For Fresh Eyes Only: Octopussy (1983)
After the unfortunate, odd detour that was Never Say Never Again, things are finally back to normal. Well, actually, they are even better than normal, because Octopussy is really good. Moore’s good Bond movie streak continues, so congrats to him and I’ll talk more in-depth about it shortly, but first, what the fuck is this name? Forgive me for going after low hanging fruit but you’re telling me that in the year of our lord 1983, families were flocking to movie theaters to see a PG movie called Octopussy? And everybody was just ok with it? I know these are all named after books but come on, you don’t have to be that beholden to the source material. Why not call it James Bond Clowns Around the Circus or Mr. Bond Has Another Fun Adventure? Those would be so, so much better, and would at least let you know that you’re about to watch another fun Bond romp and not some filthy porno.
Alright, enough of that. I don’t like the title, but I do like the movie. It opens up with the brutal murdering of a clown and it only gets better from there. It’s refreshing to have one of these plots be dumbed down even farther for someone like me, who can’t follow nuclear annihilation plots unless there’s also a subplot about Fabergé eggs. I’m not ready to say this is a good plot, but I followed it more closely this time around, and it took Bond to plenty of interesting new places, which is always a more important aspect to me when it comes to these movies. I really had no expectations for visual style heading into this column, but it’s proving to be one of this series' most rewarding aspects for me, and Octopussy’s India is no exception. It’s drop-dead gorgeous at times. And because these plots always seem to require visiting exactly two different countries, Germany looks good too. Less remarkable, perhaps, but it looks good when Bond is cutting through the countryside on a speeding train.
Speaking of, that speeding train bit might be my favorite action set-piece of the series so far. Bond car chases have been pretty hit or miss, but this one hits hard. It’s a full-blown car chase that turns into a train chase that turns into a foot chase from the back of the train to the front. Bond gets all four of his tires shot out and he rides the car on the rails, because that’s how cars work. It rocks. Bond’s enemies also feel particularly deadly for the first time in a long while which I appreciated. Gobinda (Kabir Bedi) is a Jaws-esque badass, and that guy with the sick ass sawblade thing was great. Thereis a scene where Bond is being hunted through a jungle area by scores of men with guns riding elephants, and there’s genuine tension that is often absent from this series. It felt like a legitimately hopeless situation that Bond barely escaped. There’s high quality action for sure, but there’s also fun spy stuff. Little gimmicky things like the alligator suit or the pen whose ink can cut through metal went a long way for me.
I don’t know that this does as much new as most of Moore’s Bond films, but it is a very good refinement of the things that I like about his string of films. Clean, simple, and fun spy shit. But my limits on that kind of thing are being tested once again. I like Octopussy a lot, but I am dying for some real change here. Perhaps it’s for the best that next week I will be seeing the end of Moore’s reign. I’ll be sad to see him go but I’m happy to see whatever the next Bond does, and extra happy to see what the Bond after him does, and extra extra happy to see what the Bond after that one does. And whatever the next next next Bond does… now that’s really interesting. It’s all really interesting, folks. I love you.
