Even though it's never explicitly stated in any of two movies 'Jaws' appears in, some scenes lead us to believe he's some kind of a robot, not a human. Otherwise, how would he have survived his tram trip where he eventually collides with the building? He's tall, strong and supposed to endure greater damage than average people, but no human would survive that kind of accident. What are your thoughts?
While it's quite obvious and heavy-handed with Jaws...note there are quite a few other instances of human characters surviving unsurvivable things throughout Bond.
Now, this is a signature gun, and that is an optical palm reader.
I think the novelization of the movie went into some detail of the backstory of Jaws. I think I remembering him being Czech (or maybe Polish), and having fled from the Eastern Bloc after participating in some anti-Soviet riots. Hmm... sounds like the Prague Spring, so probably Czech.
The movie was probably the worst Bond movie ever, doing a deep dive into parody. (That scene with the motorized gondola car in the Venetian square and the pigeon doing a double-take ranks as the single worst scene in the entire Bond move history. That was awful... even worse than the slide whistle car jump scene from Golden Gun.)
The novel though was pretty good because it struck the same serious tone as the Fleming novels. Basically it was a straight up Bond novel.
There was also a novelization for The Spy Who Loved Me with a similar tack.
I really enjoyed the campy fun, action, locales, and 70's, Playboy-era take on Bond with this movie. PArt of it is....this was one of the first Bond movies I ever saw. I was a kid, and it was the ABC Friday Night Movie. I was spending the night at a friend's house, and we stayed-up late eating popcorn and watching this amazing movie with his cool parents in their really cool house.
The movie was such a spectacle, such an over-the-top fantasy unlike anything I had ever seen. As mentioned earlier, it kinda captured the Playboy-era zeitgeist of the 70's. And the locales were amazing. Rio looked awesome....those haunting visuals of Carnivale...and Jaws coming toward them in that chilling parade costume down a shadowy alley. The 70's visuals, like the 7-Up billboard at the gondola station.
The gadgets and action were cool....like that spinning training pod that went out of control. Heck, even the opening scene...(the mid-air fight for their lives between Bond and Jaws)....awesome! To me, Moonraker and TSWLM were two of the coolest movies I'd ever seen! So even today, 4 decades later....Moonraker brings out that awestruck kid enjoying a wild ride at his buddy's house on a sleepover. Parody? Maybe. Good, campy fun...and a wild ride? Definitely.
There is no such thing as good camp; there is, however, fond memories of your childhood.
If by “Playboy thing” you mean Playboy magazine, playboy was solidly on-board with Bond from Dr. No, with its Girls of Dr. No spread. The crap Moore films did nothing to reflect Playboy magazine.
Moonraker had its moments. I remember a bit of the opening sequence was part of the tv trailers. Bond gets pushed out of a plane WITHOUT A CHUTE. You just had to go see the movie to see how that played out.
I enjoyed the Moore movies for their stunts and locales, but otherwise didn't care much for them. I was in my twenties and in the military, so for me they aren't associated with my carefree childhood experiences.
But I can appreciate your feelings. I feel the same way about movies I saw in the 60s. Some were goofy for sure -- I'm looking at you Chitty Chitty Bang Bang -- but they are linked to all the good memories I had growing up in a small town in Canada.
I was awe struck when I watched Moonraker probably about 1981 as a 6 or 7 year old with my cousins and I agree with you calling it a wild ride. I nearly felt like I was there with Bond in some of it. Amazing times. Still love the film today, although alot of it must be nostalgia and the music score was and still is amazing also.