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Octopussy: (John Barry) Fans of the James Bond
franchise were well accustomed to the wise-cracking charms of the
visibly aging Roger Moore by 1983's
Octopussy, the sixth of the
actor's seven films as 007. For the first time in its history, the
primary Albert R. Broccoli franchise dedicated to Ian Fleming's novels
was facing serious competition from another studio attempting to steal
the Bond thunder. To be released later in the same year was
Never Say
Never Again, and although that project ultimately marked Sean
Connery's failed return to the role, it had Broccoli spooked. To ensure
that the "official" Bond franchise would remain the dominant adaptation
of the famed British spy, producer Broccoli and director Jon Glen, the
latter returning for his second consecutive Bond film at the helm,
joined with most of the established crew from the series to make
Octopussy a trademark Bond venture. They toned back the scope of
the technology, followed Fleming's stories more closely, and featured
several world locations with glamour, most notably India. The plot
relied upon familiar elements of stolen bombs and mysterious fighting
forces, the benevolent latter in this story happening to be comprised of
a gang of attractive female assassins. The filmmakers were also
successful in returning popular composer John Barry to the franchise.
Barry's music for the series in the 1960's and early 1970's was one of
the more recognizable elements of the Bond formula, but the composer's
move from England to Los Angeles in 1975 caused him to lose the
assignments to all the Bond films except
Moonraker during the
following eight years. He was asked to score
Never Say Never
Again but refused out of loyalty to the original franchise, instead
returning to London where he could be involved in the next three
official Bond films. His reunion with the franchise was one of great
relief for the filmmakers, especially welcomed after a disappointingly
"popified" score by Bill Conti for 1981's
For Your Eyes Only,
which some fans of the series consider to be among the very worst scores
for any Bond film.
Barry's three Bond scores in the mid-1980's were all quite
good, with each effort gaining strength as the composer successfully
combined his traditional 1960's style with the flair of electronics and
rock-based percussion. He would save most of this experimentation for
the forthcoming
A View to a Kill, but the groundwork for the
action rhythms in that score and
The Living Daylights would be
established briefly in
Octopussy, which instead focused on
alluring exoticism. Up front, the most obvious aspect of Barry's return
to the world of 007 is the flowing, romantic ballad serving as the song
and primary love theme for the film. With the subsequent two films'
songs taking the route of straight rock and male vocals with wild
results on the charts,
Octopussy offered one last sentimental
theme built for an alluring female voice during the Barry era. Rita
Coolidge provided the sensual, easy-going tones for the more blatantly
sexual title sequence for
Octopussy, though lyricist Tim Rice and
the producers of the film agreed that this song would be a rare instance
when the title of the film would not be appropriate as a lyric. The soft
rock "All Time High" didn't perform as well as its successors initially,
though it remained more popular through the years than several of the
franchise's readily-dated entries. Interestingly, Rice admitted years
later that he should have pressed to use "Octopussy" as a lyric and
title of the song, as it would have forced a sassier attitude upon the
film. The melody of this song is translated into the love theme for Bond
and the powerful smuggler Octopussy, and outside of the usual song
performance and its closing reprise, the two standard instrumental
performances of the theme exist in "That's My Little Octopussy" and
"Bond Meets Octopussy." A secondary theme for Octopussy and her
mysterious lair is introduced by a gorgeous bansuri flute in "Arrival at
the Island of Octopussy" and extends to the outset of "Bond Meets
Octopussy" with its exoticism scaled back for a softer version. That
flute and an alto sibling provide much of the intrigue in the score, and
this secondary Octopussy identity eventually proves itself a far more
durable presence in the score.
The repeating, cyclical idea featuring the bansuri flute
and light chimes for Octopussy's operations is, in fact, quite dominant
in the middle portions of
Octopussy. It transitions to the alto
flute for the easier rendition in "The Mysterious Octopussy" and dies
out on strings and flute at the end of "Yo-Yo Fight and Death of Vijay,"
but an offshoot survives in the latter half of "Checkpoint Charlie and
the Romanov Star." Strikingly, this Octopussy material transitions to
become a relative of the love theme at end of "Kamal Khan's Death and
Finale," a really lovely singular moment in the score. The rest of the
score for
Octopussy largely rotates between Barry's other
dedicated motifs for the film, including a static action theme that is
almost identical in all instances, harkening back to the 1960's action
motifs of the franchise. Debuting in "Gobinda Attacks," this repetitive
theme is given heavier tones in "Easy Come, Easy Go" and builds to its
usual formation in "Yo-Yo Fight and Death of Vijay." Its base elements
only inform the diversion in "The Chase Bomb Theme," which doesn't
really provide the nuclear weapon with much of a unique identity. A full
reprise of the action theme returns in "Fight With Mischka" and the
latter half of "Gorilla Suit and Death of Grischka," receiving its most
interesting moment for Octopussy-oriented flutes at the start of "The
Palace Fight" as the gang of babes goes to battle. As an adjunct to this
material, Barry's menacing villain plot theme is militaristic and
suspenseful, often featuring snare accents on each measure in the
composer's typical style. It's supported by a solo timpani motif that
becomes more prominent in later cues. Teased in "Fill Her Up" and the
subdued suspense of "Bond at the Monsoon Palace," this villain identity
offers a rising bass string figure alone in "Palace Intrigue" and stews
in "The End of General Orlov." The timpani motif rumbles early in
"Gorilla Suit and Death of Grischka," reprised but yielding to the theme
in "The Bomb Arrives and Clowning Around." This material resolves in the
first minute of "Kamal Khan's Death and Finale." A bit more general in
its approach is Barry's unrelated, early suspense music in the
underwhelming "009 Gets the Knife and the Property of a Lady."
Outside of Barry's relatively new ideas in
Octopussy, the composer relies far more heavily on the famous
Monty Norman theme for the franchise. This move was partly due to the
attempt by the entire production to revisit the 1960's formula of
success for the concept and partly due to the desire to drive home the
fact that
Octopussy was a true Bond film and
Never Say Never
Again was not. The entire pre-credit hangar sequence heard in "Gun
Barrel and Airbase" and "Bond Look-Alike" uses this theme in suspense
mode while "Gobinda Attacks," "Easy Come, Easy Go," and "The Palace
Fight" provide full, jazzy performances of the idea as Bond prevails in
those situations. (The blend between the stock action rhythms and
franchise themes would be better explored in the two subsequent scores,
as its segregation here conveys Barry's past in these scores with all
his usual plusses and minuses.) The Bond theme extends to other
incarnations in the subtle shades of "Kremlin Art Repository and
Sotheby's" and the opening of "India." A cute comedic reference is even
made as source music in "Vijay's Pungi," a rare moment in which 007
recognizes his own theme on screen. Barry allows the Bond theme to
flourish again in the bursts of enthusiasm during "Follow That Car," but
most listeners will return to the early "Bond Look-Alike" cue as the
best adaptation of the theme in the score. A few other motifs work
around the margins in
Octopussy, led by the composer's usual
notion of military heroism and British pomp heard at the openings of
"Fill Her Up" and "Checkpoint Charlie and the Romanov Star." Two
location-specific themes are notable but fleetingly short; a stout
Russian identity in "Kremlin Art Repository and Sotheby's" and a rousing
Indian one in "India" are quick moments if interest. Overall,
Octopussy remains one of the more predictably repetitive 007
scores by Barry, with less flair than the two subsequent two entries but
very cognizant of its roots. The film's circus music was licensed for
insertion, but a significant amount of ethnic source material was
provided by Barry himself, most of it related to the Octopussy gang and
associated exotic Indian element. For a long time, this music was
unavailable on album, as the history of
Octopussy outside of the
picture has been suboptimum.
In conjunction with the original LP release, a rare CD
on the A&M label was pressed in 1985 due to the Coolidge association.
That CD was among the first ever offered on the commercial market, and
it achieved a value of $250 in the early 1990's, eventually ranked by
veteran collectors and soundtrack specialty stores in 1994 as the sixth
most valuable soundtrack CD in the world. In 1995, a bootleg from "Music
Collectors Anonymous" combined the records of
For Your Eyes Only
and
Octopussy onto one digital transfer, circulating around the
market for a short time before becoming a collectible itself. In 1997,
Rykodisc released both scores (as well as
The Living Daylights
the next year) on their own albums. The sound quality between the
original collectibles and the 1997 pressing of
Octopussy was
identical, as were the musical contents, and Ryko padded the running
time of their product with three tracks of dialogue from the film.
Unfortunately, those quotes are mixed at too low a volume compared to
the music surrounding them. The Ryko product was also a much-advertised
enhanced CD with the theatrical trailer, pictures, and expanded liner
notes. While these are nothing too spectacular, the packaging was
generous for its era, especially with its extraordinary notes, but
anyone who has trouble folding maps back into their proper arrangement
likely cursed its layout. Even this album went out of print, leaving it
absent from the market once again. In early 2003, EMI finally
re-released all of the Bond scores through
Goldeneye for rock
bottom prices around $10 internationally and, in many cases, additional
music was offered. The main attraction of the 2003 products was their
remastering of the scores from source tapes. Barry's scores typically
sounded good regardless of their age, a trademark of his recordings, and
Octopussy already featured good sound on its previous albums. The
greatest benefit to this particular 2003 album is its removal of the
three dialogue tracks from the product, returning the listening
experience to its original form. In 2024, La-La Land Records released a
definitive, limited expansion with the fuller score in another
remastered presentation. The additional material is mostly redundant but
has some noteworthy new moments hidden within, including the opening and
finale of the movie. It reaffirms that
Octopussy ranks among the
better Bond scores, despite its rather conservative and repetitive
approach.
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- Music as Written for the Film: ****
- Music as Heard on the 1985-2003 Albums: ***
- Music as Heard on the 2024 Album: ****
- Overall: ****
| Bias Check: |
For John Barry reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.85
(in 27 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.54
(in 27,308 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
The 1985 and 1995 albums' inserts contain no extra information about the score or
film. The 1997 Ryko album's insert contains extensive notes by Lukas Kendall and Geoff
Leonard, however the folding art design makes them very difficult to read. These liner
notes also include information about the enhanced portion of the CD. The 2003 EMI and
2024 La-La Land albums also feature extensive notation about the film and score.
