Roger Moore, who died today at the age of 89, was the perfect James Bond for a generation. That’s why his legacy as Bond is a strange one: He’s beloved by the younger Gen X crowd as their favorite (including this reporter) and often dismissed by everyone else as “too silly.” Don’t even try to argue Moore’s legacy with your Baby Boomer parents unless you want a lecture as to why Sean Connery is still the only James Bond even though six actors have now played the role. And yes, Moore’s Bond movies could certainty be silly (have you seen Moonraker recently?), but his devil-may-care, almost meta performance of Bond was so transparently phony, it became genuine. James Bond is ridiculous and Moore’s didn’t shy away from pointing that out.
In the early 1980s, For Your Eyes Only was on heavy rotation on HBO (which was one of the more “serious” of Moore’s Bond movies, at least in comparison). This would be my first experience with James Bond. I remember sitting in front of the television in awe, asking my mother, “Who is this guy?” My mother explained that this was James Bond, but, of course, not the real James Bond. By the end of For Your Eyes Only I loved Roger Moore so much, that to be told there was someone obviously better didn’t make any sense, but I tried my best to trust what my mother was saying. In the pre-credits sequence, Moore’s Bond drops Blofeld from a helicopter down a chimney! How could anyone resist this?
(At least, we are led to believe it’s Blofeld. There was a dispute at the time over who owned the character so this was a way of the producers to show how they felt about the situation. This is the only time Moore’s Bond would interact with Blofeld. This dispute would also lead to the 1983 Connery-starring Bond film, Never Say Never Again. More on that in a bit.)
In the summer of 1983 my grandmother (who passed away in February) took me to see my first James Bond movie in theaters, the unfortunately titled Octopussy (“unfortunate” if you went with your grandmother and figured out the double entendre years later). It was after Octopussy (and the fact my parents finally had a VCR, even though it was a Betamax) I went back and watched all of the older Roger Moore Bond films.
It’s hard to believe Live and Let Die was Moore’s first as Bond because he already seemed so comfortable in the role. If nothing else, he certainly wasn’t trying to be Sean Connery. Moore, who was 45 when he took over as Bond (and three years older than Connery), avoided a good deal of the nonsense about “replacing Connery” because George Lazenby had already taken that heat two movies before. Connery returned for Diamonds are Forever, but was pretty clear it was only for the money and had already checked out of the role. By the time Moore took over, the series seemed “fresh” and had a cool Paul McCartney and Wings song to go along with it.
It’s also remarkable that for Moore’s second film as Bond they chose The Man with the Golden Gun, which is basically just Moore and Christopher Lee on an island together chewing scenery for two hours. After The Spy Who Loved Me (which gave us Richard Kiel’s Jaws), James Bond wasn’t immune to the Star Wars craze, so For Your Eyes Only was delayed so Moonraker could be made.
Moonraker is the movie Moore’s detractors will point at in their defense when others sing his praises. It’s by far the James Bond movie least like any other James Bond movie. (The last time I saw Moonraker it was being shown at a trendy, campy New York City bar and it fit right in perfectly.) But even in Moonraker, Moore almost acts like the master of ceremonies, keeping the circus from running too off the rails. (It’s funny to imagine Daniel Craig attempting to play James Bond in Moonraker. Though, I’d buy a ticket right now if he did.) The fact Moonraker didn’t kill the series is a testament to Roger Moore. (At the time of its release, Moonraker got fairly decent reviews. Oh, and it made a lot of money.)
A View to a Kill isn’t Moore’s best James Bond movie, but it’s the quintessential “Roger Moore James Bond Movie.” At 58 when it was released, he was probably too old for the role. It also features a number one hit from Duran Duran in which Simon Le Bon does a James Bond impression…
And an opening chase down a mountain set to “California Girls” by The Beach Boys.
Christopher Walken plays the villain and Grace Jones plays a character who has seemingly superheroic strength. (A View to a Kill is a very fun movie to watch.)
I’ll never forget the first time I watched a Sean Connery James Bond film. I was so disappointed. All I kept hearing from adults, people I trusted, was that this was the best. He was taking this all way too seriously! – at least through the eyes of an eight-year-old who loved Roger Moore. And, yes, I now have an appreciation for Connery’s Bond, like I have an appreciation for Lazenby’s and Timothy Dalton’s (whose seriousness was so jarring coming right after Moore) and Pierce Brosnan’s and Craig’s.
When I run into people who still say “Connery was the only Bond,” I don’t even argue. It’s pointless to argue. Lorne Michaels always says that a person’s favorite SNL cast will be the one from when they are in high school. There’s some truth there, but I think it can skew even a little younger. And I think James Bond is the same way. And my James Bond had the coolest gadgets and did it all without looking like he cared all that much – which, again, makes him the perfect Bond for Gen X. Moore brought us in on the joke and we loved him for it.
(As an aside, it’s a strange moment in popular culture saw Moore and Connery going head-to-head as Bond in 1983 when Moore was in Octopussy that summer and Connery was in Never Say Never Again later in the fall. People will argue Connery was too old by this point to be playing Bond, but he was three years younger than Moore. Anyway, more people saw Octopussy.)
Also, did Sean Connery show up in The Cannonball Run and basically play himself as James Bond? No. He didn’t. This was Roger Moore. And he was our James Bond. And, to us, the people who feel this way about him, he will always be our favorite.
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