she unties him, and the two of them presumably make love. Missed opportunity #1. Moments later, we see Bond immobilized on an airplane already in flight. Does Ms. Brandt kill his then? No, she ejects from the plane, allowing Bond the opportunity to break free and somehow land the plane safely. Missed opportunity #2. Later, the unlikeliest of characters will contribute to missed opportunity #3. I was also disappointed with the head of SPECTRE. After being hyped for four films as a criminal mastermind capable of inspiring both intense fear and unyielding devotion, he’s a bit of a letdown.

And yet, I liked You Only Live Twice a lot. It’s a well-paced, fun film replete with well choreographed action sequences, and the nightmare scenario depicted in the film in entirely realistic for the time in which the film occurs. Sure, the film’s predictable, but which Bond film isn’t? To me, the fun of a Bond film is not the conclusion but the chase. (on DVD)

3 and a half stars