DBWI: Roger Moore Doesn't Retire as Bond in 1981

After having played James Bond for seven years, in 1980 Roger Moore decided to make 1981's "For Your Eyes Only" his final film as 007. The studio offered him more money to stay on, but Moore declined in order to pursue other projects.

But what if Moore had decided otherwise, and he continued playing Bond through the 1980s?
 
Timothy Dalton's rollout as Bond might have been more even if Moore stayed one for a few more movies. His initial film, A View to a Kill was good, but definitely written as a Moore movie (though to Dalton's credit, he makes driving half a car look deadly serious). The slapstick elements clashed with his borderline sociopathic portrayal of Bond.

Thankfully, Cubby realized how to use the new Bond and the next 4 Dalton movies were muuuch better, even if some day they suffer from being too dark and gritty. I dare you to say his closing one liner from 1990's New World Order wasn't badass.

I can't help but feel having Moore for a few more years would avert having another Australian do a single Bond movie. Mel Gibson in his 1992 movie was a disaster. Combining a return to a comedic Bond with an instantly outdated cold war plot. Thankfully Clive Owen got the series back on track in 1997 with smart, if sometimes a little generic, technothrillers.
 
Yes. But but Mel Gibson’s Portrait of a Lady is considered outside canon or stand alone. And it won Best picture and was the second highest grossing film that year.
Yes, was a disaster for the studio and nearly bankrupted it. But that was Hollywood accounting.
 
Eh, I have a soft spot for Portrait of a Lady and Gibson's one and done James Bond. I think a lot of people crap on it because they cast a Yank as Bond, and worse, one whose later work is famous for making the English/Brits cartoonishly evil. Even today, the main criticisms come from Brits upset that an Aussie and an American were ever cast as Bond.

I think Gibson and Lazenby, whose one-and-done In Her Majesty's Secret Service has its own ongoing evaluation, are the biggest showcases that there's room for more one-and-done James Bonds, especially between the folks who take the role for decades.

Dumping Moore was done just at the right moment - he was already aging rapidly, and I think folks had really tired of his campy take on 007. There's a reason they went so hard in the opposite direction for Dalton, making Bond a killer again, and it wasn't just to compete with the booming 80s action genre in Hollywood and Hong Kong.

Keep Moore, he maybe overstays his welcome, makes a real stinker or two, not to mention that they'd likely miss out on Dalton - in OTL, they were very lucky he was available when they needed a new Bond, give Moore a couple more movies, and we either get a delayed or abridged Dalton era for Bond, or none at all.

We miss out on Dalton and pretty much all of modern Bond is unrecognizable - we don't get Gibson/Portrait, or the three Liam Neeson Bond films in the 90s, which while sort of Tom Clancy-ish, had a tinge of that Dalton complexity, and helped Bond survive the post-Cold War era. We likely don't see Clive Owen or Daniel Craig's turns in the 2000s/2010s, which also owe much to Dalton's tenure. Not sure what the Richard Madden will look like when they wrap up Bond 28 in a couple of years, but I certainly don't see them going full camp like Moore.

You know what you get when you go full camp like Moore these days? The disastrous and mercifully cut short High Grant era. The World is Not Enough and Die Another Day nearly killed the damned franchise. Austin Powers and xXx make a bit of money, and suddenly MGM decides they want Bond to be full of sex puns, cheese, and essentially cartoon characters. I mean, my god, invisible cars, space lasers, a villain who kills people by having sex with them, the fucking Madonna song/cameo? You wanna talk about franchise/studio killers, that should be our go to, not Portrait of a Lady.
 
Gibson recovered quickly though, most people still remember him from The Matrix and Gladiator kinda the same way playing Zod in the 2015 Superman movie gave Viggo Mortensen a chance to recover from that awful Terminator sequel. I'll still argue the best two Bonds were either Sean Connery or Idris Elba, the latter still knocked the Bond role out of the park at the end of Skyfall, enough that some still argue the last 20 minutes of the film inspired the whole of John Wick two years later.
 
I think the big question here is would the themetune singers have differed - with Sheena Easton vaulting her way through the credits of FYEO, the producers were clearly looking for a markedly different sound when AVTAK rolled round when the Midge Ure vocals and a New Romantic sound saw the Dalton Era off with a New Romantic sound.

Could we have had, god forbid, another attempt at a Nobody Does It Better style ballad? And someone like Rita Kristofferson singing it?
 
How might Moore's career have been impacted by staying on as Bond?
Liam Neeson would have bee Qui Gon Jin in the prequels. He was Lucus first choice. Didn't want to, after having just left Bond franchise.
Roger Moore came and thats that.......
The War Doctor is not counted as Doctor FYI.
 
Would Moore still get the Tailor of Panama role he's now remembered for or be Admiral Hathaway in ST: Enterprise?

That photo of Ian McClellan, Patrick Stewart, and Roger Moore with T-shirts listing all of the various roles they played is still iconic.
 
Interesting fact: Roger Moore volunteered as the celebrity spokesman for Kiwanis International in its campaign to eliminate iodine deficiency.
 
Interesting fact: Roger Moore volunteered as the celebrity spokesman for Kiwanis International in its campaign to eliminate iodine deficiency.

<More interesting facts:

(a) Viggo Mortensen nearly became Zod for the Superman movie in 2015
(b) Mel Gibson was a first pick for Gladiator but rejected by Ridley Scott as he was 43 at the time
(c) Kevin Costner reportedly came very close to being Neo in the Matrix

</More interesting facts>
 
I will never stop being 007.

Wrong middle initial. Nice try though, you can still keep to odd jobs and enjoy (*****) galore in your youth but don't waste money on knick knacks. Watch your money, every penny counts, lest you be haunted with the spectre of debt. Beware as some of those ladies have jealous husbands, but there are plenty of glass jaws it seems. You might consider going for another career, maybe a doctor - no, a lawyer - but if you do, keep eyes on the prize and remember that all the money in the world is not enough when happiness is at stake.
 
Top