Moonraker (1979)
Review from "Films and Filming", Feb 1980
** recommended

Many moons after the event and I have to admit my memories are hazy, which may go to show that Moonraker is not an especially memorable film. It is an entertaining one. The lasting impression - hazy or not - is of a good evening's escapism in the cinema. But what exactly happend during the film's 126 minutes running length has blurred into a mish-mash of technical virtuosity, crazy improbability, lush locations, beautiful women and Roger Moore putting his his best foot forward as James Bond. With time the plot has disappeared, or at best disintegrated into a series of set-pieces. I suspect it was a little more to begin with. Despite the contractual "Ian Fleming's Moonraker", it is unlikely that Mr Fleming?s ghost would recognise much of what has been done this time around in his name. Still - the spirit survives and that is all important.

On the night of the premiere, there was a televised film, a kind of James Bond through the decade, scripted by Donald Zec, compered by Roger Moore. Bond scenes past and present, interspersed with Mr Moore's chatter and the glittering lineup for the Royal opening of Moonraker. The lasting impression from that, apart from inanity, was the passage of time. When the cinema Bond was fresh, when story, character and performances were important, Sean Connery acted the part magnificently. He gave us James Bond the man. Roger Moore took over when Bond and his audience had already come-of-age. He gave us something else entirely, James Bond the hero, without flesh and blood, stepping neatly and forever charmingly between the hardware. In between, of course, was the one we don't mention.

Bond, when he first appeared on the big screen, spawned a mass of followers - movie makers quick to jump on the money-spinning bandwagon. Suddenly spies were "in". Some of these films were succesful, most were not, nearly all have been forgotten: James Bond - 007 has outclassed and outdistanced them all. Things taken unequal, credit has to go to the movies' producers - now just Cubby Broccoli since Saltzman went back to the States and dropped out of the pictures. Everything in the Bond movies really does get bigger and better, except for the characters.

What Moonraker lacks is storyline, it more than makes up for in special effects, elaborate visual jokes, repartée. Like Mr Moore, the movie has style! And that is something copyists can never achieve, no matter how hard they try.

 Filmographic details.

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