A View to a Kill

Roger Moore's seventh and last Bond film was 1985's A View to a Kill, and he went out on a bad note. Even he didn't like the film. About the only good things to say about it are the opening song, by Duran Duran, and Christopher Walken as the villain. He is at some of his most Christopher Walkeniness.

Moore was 57 when he made the film, far too old, and was older than his co-star, Tanya Roberts', mother. There is a scene where Walken machine guns several people to death, which is a bit harsh for a Bond film, and Grace Jones as the villain's henchwoman is wasted. The film does make good use of a couple of icons, though, the Eiffel Tower and the Golden Gate Bridge.

Walken plays an industrialist (is there a Marxist interpretation of Bond films, because the bad guys are usually military or industrial) who wants to corner the market on microchips, so he figures he'll flood Silicon Valley by causing a massive earthquake. Bond, in his usual style, actually meets the villain (this time at a horse auction--Walken also cheats at horse-racing by using steroids).

Bond will meet Roberts, the daughter of an oil man screwed over by Walken, and will join forces. Roberts gives a particularly wooden performance and somehow manages to escape out of a mine and walk on top of the Golden Gate Bridge while still wearing heels.

Walken is a delight, though. He seems to be having more fun than anyone. The film tells us he was a baby experimented on by the Nazis, giving him superior intelligence but making him a psychopath. David Bowie was originally to play the role but he couldn't have topped Walken, who even laughs when he is about to die.

The franchise went on to Timothy Dalton for the next two films, and Roger Moore continued to make pictures, but not on a Bond level. Some of the films he made were Spiceworld and Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore. This was also the last film for Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny, who had been in all fourteen Bond films up to that time.