Octopussy


Octopussy is a 1983 spy film and the thirteenth in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions, and the sixth to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. It was directed by John Glen and the screenplay was written by George MacDonald Fraser, Richard Maibaum, and Michael G. Wilson.
The film's title is taken from a short story in Ian Fleming's 1966 short story collection Octopussy and The Living Daylights, although the film's plot is original. It does, however, include a scene inspired by the Fleming short story "The Property of a Lady", while the events of the short story "Octopussy" form a part of the title character's background and are recounted by her.
Bond is assigned the task of following a general who is stealing jewels and relics from the Soviet government. This leads him to a wealthy Afghan prince, Kamal Khan, and his associate, Octopussy, and the discovery of a plot to force disarmament in Western Europe with the use of a nuclear weapon.
Octopussy was produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, and was released in the same year as the non-Eon Bond film Never Say Never Again. The film earned $187.5 million against its $27.5 million budget and received mixed reviews, with praise being directed towards the action sequences and locations, and the plot and humour being targeted for criticism; Maud Adams's portrayal of the title character also drew polarised responses.

Plot

While trying to escape from East to West Berlin, British agent 009 dies in the residence of the British Ambassador, dressed as a circus clown and carrying a fake Fabergé egg. MI6 immediately suspects Soviet involvement and, after seeing the real egg appear at an auction in London, sends James Bond to identify the seller. At the auction, Bond swaps the real egg for a fake one and subsequently engages in a bidding war with exiled Afghan prince Kamal Khan, forcing Khan to pay £500,000 for the fake egg. Bond follows Khan back to his palace in Rajasthan, where Bond defeats Khan in a game of backgammon. Bond escapes with his contact Vijay, foiling the attempts of Khan's bodyguard Gobinda to kill the pair. Bond is seduced by Khan associate Magda, and notices that she has a blue-ringed octopus tattoo. Bond permits Magda to steal the real Fabergé egg fitted with listening and tracking devices by Q, while Gobinda captures and takes Bond to Khan's palace. After Bond escapes from his room, he listens in on the bug and discovers that Khan is working with Orlov, a Soviet general, who is seeking to expand Soviet control in Europe.
Bond infiltrates a floating palace in Udaipur, and there finds its owner, Octopussy, a wealthy business woman, smuggler and associate of Khan. She also leads the Octopus cult, of which Magda is a member. Octopussy has a personal connection with Bond: she is the daughter of the late Major Dexter-Smythe, whom Bond was assigned to arrest for treason. Bond allowed the Major to commit suicide rather than face trial, and Octopussy thanks him for offering her father an honorable alternative, inviting Bond to stay on as her guest. Earlier in Khan's palace and later in Octopussy's palace, Bond finds out that Orlov has been supplying Khan with priceless Soviet treasures, replacing them with replicas while Khan has been smuggling the real versions into the West via Octopussy's circus troupe. Orlov is planning to meet Khan at Karl-Marx-Stadt in East Germany, where the circus is scheduled to perform. Gobinda sends mercenaries to kill Bond, but he and Octopussy gain the upper hand when the assassins break into the palace. Bond learns from Q that Vijay has been killed by the goons.
Travelling to East Germany, Bond infiltrates the circus and finds out that Orlov replaced the Soviet treasures with a nuclear warhead, primed to explode during the circus show at a US Air Force base in West Germany. The explosion would trigger Europe into seeking disarmament in the belief that the bomb was a US one that detonated by accident, leaving its borders open to a Soviet invasion. Bond takes Orlov's car, drives it along the train tracks and boards the moving circus train. Orlov gives chase, but is killed at the border by East German guards after they mistake Orlov for a defector. Bond kills the twin knife-throwing assassins Mischka and Grischka and, after falling from the train, commandeers a car to get to the airbase. Bond penetrates the base and disguises himself as a clown to evade the West German police. He attempts to convince Octopussy that Khan has betrayed her by showing her one of the treasures found in Orlov's car, which she was to smuggle for him. Octopussy realizes that she has been tricked, and assists Bond in deactivating the warhead.
Bond and Octopussy return separately to India. Bond arrives at Khan's palace just as Octopussy and her troops have launched an assault on the grounds. Octopussy attempts to kill Khan, but is captured by Gobinda. While Octopussy's team, led by Magda, overpower Khan's guards, Khan and Gobinda abandon the palace, taking Octopussy as a hostage. Bond pursues them as they attempt to escape in their plane, clinging to the fuselage and disabling the tailplanes. In the subsequent struggle with Bond, Gobinda takes a deadly plummet off the roof of the plane and Bond rescues Octopussy from Khan, the pair jumping onto a nearby cliff only seconds before the plane crashes into a mountain, killing Khan. While M and General Gogol discuss the transport of the jewelery, Bond recuperates with Octopussy aboard her private boat in India.

Cast

Gary Russell plays one of the teenagers in the car that taunts Bond after refusing to give him a lift.

Production

Writing

The title 'Octopussy' comes from the Ian Fleming collection of short stories Octopussy and The Living Daylights. Hardly any of the plot of the short story "Octopussy" is used, however, with its events simply related by Bond as the family backstory for one of the main characters. The scene at Sotheby's is, though, drawn from the short story "The Property of a Lady", while Kamal Khan's reaction following the backgammon game is taken from Fleming's novel Moonraker.
George MacDonald Fraser was hired to work on an early draft of the script and he proposed that the story be set in India, as the series had not yet visited said country. The first draft was delivered shortly after the release of For Your Eyes Only, whose writers Michael G. Wilson and Richard Maibaum went on to rework the script. They discarded his idea for the opening sequence, featuring a motorbike chase set at the Isle of Man TT, but still retained moments that producer Albert R. Broccoli had first criticized, where Bond dressed as a gorilla and later, a clown.

Casting

Following For Your Eyes Only, Roger Moore had expressed a desire to retire from the role of James Bond. His original contract had been for three films, which was fulfilled with The Spy Who Loved Me. Subsequent films were negotiated on a film-by-film basis. Given his reluctance to return for Octopussy, the producers engaged in a semi-public quest for the next Bond, with Timothy Dalton being suggested as a replacement and screen tests carried out with both Michael Billington and American actor James Brolin. However, when rival Bond production Never Say Never Again was announced, the producers persuaded Moore to continue in the role as it was thought the established actor would fare better against former Bond Sean Connery. It has been reported that James Brolin was actually on the point of moving to London to begin work on Octopussy at the time.
Sybil Danning was announced in Prevue magazine in 1982 as being Octopussy, but was never actually cast, later explaining that Albert R. Broccoli felt "her personality was too strong". Faye Dunaway was deemed too expensive. Barbara Carrera said she turned down the role to take a part in the competing Bond film Never Say Never Again. Casting director Jane Jenkins revealed that the Bond producers told her that they wanted a South Asian actress to play Octopussy, so she looked at the only two Indians in a then predominantly white Hollywood, Persis Khambatta and Susie Coelho. Afterward, she auditioned white actresses, like Barbara Parkins, who she felt could pass for Indian. Finally, Broccoli announced to her that they would cast Swedish-born Maud Adams, who had been a Bond girl in The Man with the Golden Gun, and had been recently used by Eon to screen test the potential Bonds. To acknowledge the nationality, Adams had her hair darkened, and a few lines were added about how she was raised by an Indian family. A different plotline, with Adams' British father exposed as a traitor, was used instead. The role of Magda went to another Swedish actress, Kristina Wayborn, who the producers first noticed playing Greta Garbo in the miniseries The Silent Lovers.
Octopussy is also the first film to feature Robert Brown as M, following the death of Bernard Lee in 1981. Brown was recommended by Moore, who had known him since both worked in the series Ivanhoe. Brown had previously played Admiral Hargreaves in The Spy Who Loved Me, six years earlier.
The first actor to be cast in the film was Vijay Amritraj, a popular professional tennis player whom Broccoli met watching The Championships in Wimbledon. His character of Bond's ally in India was also named Vijay and used a tennis racket as a weapon. For the villains, Broccoli brought in his friend Louis Jourdan as Kamal Khan, while his daughter Barbara suggested Steven Berkoff for Orlov after having seen him perform his own play, Greek, in Los Angeles.

Filming

The filming of Octopussy began on 10 August 1982 with the scene in which Bond arrives at Checkpoint Charlie. Principal photography was done by Arthur Wooster and his second unit, who later filmed the knife-throwing scenes. Much of the film was shot in Udaipur, India. The Monsoon Palace served as the exterior of Kamal Khan's palace, while scenes set at Octopussy's palace were filmed at the Lake Palace and Jag Mandir, and Bond's hotel was the Shiv Niwas Palace. In England RAF Northolt, RAF Upper Heyford and RAF Oakley were the main locations. The Karl-Marx-Stadt railways scenes were shot at the Nene Valley Railway in Peterborough, while studio work was performed at Pinewood Studios and the 007 Stage. Parts of the film were also shot in Hurricane Mesa, Hurricane-LaVerkin Bridge, and New Harmony in Utah. Most of the crew as well as Roger Moore had diet problems while shooting in India.
The pre-title sequence has a scene where Bond flies a nimble homebuilt Bede BD-5J aircraft through an open hangar. Hollywood stunt pilot and aerial co-ordinator J.W. "Corkey" Fornof, who piloted the aircraft at more than, has said, "Today, few directors would consider such a stunt. They'd just whip it up in a computer lab." Having collapsible wings, the plane was shown hidden in a horse trailer; however, a dummy was used for this shot. Filming inside the hangar was achieved by attaching the aircraft to an old Jaguar car with a steel pole, driving with the roof removed. The second unit were able to add enough obstacles including people and objects inside the hangar to hide the car and the pole and make it look as though Moore was flying inside the base. For the explosion after the mini jet escapes, however, a miniature of the hangar was constructed and filmed up close. The exploding pieces of the hangar were in reality only long. Bond stole a Mercedes-Benz saloon car at a depot manned by antagonist soldiers, then as he tried to escape drove over barrier spikes which shredded his tyres. So he manoeuvred his vehicle's bare wheels onto the rails to pursue the train. During filming, the car had intact tyres in one scene so as to avoid any mishap.
Stunt coordinator Martin Grace suffered an injury while shooting the scene where Bond climbs down the train to catch Octopussy's attention. During the second day of filming, Grace – who was Roger Moore's stunt double for the scene – carried on doing the scene longer than he should have, due to a miscommunication with the second unit director, and the train entered a section of the track which the team had not properly surveyed. Shortly afterwards, a concrete pole fractured Grace's left leg. The cyclist seen passing in the middle of a sword fight during the baby taxi chase sequence was in fact a bystander who passed through the shot, oblivious to the filming; his intrusion was captured by two cameras and left in the final film. Cameraman Alan Hume's last scene was that of Octopussy's followers rowing. That day, little time was left and it was decided to film the sunset at the eleventh hour.
The Fabergé egg in the film is real; it was made in 1897 and is called the Coronation Egg, although the egg in the film is named in the auction catalogue as "Property of a Lady", which is the name of one of Ian Fleming's short stories released in more recent editions of the collection Octopussy and The Living Daylights.
In a bit of diegesis that "breaks the fourth wall", Vijay signals his affiliation to MI6 by playing the "James Bond Theme" on a recorder while Bond is disembarking from a boat in the harbour near the City Palace. Like his fictional counterpart, the real Vijay had a distinct fear of snakes and found it difficult to hold the basket during filming.

Music

After being absent in For Your Eyes Only due to tax problems, John Barry returned to do his ninth Bond score. Barry made frequent references to the James Bond Theme to reinforce Octopussy as the official Bond film, given that motif could not be featured in Never Say Never Again, and opted to include only subtle references to the music of India, avoiding instruments such as the sitar for feeling that authentic music "didn't work dramatically". He also wrote opening theme "All Time High" with lyricist Tim Rice. "All Time High", sung by Rita Coolidge, is one of seven musical themes in the James Bond series whose song titles do not refer to the film's title. "All Time High" spent four weeks at number one on the United States' Adult Contemporary singles chart and reached number 36 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The soundtrack album was released in 1985 by A&M Records; the compact disc version of this release was recalled due to a colour printing error which omitted the credits from the album cover, making it a rare collector's item. In 1997, the soundtrack was re-issued by Rykodisc, with the original soundtrack music and some film dialogue, on an Enhanced CD version. The 2003 release, by EMI, restored the original soundtrack music without dialogue.

Release and reception

Octopussy was the first Bond film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which had absorbed the previous films' distributor United Artists. The premiere took place at the Odeon Leicester Square on 6 June 1983, with Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales in attendance. The film earned slightly less than For Your Eyes Only, but still grossed $187.5 million, with $67.8 million in the United States alone. It also performed better than Never Say Never Again, the non-Eon Bond remake of Thunderball which was released a few months later and gathered $55 million in North America. At the 11th Saturn Awards, Maud Adams was nominated for Best Supporting Actress. The film won the Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing. In Germany, it won the Golden Screen Award for selling over 3 million tickets.

Contemporary reviews

Gary Arnold of The Washington Post felt Octopussy was "one of the snazziest, wittiest productions" of the film series, in which he praised John Glen's direction, Louis Jourdan's performance, and the screenplay. Writing for The New York Times, Vincent Canby praised the film, but noted how "much of the story is incomprehensible". Gene Siskel, reviewing for The Chicago Tribune, awarded the film three stars out of four, stating the film was "surprisingly entertaining—surprising because in his previous five Bond appearances Roger Moore has always come off as a smug stiff. In Octopussy Moore relaxes a bit and, just as important, his role is subordinated to the film's many and extremely exciting action scenes. Octopussy has the most sustained excitement in a Bond film since You Only Live Twice." However, he felt that the character Octopussy was detrimental to the film and that the action "blunts a script that is weak on characterization and long on male chauvinism."
Variety felt the film's strong points were "the spectacular aerial stuntwork marking both the pre-credits teaser and extremely dangerous-looking climax. The rest of the action scenes are well-executed but suffer from a sense of deja vu, as in a speeding train that recalls Sean Connery's derring-do in The Great Train Robbery". Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times felt the film proved "to be business as usual, no better or worse than most of its predecessors. After all this time, it's amazing that the same old formula still plays: the gadgetry, gorgeous girls, travelogue locales and the shameless double-entendres–in this instance, octo-entendres." He complimented Glen's direction, but further remarked that the screenwriters had "given him too much to unravel. At 2 hours and 10 minutes, Octopussy seems a good 20 to 30 minutes too long for light espatic fare. The familiar chases and old-time serial-type cliff-hanging crises come fast but a mite too thick."

Reflective reviews

claimed that the movie was long and confusing, and strongly criticised Steven Berkoff's performance, describing it as "offensively bad" and the worst performance of any Bond villain. A particular point of contention are comedic scenes where Bond is dressed in a clown costume, a gorilla outfit and doing a Tarzan yell during a jungle chase. As a result, it frequently ranks low in rankings of James Bond films, such as the ones by Entertainment Weekly, MSN, and IGN. C.J. Henderson reviewed Octopussy in The Space Gamer No. 65. Henderson commented that "there isn't a moment in the movie when we worry for the slightest instant that anything could happen to suave ol' James. Predictably, it doesn't. To kill Bond would be to lose the most bankable genre character ever brought to the movies." On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 41% based on 46 reviews with an average rating of 5.17/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Despite a couple of electrifying action sequences, Octopussy is a formulaic, anachronistic Bond outing."
By contrast, the elegance of the film locations in India, and the stunts on the aircraft and train were appreciated. GQ writer David Williams said Octopussy was "one of the best 'Bad Films' of the franchise", praising the entertaining characters but finding the silliness and Moore's advanced age problematic. Danny Peary wrote that Octopussy "has slow spots, little humour, and villains who aren’t nearly of the calibre of Dr. No, Goldfinger, or Blofeld. Also, the filmmakers make the mistake of demeaning Bond by having him swing through the trees and emitting a Tarzan cry and having him hide in a gorilla suit and later disguise himself as a clown. It’s as if they’re trying to remind us that everything is tongue-in-cheek, but that makes little sense, for the film is much more serious than typical Bond outings – in fact, it recalls the tone of From Russia with Love."

Character reviews

In 2006, Fandango ranked the character Octopussy as one of the top 10 Bond girls, and described her as "a powerful, impressive woman." Entertainment Weekly ranked her as the 10th worst Bond girl in one list in 2006, but as the best "babe" of the Roger Moore James Bond films in another list in 2008. A poll by Bond fans in 2008 elected Octopussy as the tenth worst Bond Girl. Yahoo! Movies included the character in a 2012 list of the best Bond girl names, commenting, "This Bond girl moniker was so good, they named the film after her!"