The Seventh Art

Octopussy (1983)
John Glen
Bond, James Bond: Roger Moore
Arch Rival: Kamal Khan (Louis Jourdan)
Bond Girl: Octopussy (Maud Adams)

Octopussy (1983)

The follow up to the phenomenal debacle For Your Eyes Only (1981) makes up for it to an extent as it takes the famous English spy to India. Bond is behind a wealthy Indian named Kamal Khan who buys the expensive Russian artifact called Faberge Egg. As Bond follows him to his home country, he finds out that he works with a woman who calls herself Octopussy and trains women of various countries to smuggle jewels. Khan, on the other hand, has his own plans and is hand in hand with a insubordinate Russian general Orlov. Orlov seeks to use the circus Octopussy has in Germany to bomb the US airbase so that it is disarmed and is vulnerable to Russian attack. Bond must now race against time to diffuse the bomb, save Octopussy and stop Kamal Khan.

The film could have easily avoided the last quarter hour but it still makes a great watch. Kabir Bedi as Gobinda makes a good impression as the deadpan thug who stops at nothing. The quality of production is visibly great and the stunts remain as stunning as the best Bond films. Indian cuisine is still ridiculed and mystified to the extreme. Moore’s disguise as the clown at the circus is the funniest he gets as his puns keep falling flat. Brace yourself for some high flying stunts by the ever lovable Q!