The Living Daylights
Dir: John Glen
1987
****
Roger Moore was out and Timothy Dalton was in, in what was the fifteenth Bond film in the series, based on one of two short stories from Ian Flemming's last book 'Octopussy & The Living Daylights'. Until 2006's Casino Royale, it was the last Bond film to take its title from one of Flemming's stories and unlike many of the films before, it actually follows the plot of the book in some part. Timothy Dalton had been considered for Bond in the past when Moore talked of leaving in the early 80's but strangely, it was Sam Neill who very nearly became Bond number four, everyone deciding he was the right man for the job apart from Albert Broccoli who had final say. Pierce Brosnan was offered the role before Dalton but was unable to sign due to commitments to his long running series Remington Steele. Personally, I thought Dalton was a great Bond who brought a very unique and striking element to the character. I found Dalton's Bond to be passionate and convincing, less smug and more romantic, rather than a womanizer. I'd argue that Daniel Craig learned more from Dalton's Bond than any other. Interestingly, The Living Daylights was originally penned as a reboot of the franchise, a prequel much like 2006's Casino Royale ended up being. Again, Daniel Craig's Bond owes a lot to Dalton and Daylights. However, Dalton was never sold on the character and was reluctant to sign, his public criticism of the role annoyed Cubby Broccoli but he hired him anyway and I don't think he ever let his reluctance show in his performance, far from it, he made it somewhat acceptable in a way it hadn't been before. John Glen finally got his way and the film has pretty much no humour in it whatsoever, it doesn't suffer for it either, making it quite a successful thriller. There are slow moments to the film but these are more than made up for in some spectacular action scenes and with some memorable characters. Andreas Wisniewski's Necros became the archetypal blueprint of the bleached henchman of 80s/90s action films, Maryam d'Abo was a Bond girl with substance, Jeroen Krabbe a believable villain and Joe Don Baker an interesting bad guy, whose character would become quite fascinating in a historical sense. I can't say I was sold on Caroline Bliss' Miss Moneypenny or John Terry's Felix Leiter but John Rhys-Davies' General Pushkin, who replaced Walter Gotell's General Gogol as head of the KGB, was a character I would have liked to have seen returned. Sadly, this was Walter Gotell's last Bond film, the actor retired soon after due to failing health. The opening scene on the Rock of Gibralter is still breathtaking, the snowy Slovakian street and Opera assassination scenes are as close to film noir as Bond had been since the early 60s and the final action scene on the cargo plane is still one of my favorites of the franchise. Bond had became more mature, more serious, more human and just that little bit darker. Another chapter of the series had begun and the firm foundations of how it would continue were laid. The Living Daylights showed the way, not only for the Bond films, but it is also the inspiration for many an action film that would follow in the next decade.