Title:
Moonraker
What Year?:
1979
Classification:
Weird Sequel
Rating:
Underrated! (1/3)
In the course of my reviews, one thing I’ve laid down as a rule is that I prefer to avoid “franchise” movies. When I have covered such things, it’s been my further rule to look at entries that are notorious or obscure, almost always sequels a ways in. With the present feature, things have definitely opened up, though I still haven’t considered as many as one might expect. With the present review, I’m making a big exception I’ve been preparing for for a very long time, indeed quite possibly the most successful franchise in the history of modern cinema. It’s time, of course, for a Bond movie, and my choice is the one that finally brought the franchise into science fiction. I present Moonraker, the one where Bond goes into orbit.
Our story begins with the theft of a space shuttle and an attempt to assassinate James Bond by his nemesis Jaws. After surviving with someone else’s parachute, our hero is summoned for a new mission against an industrialist named Drax who is able to pay for his own space program. (Must not make joke…) We’re in for the usual episodic hijinks as Bond goes around the world, pursued by Jaws and an assortment of assassins. Along the way, he picks up a girlfriend named Holly (surname omitted). Things get more interesting when we learn that Drax is a hyper-eugenicist amassing a fleet of spacecraft to carry his followers to a cloaked space station. Of course, phase 2 of the plan is to wipe out the human population with a chemical weapon. It’s up to Bond to save the day, but he just might need a little help from Jaws!
Moonraker was the 11th authorized theatrical film in the James Bond series, based on the 1955 novel of the same name by Ian Fleming, and the fourth to feature Roger Moore as Bond. At least two previous attempts had been made to adapt the novel, involving actor John Payne and science fiction producer Gerry Anderson, without proceeding beyond preproduction. Following the success of Star Wars, the film was fast-tracked for filming, preempting plans to release For Your Eyes Only as the next in the franchise. The film starred Lois Chiles as Holly and Michael Lonsdale as Drax, with the late Richard Kiel in his second appearance as Jaws, the first recurring “henchman” villain in the series. The film was the most expensive Bond film up to that time, with a total budget of $34 million. Fortunately, it also became among the most profitable, with a total box office of over $210M. Kiel died in 2014, survived by four children.
For my experiences, the Bond series is another example of a pop culture franchise I grew up with without really experiencing first hand. In this case, I’m sure I did see a few of the films at a quite early age, but I didn’t get enough of an impression of the franchise to be sure now which ones I had encountered. (I know I must have seen some version of Blofeld, because I used “the guy with a white cat” for a very long time as part of my personal shorthand for villain classification.) In the context of this review, what really brought me back to the franchise was research for an entry on the worst of the franchise. Something that struck me in the course of that still-unfinished misadventure is that a lot of judgments have been made independent of the films themselves. People don’t like the Bond; they don’t like the story, villain, gadgets, etc; or they just don’t like the tone and direction of the franchise at a given time. For myself, I’m open-minded enough to get through even the more notorious entries in the franchise in good spirits. I have further found the present film to be a surprisingly undivisive entry. Sure, people criticize it, but it’s rarely been high on the “worst” lists, and sometimes it turns up among the bests. It was therefore only fitting to take this as an example of what’s good, bad and goofy in the franchise.
Moving forward, if there’s anything to complain about, it’s that the outright silliness is more self-evident than usual. Right out of the gate, there’s the surreal opening escape. From there, we get some especially indiscrete womanizing, before and after the Bond Girl of the day is introduced. Then we have a number of the most nonsensical outright random action sequences in the history of the franchise. What’s debatable, and typical the Moore iteration of Bond, is how much of this can be considered self-aware enough for irony or at least satire. It can at least be said (again on par for Moore) that this movie is funny where it is really trying to be. There’s also plenty of improvement in the finale that they build up to, complete with an above-average death trap as Bond and the girl are trapped underneath the nozzles of a space shuttle. Once we get in space, this is perfectly good sci fi, with great vintage effects and a space station that mostly makes sense. (By the way, one of the only times I’ve ever seen a laser weapon portrayed right was back in The Man With The Golden Gun.)
On the plus side, to me, this movie is all about Jaws. Kiel is pure screen presence, in the hands of people who knew what to do with him. In my head cannon, it’s up in the air whether he’s human, robot or some unholy cyborg hybrid (see Innerspace, whose baddy is surely based on him), and the story is always the better for the absence of a backstory or further explanation. He’s like a cross between the T1000 and Wile E. Coyote; he walks away from a parachute failure, tries first to eat through a ski lift cable, climbs down said cable bare-handed (see Frozen for why you can’t do it) and takes blows below the belt with a disconcerting clanging sound. The most impressive part is that this is all done within the humorous tone of the movie without making the character or the actor any less menacing. Indeed, the most noteworthy thing about Jaws is that he is always competent and even evidently intelligent (not that the franchise was ever big on “dumb” baddies). Things get all the more intriguing as he begins to doubt his orders and the boss, all with virtually no dialogue.
Now for the “one scene”, my favorite is obviously the first escape, so that’s an honorable mention. There is another, however, that’s even more surreal. A bit past the 40-minute mark, Bond is menaced by yet another assassin, only this one is definitely different. It’s a ninja/ samurai type with a mask. The strange thing is that he doesn’t have a katana, or a terrifying weapon like a kusari gama or nunchucks, but just a short staff that might have some metal bits. It's still effective enough to keep Bond retreating until he gets hold of a sword, and they fight their way through a hall full of priceless and sometimes deadly artifacts. This goes on a while, but my favorite part is just a little further in, as James picks up a bowl that I believe has been introduced as especially ancient and irreplaceable earlier. An alarm goes off, and he actually puts it back, if only to turn off the alarm. Then, of course, the ninja smashes it with the next swing. It’s a moment of perfect comic timing, in the midst of a pretty good action scene, exactly the kind of detail that has kept the franchise popular and relevant for six decades and counting.
In closing, I come as I
often do to the rating, for different reasons than usual. I have to say that I
would sooner have reviewed this one back when I was doing Space 1979 than here.
(Have I mentioned I have an ebook?) It definitely wouldn’t have been my choice to
represent the “best” of the franchise, nor would I consider it maligned or
obscure enough to need defending. I do consider it “underrated”, however, to
the extent that it has often been treated more lightly than it deserves to be.
In proverbial hindsight, it’s a good franchise entry that did something
different, and succeeded with current audiences and later fandom to boot. It’s
more than enough to pass the par for the longest running series in history.
While I’m at it, I just might take a look at a few more. “Play it again, Sam.”
Image credit Humanoid History (Tumblr).
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