The Living Daylights

The Living Daylights is directed by John Glen and adapted to screenplay by Ricahrd Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson from an Ian Fleming story. It stars Timothy Dalton, Maryam d'Abo, Jeroen Krabbe, Brad Whitaker, John Rhys-Davies, Joe Don Baker and Art Malik. Music is scored by John Barry and cinematography by Alec Mills.

Bond 15 and 007 is assigned to Bratislava to help in the defection of Soviet General Kosov from the Iron Curtain. But pretty soon Bond is mired in a plot involving arms, opium and assassinations.

With Moore retired the search for a new Bond invariably came down to two names who had been mentioned in Bond circles before, Pierce Brosnan and Timothy Dalton. TV schedules and commitments would play a part and eventually Dalton got the role and eagerly he read up on Fleming's novels to ensure he had a grasp on the beloved Secret Agent. In spite of many misconceptions about Dalton's tenure in the tuxedo, his take was stripped back and closer to Fleming's literary source, his intense acting style ensuring Bond was getting back to the thriller realm.

The Living Daylights is a great Bond movie, mostly devoid of stupid sight gags and cheese laden quips, it sees Bond back to indulging in glorious fist fights, using brains and brawn to achieve his ends, and with Dalton putting the arrogant swagger back into the man, Bond is sexy and dangerous again. The plot is intelligent, operating on three fronts and spanning across the continents, production values are immense, Barry's final score is a knockout, one of his most atmospheric and the title song by Norwegian pop darlings, a-ha, is energy supreme and became a monster chart hit. Glen's action direction is practically peerless, including an excellent pre-credit sequence (where a training exercise turns bloody) and a mano mano fight between Bond and a baddie aboard an in flight cargo plane, the latter of which is a series highlight. Maryam d'Abo is a good Bond girl, making Kara Milovy brave but also sweetly innocent, the pairing of Dalton and d'Abo works very well.

Where the picture mainly falls down is with the villains, who are just too lightweight to amp up the peril within the plot. Krabbe and Baker are far from being bad or even average actors, but they rarely offer a threat to Bond and it's a stretch to imagine they could seriously trouble him. Elsewhere, Robert Brown continues to lack an edge in the role of M and Caroline Bliss steps into the Moneypenny shoes vacated by Lois Maxwell and struggles to make an impact because the script doesn't allow her too. Big crime, too, is having Felix Leiter finally return only for him to be underwritten and performed by a dull actor (John Terry). One misstep in the film 's plotting sees Bond and Milovy escape from danger by using a Cello case as a sledge, it looks daft and feels like it belongs in one of Roger Moore's cartoonish Bond movies. Much has been made of Dalton being uncomfortable saying the quips, and that's right, it does show, but that is a world away from the Bond he wanted to play. I do wonder if this screenplay was tailored towards Brosnan, who was inches away from getting the gig? Or even a holdover from a script written with Moore in mind?

No matter, Dalton ushered in a Bond of class and intensity and the worldwide box office chimed to the tune of over $190 million, nearly $50 million more than Moore's last film, A View to a Kill. Critics were mixed on the film and with Dalton's take on the Bond role, they failed to see it was a new era and that it was an actor refusing (rightly so) to mimic either of the Bond's that went before him. Fleming purists were much happier, and with that box office take proving, so were movie going Bond fans. 8.5/10

The Living Daylights is one of the most handsomely shot Bond movies, and Timothy Dalton is dynamite as a grittier and cooler 007. When I was a kid I was swept along for the ride, mesmerised by the evocative use of locations, lush photography, and well choreographed set-pieces. As an adult though I see it as a somewhat flawed movie, with some parts feeling contrived or a bit preposterous (such as the Mujahideen sequence). There's some frustrating narrative choices and the characterisations of the villains feels a bit off, either coming across as clownish (Jeroen Krabbé) or underdeveloped (Joe Don Baker). It's a shame as it's a bit of a misstep in the movie, especially considering how dastardly and treacherous their motivations are. They deserved greater fleshing out, and especially more satisfying comeuppances.

This isn't to say The Living Daylights is a bad movie though. Far from it. The reasons I loved it as a kid are why I still keep returning to the film all these years after. After the criminally underrated Licence to Kill it's the second best 80's Bond movie, and director John Glen pulled out all the stops to give the franchise a much-needed adrenalin shot after the misfire A View to a Kill. Some argue the stagnancy of the series at the time carried over into Dalton's period as 007, which is arguable but in my opinion doesn't detract away from the quality of his movies. There's a certain freshness and flair which elevates The Living Daylights, and License to Kill took a left turn which while controversial was also uncompromising and brave, giving Dalton free reign to show a darker more complex version of Bond which was only hinted at here.

The Living Daylights boasts some of the greatest production values out of all the Bond movies, although its this emphasis on aesthetics which can almost make it seem superficial in places. There's more than enough to justify its existence however. When all's said and done it contains everything you'd want from a Bond movie, and is John Glen's best directed entry in the franchise. Maryam d'Abo is a lovely Bond girl too. Unlike most women who came before she's never subjected to crude objectification or made the butt of some poor misogynistic pun. There's a sweet chemistry between her character and Bond's, and it's credit to both actors that they carry this off with some authenticity. The soundtrack is also a prominant feature of the movie and compliments the action very well, adding to the excitement right from the exhilarating opening scene on Gibraltar.

Not without its faults then, but I'd highly recommend it.

An underrated film in the series. Timothy Dalton particularly changed the Bond character to make it more faithful to Fleming's books. Instead of being a suave playboy, he's a burnt-out assassin. His Bond is a palpable thread to his enemies and was far more energetic than past actors in the role. This means less philandering and more mission. Unfortunately, the "Bond girl" (Kara Milovy) and the villains didn't have memorable performances. With a better cast, this would've been a possible contender for the best film in the series.

The plot in this movie is different from past Bonds. There's no world domination or global destruction. Rather it's a plot of Soviet defection and people conspiring together to commit treason. It's a welcome change to the formula not knowing exactly what's going to happen next. In the 2nd half, there's a big set piece of Bond on an airplane (in the midst of a war) that's one of the most ambitious action scenes in the series.

Despite not being one of the better known Bond films, it was a very important one for the franchise. It pushed the series toward storytelling, action and established Bond as a more dark gritty character. The later films since then have not turned back.

The year: 1987, the Man: Timothy Dalton, the film? The Living Daylights and good news for adults across the globe because after sending off their kids to joke it up with Roger Moore for over a decade they could finally sit down to a Bond movie which, whisper it quietly, resembled a real thriller...and a good one at that. We should be grateful for Dalton's two stints as the Bond because they came within a whisp of never existing. Had the studio had their way, Moore would have been wheeled off for Brosnan and a serious reinvention of the series would have been dropped in favour of the, er, "winning" return to form we've been privileged enough to have enjoyed since 1995's Goldeneye.

Dalton's take on the character was to return it (and I hope you're sitting down) to the brooding, cruel and methodical assassin envisioned by Flemming in his original stories. TD was a RADA trained Shakespearian actor for God's sake and certainly had no intention of smirking and punning his way through each adventure. Dalton said that half the world loved Connery and the other half loved Moore (which is hedging your bets a bit) but he bravely chose to play it like neither. We can only imagine at the relief Richard Maibrum must have felt, given the opportunity to finally write an real screenplay tailored to the new approach, having been no doubt advised in previous outings that plot and character was superfluous to requirements. The result is a story set in the real world . Goodbye super-villains bloated on world domination plots and hello to arms dealers, Afgan resistance fighters, double crosses and political assassinations. After so many remakes of You Only Live Twice it certainly is a tonic and Dalton's hard-edged, professional spy washes over you like a radox bath following a 300 mile trek through the Gobi. His performance reinvigorates the series and makes all thats old new again. The familiar elements are all here - the car, the girls, the locations, but anchored in a real cold war setting with Pretenders loving KGB agents round every corner and the credible whiff of counter-espionage, the whole thing crackles with an energy and an urgency that would have been a fantasy in any of Moores mirth-ridden efforts. Even John Barry's music, in his final contribution to the series, is a fresh and exciting affair - blending high tempo action cues with his usual gift for generating a sense of foreboding and pathos in equal measure. Yes, Bond hadn't felt this good or LOOKED this good since the mid-sixites but as if to prove the old adage that you can't have too much of a good thing, we didn't. Audiences found Dalton humorless and the heady excesses of good story, three-dimensional characterisation and real world setting somewhat distracting. After all, where were all the puns (Dalton's "he got the boot" aside), the jokes and the evil bloke at the end who plans to ravage the planet with deadly spores? People were beginning to ask and Dalton still had two films to go on his contract....

I like the new James Bond. He's different. In walks Timothy Dalton to replace Roger Moore after his seven turns as 007. The new Bond is a monogamous chap, less humorous and clowny, a little more serious and darker. Not that Moore's Bond wasn't serious when he needed to be... when he needed to be that agent capable of getting the job done he always did, of course! But here Dalton gives us a guy on the job almost all the time. Moore's silliness gone, in comes seriousness with Dalton. The action sequences seem to definitely get kicked up a notch. And we're back to great cars and gadgets and a henchman for the villain who is quite a nemesis, at least for a little while. It's been like ten years since I've seen this, perhaps this being the 4th time overall, and I think now, whilst watching all the Bond films chronologically, I have a greater appreciation for it.

7.6 / 10 stars

--Zoooma, a Kat Pirate Screener