Now pay attention, 007. The latest issue of the UK’s popular magazine Infinity, the nostalgia sci-fi and cult fantasy film and TV mag, carries an article on A View To A Kill to help celebrate the film’s 40th anniversary.
Although former James Bond Daniel Craig held his licence to kill for a longer period than any other Bond actor, and made five smash-hit 007 films, it is easy to overlook the fact that the late Sir Roger Moore starred in no fewer than seven highly successful Bond movies, culminating in A View To A Kill (1985). In an article in the new issue of Infinity penned by Roger Crow, together with a breakdown by Tony Greenway of the film’s original story (which was very different from the final movie version), Roger’s seventh movie as James Bond is well and truly discussed and celebrated.
There are plenty of full-colour stills to accompany the coverage, and there is the bonus of a reproduction of the film’s main poster (‘Has James Bond met his match?’) in the centre pages of the magazine.
As Bond fans know, and as Infinity reminds us, AVTAK was Roger’s final thrilling outing in the iconic role, and (to borrow Infinity‘s own description) this ‘roller-coaster ride of a production’ marked the end of his 12-year tenure as 007, inevitably opening the door to a huge amount of media speculation over who would replace him. Infinity has been very generous to Bond fans in recent years, with various issues covering the anniversary years of key Bond films in a nicely glossy and entertaining way, perfect for collectors of hard-copy Bond-related magazines (and there are still plenty of us out there!). This latest issue maintains that very pleasing standard.
While the critics gave the fourteenth EON Bond film a mixed reception at the time, Infinity points out that, up to that point in the mid-1980s, it was the most expensive Bond epic ever made, and there is much to appreciate about the movie. Moreover, it has undoubtedly built up a large and loyal following in the Bond fan community over the years.
Bond was Back
As Infinity‘s Roger Crow notes, by the mid-1980s Roger Moore felt a little ‘long in the tooth’ at 57 to play James Bond. However, he was still fit and a ‘rather nice deal’ had been negotiated by his agent with Cubby so he decided to wear that famous classic tux for one last adventure. Reassuringly, key veteran EON production personnel were also still on board: director John Glen, who had two previous 007 films under his belt; Peter Lamont, who was the highly talented production designer; and Alan Hume, who was director of photography (and this led again to some beautiful, crisp cinematography).
For dedicated Bond fans, there was also the return of the familiar MI6 support team: Robert Brown as Bond’s boss ‘M’, Desmond Llewelyn as gadgets expert ‘Q’, and (in her last time playing the character), Lois Maxwell as Moneypenny.
Many of the original Ian Fleming stories and their titles had been used up, creating new challenges for the movie-makers. As Bond expert Tony Greenway explains later on in Infinity‘s coverage of the movie, the film took its amended title, but little else, from a short story that had originally appeared in Ian Fleming’s short-story collection For Your Eyes Only (1960). Interestingly, the Bond author had developed ‘From a View to a Kill’ from a story outline he had first put together for a half-hour episode in a proposed CBS James Bond TV series, a project that never came to fruition.
In reality, of course, as Infinity notes, the film-makers ‘ignored Fleming’s plot completely… and regurgitated the central premise of their 1964 box office smash Goldfinger‘. But instead of manipulating gold, the villain intends to manipulate the supply of microchips. Richard Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson penned the script for AVTAK, and the central theme of the movie – a plot based around an attempt to disrupt the hugely important Silicon Valley in northern California – was Wilson’s idea. Although not mentioned in the Infinity article, one early concept for this had millionaire industrialist Max Zorin attempting to manipulate the course of Halley’s Comet to crash it into the valley! Fortunately, the idea of flooding the Valley via a deliberate man-made ‘natural disaster’ gave the film a more plausible and realistic central theme.
As Infinity points out, ‘all 007 epics need a great villain’, and though rock star David Bowie was originally approached to play psychotic baddie Max Zorin, he bowed out, as did fellow rock star Sting. But ‘a great alternative eventually signed up’ – the award-winning actor Christopher Walken. The casting of the highly-talented American actor as Zorin is now seen, in hindsight, as a truly inspired choice – Walken was able to invest the character with the right kind of psychotic madness and menace in the best Bond villain tradition. One could really believe that Zorin was the demented product of an evil Nazi breeding programme!
Although not mentioned in the Infinity article, there’s some interesting background to the Bowie story. Bond producer Cubby Broccoli had originally suggested that singer David Bowie would be ideal for the role of Zorin, especially because of his ‘different-coloured eyes’. Michael G. Wilson was also keen, having seen Bowie in Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence. But there are conflicting versions as to how Bowie responded to this. It is now known that Bowie was sounded out and spoken to, and one version of the story has it he was indeed interested in the role, but his commitments to an extensive concert touring schedule precluded him in the end. Another version of events, however, is that Bowie was not all that keen, and later commented that he ‘didn’t want to spend five months watching my double fall off mountains’.
In the event, the casting of Walken added real strength to the movie, and we now know that he and Roger Moore struck up a great friendship both on the set and off, which continued long after the movie was released.
On the other hand, the casting of Tanya Roberts as sexy geologist Stacey Sutton, in Infinity’s estimation, was less successful. In the magazine’s view, the former Charlie’s Angels, Beastmaster and Sheena film star, who very sadly passed away in 2021, did not set the screen alight: ‘Alas, the necessary spark between Moore and Roberts failed to ignite, and that was that’. Another major piece of casting saw singer Grace Jones play May Day, and Infinity recalls some of the behind-the-scenes tensions and entertaining drama that this created, including Jones’s habit of playing music very loudly next to Moore’s own dressing-room. Moore, naturally, was not best pleased. Needless to say, as Roger Moore diplomatically put it later in his 2008 autobiography, My Word is My Bond, ‘I’ve always said if you’ve nothing nice to say about someone, then you should say nothing. So I’ll say nothing’.
A more comfortable piece of casting for Moore came in the shape of former Avengers star Patrick (Steed) Macnee as Bond’s assistant Tibbet, which led to some priceless chemistry between him and Roger on the screen (they had worked together before, of course, in the 1976 TV movie Sherlock Holmes in New York).
From a Thrill to a View
In a sense, AVTAK saw Bond return to very familiar territory – American locations. And the viewer is given some great U.S. locations and scenery on screen. Even some of the British location filming, which took place mainly at Amberley Chalk Pits railway in West Sussex, doubles up nicely for the terrain around America’s Silicon Valley.
Moreover, the very name ‘James Bond’ seemed to open up location doors that would not be normally open to other movie units. For the sequence where Zorin sets fire to City Hall, and much to the surprise of his crew, director John Glen was able to secure permission to actually shoot this in the real-life City Hall. This also led to the nice bonus of the premiere of the movie taking place in San Francisco in May, 1985, thanks to the City Hall’s key VIPs. The film was also given a UK Royal premiere shortly afterwards in London, in front of the then Prince Charles (now King, of course) and the late Diana, Princess of Wales. Princess Di was evidently a big fan of Duran Duran and, indeed, another key ingredient to the movie was arguably the soundtrack music by John Barry and the theme tune by Duran Duran. The group were part of the line-up to meet Princess Diana on UK premiere night, which led to extensive media coverage. As Infinity notes, ‘Duran Duran’s title theme is terrific, and still sends crowds wild…’. It also quickly hit the No.1 spot in the music charts in the USA.
So, how well does AVTAK stand up today, some 40 years after its release? In Infinity‘s view, although still dashing, Roger Moore was ‘too old for the 007 role’. That said, he still does a great job on screen. And there are ‘thankfully many great bits’, including the stunts, the sets, and John Barry’s score, while Grace Jones ‘makes a formidable adversary’ in her role as May Day. And, as Infinity rightly notes, ‘Moore is the glue that holds the movie together’ – in fact, Sir Roger (as he later became) ‘was a far better actor than he and many critics gave him credit for’.
The new issue of Infinity, no.82, is on sale now, priced £4.99, Can $15.99 and US $12.00.
