“A View to a Kill” – 40th Anniversary

By Reggie's Take on May 24, 2025

1985’s “A View to a Kill” was the fourteenth Bond film and marked the final appearance of Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent, celebrates forty years since its release to theaters.

The title “A View to a Kill” was adapted from Ian Fleming’s 1960 short story “From a View to a Kill”, though the movie features an entirely original screenplay where Bond is pitted against Max Zorin (Christopher Walken), who plans to destroy California’s Silicon Valley.

In 1984, David Bowie was initially announced to portray Max Zorin, but he later withdrew from the role, citing that “I didn’t want to spend five months watching my stunt double fall off cliffs.” The role was subsequently offered to Sting, who declined, before ultimately being given to Christopher Walken.

When Roger Moore assumed the role of Bond in the early 1970s, he was initially signed to a three-film contract with Eon Productions. After fulfilling that contract with “The Spy Who Loved Me” in 1977, Moore’s subsequent three films as Bond were negotiated on a film-by-film basis. Following “Octopussy” in 1983, other actors were considered for the role, but Moore was persuaded to continue.

Patrick Macnee, who portrayed Sir Godfrey Tibbett, Bond’s ally and a horse trainer assisting in infiltrating Zorin’s chateau and stables was the fourth former star of “The Avengers” television series to appear in a Bond film, joining Honor Blackman, Diana Rigg, and Joanna Lumley.

One of the major criticisms of “A View to a Kill” was that Roger Moore, aged 57 at the time of filming, had visibly aged since his previous appearance in *Octopussy* two years earlier. In a December 2007 interview, Moore remarked, “I was only about four hundred years too old for the part.” He also commented that “A View to a Kill” was his least favorite Bond film, stating, “I was horrified on the last Bond I did. Whole slews of sequences where Christopher Walken was machine-gunning hundreds of people. That wasn’t Bond, those weren’t Bond films. It stopped being what they were all about. You didn’t dwell on the blood and the brains spewing all over the place.”

“A View to a Kill” was the third Bond film directed by John Glen and marked the final appearance of Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny. The Duran Duran theme song “A View to a Kill” performed well on the charts, becoming the only Bond theme song to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100.

“A View to a Kill” was the first Bond movie to premiere outside the UK, debuting on May 22, 1985, at San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts and nationwide in the U.S. on May 24th. Despite going two weeks over schedule, production finished $5 million under budget at $30 million, grossing $152.4 million globally.

In December 1985, after the film’s premiere in May, Roger Moore announced his retirement from the role of James Bond after seven movies over twelve years.

Reggie’s Take:

“A View to a Kill” for me personally is not the worst Bond film made although it does land in my bottom ten when I rank them altogether as a franchise. (Something I will post about at a later date and time)

Roger Moore was the Bond I grew up with as a kid, having been born in the early 1970’s I always enjoyed when ABC would run their summer of Bond just about every year, which is how I saw the Connery Bond films and a good majority of Roger Moore’s Bond movies as well.

One of the biggest issues for me with “A View to a Kill” is Christopher Walken. I realize this is more a personal issue, but I have never cared for Walken’s acting or the way he comes across on screen, I even have issues with him in “Batman Returns” (1992). Walken could be the nicest man to ever walk this Earth, but when he is in a movie he takes me out of the movie. I’m not saying that Walken didn’t “kill” it as Zorin in the movie, he practically killed everyone in the movie and could be one of the more murderous villains a Bond movie has seen.

I will agree that Roger Moore was showing his age in this movie, and it didn’t work as well like it did for Connery in “Never Say Never” (1983) and maybe he should have stepped away after “Octopussy”, but at the same time it was Eon Productions who convinced him to return. Did Roger Moore deserve a better Bond film to go out on, sure, but with Moore I don’t think you could have given him a more serious type of Bond movie like you got with Timothy Dalton as that would not fit how Moore played Bond.

A View to a Kill can be considered the conclusion of an era, and possibly the last of the lighter Bond films. They may not resonate as much today after experiencing the more intense Daniel Craig era movies.

How do you feel about “A View to a Kill”, do you like or dislike it? Should Moore have stepped away sooner or did he deserve to come back? Leave your comments below.