I saw the 1977 James Bond film, The Spy Who Loved Me when I was 7 years old, almost 15 years after its original release date. The tenth in the James Bond series, I remember being allowed to stay up late to watch the whole film with my parents and sister on our TV at home. Feeling like a rebel by staying up late and watching a grown up movie, I actually remember very little about the story-line. I do remember the iconic 007 music, Carly Simon’s rendition of “Nobody Does It Better” is a song that takes me back to that moment with my family at home, watching James Bond. The opening sequence shows Bond trying to evade the KGB henchman and ultimately skis off a cliff, this left 7 year old me in awe of such an amazing action sequence. This may have been the pivotal moment I fell in love with skiing!  

However, I now realize all James Bond films follow a similar theme; bad guy tries to take over the world, good guy saves the world. Good guy uses his impressive array of gadgets and weapons and there is always a bevy of scantily clad ladies eager to help him. The Spy Who Loved Me is no exception to this rule. Bond oozes charisma, sophistication and confidence. Many later films have followed the action genre and enjoyed huge success such as The Fast and Furious series. When I first watched this film, I fell in love with action scenes of car chases and the gadgets. I marveled at how Bond always escaped unscathed and had witty one-liners congratulating himself. About 30 minutes into the film, Bond is in Egypt on the trail of finding a microfilm containing the details of a submarine tracking system, he is looking for Fekkesh and interrogates one of his henchmen on the top of a building. Bad guy is holding on to Bond’s tie and when Bond asks where the Fekkesh is, the henchman reluctantly gives up the information. Bond lets go of his tie and bad guy falls to his death. Bond is unmoved by his death and simply says, “what a helpful chap”. These smart comments are peppered throughout the film which demonstrates Bond’s level of sophistication but also a lack of empathy.

Having watched the film, many years later, I noticed little things such as Bond’s lack of remorse when he kills multiple people, him pursuing several women for no strings attached liaisons and ludicrous car chases and fights that any normal person would not survive. With a broader view and understanding of the world as an adult, I know a lot of the sequences and plot line are more for cinematic effect than accuracy to real life. I can appreciate that this film took pioneering steps in showing that women can have brains as well as beauty. They do not always need to be rescued but can be just as bad ass as the men in the movie. I like that this film shows women empowerment.

We see this about halfway through the movie where Major Anya Amasova steals the microfilm from Bond’s possession by blowing noxious gas from her cigarette. She later comments that she was able to take the microfilm from Bond “with considerable ease”. This shows that she is just as smart as Bond and is not to be underestimated simply because she is female.  

The Spy Who Loved Me is a conventional film with a large budget of $14m ($60m today). Using a well known and respected actor like Roger Moore, who was on his third outing playing James Bond, conforms to the conventional film genre. The film is based on the successful Ian Fleming novels which detail the missions of James Bond. Interestingly, The Spy Who Loved Me only takes its name from Fleming’s original novel, the actual plot line does not follow Fleming’s original story. The film follows other conventions such as the protagonist is a white, heterosexual male where the women, or “Bond girls” as they are commonly referred to as, play a passive role and are romantic objects to be pursued. Without doubt, the James Bond series and particularly, The Spy Who Loved Me, are a winning formula of familiar stories, engage the audience and are easy to understand.

The Spy Who Loved Me was a box office hit, grossing $185m, reviews were mixed. Top critics thought the film was too long and never did top the ski stunt in the opening sequence. However, with a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 80%, The Spy Who Loved Me is considered a success and was the best film of the Roger Moore era. The gadgets, set locations and cars (such as the amphibious Lotus car) were cutting edge technology at the time and showed audiences that the James Bond series lead in the film industry for advanced and even futuristic prop development.