A View to a Kill

A View to a Kill is often regarding as one of the worst, if not the worst film in the entire series. Sir Roger Moore, 57 at the time of filming, confirms that he was too old for the role by being older than the leading lady's mother, said leading lady gets very little to do bar scream "JAMES!", and the plot is more or less a retread of Goldfinger.

However, despite all this, the film, out of the 4 or so VHS copies of Bond films that I had available as a kid, was the one that got played most Why? Hard to say, but it likely has something to do with Christopher Walken and Grace Jones doing heavy lifting comparable that of the mythical Atlas. Together, the pair easily rate as some of the best villains in the series, visually iconic and wonderfully psychotic - any time that either one is on scene, they set fire to the script and all those around them. The Joe who has always had a soft spot for the bad guys saw a duo showing many other villains how it is done.

Walken plays the primary antagonist, in this case the staple Bond archetype of wealthy industrialist, the superbly named Max Zorin, with designs on maximising his business, in this case microchip production. This being the 80s, we get exposition by Q as to what exactly microchips are, and the classic expositional point; what an EMP stands for. Zorin is aided by intense, towering, and scary May Day, played by Grace Jones, who happens to exhibit those aspects just in her day to day life.

Whether May Day is recounting to Zorin with a laugh, the details of killing a cop with a poison tipped fake fluttering butterfly (don't ask), or Zorin ecstatic about his thinking on his feet as he sets up Bond for the death of a city hall official ("Intuitive improvisation, is the secret of genius" cracking a devilish grin), they just pitch it perfectly. They also just instantly look like Bond villains, with Zorin sporting a bleached blonde do (that Bardem will nick in Skyfall as a shortcut to evil), paired with 80s power suit sinisterness, standing next to May Day, kitted out like an Amazonian out to party in a stylish nightclub.

The film wisely knows to keep the pair on screen for as long as possible, which builds to a reversal where Zorin (being a psychopath and all - an experiment by Nazi scientists to create a super genius) betrays May Day, who switches to Bond's side out of spite, and solidarity with her slain friends. This tension between the pair prior to betrayal probably could have been developed further, but nevertheless, the moment that Zorin sees, from his blimp, May Day driving his bomb away from the target area, and the two lock eyes in anger is fantastic. Zorin goes on to lead a crazy finale atop the Golden Gate Bridge, being one of the few primarily villains to get into a physical tussle with the super spy. His manic laugh as he realises that he is about to plunge to his death is the exclamation point to a fantastic role (and one that would have originally gone to the one and only David Bowie who turned it down on account for not wanting to sit about watching a stuntman do all the work). 

During that same climactic scene, we also get the other saving grace of the film (other than the actual Grace Jones) - namely the score. For some reason the score of the film has completely stuck with me since a kid, far more so than the primary orchestral theme of many other Bond film's. Why is very hard to say, perhaps it has a more sinister undertone, perhaps it is is the screeching 80s guitars stabbing away, but whatever the reason it works. It should also go without saying that Duran Duran's title song A View to a Kill is not only a great Bond theme, but just a legitimately fantastic pop song.

On the other side of the coin, and if we torture this metaphor, the bad side of the coin is somehow a lot bigger, nastier and uglier than its good side, the bridge scene also identifies the other biggest issues with the film. Let's start with the film's leading lady, Ms Stacey Sutton. Her role in this scene, nicely encapsulates her entire being - she screams "JAMES!" and points out things that he hasn't seen yet. She's introduced early on in the film, taking secretive cheques from Zorin, in an attempt from him to buy valuable land from her to aid in his dastardly plot. As with most Bond girls, she does seem to start of as having skills that Bond lacks, in this case being a geologist, however her half-life on having agency decays at light-speed, and within a scene or two, she gets comfortable inhabiting an new role of chief eardrum shatterer with screams. The film is also clearly uncomfortable with the idea of Bond and her together, keeping any romantic physical contact out of shot until the final scene. Whilst Bond certainly has a go at his forceful flirting, when he bakes a quiche for her, it feels more like a grandfather having a granddaughter around for Sunday lunch.

It is ironic that in one of the few films where Bond and the villain actually get into a physical confrontation, this is the one where, on the face of it, you'd think that the villain is going to be walking (or should I say Walken) away with Bond's head. There's no way of getting around this - Moore was too old in Octopussy, and by this point he is more even more past the post. The most common noise out of Moore throughout the film is a sort of pained "ooof," like a pensioner getting out of a chair after a Sunday snooze (after the same Sunday lunch with the kids). Most of the action scenes in the film do what they can to disguise Moore's face, whether it is a skiing turned snowboarding scene (puncutated with an awful cover version of the Beach Boy's "California Girls"), or in a ludicrous car chase in Paris, with Bond seemingly to actively seek endangerment of pedestrians, whilst in pursuit of May Day who has just spectacularly parachuted off the Eiffel Tower (the bad guys again showing him up in his own film).

A View to a Kill was meant to be a great swansong for Moore, having held the role for the longest time until Mr Craig. Instead, it is his antagonist who leave the most indelible memory from the film. However, Moore himself, will be my first Bond, watched with childish abandon, through a few select VHS tapes of the series. He was the one who got me into the series, with his winning smile, eyebrow raised, and a wink. His run at the role can hardly be called the most consistent, but he managed to do the impossible and make the role his own, easily stepping out of the shadow of Connery to carve his own way.

Sir Roger Moore lived to the grand old age of 89 and when he died, an anecdote about a fan meeting him on two occasions did the rounds, which I will try to replicate here: Marc Haynes said when he was 7 years old in 1983, he and his grandfather were waiting in an airport in Nice. Haynes spots Moore and asks his grandfather if he may get "James Bond's" autograph. Grandfather complies, not knowing who the actor is, but Moore signs a boarding pass all the same. However, much to the kid's dismay, it is signed "Roger Moore." Granddad goes back over to explain, with kid in tow, and Moore deadpans that he had to sign "Roger Moore" otherwise "Blofeld might find out I was there."

The story doesn't end there. Many years later, Haynes is now working as a scriptwriter for UNICEF, in a campaign that Moore was a part of. In working with Moore, Haynes recounted the meeting at the airport, Moore laughs along but claimed not to remember the encounter. However, after filming had ended, Moore walked past Haynes, but as he got level with him, he arched his eyebrow, and in a hushed tone said "Of course I remember our meeting in Nice. But I didn't say anything in there, because those cameramen - any one of them could be working for Blofeld."