Moonraker (1979)

Forty-five years ago in the wake of the record-breaking success of the original Star Wars, the folks at EON Productions lead by the late, great Albert Broccoli decided to take their long-running James Bond franchise in a somewhat different direction.....IN SPACE!!! :) Yes THIS is the one where Agent 007 (Roger Moore) goes to space, though to be fair not until the third act.   Directed by Lewis Gilbert (The Spy Who Loved Me), this actually had a pretty similar plot to previous Bond entries like 'Spy Who Loved Me or his other previous film You Only Live Twice: evil billionaire and space maven Hugo Drax (Michael Lonsdale) has designs on taking over the world....by wiping out the human race with a rare toxin found in the jungles of Brazil, then to be repopulated by a new race of people lead by him up in space. :o Yup it's pretty nutty but it was a huge hit at the time and did manage to entertain..... 

Host: Geoff Gershon
Edited By Ella Gershon
Producer: Marlene Gershon

https://livingforthecinema.com/

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Living-for-the-Cinema-Podcast-101167838847578

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/livingforthecinema/

Letterboxd:
https://letterboxd.com/Living4Cinema/

Transcript

MOONRAKER - 1979

Directed by Lewis Gilbert

Starring Roger Moore, Lois Chiles, Michael Lonsdale, Richard Kiel, Corrine Clery, Bernard Lee, Geoffrey Keen, Lois Maxwell, Toshiro Suga, Emily Bolton, and Desmond Llewelyn

Genre: Sci-Fi Spy Thriller (Audio clip)

Is it possible that this film wasn't actually bad? 😯 Because that's been the reputation it's been assigned by Bond fans and critics alike. It had been a few years since I last watched this and I do remember finding all of the technical work impressive, and....yes several look dated but the Oscar-winning visual effects for the space sequences supervised by Derek Meddings are still pretty eye-popping!

Is the overall story basically silly? Why yes it is but not really moreso than the two previous Bond films which this was clearly inspired by - The Spy Who Loved Me, You Only Live Twice - and as it turns out, ALL three films were directed by Lewis Gilbert. 🤗 So in essence, he directed the three most shamelessly entertaining Bond films...each featuring impressive villains lairs where we see extended large-scale climaxes occur,,,,,and in all three stories a clever overall running theme for the time which I’m sure the late, great Ian Fleming certainly would have appreciated. During the Cold War, the US and Soviet Union were constantly being goaded into fighting each other usually spurred by private interests with megomaniacal plans....and both sides clearly had to be saved from their own worst impulses by....the more level-headed British, more specifically MI6. No wonder folks in the UK went crazy when Daniel Craig visited Buckingham Palace during the '12 Olympics to escort the Queen....Bond is a national hero. :)

Moore once again brings his signature charm and charisma to the role of Bond - he manages to play everything sufficiently straight as events go into space...almost to the point where he finds it to be no big deal?? 🤔 Lois Chiles is fine as his female CIA counterpart Holly Goodhead (sure...why not?) and, always looking ridiculous as Bond keeps evading him. One of the film's strongest points is the recently deceased Michael Lonsdale who gives a convincingly chilling performance as the chief villain, Hugo Drax. As absurd as his plan is to wipe out the human population of Earth with nerve gas, then repopulate it with the off-spring of a small group of paired off models housed in his space station....Lonsdale sells his exchanges with Bond as convincingly as possible - whether he can pull this off is an obvious question but you have little doubt that he BELIEVES he will. :o

All of the location work is gorgeous traversing Rio de Janeiro, Venice, and the French countryside masquerading as....southern California? 🤫 The action setpieces are generally very entertaining with some truly death-defying stuntwork involved.  There are some VERY clunky moments mostly related to goofy song cues...the score references "The Magnificent Seven" at one point for no real reason. Moonraker's not one of the best in the franchise but it's generally a fun time which never wears out is welcome. Plus...it has one of the fittingly dirty closing lines of any Bond film:

"I think he's attempting re-entry sir."

Best Needle drop (best song cue or score used throughout runtime of film): 

Returning for the THIRD time to belt out a Bond theme and I believe she has been the only repeater in the history of the franchise, we have THE legendary Welsh crooner….Dame Shirley Bassey!  Now of the three orchestral ballads she as performed for this franchise – including the underrated Diamonds Are Forever (the song, NOT the movie…whew no) and previous episode Goldfinger – I would consider this to be her weakest one, even though it’s still pretty damn good.  It’s a slower song than the other two, a bit more maudlin, but she STILL has those pipes!  Of course we hear this over a pretty elegant opening credits sequence featuring several silhouetted images of woman and Bond himself floating through space….lots of blues and greens, it’s nice. (Audio clip) \

However….there is ANOTHER version of this same song which plays over the closing credits and it’s one of my absolute FAVORITE soundtrack trends from this era, the late ‘70s…..definitely a sci-fi trend as we saw this for both the original Star Wars and previous episode Alien.  Seriously WHAT movie would NOT be improved by going this route with its closing credits?  Even better, Bassey herself re-recorded this version too….that’s right, it’s the DISCO version of “Moonraker!” officially titled the “Disco Purrfection” version! (Audio clip) 

Wasted Talent (most under-utilized talent involved with film):

Now I realize that many die-hard Bond fans might disagree with me on this one as he IS a beloved character for valid reasons.  Yes, the late great gentle giant of a man Richard Kiel returns from the previous film playing the metal-toothed Jaws, he was a FANTASTIC, sufficiently menacing foil for Bond in The Spy Who Loved Me.  But here in this movie as he not only apparently finds unexpected romance as an independent contractor now on the hunt for his old nemesis but he also becomes a GOOD guy in the end actually HELPING Bond in Space, why?? Sorry but the return of Jaws is probably among the weaker points of this film as his character becomes less menacing and more like a benevolent Wiley Coyote.  That said, he also DOES feature in what I believe is this film’s most jaw-dropping setpiece…..

Trailer Moment (scene or moment that best describes this movie):

Yes the set-piece I’m referring to is an especially tense (though silly at times thanks to Jaws' facial expressions) high-wire sequence which occurs about an hour into the film.  Basically it’s a standoff between two cable cars overlooking Rio de Janeiro in the distance – once with Bond and Goodhead, the other with Jaws.  Yes it gets silly at the end with not only Jaws finding love in a hopeless place….right after HIS cable car has crashed but also with SUPER-obvious product placement for 7-Up.  (Audio clip) 

However, the stuntworks is undeniably astounding, this shit just looks dangerous….the scenery all around them looks spectacular, and…..even with the typical rear-projection being used to place him in the action, Roger Moore does come off as more convincing than usual.  He’s SELLING the danger very well! (Audio clip) 

MVP (person or people most responsible for the success of this film):

Bottom line from a story, dialogue, and yes overall acting perspective, this remains one of the weaker Bond films.  As groundbreaking as that final spaced-based climax was a at the time and it STILL looks pretty great…..it’s undercut by Moore very much underplaying it….as if being in space and trying to destroy genocidal toxin pods being deployed to Earth was no big deal.  However…there were two aspects of this film where the work was simply unassailable: the score and the production design.  The late great John Barry returned to compose the score and throughout this film, is music truly elevates what’s on-screen…..lush orchestral flourishes which even feel romantic at times, especially during that sequence leading up to the climax as Bond ventures through the Brazilian jungle to Drax’s base of operations, lead along by several mysterious beautiful women.  Just gorgeous stuff! (Audio clip)

And coming from the LEGENDARY Ken Adam who was also a frequent collaborator of Stanley Kubrick’s at the time….the design of the sets and locations are simply amazing ESPECIALLY that pyramid-shaped control room at Drax’ base….with screens all over the walls, truly eye-popping stuff!  For truly delivering the shock, awe, and scale that we have since come to expect from the most lavish James Bond productions, John Barry and Ken Adams are your CO-MVP’s. 

Final Rating: 3 stars out of 5

James Bond….IN SPACE!!!  If those four words intrigue you, then by all means check this out.

Streaming on Apple TV

And that ends another GIANT STEP FOR MANKIND review!