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For Your Eyes Only
For Your Eyes Only film poster
James Bond	Roger Moore
Also starring	Julian Glover Carole Bouquet Chaim Topol Lynn-Holly Johnson
Directed by	John Glen
Produced by	Albert R. Broccoli
Novel/Story by	Ian Fleming (stories)
Screenplay	Michael G. Wilson Richard Maibaum
Cinematography by	Alan Hume
Music by	Bill Conti
Main theme	For Your Eyes Only
Composer	Bill Conti Michael Leeson
Performer	Sheena Easton
Distributed by	United Artists
Released	June 24, 1981 (UK) June 26, 1981 (USA)
Running time	122 min.
Budget	$28,000,000
Worldwide gross	$195,300,000
Preceded by	Moonraker (1979)
Followed by	Octopussy (1983)
IMDb profile

For Your Eyes Only is a 1981 spy film. It is the 12th film in the James Bond series, and the fifth to star Roger Moore as MI6 agent James Bond. It is based on two short stories from Ian Fleming's collection For Your Eyes Only: the title story "For Your Eyes Only" and "Risico". It also includes elements from the novel Live and Let Die. In the film, Bond and Melina Havelock become tangled in a web of deception spun by Greek businessman Aristotle Kristatos. Bond is after a missile command system known as the ATAC, whilst Melina is out to avenge the death of her parents.

After the pre-title sequence in which Bond escapes after being trapped inside a helicopter that is remotely controlled by Blofeld — Bond turns the helicopter on his enemy, who is in a motorized wheelchair, picking him up, and dumping him down a smokestack. It is unknown whether he survived — the film proper turns its focus to the recovery of the vital Automatic Targeting and Attack Communicator (ATAC). This device is lost in the Ionian Sea after the British spy ship St. Georges is sunk by an old mine hauled up in its fishing nets (an incident distinctly reminiscent of the so called "Corfu channel case" of 1946). The ATAC system is used by the Ministry of Defence to communicate and co-ordinate the Royal Navy's fleet of Polaris submarines. If ATAC was retrieved underwater by another superpower, the submarines' ballistic missiles could be used against major western cities.

Melina with James Bond

Sir Timothy Havelock, a marine archaeologist hired by the British Secret Service, and his wife are murdered by a Cuban hitman, Hector Gonzales, while he is searching for the wreck of the St Georges. Gonzales pilots the seaplane that brings Havelock's daughter Melina to Havelock's yacht, then turns the plane's hidden machine guns on the Havelocks. Only Melina survives. Bond is subsequently sent after Gonzales to find out who hired him but is beaten to it by Melina, who kills him before Bond can find out.

After identifying a hitman in Gonzales' estate (Locque) who appeared to be paying him, Bond is led to a well-connected Greek businessman and intelligence informant, Aris Kristatos in Cortina d'Ampezzo a resort in Italy's Dolomites. He tells Bond that the man he saw is employed by Milos Columbo, a Greek smuggler. But when Bond confronts Columbo it emerges that Locque is actually in the employ of Kristatos who himself is in the employ of the KGB. Kristatos is attempting to recover the ATAC for the KGB, and had set up Columbo as the villain as the latter knew too much about Kristatos' KGB leanings. Columbo proves this connection to Bond by allowing Bond to take part in a raid on one of Kristatos' factories where they find Locque. After attempting to escape, Locque becomes trapped in his car on the edge of Corfu's Venetian fortress. Bond tosses Locque his trademark dove pin, which he leaves on his victims, and then gives the car a kick over the edge.

Kristatos as seen surrendering to Bond and Melina.

Bond, Columbo's team, and Melina break into a mountaintop monastery being used by Kristatos to meet Gogol where he will turn over the ATAC. In order to gain access to the mountaintop, one would normally use an open basket that is winched up into a building hanging over the edge of the mountain, but this is being guarded. So Bond climbs up the sheer face of the mountain and, after reaching the top, helps his team up in the open basket. Bond eventually retrieves the ATAC system and then subsequently throws it over a cliff (where it is dashed to pieces on the rocks below) rather than keep it and risk losing it to the KGB chief General Gogol, with the quip "That's détente, comrade. You don't have it, I don't have it."

Main articles: List of James Bond henchmen in For Your Eyes Only and List of James Bond allies in For Your Eyes Only

Bond, rock-climbing.

• Roger Moore as James Bond An MI6 agent sent to retrieve a stolen "ATAC" system that could be misused for controlling British military submarines.
• Carole Bouquet as Melina Havelock: The daughter of a diver who is murdered after obtaining the ATAC. She joins hands with Bond to avenge his death.
• Julian Glover as Aristotle Kristatos: A smuggler planning to expand his fortune by selling the ATAC to the Russian Army.
• Topol as Milos Columbo: Kristatos's former smuggling partner who assists Bond in his mission.
• Michael Gothard as Emile Locque: An associate of Kristatos, based in Greece
• Lynn-Holly Johnson as Bibi Dahl: A ice skating prodigy who is training with the financial support of Kristatos
• John Wyman as Erich Kriegler: An Olympic class athlete and East German agent
• Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny: The secretary of M, the head of MI6.
• Desmond Llewelyn as Q: MI6's "quartermaster" who supplies Bond with multi-purpose vehicles and gadgets useful for the latter's mission.
• James Villiers as Chief of Staff Bill Tanner: Bond's friend and colleague in the MI6.
• Walter Gotell as General Gogol: M's Russian counterpart.
• Geoffrey Keen as Fredrick Gray: The British Minister of Defence: A High ranking minister in the British government.
• Cassandra Harris as Countess Lisl von Schlaf: Columbo's mistress.
• Jill Bennett as Jacoba Brink: Bibi's skating coach.
• Stefan Kalipha as Hector Gonzales: A Cuban hitman hired by Kristatos to kill the Havelocks.
• John Hollis and Robert Rietty (voice) (both uncredited) as Ernst Stavro Blofeld: Bond's arch-nemesis and the head of SPECTRE who is killed by being thrown down a factory chimney.

For Your Eyes Only is noted for its pre-title sequence which sees the final comeuppance of the supervillain Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Bond's enemy in five previous films. The sequence of the film was initially scripted to aid the introduction and establishment of a new actor to portray James Bond since Roger Moore, who had starred in four previous films as Bond, was reluctant to return. The sequence begins with Bond laying flowers at the grave of his wife, Tracy Bond, but ends with Blofeld attempting to get even with Bond for foiling his plans and for the downfall of his criminal organization SPECTRE. The industrial chimney in the opening scene was part of the North Thames gasworks in London.

For this film, Blofeld is deliberately not named due to copyright issues with Kevin McClory, who owns the film rights to Thunderball which supposedly includes the character Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the organization SPECTRE, and a number of other material associated with the development of Thunderball. The demise of Blofeld was added to show that the James Bond series did not need Blofeld and was also done after a number of attempts by Kevin McClory to produce a rival Bond film based on his ownership of the screen rights to Thunderball. This includes a failed attempt in the late 1970s of an original Bond film that resulted in a lawsuit brought about by EON Productions and United Artists. Nevertheless McClory was able to film a remake of Thunderball entitled Never Say Never Again which was released opposite Octopussy in 1983.

Initially it seemed Roger Moore would not return as 007 for this outing, so interviews and screentests were held for a replacement. At the forefront were Lewis Collins, famous for his role as Bodie in The Professionals, Michael Billington, best known as Col. Paul Foster in Gerry Anderson's "UFO" and Ian Ogilvy, who like Moore had made his name playing Simon Templar in Return of the Saint. Eventually, however this came to nothing as Moore signed on to play the superspy once again.

Roger Moore with the "all women" cast around the pool. Transsexual actress Caroline Cossey is on the left, in the white bikini

Other controversial incidents also occurred with the release of For Your Eyes Only. The first involving the film's teaser poster artwork, which showcased a model in thong-like shorts holding a crossbow with Bond framed between her long legs. This was deemed in some U.S. states as indecent exposure. A later version of the teaser was released with a superimposed pair of shorts painted over the original artwork. The other controversial incident wasn't revealed until some time after the release, in which it was discovered that one girl, Caroline Cossey (aka Tula), that was used in a pool scene turned out to be transsexual. Urban legends about the incident greatly exaggerated Cossey's role, from a non-speaking "girl at pool" to someone who had "heavy love scenes" with Moore.^[1] In reality, Cossey appears only fleetingly and is only clearly visible in one or two shots.

For Your Eyes Only marked a creative change of direction for the Bond film series. John Glen was promoted from his duties as a film editor to director, a position he would occupy throughout the 1980s. A result of this was a harder-edged directorial style, with less emphasis on gadgetry and large action sequences in huge arenas (as was favoured by Lewis Gilbert). More emphasis on tension, plot, and character was also added in addition to a return to Bond's more serious roots.

Throughout the entire James Bond series of films, this is the only film where M is absent. Bernard Lee had died while preparing for the film, and instead of recasting, the role was left vacant out of respect. Miss Moneypenny, M's personal secretary claims that he is on leave, and his chair is filled by his 'Chief of Staff', Bill Tanner, with M's lines being shared between Tanner and Sir Frederick Gray (Minister of Defence). The role was recast for Octopussy.

In order to blend the plots of the two short stories, several changes were made for the film. Since the film is set in Greece, closer to the location of Risico than to that of For Your Eyes Only, the Havelocks were changed from being Jamaican, as in the short story, to an Anglo-Greek couple (Mr. Havelock being English and Mrs. Havelock being Greek). Havelock's daughter, "Judy," was also renamed "Melina" in the film to give her a more Greek sounding name. The film also contains elements from several Ian Fleming stories: The warring smuggler characters Kristatos and Columbo come from Risico. The keelhauling sequence comes from the novel Live and Let Die, a scene unused in the previous film adaptation. The Identograph comes from the novel Goldfinger, where it was originally called the "Identicast".

Today For Your Eyes Only is often cited^{[attribution needed]} as one of the strongest films of the series and is usually considered^{[attribution needed]} a contender alongside The Spy Who Loved Me as Moore's best Bond film. Overall, For Your Eyes Only accumulated a box office gross of $195,300,000, and became the second highest grossing Bond film after its predecessor, Moonraker. This was the last James Bond film to be solely released by United Artists. Following the MGM and United Artists merger, the films were released by "MGM/UA Distribution Co". Beginning with Tomorrow Never Dies, the films were released by "MGM Distribution Co.".

Many of the underwater scenes, especially involving close-ups of Bond and Melina, were actually faked on a dry soundstage. A combination of lighting effects, slow-motion photography, wind, and bubbles added in post-production, gave the illusion of the actors being underwater. Apparently actress Carole Bouquet had a preexisting health condition that prevented her from actually attempting any underwater stuntwork.

The film was shot mainly in Greece on locations such as Meteora, Island of Corfu, and the Achilleion. Other locations included England (Pinewood Studios with 007 Stage), Italy, and The Bahamas.

Main article: For Your Eyes Only (soundtrack)

Sheena Easton appears on screen singing the title song, the only artist ever to do so in a Bond film. The producers of the film wanted Blondie to perform the title song written by Bill Conti and Michael Leeson. Blondie declined, and then a different song with the name "For Your Eyes Only" was recorded by Sheena Easton instead. Blondie's version of "For Your Eyes Only", which is not the same song recorded by Sheena Easton, can be found on their 1982 album, The Hunter.

The respected and noted Bond historian, the late John Brosnan (who wrote "James Bond in the Cinema") noted in his review for the magazine Starburst that the movie was similar to 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service with all the skiing action and 1973's Live and Let Die for essentially being one long chase. Brosnan also noted that the MacGuffin for the movie (the ATAC) had actually been added to the movie after the main plot had been written.

Reviews were mixed, as shown on Rotten Tomatoes, with a score of 62% "Fresh" rating.

For Your Eyes Only movie comic book adaptation by Marvel Comics

Main article: James Bond comic books

Prior to the film being released Marvel Comics was given permission to publish a two-issue comic book adaptation. The first issue was released in October 1981 and was soon followed by the second issue in November of the same year. It was also reprinted the same year in magazine and paperback book form. Both issues of the adaptation were written by Larry Hama and edited by Dennis O'Neil.

Two major differences in the comic book include the addition of M, who was technically in the initial drafts of the screenplay until Bernard Lee's death in early 1981 and the villain's given name, which for unknown reasons was "Ari Kristatos" instead of the film version's "Aris Kristatos" (or "Aristotle Kristatos"), although he is referred to as "Uncle Ari" both by Bond and Bibi Dahl in the movie. The comic also includes additional suggestive dialogue by Bibi Dahl (aimed at Bond) that was never used in (or was perhaps edited from) the film.

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

For Your Eyes Only

• For Your Eyes Only at the Internet Movie Database
• For Your Eyes Only at Rotten Tomatoes
• For Your Eyes Only at Box Office Mojo
• MGM's official For Your Eyes Only website