#10 The Spy Who Loved Me

I found myself laughing during this movie more than any of the other Bond movies. Not that it’s a comedy, but some of the fight scenes are funny. Roger Moore’s Bond continues to bring a silly sense of humor to the role in The Spy Who Loved Me. And is Bond finally evolving? He only slept with two women in this movie…but he was kissing a complete stranger, and in the blink of an eye she was dead.

Here are some things that stood out as I watched movie #10, The Spy Who Loved Me. (This isn’t a movie review but there will be spoilers.)

The Man With the Metal Teeth Is In This Movie!!!

This is the Bond movie that has the man with the metal teeth!   In my first write-up on my whole Bond journey, I said I knew very little about James Bond movies other than women in bikinis, car chases and a man with metal teeth.

I now know his name is Jaws, he kills people with his teeth, he never says a word in the movie, but he can bite himself out of any situation. The way that the 7’2″ Jaws picks up Bond and tosses him about is hilarious as is Bond’s reaction. Of course Bond always wins, but it’s funny watching him struggle his way out of a fight with Jaws. Roger Moore continues to bring a silly sense of humor to the Bond role.

Richard Kiel is the actor who played Jaws. He appeared in many movies and tv shows and has an interesting history. He overcame a battle with alcoholism when he became a born again Christian, he co-wrote a biography of abolitionist Cassius Marcellus Clay and wrote several other books. I’ll see Jaws again because he’s also in the next Bond movie I’m watching, Moonraker.

James Bond, Women & His Evolution

Uh oh. James Bond is slipping. He only slept with two women in this movie. Or maybe I should see it as him evolving. But he’s pretty much the same Bond. He kissed a woman who was a complete stranger, and I’m laughing out loud as I write this because it was such a superficial scene. That behavior–Bond thinking he’s such an irresistible magnet–should’ve stayed in the Sean Connery era. It doesn’t fit Roger Moore’s British gentlemanly look.

The strange woman he kissed is there to “entertain” Bond as he waits for her boss to arrive. As they are kissing, she sees a man with a gun aimed at Bond. Bond has no idea what’s happening until she gasps. With her in his arms, he quickly turns to look, and she’s shot dead instead of Bond.

I thought Bond used her as a human shield on purpose, but watching the scene again, I don’t believe he did…not this time. In the movie Thunderball, there’s no question that he used a woman as a human shield, and she was killed.

In Goldfinger, a similar thing happened. Bond is kissing a woman. In her eyes, he sees the reflection of a man coming up behind him with a heavy object. Bond spins the woman around to use her as a human shield, and she’s hit in the head and knocked out instead of Bond.

Bond sends a strong message to women with this behavior: I can use you for sex, but you’re expendable.

In this movie, The Spy Who Loved Me, women continue to be seen primarily as sex objects. Major Anya Amasova, the female Russian agent Bond teams up with is also known as a sexual pun, Agent Triple X.

James Bond Shows Emotion Over His Deceased Wife

I love that James Bond shows some emotion in this film. It’s only a few seconds, but I’ll take it because Bond isn’t known for showing emotion. When he and Agent Amasova are at a bar, she reveals everything she knows about him including his marriage and that his wife was killed.

“All right, you’ve made your point,” he tells her.
“You’re sensitive, Mr. Bond.”
“About certain things, yes.” And he walks away.
His wife’s death is still a tender subject for him.

The Plot of The Spy Who Loved Me is Fairly Straightforward

It’s a pretty straightforward plot–Bond teams up with a Russian female agent to find out what happened to a missing submarine that’s carrying nuclear missiles. The plot wasn’t all over the place like some of the other Bond movies (Goldfinger and Live and Let Die). 

When I first saw the submarine in the opening scene I thought, oh no, not another movie with tons of underwater scenes like Thunderball.  Fortunately, that wasn’t the case. As I mentioned in my write-up on Thunderball, underwater scenes make me sleepy.

The Spy Who Loved Me–What’s Up With This Movie Title?

I was curious about the title of this movie because Bond didn’t declare his love to anyone in the film nor did the Russian agent (Major Amasova) declare her love to him. So who is the spy who loved who?

The only thing that Ian Fleming’s original novel, The Spy Who Loved Me, shares with the movie is the title.

Wierdly, Ian Fleming wrote the novel (in 1961) because kids were reading about James Bond and seeing him as a hero, and Fleming wanted to dispel that. So, he wrote The Spy Who Loved Me, as a sexually explicit dark novel, in which James Bond doesn’t appear until almost the end.

In Fleming’s book, a woman is the main character and narrator who details her past love affairs. One of those affairs is James Bond which happens towards the end of the book. In the novel, Bond is the spy who loved her (sexually speaking). As for the movie, the title is just a title, with no connection to anything that happens in Ian Fleming’s original novel.

Ian Fleming was fiercely criticized for the novel and, therefore, he wanted to hide it from the public. He only gave EON Productions permission to use the title, none of its content. Christopher Wood wrote a new version of The Spy Who Loved Me specifically for the movie.

Production/Filming Info on The Spy Who Loved Me

The filming of The Spy Who Loved Me was released in 1977.
(By this time Harry Saltzman ended his partnership with Albert R. Broccoli, selling his shares of the franchise to United Artists. The production time between this film and the last was longer than previous movies because Saltzman held up production on a new film.)

Amazon Prime Video X-RAY Feature is Gone!

Unfortunately, the Prime Video X-RAY feature is no longer incorporated in the Bond movies, and I’m mad about it. How could they remove this important feature?!

I spent over half an hour with an Amazon representative, via chat, wondering if there was some way to get the X-RAY general trivia information back on the screen. The rep was so relentless in trying to help that I’d still be on the chat today until I realized there was nothing they could do to help.

While on the live chat, I looked at some of the previous Bond movies to see if the X-RAY information was still there. It was gone. All the Thunderball general trivia was gone. All the general trivia on On Her Majesty’s Secret Service gone! They removed it from all the movies. Why, Amazon Prime Video, would you remove such valuable content?????

It was because of the Prime X-RAY feature I learned that George Lazenby cried during the filming of Bond’s wife’s death scene. That’s how I knew they used two actresses for the role of Tatiana Romanova in From Russia With Love. And now all that golden information is gone. That sucks.

Having the X-RAY general trivia information was like walking through a museum with a docent providing valuable information I wouldn’t have learned otherwise. I only got through Thunderball because of the X-RAY trivia info.

Maybe the change with the X-RAY feature has something to do with the recent Amazon-MGM acquisition. Changes are always made when mergers take place. But this wasn’t a good change…not for me anyway. PLEASE AMAZON PRIME, BRING BACK ALL THE BOND TRIVIA INFORMATION.