While he didn't have a new actor to break in when he became the director for 1981's For Your Eyes Only, Glen had the mission of bringing 007 back to earth, and FYEO was greeted as a much needed corrective in the Bond trajectory. After Moore had taken Gilbert's answer to Star Wars as far as he could go in Moonraker, it was time for an old-fashioned Fleming-inspired Cold War thriller.
EON producer Albert Broccoli was so happy with Glen's work that the director would go on to helm a total of five Bond movies. To date, no one else has matched that record. Glen directed Moore's final two efforts, Octopussy (1983) and A View to a Kill (1985). For my money, these movies were essentially focused on scenic locations with a script tailored to fit the settings rather than character or story development in between the luscious photography. Your tastes may differ.
Whatever disappointments felt by this reviewer regarding Moore's swan songs, Glen continued to supervise the short-lived Timothy Dalton era in The Living Daylights (1987) and License to Kill (1989). Glen had the challenge of not only introducing a new Bond in terms of a new actor, but a new Bond in nearly every aspect. Stripping away nearly every trope associated with Moore, Dalton's Bond was a return to the Fleming and, dare I say it?—Young-flavored 007. This time, to the disappointment of many, the best actor (to that point) to play Bond wasn't bad, but dealing with defectors and drug smugglers just didn't have the same impact as the larger-than-life villains of old. Perhaps the sequence most praised was the oil tanker chase in License to Kill which critic Roger Ebert described as one of the most exciting chases in Bond history.
Six years would go by before a new 007 film would bring back the logo to the screen, but, to date, only one director in the new era would get a second bite at the Bond apple. In 1995, Martin Campbell directed Goldeneye, the return to Hamilton-esque fantasy for Pierce Brosnan. Ironically, Campbell came back in 2006 when the pendulum swung back to greater realism for Daniel Craig's Casino Royale. In both cases, Campbell seemed the right man for the job—having Bond race around St. Petersburg in a tank for Brosnan; having Craig's Bond tortured physically and emotionally in Casino Royale.
Otherwise, new directors would have only one film to make their mark on the mythos. For Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), Roger Spottiswoode gave Pierce Brosnan his Goldfinger, at least in terms of giving us a new larger-than life baddie (Jonathan Price's Elliott Carver) and a memorable Bond girl (Michelle Yeoh's Wai Lin). The likes of such characters hadn't been present in many a picture. For 1999's The World is not Enough, both Brosnan and director Michael Apted, best known as a documentary filmmaker, wanted a darker, grittier Bond. They got their wish, producing one of the most downbeat, low-key projects executed in the franchise.
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