Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Podcast: The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

Jaws teeth Spy Who Loved Me

Special guest and resident James Bond expert Vincent Goodwin picks one of his most loathed 007 films: 1977's The Spy Who Loved Me. Starring Roger Moore as Bond, and Ringo Starr's coked-out wife Barbara Bach as the porno inspired Agent XXX, this one features the super-ish villain Stromberg as he kidnaps way more nuclear subs than he needs in order to fulfill his lifelong fantasy of a world under the sea.


The film also introduces the metal-toothed Jaws (Richard Kiel) and makes very little sense, jumping from action setpiece to action setpiece as Roger Moore diddles around in front of a rear projection screen and insults women drivers. It does feature the great but bizarrely mellow karaoke staple "Nobody Does It Better" as its theme.

Some notes:
  • There was some digression as Nick references Never Say Never Again, the non-canon Bond movie where a 97 year old Sean Connery battles the villain in a WarGames style death video game.
  • Check out Vincent Goodwin's comics on Amazon!
  • Composer Marvin Hamlisch (The Way We Were, A Chorus Line) provides the uneven score, which swings from Carly Simon to funkadelic disco to the Bond theme to Carly Simon (saxophone instrumental) to the Lawrence of Arabia score.
  • Despite TSWLM's feminist leanings, Agent XXX is relatively dead-eyed and helpless, while a smug Roger Moore insults her driving. It's sad when the next film, 1979's Moonraker, provides a much more progressive female lead with a character named Holly Goodhead.

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