As a movie that divides opinion among Bond fans we thought we’d dig a little deeper into A View To A Kill this week. Before we turn the microphone over to the JBR listeners for our upcoming ‘Listener Review’ episode, we decided to seek out two proud defenders of the film.
First up we have Mark O’Connell, author of ‘Catching Bullets: Memoirs of a Bond Fan,’ who frequently cites AVTAK as his all-time favourite Bond film. We’re also joined by Andrew McNess, who is so passionate about Bond 14, he wrote an entire book on the subject called ‘A Close Look at A View To A Kill.’
In addition to all the AVTAK talk we hear about Daniel Craig’s recent on-stage performance in Othello. We get the full report from the recent JBR meet up in London and we hear about ‘JBR South Coast Central’s’ first on-location meet up coming up early next year.
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4 Responses
I’m pretty sure the Sir Roger grunt first was heard in “For your eyes only”, during the sequence where Bond skis down the giant Olympic slide (whatever it is called) and is pushed by the Charles Dance played henchmen.
I’ve considered AVTAK my least favorite Bond film since it first came out but having revisited “Quantum of Solace” this week, I now tend to lean on the latter. At least “View” (unlike Quantum) has plenty of attractive locations and a terrific title song.
Of course Tom wouldn’t know where the line “I don’t like cock fights” comes from. I wish I had never heard it myself ! (think Madonna). I’m pretty sure the new Guess the Music Q comes from Live and Let Die (Baron Samedi playing the flute).
Merry Christmas!!!!! This podcast was a great Christmas gift for us Bond fans. Thanks!
Loved both the interviews, and am definitely going to have to treat myself to a copy of the A Closer Look at AVTAK book. I’d have to say VIEW was probably the first Bond film I had followed from the early news, TV segments, to the week of release and beyond. I can remember getting up an extra 2 hours early before school the week AVTAK was released to catch the Bond specials on ABC’s Good Morning America. Roger Moore, Christopher Walken, Christopher Lee, Richard Kiel, as well as the MI6 regulars were all interviewed to promote the film. Very cool it was.
I had become a major Bond fan around the time of OCTOPUSSY, and was catching the films on television whenever they were aired (believe me, it was an event when ABC would show a Bond on a Sunday night). Then with Connery’s comeback in NSNA another milestone in Bond history, followed, by VIEW in May of ’85 it was exciting to have 3 different Bond films released really not that far apart. So I have a soft spot for that period in Bond film history. By the end of ’85 my folks had bought our first VHS player and we were renting the Bonds weekly so I could see them in their uncut form. Great memories!
merry christmas JBR fam! https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9d94dae3371a3864f43d0cbad4bee603a64878d5cd5f68b2a35efe67aa48389a.jpg
I am a big Shakespeare fan too, I wish I can watch Othello with him, love the play. people really loved it, like Timothy dalton. I like the trait that Bond was so old, but know so many heroes are old Indiana Jones, Bruce Wayne/ Batman, John Mclaine, Han Solo as you said. I agree with that. Roger Moore said that he decided to end his run as James Bond when he realized that Tanya Roberts’s mother was younger than he was. However Albert R. Broccoli said he wanted a younger actor for the next film The Living Daylights (1987) and would not have kept Moore as Bond anyway. Broccoli felt that retaining Moore, who was 57, for this film had been a mistake. Contrary to what some sources have said, Moore was never offered another Bond film after this one. Roger Moore turned 57 during filming, making him the oldest actor to play Bond. Sean Connery was 52 in Never Say Never Again (1983). At the time of the film’s release Sean Connery told the press, “Bond should be played by an actor 35, 33 years old. I’m too old. Roger’s too old, too!”This was Lois Maxwell’s final appearance as Miss Moneypenny. Apparently, after she was told that she would be retiring from the role, she thought that she could become the M character as a promotion. However, at the time producer Albert R. Broccoli believed that audiences would not accept James Bond being given orders by woman. The M character did become a lady a decade later when Judi Dench took on the role in GoldenEye (1995).The final scenes for Lois Maxwell and Roger Moore each make reference to their end with the series. Maxwell’s last scene as Moneypenny shows her in tears, while Moore’s last scene as Bond has him, quite literally, throwing in the towel.According to former CIA agent Tony Mendez (the subject of the spy film Argo (2012)) after watching this film his superior at the CIA asked him did they have any facial recognition technology as depicted in ‘A View to a Kill’. When Mendez told him they did not he ordered them to develop it.Filming was delayed when the “007 Stage” at Pinewood Studios burned down on 27 June 1984 during production of Legend (1985). It was totally rebuilt in less than four months, and renamed “The Albert R. Broccoli 007 Stage”. Coincidentally, the title song of the movie contained the lyric “Dance into the fire”. The stage burned down again in July 2006 just after filming had been completed on Casino Royale (2006).Dianne Feinstein was the mayor of San Francisco at the time of filming. Because Roger Moore was her favorite of the first three actors to play Bond, she granted all the necessary permits to film in the city.Patrick Macnee got the role of Sir Godfrey Tibbet because he wanted to be in a Bond movie, and also because he and Roger Moore were the best of friends. Macnee had also been friends with Bond creator Ian Fleming, and subsequently has voiced narration for Bond film short video documentaries, when they were first released on videocassette and DVD in 1995 and 2000.This is the only James Bond movie to have the title from an Ian Fleming work be amended or changed in some way. The source title which is from the “For Your Eyes Only” collection of short stories was called “From a View to a Kill”. This was also this movie’s working title, as seen in the end credits of Octopussy (1983), but the word “From” was dropped before filming began in May 1984.First cinema feature of Alison Doody, who turned 18 during filming, making her the youngest (credited) Bond girl ever.Lois Maxwell suggested that Moneypenny be killed off.Duran Duran was chosen to do the song after bassist Jon Taylor (a lifelong Bond fan) approached Albert R. Broccoli at a party, and somewhat drunkenly asked “When are you going to get someone decent to do one of your theme songs?”When 007 meets his CIA contact (Chuck Lee) in San Francisco – there is a reference to a South African mining accident. Roger Moore previously starred in Gold (1974) where he portrayed a gold mine general manager who uncovers a plot to stage a gold mining accident (with a plot similar to Goldfinger (1964)).In 1959, The “London Daily News” published an original Ian Fleming short story (conceived as a plot for an abandoned James Bond TV show) called “Murder Before Breakfast”. Fleming felt the title did not capture the essence of the story and re-titled it “From A View To A Kill” when it was included in his “For Your Eyes Only” collection of five James Bond stories in 1960. Fleming found the inspiration for this new title from John Woodcock Grave’s 1820 Cumberland Hunting Song, “D’Ye Ken John Peel”. It read in part: “From the drag to the chase. From the chase to the view. From the view to a death in the morning…” Fleming adapted the third stanza for his short story title. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/165dac88b3e870a175827080de05931187ba169a745ed503bf691137f20ddece.jpg