OTHER ASPECTS

Ken Adam has designed a multitude of expressionistic and futuristic sets again, most notable of which is the space station interior. Consisting of tubes, circular hallways, and sloping floors, the area resembles an optical illusion. Even though the filmmakers claim that the movie features scientific accuracy, there are problems with the space station. For instance, the gravitational pull would be toward the outer edges of the station, not the horizontal floor as presented in the film.

Jean Toumier is director of photography for this picture, and has succeeded in capturing beautiful location shots, especially in the mountains overlooking Rio de Janeiro. The locales are one of the few redeeming features of Moonraker.

Perhaps the most outstanding technical achievement in Moonraker is Derek Meddings' special visual effects. Meddings was nominated for an Academy Award for his work, but was beaten by Alien. Since Moonraker contained several scenes involving space travel, many miniatures were built. These included several space shuttles designed to NASA specifications. The space travel sequences equal the quality of effects that Star Wars and Star Trek—The Motion Picture brought to the screen.

The gadgets in the film are predictable and tired. Bond is presented with a wrist gun which can be fired with the slightest flick of the hand. It fires poisonous darts. The device is used by Bond to escape the centrifuge machine, and to shoot Drax. Bond also has a gadget on his person that is used to kill a giant python which he is forced to fight at Drax's Brazilian headquarters. It's some kind of poisoned ballpoint pen, which he stabs into the snake's head. We didn't know he had this device, so, as Brosnan notes, it's another example of the Bondian rules being broken. Other gadgets include the souped-up gondola, and a speedboat equipped with the usual Bond arsenal. The latter also has an extractable hang glider, which Bond miraculously engages to escape plunging down a waterfall when his boat goes over. The sequence is reminiscent of the hang glider moment in Live and Let Die, as well as the trick parachute ploy in the pre-credits sequence of The Spy Who Loved Me.

One of the best things in the film is John Barry's lovely, laid-back score. The main title theme, with lyrics by Hal David and sung by Shirley Bassey, is a haunting melody; it's full of major-seventh chords that give the song an exotic quality. The rest of the score is mellow and evocative of space travel, and Barry has escaped from his usual "science fiction" sound, which he used in You Only Live Twice and Diamonds Are Forever. It is quite easy to dismiss the score of this film because it seems lost in all the shenanigans, but it's certainly Barry's best Bond effort since On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Maurice Binder's accompanying title design is, as usual, the most erotic thing in the film.

Moonraker was extremely successful and broke all of Eon Productions' records. But apparently Broccoli received much criticism from Bond fans, especially in North America. As a result, rumors began flying that the next Bond film would revert to the original, simpler style. Indeed, Moonraker went as far as Broccoli could go with outlandishness. The only direction possible for the Bond films of the eighties was backwards. The science fiction boom of the late seventies was already beginning to wane, and with competition like the Star Wars series, Broccoli realized that the Bond films couldn't contend on a special effects level. Broccoli's ace-in-the-hole was that James Bond is a fascinating character, potentially capable of much more than gracing a special effects action film. This would be proven correct.