Review of The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) by Byron B — 22 Dec 2008

So this one has another ski chase scene early on like OHMSS. It is not as drawn out, but the zigzagging path Bond takes is more exciting in some ways and it is shot better. It ends with the first instance of Bond taking a leap off a huge cliff and releasing a British flag parachute.

The opening credits feature a lot of jumping on trampolines and silhouetted naked women doing gymnastics with a kind of lame Carly Simon pop song for the theme. We find that the Russians will be involved in the plot of this Bond pic, but with an interesting twist.

We are given a surprise when we first meet Russian Agent XXX, or Major Amasova. Barbara Bach, in the role of Anya Amasova, was absolutely beautiful and smart and strong. She and Bond are competing to retrieve the same intelligence and eventually start working together (the cold war is ending as the British and KGB begin Anglo-Soviet cooperation) on the mystery of what has been happening to several missing atomic subs.

Well the movie Jaws had just come out a couple years before, and while this wasn't the first Bond film to include quite a bit of underwater action, the fact that a couple characters have to wrestle with the villain's shark and this pic includes a scene on a beach where the sub-car emerges from the water amongst many onlookers, suggests it was influenced by that other blockbuster.

The plot involves a villain who is more comfortable among the fishes and plans to use nuclear submarines to destroy most life on earth and instead create underwater cities for his chosen supporters. The villain, Stromberg, has webbed hands, has at his disposal several ways to dispose of people he does not trust or like, and is fairly cutting edge with his surveillance system, monitors, and loud speaker system, but not particularly memorable as a character.

His lair, Atlantis, as again designed by Ken Adam, might be my favorite Bond villain lair. This movie has the first appearance of one of the most memorable henchmen too, Jaws. Yes, Bond has to come to Anya's rescue when Jaws surprises them in the train, but I really don't think this movie has as much male chauvinism as some of the others.

Agent XXX is able to handle herself, except Jaws is an indestructible giant, and Bond himself is just barely able to overtake him with some creative tech assistance. The locations are again exotic. The director, Gilbert, returning for his second Bond film brings a lot of humor and fantasy, which I like, to this picture.

And it seems that he works very well with Roger Moore. I really liked the relationship between Bond and Amasova, the portable microfilm reader, a couple of the other things Q was developing, and the set design.

The big gun and grenade battle near the end with Bond breaking British, American, and Russian sub crews (in blue and white shirts) out of holding cells in Stromberg's super-tanker to fight Stromberg's men (in red shirts) was too much explosion for me.

I prefer the Bond who goes it alone or with just one or two colleagues, the witty Bond, the clever Bond who finds creative means to bring down the enemy. For the most part, this 10th film in the series fulfills those things.