The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

Budget $14 million. Opening dates: UK July 7, 1977; US July 13, 1977
Worldwide Box Office $185.4 million

Originally Written
Sunday, September 3, 2006

The Spy Who Loved Me is the first Bond film, since the departure of Sean Connery, to actually act like a traditional Bond flick finally losing the absurd story-lines and ditching the often over the top humor. This film brings back what the franchise had lost, the unbelievable gadgets and the fast paced non-stop action, but still can't seem to get every right.

Someone has stolen a Russian sub-marine and Bond is sent out to investigate and recover a micro-film which contains the information on how the submarine was tracked and captured. Unbeknown to him the Soviets have sent out their best secret agent Anya "Agent XXX" Amasova. Working for two different governments Bond and Anya find themselves competing for the microfilm to be the first to bring it to their government.

When Russia and Britain decide to combine forces, Bond and Anya have to learn to put their differences aside and work together, which later becomes difficult when Anya discovers that prior to this mission Bond had killed the man she loved. She continues to work with Bond but vows to revenge her lovers’ death when the mission is complete.

Both agents soon discover that the man behind the capture of the Russian submarine is wealthy oceanographer Karl Stromberg. Stromberg will attempt to destroy the world by igniting a nuclear war which will leave the earth uninhabitable, and therefore allow for the beginning of his creation of an underwater world aptly named Atlantis.

The Spy Who Loved Me offers a lot of classic Bond moments that the previous two films lacked. Most notably is the Bond car which also serves as an under water submarine. While this mission makes up for the last two with better and bigger locations, great Bond moments and action, it stills ends up falling rather short on another important department.

The villains and Bond girl still don't stand up to the caliber of this franchises' golden era. The Spy Who Loved Me is the first introduction of the infamous character Jaws, a gritty giant with metal teeth, yet Jaws got old fairly quick. His character is too one dimension and almost impenetrable, and his fetish for biting people was a little strange when he could have easily beat them senseless with one punch!

One thing that stood out to me the most was how similar this film is to past Bond adventures. The capturing of submarines is very reminiscent of You Only Live Twice where instead it was space shuttles, and the big barge scene during the last 45 minutes was almost identical to the volcano scene in the same film. In addition, the fight sequence between Bond and Jaws on the train was very deja vu' to the train scene in Live And Let Die.

In the end, The Spy Who Loved Me continues to improve the Roger Moore era of the franchise, but while Bond has finally been brought back in style the writers haven't been able to produce the hard hitting villains and breathtaking Bond girls that truly solidify a Bond film.

8/10