The Living Daylights (1987)

A lot has been said about Timothy Dalton being the worst James Bond. Of course, many others point to George Lazenby and his one-and-done stint as 007 as being the worst. This just goes to show you how wrong people can be.

While Roger Moore’s campy pretty-boy antics may have worked during the escapist cinema of the 70s, Timothy Dalton’s turn as James Bond seems to more accurately reflect the grittiness that was the 1980s. For starters, Dalton actually looks like a killer. The challenges Bond faces are also not as simple as Moore’s Bond faced. The Living Daylights places Bond in a world that is much more like our own (or was at the time). Things are complicated, and Bond can’t afford to side-step physical confrontation.

The story is truly labyrinthine, featuring double-crosses, deception and a murky picture of what’s going on until the final portion of the film. This all works to its credit though. Dalton’s new take on Bond is a breath of fresh air, despite a few disparities between what James Bond would really do and what he ends up doing (aka- not shooting a sniper because it happens to be a gorgeous woman). Granted, those disparities come back to help the story in the end, it still nags me in the back of my mind.

With The Living Daylights, the reinvention of James Bond has gotten off to a very good start.

RATING: 3.25 out of 5