Review of View To A Kill, A: Special Edition (James Bond)

Introduction

In Roger Moore`s last portrayal as James Bond 007, he has to stop Max Zorin, a psychotic industrialist who plans to form an international cartel to not only manufacture but to distribute the worlds stock of microchips, by destroying Silicon Valley in San Francisco, with earthquakes. ‘A View To A Kill’ takes Bond to some views, starting off in Paris and giving chase to an assassin on the Eiffel Tower, fighting atop the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and holding on to his life by grabbing on to Zorin’s airship mooring ropes while in flight. This movie offers brilliant action and good storyline with small pieces of humorous innuendos or gags here and there.

Video

This 007 movie is presented in anamorphic widescreen 2.35:1; the picture transfer is very acceptable and clean, but dropouts and flecks can be spotted in certain scenes, black over the initial starting snow scenes and white bits over darker coloured scenes like M’s office are basic examples but don’t spoil the viewing pleasure. During one of the final scenes where General Gogol and M are drinking and discussing the mission you can pick up a ‘flash frame’ glitch on the bottom right of the picture print and on pausing the movie it looks like a “tall blue iceberg”, this again doesn’t in anyway degrade the viewing pleasure and by this point anyhow the movie has almost finished.
The colours are bold and realistic including all skin tones of the characters that show really well during daylight scenes like for example at Zorin’s chateau gardens reception. The combination of bold colour quality both light and darker shades are emphasised well at the horse racing scene, all the suites with their greys and blacks are contrasted against the greenery, jockey outfits, skin tones and of course Mayday!
This movie offers some spectacular shots to only be enjoyed at best on widescreen televisions; the exterior zoom in of the Eiffel Tower and its surrounding scenery, followed by the panning shot of the interior restaurant are acceptable starters, and so is the “early morning ride” as Zorin puts it on the racetrack that includes its wide angle shots to show all horses and width of track, the scenery colours around them and early morning mist. The business meeting inside Zorin’s airship is another to be mentioned and moving onto better spectacles like the huge interior mine set and San Francisco aerial and bridge shots makes you proud you watched the widescreen version!
This movie also has other remarkable scenery and locations to be mentioned and doesn’t look out of place with the plot, obviously there is a lot of good daytime shots taken atop the Eiffel Tower, Zorin’s Chateau and stables are also a splendid visual both interior and exterior shots, not to mention Stacy Sutton’s mansion too.
Made in 1985 you would expect some “rough edges” and during this movie besides the transfer quality it would have to be the tongue in cheek optical effects. The first noticeable one is a close up shot of Bond on the ski mobile in the opening scenes and then later in the movie fighting on the Golden Gate Bridge, there even could have been one or two when Bond is perched on the fire engine ladder, but these scenes are night shots and so are less noticeable. I have always noticed on this movie even when I had the VHS versions that there is a bad edit/cut in the scene where Mayday drops her gown and gets into bed with James, but never the less its there and looks a bit “rushed” as if to cover something up maybe?
Some great sequences are the taxi in Paris, this is excellent and I think 007 certainly gets his shakes and stirs after what he goes through in that car! Some of the visual sequences in this movie do have comical elements, the fire engine scenes bring action and humour with the desperate police and chief chasing Bond down and getting into worst scrapes than planned. “Does anybody else want to drop out?” were Zorin’s own words to the business man who didn’t want to cooperate and is disposed of in a very surprising way from the room or airship, it’s a funny scene and gag but horrible if you know what I mean!

Audio

The audio tracks are Dolby Digital 5.1 and a Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo. The dialogue is clear and can be heard well, ambient sounds are also distinct in the quiet office scene while M briefs 007 on Zorin, you can hear Big Ben in London and English police car sirens as background details. There are many scenes with sound effects using the 5.1 channel audio, for example the helicopter during the snow scene at the beginning flies constantly around between certain speakers and also at the races the speaker systems ring around you giving off an echo and a sense of a wide open area. The mechanical sounds surround you in Zorin’s hidden factory/warehouse beneath the chateau and so do the gunshots fired at Mayday during the chase to the top of the Eiffel Tower. The sound effects for the various guns and weapons throughout this movie have a good realistic sound to them and don’t seem “tinny” and false.
‘A View To A Kill’ has a really good musical score throughout, with different variations to Duran Duran’s main theme that is also a brilliant track alone. Sometimes the music is heavy and loud to accompany the action like during the snow chase scene, where an electric guitar screeches over the fanfare or can also be mellowed down into a slow relaxing flute melody but using the same theme; an example of this is when Bond and Stacy are having an omelette at her house before night sets in, really nice.
The theme contains mellow strings and brass on the airships approach to the Golden Gate Bridge, the tune here is very slow and yet atmospheric similar to the high altitude of the scene and speed of the airship, it suites it well indeed. There is also a small piece of music on entering Zorin’s horse stand and chateau that I think is an oboe or some other member of the woodwind family of instruments. Also listen out for the insert of ‘California Girls’ during the snow chase scenes, this was a bit of a surprise first time I heard it, and also grip on to your seat as Bond climbs the stairs of Stacy’s quiet house!
The only one bad point about the audio in this Bond movie is speaker distortion. I have checked this DVD through another home theatre set-up as well as my own, and the same problem rose up. Apparently on all loud areas of the movie during explosions or high-pitched sirens, the sound seems to break up and distort in the front and centre speakers, the sub is present on the explosions but seems weak and you can hear more of the distortion than the rumbling or after effect of each explosion on screen! It is annoying and doesn’t make the explosive scenes seem explosive, the helicopter during the snow chase scenes, fire engine and mainly police car sirens, the lake explosions/flooding the fault and the exploding of the airship are all examples of where this glitch is present.

Features

Upon menu activation a spinning silicon chip settles in the middle, circuitry-looking designs flutter the bottom of the screen while at the top an animated montage of footage from the movie loops over. The 007 theme plays constantly over the menu. Choices for selection are; play movie, languages, special features and scene selection.
In the special features section there is an adequate amount present, a 38min documentary titled “Inside a View To A Kill”, there is also an included audio commentary by director, cast/crew; 1 deleted scene in the French police station, a 21min documentary on “The music of James Bond”, the fabulous music video to Duran Duran’s ‘A View To A Kill’, 3 trailers and 4 TV spots.

Conclusion

A very interesting idea for a James Bond 007 storyline about microchip domination over Silicon Valley and the killing of millions in the process. Christopher Walken plays the perfect Max Zorin and is suited for this villain, a very cool and smooth looking villain almost like the evil mirror image to Bond apart from Zorin being a psychopath. This type of storyline makes a welcomed change from nuclear missiles, ransoms and world domination it just seems that bit more down to earth (No pun intended there Mr. Drax) and realistic.
Even though it seems like one big business project for Zorin the nature of his character and his motive makes this mission for 007 deadly serious. As mentioned I think Zorin is my star in this movie, Walken’s acting is brilliant and when you see his face and expressions once he sees his bomb explode outside the mine and his diabolical plan go pear shaped it is realistic acting!
I personally think this movie is more plot oriented and doesn’t seem to be any Q gadgets or lots of brilliant 007 sequences, it’s almost as if he isn’t a spy and just a normal like ourselves, getting out of the lift shaft without any help, examples like that. I think its small differences in this movie regarding Bond not been too over the top, the story, music variations and action that make me enjoy this title so much every time. Well worthy DVD in my opinion.