With even more spit and grit than his first appearance, Timothy Dalton explores the darker side of 007 in this revenge story. After Bond and his US agent friend Felix Leiter bust a Central American crime lord in Florida, the bad guy escapes prison and seeks revenge, seriously crippling Leiter on his wedding night and killing his new wife.
Bond is determined to exact revenge on the crime lord, but MI6 has other plans for him. When he rejects an assignment in Turkey in order to continue his vendetta, he is forced to resign his post, effectively giving up his license to kill. He manages to avoid being brought into British custody and infiltrates the crime lord’s operations. Fortunately, this crime lord is up to no good, allowing Bond’s executioner behavior to be validated.
The sadistic crime lord has discovered a way to dissolve cocaine into gasoline and is selling the separation process to the highest bidders. It’s a bit far-fetched, but it helps to have Bond stopping something nefarious rather than just killing in cold blood. Some did not like the darker tone of the film, but one must remember that, as suave and charming as Bond can be, he is employed as a spy and assassin.
This is easily the edgiest Bond film to date, but still on par with Dalton’s first appearance. Dalton gave the Bond series new life after Roger Moore left it in the gutter. Sadly, he would not return for another go as 007.
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.
With even more spit and grit than his first appearance, Timothy Dalton explores the darker side of 007 in this revenge story. After Bond and his US agent friend Felix Leiter bust a Central American crime lord in Florida, the bad guy escapes prison and seeks revenge, seriously crippling Leiter on his wedding night and killing his new wife.
