I Watch Films: A View To A Kill

A View To A Kill

Roger Moore returns for the final time as James Bond. He recovers a microchip that has been hardened against electro-magnetic pulses from the body of 003 in Siberia. It had been copied from those made for the British government by the anglo-french industrial combine owned by American-accented East German defector Max Zorin (Christopher Walken).

Zorin turns out to be the result of a wartime Nazi experiment, brought up by the KGB and inserted into the west, only to now turn against them. He does some nonsense with horses too which is how Bond makes his first approach, posing as James St-John Smith, wanting to buy some horses at his stud sales.

This then unfolds much as might be expected, eventually ending up in San Francisco and an airship fight over the Golden Gate bridge. There are a couple of bits recycled from Goldfinger but none the worse for it.

I had a poster of this film for many years. I didn’t see it in the cinema and the internet suggests I had to wait five years before it got on TV. This is the first time I remember watching a Bond film for the first time. (I remember eight-armed pictures of Maud Adams everywhere for Octopussy, but don’t actually have any recollection of seeing it for the first time). Does it stand up? It’s an improvement on Octopussy that’s for sure, even if Stacey Sutton is somewhat more of a damsel in distress, and stuck in her horrid eighties office wear. May Day (Grace Jones) as Zorin’s deputy villain manages to steal most of the scenes.

Watch This: For an excellent villains and some action nonsense
Don’t Watch This: An old, tired Moore smirks his way through a bunch of set pieces