Movie Review—
Octopussy (1983): Bond Film #13

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Recall Adams from her all-too-brief Bond film debut several years earlier, of course, as Francisco Scaramanga's mistress, Andrea Anders, in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974). She's not only more beautiful now in her late thirties than she was a decade earlier, but also more credible as a true, full, equal to 007.

The Octopussy soundtrack nicely reinforces this message. "All I wanted was a sweet distraction for an hour or two," sings a longing Rita Coolidge. But this is something more — as Bond and Octopussy are "two of a kind."

This film is also just good storytelling.

I'm fascinated by the juxtaposition between the early chase where Mischka and Grischka ultimately knife Agent 009 to death. It creates an incredible dramatic intensity as Grischka then pursues 007 (repeating history?) off the Octopussy train, through the woods, trapping Bond against a wooden country house door.

We're treated to James Bond as an effective chameleon on this mission. He opens by infiltrating a South American air force base as Colonel Toro. Later, he becomes a carnival worker, hides in a gorilla suit, and then clothes himself in Mischka's costume after killing him.

And to Moore's biggest risk in the role, when he dons a clown suit similar to that in which 009 is killed. Far from silly, it gives this actor an opportunity to fully play 007 intensely and seriously from behind any apparent mask.

Outstanding.

There's the requisite car chase, naturally. But it is nicely restrained in Octopussy. As such, it neither competes nor distracts from the wonderful sequence earlier in the film where Bond steals Orlov's black Mercedes in order to pursue the Octopussy Circus train — on railroad tracks. Clever action and a perfectly orchestrated music bed make it peerlessly "Bond."

As the denouement looms, there is always a question left by the early Bond films as to whether this one will end with a bang or a whimper. Closings among the latter sadly undermined otherwise great contributions, such as Goldfinger.

"No problem," as B.J., might say. Octopussy delivers one of the most threatening and physically taxing sequences of the franchise.

Forget about aging, and hold on for an incredible ride here, right through the closing credits.