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All Time High: 'Octopussy' Celebrates 25 Years

CBn Forum members on seeing Roger Moore's penultimate James Bond film for the first time

With the 25th anniversary of Octopussy this month in the US and UK, I thought it would be interesting to ask CBn members about the first time they saw Roger Moore's sixth James Bond film (something we did similarly last year for the anniversaries of The Spy Who Loved Me, The Living Daylights and Tomorrow Never Dies).

Where was it? Were you at the premiere? Was it your first Bond film? ...are just some of the questions to consider. If you can't remember your very first time in seeing the film, then perhaps your most memorable experience.

Members are encouraged to write a few paragraphs describing the event and your thoughts.

Saw it opening night in New York.

- place was packed
- could feel the sense of disappointment from audience when film ended (the crowd sure wasn't bouncing like after TSWLM or MOONRAKER)
- huge laugh from the crowd was towards the end when Khan tsk-tsked Octupussy with the line "Octopussy....Octopussy." All in the audience suddenly realized just how silly and funny the title of the film really was.
- Moore had the audience in the palm of his hands. If you saw Moore's Bonds in the theaters, you just always got a sense of that.

OCTOPUSSY was certainly not the best Bond movie-going experience. Rather sluggish and not very exciting movie. I have since gone on to love the film via repeated viewings at home, but in the theater it was part of the slow descent of Bond films.

This post has been edited by Chula: 4 June 2008 - 18:02

I had a different experience with my first viewing of "OCTOPUSSY". I really enjoyed it a lot. I especially loved the action sequence in which Bond tried to stop the bomb from exploding on that Air Force base. But my biggest thrill came from the fight scene at Kamal Khan's palace. Happy 25th anniversary, "OCTOPUSSY"!

Big disagreement here. I thought Octopussy was one of the best of the Moore series. It may have gotten silly at times, but in terms of just plain action, it was one of the fastest moving and exciting Bonds in years. I even remember Leonard Maltin's review on ET, "so much in this movie, it's almost dizzying." Gave it a 9 on his 1-10 scale. Not to mention it was the top grossing Bond film ever, until GE.

I was at the premiere at the Odeon, Leicester Square in London. It was the second Bond premiere I'd been to (after For Your Eyes Only). I'd collected my tickets from Cubby and Dana Broccoli at Eon's then-offices in South Audley Street in the afternoon (long story and one I'm not making up), so it was already a special day. The premiere itself did not disappoint as it was, up to that point, the most star-studded night of my life. I walked up the stairs to the circle just behind Michael Caine, Christopher Reeve and Liza Minnelli!

The film was extremely well-received and, as a previous poster has said, Roger Moore seemed absolutely at the top of his game. I loved it that night, and I've loved it ever since.

At that point, I hadn't learned that it's terribly naff to request autographs at such events (actually, I now feel it's naff to ask for autographs at any time, but that's because I work in the "business" and am cynical ). Still, it does mean that I have an Octopussy premiere ticket (complete with card tentacles) signed by Roger Moore and a premiere brochure signed by, amongst others, Lois Maxwell (with a sweet personal message), Desmond Llewelyn, and Liza with a "Z"...
I've often wondered what they might be worth.

This post has been edited by dee-bee-five: 4 June 2008 - 18:25

I was fairly young, I remember now I saw it at the theatre. My parents always took us kids to see whatever movie they were seeing. I have to have been about 7 or so years old. It made quite the positive impression.

I missed it in the cinema, as my parents took me and my friends to see Never Say Never Again at the cinema for my birthday.

I remember missing Octopussy on TV, even though my Dad was telling me how great the last 40 minutes were with chases on cars, trains and planes.

I think I finally saw it all the way through in 1991 on TV, and I loved it. The haunting stalking of a clown, all the creatures that 007 faces in the Indian jungle (elephants, snake, tiger, leech, spider, crocodile), killing the twins, fighting Gobinda on the plane, it's great entertainment.

Leonard Maltin gives it ***1/2 in his movie review book. The most he gives for a Bond film along with Dr No, FRWL, Goldfinger, OHMSS, DAF and TSWLM.

I never saw it in the theater but saw it first on HBO. A bunch of my friends and I watched it over and over again when it came on cable because we were all big Bond fans but even moreso for my friends, a bunch of adolescent boys, we has seen "The Wild Geese," "The Dirty Dozen," "The Guns of Navarone," "Destination Tokyo" and so many others.

We loved Octopussy. It had everything 14 year old boys could want! And there was a sense that this film worked on the adult level, too. (We didn't understand much about Sotheby's or Faberge eggs . . . . but we thought they had something to do with adults.) And at this time of the Cold War, the East German locations seemed especially exotic to us.

Octopussy will always be a special Bond for me. It was the first film since I became a hardcore fan that I was somewhat able to follow during its production. It wasn't like today where you can follow blogs and have 10 different entertainment shows to watch it on. But I was a member of the American Bond fan club and they sent out quarterly newsletters that gave updates. Entertainment Tonight had occasional features on the set. And the most memorable was Starlog's Double Bond issue that came out in February of 1983 with behind the scenes pictures and information on OP and NSNA. I was ready.

Friday, June 10 1983 was a huge day. In my town, OP was being shown at a drive-in theater. I saw FYEO at one and it kind of lost something. Luckily, there was a cinema in the next town that was showing OP at a matinee. My mom and dad piled my brother and I into the car to see it as they knew how Bond obsessed I was at the time.

One of my favorite amusing memories was the Urbana Twin Cinema had two theaters and the theater manager must have been embarassed by the title as the marquee simply read "James Bond." Although this theater was older and mostly showed second-run features, it was just fine for OP. I loved the film from beginning to end and it remains one of my favorites.
It had the best blend of everything of that era. I don't recall anybody hooting any particular moment or how packed the hall was, just having a great time.

After the film, we went to a nearby bookstore where I got a couple of film magazines profiling OP, which I still have. It was a great day and one I will never forget.

I would go on to see OP again at the drive-in cinema, where I took a boom box to record the film on cassette tapes as you were able to listen to the sound in your car (I guess that made me an early film pirate) and twice more in a cinema in my town while my brother went to see Return of the Jedi again. I was 16 and just had my driver's license for a few months. When I saw FYEO at 14 I remembered thinking when I had my license I would go see a new Bond film every night. Not quite, but a lot.

And just as good back at that time was we still had NSNA yet to hit theaters. 1983 was possibly the best year ever to be a Bond fan.

Octopussy was the first Bond film I ever saw at the cinema. I was only 10 going on 11. It blew my mind, and set in stone my love for the cinematic 007.

I think my late father summed up the appeal of the film and Bond films in general. He said you pay a few pounds for your ticket, and for a few hours you forget about your everyday troubles. You get value for your money. You get taken on a trip to foreign locales, action, humour, beautiful women (but don't tell your Mom I said that!) etc etc. He is absolutely right. That's why I think I love the Bond films. When I watch any Bond film, I am not thinking about anything else. They hold my attention. I don't know if I can say that about other films or series. The Bond films have made me a harsh critic: I hate to be bored. And that's why the uncommonly boring parts of certain Bond films are cardinal sins for me.

Octopussy is very much a mixed bag of a film, but it is one of the most purely entertaining. It's underrated because there is alot of good in the film thast people pass over because of the sillier aspects of the production. That said, the humour and treatment of India does shoot the film in the foot at times.

My first and later impressions? The pre-credits scene is awesome. It's one of the most colourful Bonds. The plot is strong and feels Flemingian for the most part. Moore has his best chemistry with Maud 'Mud' Adams. It's one of the most action-packed. Eon put a lot of effort into making a visually and dramatically dynamic Bond picture, and they succedded for the most part. Hence the strong US box-office take.

This post has been edited by manfromjapan: 5 June 2008 - 01:29

Hey, I did that for FOR YOUR EYES ONLY. Funny how we were taping just the audio of a movie compared to what is going on today in theaters. I guess we were the pioneers of ripping off the film industry.

I'm not sure how many here taped on a cassette the sound from a Bond movie at a drive-in; but I am sure there are many here who taped the sound of Bond films off the TV. I still have all those cassettes from all the Bond films. We were so easy to please back then. Now, if the color of a leaf in LIVE AND LET DIE is slightly off on a DVD, people go ape. WE LIVED ON AUDIO CASSETTE TAPES OF BOND FILMS! And we loved it.

Great story, Turn...