Review Detail
9.3 6 10
(Updated: July 19, 2020)
Overall rating
9.2
Audio/Video Quality
10.0
Audio Editing
8.0
Visual Editing
8.0
Narrative
10.0
Enjoyment
10.0
It seems like most people regard The Spy Who Loved Me as Roger Moore's best outing as 007. I disagree. For Your Eyes Only is his best in my opinion, and this edit of it only makes it better. But let me start with the negatives: the cutting seems quite jumpy at times, especially in the very first scenes onboard the ship which sinks. I understand the idea was to tighten almost every single scene in the movie, but it takes some getting used to. Between cuts there would sometimes be a split second of an odd frame. The audio during some dialogue is very low compared to the music in other scenes. And I think the traditional Bond theme may pop up once too often---it is hard to know if these were actually variations of the Bond theme that were just too close to identical for me to tell.
OK, that was all the "bad" stuff. Forget all that, because it barely detracts at all from this great edit of a 007 spy thriller. I would scarcely call many 007 movies spy thrillers, especially the Moore era ones, but this one is. Removing bits of the annoying ice skater girl helped a lot. The music throughout was very cool---using some of the Thunderball music during underwater scenes was perfect. And, indeed, the classic James Bond theme was very welcome during some scenes. I was worried that all the humor would be removed, but what remained was ideal. The Craig era could really learn a lot from the music in this edit. Actually, the Brosnon era could have as well. This cut achieved what the best of the Connery era achieved--when it ended, the music was echoing in your head and you felt like putting on a nice suit and driving really fast and dangerously. It reminded me of that feeling of wanting to be James Bond because he was the coolest guy on earth with his own personal theme song! (Indiana Jones may be the only other character in history with as great a theme song). The narrative and enjoyment level here is perfect. It isn't my "go to" version because the file size is prohibitively humongous so I had to delete immediately after watching, but if not for that, this is the version I prefer. It is the best cut of Roger Moore's best Bond outing. It is easily the most realistic Bond since Goldfinger and until The Living Daylights (and finally again with Casino Royale). This is THE essential Moore era Bond and the ideal (if very slightly flawed) edit of For Your Eyes Only. Highly recommend! (Especially if you have the 18Gb to spare on your hard drive!)
OK, that was all the "bad" stuff. Forget all that, because it barely detracts at all from this great edit of a 007 spy thriller. I would scarcely call many 007 movies spy thrillers, especially the Moore era ones, but this one is. Removing bits of the annoying ice skater girl helped a lot. The music throughout was very cool---using some of the Thunderball music during underwater scenes was perfect. And, indeed, the classic James Bond theme was very welcome during some scenes. I was worried that all the humor would be removed, but what remained was ideal. The Craig era could really learn a lot from the music in this edit. Actually, the Brosnon era could have as well. This cut achieved what the best of the Connery era achieved--when it ended, the music was echoing in your head and you felt like putting on a nice suit and driving really fast and dangerously. It reminded me of that feeling of wanting to be James Bond because he was the coolest guy on earth with his own personal theme song! (Indiana Jones may be the only other character in history with as great a theme song). The narrative and enjoyment level here is perfect. It isn't my "go to" version because the file size is prohibitively humongous so I had to delete immediately after watching, but if not for that, this is the version I prefer. It is the best cut of Roger Moore's best Bond outing. It is easily the most realistic Bond since Goldfinger and until The Living Daylights (and finally again with Casino Royale). This is THE essential Moore era Bond and the ideal (if very slightly flawed) edit of For Your Eyes Only. Highly recommend! (Especially if you have the 18Gb to spare on your hard drive!)
User Review
Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
A
Comments
2 results - showing 1 - 2
Ordering
2 results - showing 1 - 2
The only cuts I could say I noticed was the Identigraph sequence which you handled as best it could be without investing time redoing the screen’s images with new cgi. A possibility!
Great to hear a John Barry soundtrack - no doubt! Overall though it could benefit from a less is more approach and some beefing up in places. Resisting the urge to fill some scenes where there was originally no score would work better by not distracting and allowing the acting itself to set the tone, build drama and create tension. An example of this is when Bond and Melina are in the hotel room at 21:35. The action score from the Citroen 2CV car chase crossfades into a new piece of music here. This scene would be better without music IMO.
There was only one noticeable audio drop around 29:53 to 30:21 when Bond catches up with Melina outside the sports shop and he says “Hey slow down. Now would you mind telling me what the devil you are doing in Cortina?; the dialogue audio is slightly muted made most notable by the loudness of Melina’s dialogue IN point in the next sleigh close up sequence at 30:25.
It must have been a slog searching the catalogue of Bond musical incidental pieces and deciding which ones to choose. In the places where they work, they work well and improve on the original. Other places it feels like you have no other choice other than to let the music run and hope that it fits which on the whole it does.
This is a refreshing viewing experience of FYEO for sure. Watching back individual sequences in isolation highlights just how well some of your musical choices are; the recovery of the ATAC underwater sequence for example.
None of your musical choices made me feel uncomfortable and none stole focus from the action. With a couple more watches I probably won’t even notice the score additions. A very good job.