Greetings, Glancers! Today I run a critical eye over my tenth favourite movie of the year 1955, seeking to ignore my bias and provide a fair score based on the 20 criteria I feel are most important in the creation of a film. Today’s movie is A View To A Kill, John Glen’s third James Bond movie, and Roger Moore’s final outing as 007.
Sales: 5. A hefty box office success as always. You could go 4 here, given that it wasn’t a top-ten grossing film.
Critical Consensus: 2. Possibly you can get to a three on this one, but I think it’s one of the least well-reviewed films in the series, even if it does have its fans.
Director: 4. The vast majority of the film’s criticism went to the performances. Glen was criticised for wallowing in the violence, but I’ve never had an issue with this, and his handling of the stunt and action sequences is enough to get this to a low 4. Most people, I suspect, will go 3.
Performances: 3. Moore got blasted for being too old, as if that was his fault, and Tanya Roberts gets a lot of grief for a very blond, screechy performance. While these aren’t the greatest displays in the series, I can overlook them – Walken is great, Jones is fun, and the familiar faces do their stuff.
Characters: 4. Zoren is one of the best villains in the series – he’s just completely, cartoonishly unhinged, and I love it. Depending on how you feel about Mayday’s face turn, you may go lower, but I’ll allow it.
Cinematography: 4. Some gorgeous stuff, particularly in the Paris and San Francisco stuns scenes.
Writing: 3. I’ve never understood what ‘a view to a kill’ is supposed to mean, or if it even makes grammatical sense, so it’s weird when Zorin shouts out late in the film. Still, there’s plenty of the usual double entrendres and quotable fun. To A Kill!
Plot: 4. It’s your typical super-villain trying to destroy shit for his own financial gain, except that this time the villain is even more insane, and because it’s the 80s it’s all about microchips and electromagnets. I’m not sure why there has to be a Nazi connection and a bunch of horse-riding, but it all works for me.
Wardrobe: 3. Grace Jones gets the snazzy stuff, as you’d expect, but this being the 80s everything is, well, 80s.
Editing: 3. Sure.
Make up and Hair: 3. See the Wardrobe section.
Effects: 4. As you would expect in the pre-CG world of action movies – nothing outlandish, and nothing dated.
Art and Set: 4. I was going to suggest that there aren’t any lavish sets like the Bond films of old, but then I remembered the whole mine-sequence and how much effort must have gone into creating that, never mind the airship and mansion.
Sound And Music: 5. The title song is one of the best in the series, and the accompanying score builds heavily around those melodies.
Cultural Significance: 3. I’m not sure if this one has had any great impact over anything else in the series. Outside of the song, of Mayday, and the fact than it was Moore’s last film, I don’t think it has had any wider impact.
Accomplishment: 4. Every Bond movie is a feat of technical skill, bringing globe-trotting big budget thrills to the screen.
Stunts: 4. It has some of the most famous stunts and sequences in the series, but most of these are not necessarily as exciting or iconic as others.
Originality: 3. As mentioned above, it’s a fairly traditional Bond film brought up to date for the 1980s.
Miscellaneous: 4. It generated a few computer games, and Mayday showed up later in Goldeneye on the N64, not to mention the final appearances of some key series performers.
Personal: 5. Look, I’m going to go with 5 for most Bond films, but A View To A Kill is a personal favourite. I love that it’s both grounded and ridiculous, I love Zorin, I love the mixture of humour and violence, and the music.
Total Score: 74/100
Let us know your scores in the comments!
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