The Spy Who Loved Me (film)
| 250px | |
| The Spy Who Loved Me film poster | |
|---|---|
| Bond: | Roger Moore |
| Writer: | Christopher Wood |
| Screenplay: | Christopher Wood, Richard Maibaum |
| Director: | Lewis Gilbert |
| Music: | Marvin Hamlisch |
| Video: | See the Music Video |
| Composer: | Marvin Hamlisch Carole Bayer Sager (lyrics) |
| Performer: | Carly Simon |
| Distributor: | United Artists |
| Released: | July 13, 1977 |
| Runtime: | 125 min. |
| Preceded by: | The Man with the Golden Gun |
| Followed by: | Moonraker |
| Budget: | $14,000,000 |
| Aorldgross: | $185,400,000 |
| Admissions: | 83.1 million |
The Spy Who Loved Me is the tenth film in the EON Productions James Bond series and the third to star Roger Moore as British Secret Service agent, Commander James Bond. Released in 1977, it is the second Bond film to be directed by Lewis Gilbert. Gilbert previously directed You Only Live Twice (1967) and would later direct Moonraker (1979).
The Spy Who Loved Me marks the first film in the EON Productions series to not to be produced by Harry Saltzman, who had previously sold his shares of EON Productions to United Artists in 1975 following the release of The Man with the Golden Gun. It is also the first wholly original Bond film to be written, as Ian Fleming only gave permission for the title to be used. The film was subsequently novelised by Christopher Wood.
Production
The Spy Who Loved Me in many ways was a make or break film for the Bond franchise and was plagued since its conception by many problems. The first was the departure of Bond producer Harry Saltzman, who was forced to sell his half of the Bond film franchise due to financial difficulties. A second problem was the issue of finding a director. The first director attached to the film was Guy Hamilton, who directed the previous three Bond films as well as Goldfinger, but left after being offered the opportunity to direct the 1978 film, Superman: The Movie. EON Productions would later turn to Lewis Gilbert who had directed the similar Bond film, You Only Live Twice.
With a director finally secured, the next hurdle to be overcome was finishing the script, which had gone through several rewrites by numerous writers. Additionally, the initial villain of the film was Ernst Stavro Blofeld, however, Kevin McClory, who owns the film rights to Thunderball, forced an injunction on EON Productions delaying the film further. The villain would later be changed from Blofeld to Karl Stromberg so that the injunction could be lifted. Christopher Wood was later brought in by Lewis Gilbert to complete the script. Although Fleming had requested no elements from his original book be used, the novel features a thug named Sol Horror who is described as having steel capped teeth. This character would be the basis for Jaws, although having steel capped teeth is where the similarity between Horror and Jaws ends.
Regardless of all the problems throughout production of the film, The Spy Who Loved Me was a financial and box office success, raking in $185,400,000 worldwide on a production budget of $14 million USD. At the time it was the highest grossing Bond film.
Plot summary
Ballistic missile submarines from the Royal Navy and the Soviet fleet are stolen by the villain, Karl Stromberg, in an attempt to launch their nuclear weapons at targets around the globe. James Bond teams up with Major Anya Amasova (a.k.a. Agent Triple X) from the Soviet Union to find out what happened and prevent a possible World War III. Template:Spoiler
The film begins in Austria, where Bond escapes an ambush by Soviet agents, killing one of them in a downhill ski race. On reporting back to base, Bond learns that someone is trying to sell the plans of a highly advanced submarine tracking system to the highest bidder. Bond then travels to Egypt, where he is supposed to contact the prospective seller near the pyramids. Here he first encounters Major Amasova, who becomes a rival in his search for the plans, and later a partner in a somewhat uneasy truce (supported by their respective superiors) when they realize that the person behind the theft of the plans (Carl Stromberg, who is a shipping tycoon) is also responsible for the disappearance of the submarines.
The duo decides to travel to Stromberg's base in Sardinia. In a train on the way there (which oddly enough seems to be travelling through Switzerland), Bond saves Amasova's life as she is attacked by Jaws. Shortly after their arrival in Sardinia, Amasova learns about Bond's killing of the Soviet agent in Austria, who turns out to have been her lover. She tells Bond she will complete the mission with him, but vows that after she has fulfilled her duty, she will kill him. Posing as oceanographers, they visit Stromberg's base and discover that he has a mysterious new supertanker, the Liparus. As they leave the base, Jaws attempts to kill them, but fails. The United States Navy submarine from which they attempt to spy on the Liparus is, like the other submarines, captured by his modified supertanker, and Stromberg begins to set his plan in motion. The plan is to launch nuclear missiles from the submarines he captured, the targets being Moscow and New York City. This will start World War III, which Stromberg will wait out in his underwater city, arising later to establish a new world civilization. However, Bond is able to get the British and Soviet submarines to destroy each other, saving Moscow and New York. After a final confrontation with Stromberg, Bond rescues Amasova and they escape Stromberg's base just before it is destroyed. As they await rescue in a small escape pod, Amasova reminds Bond that she has vowed to kill him, but he manages to defuse the tension, and she decides to spare him.
The film is best known for Bond's Lotus Esprit submarine/car and the introduction of Jaws, a giant and seemingly indestructible assassin with steel teeth. Jaws, played by Richard Kiel, is the only henchman of the James Bond villains privileged to appear in more than one film. He later appeared in Moonraker. Previously, Kiel played a similar character in the action comedy Silver Streak starring Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor.
Cast & characters
- James Bond — Roger Moore
- Major Anya Amasova (Agent Triple X) — Barbara Bach
- Karl Stromberg — Curd Jürgens
- Jaws — Richard Kiel
- Naomi — Caroline Munro
- M — Bernard Lee
- Miss Moneypenny — Lois Maxwell
- Q — Desmond Llewelyn
- Fredrick Gray (Minister of Defence) — Geoffrey Keen
- General Gogol — Walter Gotell
- Rubelvitch (Gogol's Assistant) — Eva Rueber-Staier
- Sergei — Michael Billington
- Hotel receptionist — Valerie Leon
Robert Brown also has a smaller role in The Spy Who Loved Me as Admiral Hargreaves. Brown would go on to replace Bernard Lee as M in Octopussy. It has never been established as to whether Brown was supposed to be still playing Lee's character, a promoted Hargreaves, or someone else.
Walter Gotell makes his first appearance as General Gogol of the KGB. Gogol would appear in all future Roger Moore Bond films and would make his final appearance in Timothy Dalton's The Living Daylights. While this was his first appearance as Gogol, this is Gotell's second appearance in a James Bond film. His first was in From Russia with Love where he played the villain Morzeny.
The Women of The Spy Who Loved Me
| Picture | Name | Actress | |
| 100px | Anya Amasova | Barbara Bach | Code named Triple X, Anya Amasova is the lead Bond girl of The Spy Who Loved Me. She is the KGB's top agent and was assigned to investigate the disappearance of a Russian nuclear submarine. She encounter Bond along the way, he himself investigating the disappearance of a British submarine. The two, despite their initial conflict and competition, soon realized a third party is involved. Amasova is supposedly depicted as a female version of Bond, every bit as resourceful, intelligent, and self-reliant as he is. However, Amasova spent the last part of the film tied up by Stromberg and let Bond save the world by himself. |
| 100px | Naomi | Caroline Munro | English model turned actress Caroline Munro portrays Stromberg's helicopter pilot and assistant Naomi. In the film, it seemed her job was primarily playing hostess or escorting and greeting Stromberg's guests. However, later, when she appeared in a helicopter mounted with machine guns, it seems she also gets rid of unwanted guests as well. |
| 100px | Felicca | Olga Bisera | When Bond went to meet Aziz Fekkesh, he found the man had disappeared, leaving a woman behind named Felicca to "entertain" him. It seems Felicca is not a very good liar, for when Bond asked her if Frekkesh is meeting someone, she hesitated and avoided the question. The nature of her untimely demise is open to interpretation. When Felicca saw that Sandor was about to shoot Bond, she screamed: "No!" before taking the bullet in the back. It seems that Felicca took the bullet for Bond, however some said that Bond used her as a human shield (a la Fiona Volpe). Some conjectured that Felicca was the target, given Frekkesh's ultimate fate at the hands of Jaws (and Stromberg's decree that anyone who touches the microfilm containing the plans of the submarine tracking system must die). It is not known if Felicca was in cahoots with Sandor, thus her motivation is rather inscrutable and ambiguous. |
| 100px | Log Cabin Girl | Sue Vanner | The unamed Log Cabin Girl is a Miss Taro-type villainess. In the pre-title sequence, she is seen in bed with Bond, who was going to "enlarge her vocabulary". Later it turned out that she was an enemy agent who was supposed to stall him as long as possible so he would be killed. |
Crew
- Directed by: Lewis Gilbert
- Produced by: Albert R. Broccoli, William P. Cartlidge
- Screenplay by: Christopher Wood, Richard Maibaum
- Composed by: Marvin Hamlisch
- Cinematography by: Claude Renoir
- Film editor and second unit director: John Glen
- Production design by: Ken Adam
Soundtrack
| The Spy Who Loved Me film poster | |
|---|---|
| Type | Soundtrack |
| Artist | Marvin Hamlisch |
| Background | gainsboro |
| Released | 1977 |
| Recorded | April 1977 |
| Genre | |
| Length | |
| Label | EMI |
| Producer | Frank Collura (Reissue) |
| Reviews | *All Music Guide  link
|
| Last album | Funny Lady (1975) |
| This album | The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) |
| Next album | The Absent-Minded Waiter (1977) |
| Artist | James Bond soundtrack |
| Background | gainsboro |
| Last album | The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) |
| This album | The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) |
| Next album | Moonraker (1979) |
The title song, "Nobody Does it Better" was performed by Carly Simon and was the first theme song to be titled differently than the name of the movie, although the phrase "the spy who loved me" is in the lyrics. The song became a hit that is still popular today and has been featured in numerous movies including the recently released Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), Little Black Book (2004), Lost in Translation and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004). In 2004, the song was honoured by the American Film Institute as the 67th greatest song as part of their 100 Years Series.
The soundtrack to the movie was composed by Marvin Hamlisch, who filled in for veteran John Barry due to his being unavailable for work in the United Kingdom due to tax reasons. The soundtrack, in comparison to other Bond films of the time, is more disco-oriented and included a new disco rendition of the James Bond Theme entitled "Bond 77".
An element of the Barry style remains in the suspenseful film sequence in which Bond and Amasova try to track down Jaws at an antiquated site in Egypt. The accompanying Hamlisch music echoes Barry's "Stalking," from the pre-credit fantasy sequence of From Russia with Love, featuring Bond (Sean Connery) and villain Red Grant (Robert Shaw).
Track listing
- Nobody Does It Better — Carly Simon
- Bond 77 (James Bond Theme)
- Ride To Atlantis
- Mojave Club
- Nobody Does It Better (Instrumental)
- Anya
- The Tanker
- The Pyramids
- Eastern Lights
- Conclusion
- End Titles-Nobody Does It Better — Carly Simon
In addition, Hamlisch incorporates into his score several pieces of classical music. As Stromberg feeds his duplicitous secretary (Marilyn Galsworthy) to a shark, the villain plays Bach's Air on the G String — famous for accompanying the disaster-prone characters in TV adverts for Hamlet cigars. He then plays the opening string section of the second movement, Andante, of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 'Elvira Madigan' as Atlantis rises from the sea. Nocturne No. 8 in D-Flat, Op. 27 No. 2 by Chopin crops up later, as reportedly does an excerpt from Saint-Saëns' The Aquarium from The Carnival of the Animals. Finally, Hamlisch cheekily segues his score into an excerpt from that for David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia when Bond and Anya Amasova are wandering through the desert; according to a documentary on the DVD, this idea was originally a joke by one of the film editors who played the music over the dailies of the scene.
Vehicles & gadgets
- Lotus Esprit — Including all of the usual Q refinements, this car was equipped with surface to air missiles. The main feature of the car however was the ability to transform into a submarine. Once transformed it could unleash depth charges and smoke screens. The car was nicknamed Wet Nellie, a reference to the autogyro provided by Q for Bond's use in You Only Live Twice. Within the second unit production team, it was also known as Margie Nixon. A 'wet' submarine, there were three vehicles — a waterproofed Esprit able to drive into the water without excessive damage to engine or occupants (for scenes driving onto the beach, and escaping from the helicopter by diving into the water, though there is contention that the scene in question was filmed by sacrificing an Esprit for the shot); a second vehicle which could only transform from car to submarine — technical critics will see that the vehicle was extremely uni-functional, despite being very well built; and Margie Nixon, the wet submarine whose body was constructed from an Esprit donor car.
- Wetbike — a hydrofoil "water motorcycle" used by Bond to travel from the US Submarine to Stromberg's Atlantis to save Triple X. Built by a subsidiary of Minnesota-based Arctic Enterprises.
- XXX's Cigarette — The cigarette used by Triple X contained knock-out powder.
- Seiko Quartz watch — Basically working like a pager, it had a built-in telex that allowed MI6 to send important messages to Bond, printing them out like a miniature teletype. (It actually looked more like a label-maker tape.)
- Ski pole gun — Was used to fire a projectile at his pursuers. He uses it to kill Triple X's lover while escaping from him in the pre-credits sequence.
- Microfilm viewer disguised as a cigarette case and lighter. Bond uses it to examine the microfilm (in the film - the microfilm container has the Minolta logo) of the submarine tracking system.
Locations
Film locations
- Berngarten, Austrian Alps
- Faslane Naval Base, Scotland
- Cairo, Egypt
- The Pyramids, Giza, Egypt
- Great Hypostyle Hall, Karnak, Egypt
- Moscow, Russia
- Sardinia, Italy
Shooting locations
- Pinewood Studios / 007 Stage
- Sardinia
- Egypt
- Malta
- Scotland
- Okinawa
- Switzerland
- Auyuittuq National Park, Canada
Awards
| Year | Result | Award | Recipients |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | Nominated | Academy Award for Best Art Direction | Ken Adam Peter Lamont Hugh Scaife |
| 1978 | Nominated | Academy Award for Original Music Score | Marvin Hamlisch |
| 1978 | Nominated | Academy Award for Best Song ("Nobody Does It Better") |
Marvin Hamlisch (music) Carole Bayer Sager (lyrics) |
| 1978 | Nominated | Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score | Marvin Hamlisch |
| 1978 | Nominated | Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song | Marvin Hamlisch (music) Carole Bayer Sager (lyrics) |
| 1978 | Nominated | Grammy Award for Best Score for a Motion Picture | Marvin Hamlisch |
| 1978 | Nominated | WGA: Best Comedy Adapted from Another Medium | Christopher Wood Richard Maibaum |
| 1978 | Nominated | BAFTA for Best Production Design/Art Direction | Ken Adam |
| 1978 | Nominated | BAFTA Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music | Marvin Hamlisch |
Trivia
- At the end of the film, the credits announce that the next Bond film will be For Your Eyes Only. Ultimately, however, the producers chose instead to adapt Moonraker next in order to cash in on the sci-fi/fantasy craze sparked by the success of Star Wars and Superman.
- This is the second film in the history of the Bond series (as of 2004) in which M refers to Bond by his first name, rather than simply 007 or Bond (the first time was at his wedding in On Her Majesty's Secret Service). We also hear M's real first name (Miles) for the first time on film. In addition, Q is referred to by his real name (Major Boothroyd) for the first time since Dr. No. Miss Moneypenny is still left without a first name.
- Although the movie received a PG rating, pictures of nude women are visible. At the beginning of the movie in the submarine, when the sailor is walking out of the bunks, to the left of the screen are pictures hanging on the wall.
- The hull number of the American submarine portrayed, 593, was in real life the hull number of the ill-fated USS Thresher which sank in 1963.
- Bond's killing of Naomi (via a missile from his Lotus sub) marks the first time 007 clearly and deliberately kills a woman in the film series (see also Fiona Volpe in Thunderball), and it would be the last time until his fateful final encounter with Elektra King in The World is Not Enough..
- The 007 Soundstage at Pinewood Studios, for many years the largest in the world, was specially constructed for this film.
- Prior to the film's release, Barbara Bach posed nude for the men's magazine Playboy.
- Michael Billington, who plays Anya's ill-fated lover, Sergei, was considered a candidate for the role of Bond on several occasions in the 1970s and 1980s. He is best known for his role as Paul Foster in the science fiction series UFO.
- Demand for Lotus Esprits surged after the film was released. Many new customers were put on a three-year waiting list.
- Stanley Kubrick provided uncredited assistance in supervising the lighting of the tanker set due to cinematographer Claude Renoir's failing eyesight.
- Although this isn't the first Bond film to relocate M's office to an exotic location as a branch office (You Only Live Twice was the first), it is the first to have Q-Branch likewise relocated with a full array of weapons and testing personnel catering to the particular region of the world. Future similar relocations would occur in Moonraker and Octopussy. (Q, on his own, first joined Bond in the field in Thunderball.)
- Valerie Leon has a brief scene with Moore, as the Sardinian hotel receptionist. She also appears in Never Say Never Again opposite Sean Connery's James Bond.
- Some viewers see this as an underwater version of You Only Live Twice owing to how the capture of US and Russian submarines by a sub-eater parallels the capture of US and Soviet spacecraft by Blofeld's spacecraft-eater.
- The parachute ski jump in the pre-credits sequence was performed by Rick Sylvester at Mount Asgard, Baffin Island, Northwest Territories, Canada. It was filmed by series editor and second-unit director John Glen. The success of the footage was instrumental in Glen's succession to the post of in-house director for the final three Moore Bond movies, and the two Timothy Dalton pictures, as Glen recounts in his autobiography (citation required). The iconic moment is referenced in two Pierce Brosnan Bond films: in The World Is Not Enough, 007 appears put out when a pursuer he's forced off a cliff pulls the same trick; in Die Another Day, the villain, Gustav Graves, arrives at Buckingham Palace via Union Flag parachute.
- When Bond finally confronts Stromberg at his dinner table, surrounded by Stromberg's crystal glassware, silver platter and candlestick, and gourmet seafood feast is a very ordinary, very contrasting bottle of McIlhenny's Tabasco sauce. The product had also featured in the previous film in the series: Scaramanga demands Nick Nack fetch him some in the opening line of dialogue in The Man with the Golden Gun.
- The microfilm container has a Minolta logo throughout the film.
Novelisation
When Ian Fleming sold the film rights to the James Bond novels to Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli, he only gave permission for the title The Spy Who Loved Me to be used. Since the screenplay for the film had nothing to do with Fleming's original novel, Glidrose Publications, for the first time, authorised that a novelisation be written based upon the script. This would also be the first regular Bond novel published since Colonel Sun nearly a decade earlier. Christopher Wood, who co-authored the screenplay with Richard Maibaum, was commissioned to write the book, which was given the title James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me. Wood would also novelise the screenplay for the next Bond film, Moonraker in 1979.
The novelisation and the screenplay, although both written by Wood, are somewhat different. In the novelisation SMERSH is still active and still after James Bond. Their part in the novelisation begins during the "pre-title credits" sequence in which Bond is escaping from a cabin on the top of Aiguille du Mort, a mountain near the town of Chamonix. After the mysterious death of Fekkish, SMERSH appears yet again, this time capturing and torturing Bond for the whereabouts of the microfilm that retains plans for a submarine tracking system (Bond escapes after killing two of the interrogators). The appearance of SMERSH conflicts with a number of Bond stories, including the film The Living Daylights (1987), in which a character remarks that SMERSH has been defunct for over 20 years. It also differs from the latter half of Fleming's Bond novels in which SMERSH is mentioned to have been put out of operation. Members of SMERSH from the novelization include the Bond girl Anya Amasova and her lover Sergei Borzov as well as Colonel-General Niktin, a character from Fleming's novel From Russia with Love who has since become the head of SMERSH.
Other differences include the villain, Karl Stromberg, being renamed as Sigmund Stromberg. The change of Stromberg's given name as well as the existence of SMERSH may be in some way due to the controversy over Thunderball, in which Kevin McClory was made aware of certain plot points of the film The Spy Who Loved Me. At one point the villain of the film was to be Ernst Stavro Blofeld and his organization SPECTRE; however, this was changed to avoid a possible lawsuit over the rights to this character, which originated from the novel Thunderball.
| The Book | |
|---|---|
| Author | Christopher Wood |
| Publisher | Glidrose Publications |
| Hard back UK | 1977 |
| Hard back US | None |
| Paper back UK | 1977 |
| Paper back US | 1977 |
| Titles | |
| Preceded | James Bond: The Authorised Biography of 007 |
| Followed | James Bond and Moonraker (film novelisation) |
See also
- Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, a James Bond parody.
External links
| The James Bond films |
|---|
| Official films Dr. No | From Russia with Love | Goldfinger | Thunderball | You Only Live Twice | On Her Majesty's Secret Service | Diamonds Are Forever | Live and Let Die | The Man with the Golden Gun | The Spy Who Loved Me | Moonraker | For Your Eyes Only | Octopussy | A View to a Kill | The Living Daylights | Licence to Kill | GoldenEye | Tomorrow Never Dies | The World Is Not Enough | Die Another Day | Casino Royale | Quantum of Solace |
| Unofficial films Casino Royale (1954 TV) | Casino Royale (1967 spoof) | Never Say Never Again |