James Bond Movie Review - Octopussy (1983)

[Dave Gray]

Octopussy (1983)

Premise: A 00 agent is killed extracting a replica Russian treasure, leading Bond to undercover a smuggling plot tied to a rogue Soviet general attempting to escalate the Cold War.

The pre-title sequence of this film is highly regarded by the community, but it's not my personal taste for what I like the sequence to achieve.  In this case, it acts as a little mini-movie.  It's got a fun action sequence, disguises, it's own Bond girl, and Moore's style of humor that sets the tone for the movie.  It serves the purpose of telling us what kind of movie this is going to be.  However, for me, I like when the opening sequence sets things in motion.  This does not.  It has nothing to do with the film at all and since I'm already sensitive to runtimes, I don't like tacked on sequences just because they are cool.  It is good on its own merits, but doesn't aid the story of the movie we're watching.

The opening titles fit the bill visually, but the song doesn't really work for me.  It's a ballad, where I generally prefer songs that are more driving or have that signature Bondian sound.  But in this case, Moore is old and it actually fits his vibe.  I also don't think that "All Time High" really relates to the themes of the movie in any way.

The plot of this movie has a lot going on -- there's a Cold War plot with the Soviets, there's a fake artifacts segment with an Indian prince, and there's a circus.  It's three connected schemes with three boss characters that tie together, but it's a lot to follow.  I think it's competent, though weird in a good way.  I personally prefer a more straightfoward plot that I can follow, but there's room for this kind of thing, too.  What makes Octopussy stand out is that it has its own fingerprint.  While I think that For Your Eyes Only is a better movie for my tastes, it lacked an identity.  Octopussy, on the other hand, can easily be described as "The one in India" or "The Circus One" and there are all kinds of visual and thematic iconography, stereotypes, and gags that tie specifically to these contexts.  For example: India has rickshaws, shake charmers, a bed of nails, palaces -- a circus has animals, clowns, jugglers, magic tricks, acrobats, etc.  It gives the story a lot of ways to get Bond into fun and interesting scenarios that tie us to where we are organically in ways that wouldn't work in other Bond movies.

Strangely enough, though I had issues with Moore's age in 1981's, For Your Eyes Only, we are now two years later, but his age is less of a problem.  The action sequences aren't as physical and they're more circumstantial (like hanging on to a moving vehicle, which happens more than once) -- he's not doing fisticuffs with younger guys as much.  Whatever it is, they hide it better.  More importantly, the love interest is age appropriate.  I have no issue with Bond being an older man.  That's totally fine.  He's allowed to age, but when they still treat him like he's young, physically or sexually, it's offputting.  This works much better than the film before.

The Rogues gallery in this movie is pretty good.  Octopussy herself is both a frenemy and love interest, but she's established and has her own interests.  I never buy her relationship with Bond.  They meet and basically start making out, but the movie just expects me to think that Bond is magic horny man at this point.  Khan is a typical evil businessman but also ties to the Indian royalty stuff and best of all, his bodyguard Gobinda is the perfect silent strongman in the vein of Oddjob, Jaws, Baron Samedi -- he's got the look with the outfit and turban -- but lacks the signature scar or weapon -- he probably could've rocked a scimitar or something to complete the stereotype.  The Russian guy is boilerplate, but not really involved on screen a lot and just pushes the maguffin.  And there are other henchman coded character with Octopussy, who is so non-descript as to not matter, plus some knife throwing twins in the circus.  It isn't quite as iconic as Blofeld or Jaws, but this is a B-tier rogues gallery.

The humor is mostly good -- it leans into Moore's silliness and that balance mostly works for me, save one moment where Bond does a Tarzan yell swinging from vines.  It is one of the most cringeworthy things in the series.  Otherwise, it's tongue-and-cheek puns -- not for me, but it cements the Moore era.  I don't love it, but I respect it.

I leave this movie thinking that this is in the middle of the Roger Moore offerings, and I think I might be in the minority, but I place this just under For Your Eyes Only, because I value the tight plot and the thematic and character work over the memorability that Octopussy offers.