The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

For today's James Bond marathon, I'll be watching the 10th official Bond film, The Spy Who Loved Me (1977).

SYNOPSIS:
Two nuclear submarines vanish without a trace; one British and one Russian.  The two countries decide to pool their resources and send their best agents to work together: James Bond, Agent 007 (Roger Moore) from England, and Major Anya Amasova, Agent Triple X (Barbara Bach) from Russia.  But will the two be able to get along long enough to complete the mission?

REVIEW:
At nearly the start of this film, Bond is being pursued down a snowy mountain on skis.  He manages to kill one of the henchmen after him, who we discover is agent Triple X's lover.  She is told by her superior, General Gogol (Walter Gotell) that her lover died at the hands of an English spy. She swears revenge on the unknown spy.  Boy, this is off to a good start.

Meanwhile, James Bond is tracking down some leads that might help him identify who would be responsible for the missing subs.  He finds his contact in Cairo, but before he can chat with him, the guy sees a looming large figure in the distance and runs off into the ruins near the Great Pyramids.  The silent large figure chases after. It's Jaws! (Richard Kiel)  A 7'2" giant henchman-for-hire who has metal teeth.  He uses his incredible strength and powerful metal teeth to break through any barrier between him and his prey!

Jaws chomping through a metal chain like it's taffy!

Jaws is my absolute favorite bad guy from the James Bond films!  The dude is indestructible, coming back from everything Bond throws at him in an almost cartoony fashion.  He survives inhuman circumstances like getting squished between a car and a stone wall, having stone ruins dropped on him, or driving off a cliff into a house.  Every time, he brushes himself off and continues after Bond.  Nothing can stop this guy!  I also like the fact that Bond never speaks to him.  Jaws is a silent henchman, never uttering a word.  And instead of quipping at him like Bond usually does, he just silently smiles back at the metal-mouthed foe.  I don't think James Bond utters a single word to the silent henchman throughout the entire film!

One of the rare times you'll see a horrified look on Bond's otherwise calm face

Running in to Agent Triple X, Bond finds himself competing with her for a microfilm that might give them a clue where their subs have gone.  After fighting over it (and fighting Jaws too), they return to their respective agency's hideout... to find out it's the same place!  M (Bernard Lee) and General Gogol have combined forces to track down their respective submarines and want their two best agents to work together on it.  It's also interesting to note that the Minister of Defence, Sir Frederick Gray (Geoffrey Keen) also makes an appearance in this film alongside M, and becomes a recurring character for the next 5 films as well.

M, Gogol, Triple X, and Bond, all working together

Q returns to outfit Bond in the field again, this time giving him a sleek white 1976 Lotus Esprit S1 that also doubles as a personal submarine.  Triple X greets Q by his actual name, Major Boothroyd.  This is a name we heard only once, back in the first film, Dr. No, when Q delivered Bond his Walther PPK handgun.  It also shows that the Russian spy organization knows more about MI6 than we originally thought.

Q showing Bond the features of the 1976 Lotus Esprit S1

Suspecting Karl Stromberg (Curd Jürgens), a reclusive shipping tycoon and scientist, Bond and Triple X pose as marine biologists and tour Atlantis, Stromberg's massive ocean base.  They soon identify him as the culprit, who stole the submarines to start World War III and destroy mankind so he can create a new utopian society underwater.  Sounds vaguely similar to the 2007 video game, BioShock...

Atlantis, Karl Stromberg's massive aquatic city

Bond and Triple X get along about as well as two spies can from opposing nations.  Until Bond makes an off-hand comment about vacationing in a particular place.  Pressing for the timeframe of his "vacation," Triple X learns that Bond killed her lover.  She swears, once the mission is over, she will kill Bond herself!

This was the first Bond film produced solely by Albert R. Broccoli, as his partner Harry Saltzman was forced to sell his half of the film franchise due to financial difficulties.  Also, they originally had Ernst Stavro Blofeld as the main villain, but Kevin McClory, the guy who owned the rights to Thunderball (and the origin of Blofeld and SPECTRE) filed an injunction against EON Productions to prevent them from moving forward.  Blofeld was replaced with the new character, Karl Stromberg, and the script was re-written (multiple times) before they were satisfied.

Also, I'd like to note that this is the first James Bond film that only takes the title from a novel and nothing else.  Ian Fleming's 9th Bond novel, The Spy Who Loved Me, was told in the first person by a young Canadian woman, Vivienne "Viv" Michel.  She works at a hotel when two men show up to burn it to the ground for insurance money.  Long story, short, she's about to be raped by them when James Bond shows up and saves the day.  Ian Fleming hated this novel so much that he actually tried to suppress sales of it, and only sold the title to Broccoli and Saltzman.  Hence, the film has a completely different plot.

This film is the second official Bond film to have a title song with a different name than the title of the movie; the first being Dr. No's main song, "The James Bond Theme," by the John Barry Orchestra.  The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) had the title song "Nobody Does It Better," by Carly Simon.  It was the start of the '70s-'80s era of slow, boring romantic songs.  When I think of James Bond, I don't think of quiet, romance music.  I think of something more powerful and upbeat.  But I guess this was popular for the time.  Personally, it's one of my least favorite Bond title songs.  You can listen to it here:

RECOMMENDATION:
This film is one of the few I never remember anything about.  Despite having a decent villainous plot and a bad-ass aquatic base, I feel like it just didn't go far enough with it.  The villain felt like Blofeld-light.  He wasn't really well established and his motives were just kind of shady.  Dude didn't like people, so he thought he'd build a new underwater civilization.  The movie itself just wasn't very engaging, despite having my favorite henchman of all time, Jaws.  And the relationship between Bond and Triple X, both professional and romantic, is not very well defined, flipping as the plot demands.  I usually just watch this film for Jaws' scenes.  The film could've been a lot better, but it was just kind of "meh" in my opinion.