The Spy Who Loved Me (1977, Action): Short Visual Literacy Analysis

The Spy Who Loved Me had many extravagant sets and on-location scenes. This was obviously necessary just from the fact that it is a spy movie. In theory, spies are very wealthy and go everywhere imaginable. These kinds of sets can get quite costly and time consuming to create just from their sheer extravagance. This is why they hire a production designer.

It is the job of the production designer to find the best way to convey the message of the movie while remaining economic and still true to the key theme and elements necessary to make the film believable. To do this, they have to go on recces, trips to scout out locations, before the film can continue in its processes in order to find the best possible locations for filming within their budgeted amount. With a movie like this, I am sure that the production designer, Ken Adam, had to scour many places that were budget-friendly in order for The Spy Who Loved Me to be a success.

The costumes also screamed extravagance, wealth, and elegance. Half of the movie Bond and XXX wore a full suit and formal gown. Any other time was an activity-based costume, such as when James Bond was wearing the ski gear or XXX wore a military uniform. While they were so smartly dressed, in comparison, Jaws was dressed in business casual for virtually the entire film. Rosemary Burrows, the costume designer on this film, had a very simple vision if what these spies were to wear: simple elegance. The Spy Who Loved Me showcased the epitome of sophistication.

The set designs were perfect for the theme of this film. The offices were simplistic, yet very clearly full of cool gadgets and minimalistic elegance. The art director, Peter Lamont, worked well together with the set director, Hugh Scaife (who was uncredited), to make the vision of the writers and director come alive. The art director must oversee the translation of sketches into sets, while the set director must dress the sets in their intended way. These two worked together to make the elegance correspond to the raw sketches in a more believable way that still appeared overly intelligent, since The Spy Who Loved Me was supposed to have these extravagant gadgets to complete the mission at hand, such as when they went to visit Q's lab where he created all the cool gear that Bond could ever hope for.