[You'd think each of the James Bond films would have their own threads here...]
LICENCE TO KILL (1989)
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Dir: John Glen (not the astronaut)
The second and last film with Timothy Dalton as James Bond. It plays better now than I remembered it. At the time, LICENCE TO KILL was criticized for being too mundane, too ordinary, as Bond tackles a mere drug lord rather than a world-conquering megalomaniac. There were fewer of the unlikely gadgets, no larger than life Neanderthal henchman, no slapstick. I personally was glad, being more a fan of the Ian Fleming books than of the movie 007, and I liked seeing a more down-to-Earth adventure for the character. (Dalton's Bond starts off neatly groomed in impeccable evening wear, and ends up bloodied and bruised and half dead in tatters, which is very much how Fleming's Bond fared.) But it was not what most filmgoers expected. Years of Roger Moore had identified James Bond as a smooth suave playboy who barely gets his hair mussed as he foils the villains and escapes with the girl.
The bad guy is Franz Sanchez (Robert Davi), a international cocaine emperor who is brutal in a crude way earlier Bond villains weren't. He whips his concubine with the tail of a stingray (Oww! this is taken from a Fleming short story, "The Hildebrand Rarity") and has the heart cut out of a man she was fooling around with. His main henchman is creepy little Dario (Benicio del Toro, all wicked grins and greasy hair), just aching to torture and kill. Sanchez wants revenge on DEA agent Felix Leiter (David Hedison), and he gets it by murdering Leiter's bride on their wedding night and feeding Leiter to a shark. This gives us a scene straight from Fleming's LIVE AND LET DIE, where Bond finds the bloody ruin of his friend with a note, "He disagreed with something that ate him." (Hedison's Leiter gets off with less damage than Fleming's character, who sported a hook hand, wooden leg and eyepatch if memory serves*.) Understandably annoyed at all this (He had been best man at the ceremony), Bond swears vegeance. Unfortunately, M has other assignments lined up and he orders 007 to get back on the job.
Bond tries to resign from the Service to go on a personal vendetta, and M revokes his licence to kill, prompting 007 to fight loose and go off on his own.[As an aside, the story goes that the original title was going to be LICENCE REVOKED but they tested it and those dumb Americans did not know the meaning of "revoked" so the title was changed to LICENCE TO KILL. I find this hard to believe, it sounds like a gratuitous dig at Americans (it's wrong when Americans poke fun at other nationalties but we are fair targets.). I don't know any adults who do not understand the word "revoked." On the other hand, the producers of the Bond films do seem inclined to work KILL, DIE, DEATH and similar words into their titles. TOMORROW NEVER LIES (a phrase within the film about Carver's newspaper) became TOMORROW NEVER DIES to get that death fetish in. So I can see LICENCE REVOKED becoming LICENCE TO KILL because it sounds meaner and tougher, and a little snark at Americans is just a bonus ("they're all fat, too.")]
Anyway, working outside the Secret Service doesn't seem any different than business as usual for Bond. He promptly kills a few people and skyjacks a seaplane packed with mattress-sized bundles of money, so he has capital to work with. Even Q shows up uninvited with some whacko gadgets, including a laser-firing camera and a gun that only shoots for its registered owner. Bond even quickly gets a female partner, Pam Bouvier (Carey Lowell), who is a CIA-contract pilot and good with a shotgun. So it's business as usual, really. Bond isn't running from other 00-agents sent to retrieve or silence him; indeed, M seems to just feel, 'Oh let the lad run wild a bit, he'll come back once he blows off some steam.' Possibly M secretly agreed with Bond but couldn't say so because then there would be trouble with the Home Secretary or something.
I rather liked LICENCE TO KILL at the time, it seemed like a nice change of pace from the usual blow-up-the-world threats ending in a confused battle between armies of good guys and bad guys. It had more of an Ian Fleming feel. But it wasn't what audiences in general wanted (and there was serious competition for their dollars in the summer of 1989: LETHAL WEAPON 2, INDIANA JONES AND THE HOLT GRAIL, and BATMAN.)
As it happened, there would not be another James Bond movie for five years, when Pierce Brosnan took the role. But I have always had a feeling that, if Dalton had gotten one more Bond film to do in 1990 or so, the producers and writers and director would have found just the right balance for him. But you know, "of all sad words of tongue or pen..."
____________________
*Hedison is seen at the end of the movie, quite chipper and cheerful as he chats with Bond on the phone. Dude, what's wrong with you? Your new bride has been brutally murdered and you've been chewed up by a shark! How much Percocet did they give you, anyway?
LICENCE TO KILL (1989)
Dir: John Glen (not the astronaut)
The second and last film with Timothy Dalton as James Bond. It plays better now than I remembered it. At the time, LICENCE TO KILL was criticized for being too mundane, too ordinary, as Bond tackles a mere drug lord rather than a world-conquering megalomaniac. There were fewer of the unlikely gadgets, no larger than life Neanderthal henchman, no slapstick. I personally was glad, being more a fan of the Ian Fleming books than of the movie 007, and I liked seeing a more down-to-Earth adventure for the character. (Dalton's Bond starts off neatly groomed in impeccable evening wear, and ends up bloodied and bruised and half dead in tatters, which is very much how Fleming's Bond fared.) But it was not what most filmgoers expected. Years of Roger Moore had identified James Bond as a smooth suave playboy who barely gets his hair mussed as he foils the villains and escapes with the girl.
The bad guy is Franz Sanchez (Robert Davi), a international cocaine emperor who is brutal in a crude way earlier Bond villains weren't. He whips his concubine with the tail of a stingray (Oww! this is taken from a Fleming short story, "The Hildebrand Rarity") and has the heart cut out of a man she was fooling around with. His main henchman is creepy little Dario (Benicio del Toro, all wicked grins and greasy hair), just aching to torture and kill. Sanchez wants revenge on DEA agent Felix Leiter (David Hedison), and he gets it by murdering Leiter's bride on their wedding night and feeding Leiter to a shark. This gives us a scene straight from Fleming's LIVE AND LET DIE, where Bond finds the bloody ruin of his friend with a note, "He disagreed with something that ate him." (Hedison's Leiter gets off with less damage than Fleming's character, who sported a hook hand, wooden leg and eyepatch if memory serves*.) Understandably annoyed at all this (He had been best man at the ceremony), Bond swears vegeance. Unfortunately, M has other assignments lined up and he orders 007 to get back on the job.
Bond tries to resign from the Service to go on a personal vendetta, and M revokes his licence to kill, prompting 007 to fight loose and go off on his own.[As an aside, the story goes that the original title was going to be LICENCE REVOKED but they tested it and those dumb Americans did not know the meaning of "revoked" so the title was changed to LICENCE TO KILL. I find this hard to believe, it sounds like a gratuitous dig at Americans (it's wrong when Americans poke fun at other nationalties but we are fair targets.). I don't know any adults who do not understand the word "revoked." On the other hand, the producers of the Bond films do seem inclined to work KILL, DIE, DEATH and similar words into their titles. TOMORROW NEVER LIES (a phrase within the film about Carver's newspaper) became TOMORROW NEVER DIES to get that death fetish in. So I can see LICENCE REVOKED becoming LICENCE TO KILL because it sounds meaner and tougher, and a little snark at Americans is just a bonus ("they're all fat, too.")]
Anyway, working outside the Secret Service doesn't seem any different than business as usual for Bond. He promptly kills a few people and skyjacks a seaplane packed with mattress-sized bundles of money, so he has capital to work with. Even Q shows up uninvited with some whacko gadgets, including a laser-firing camera and a gun that only shoots for its registered owner. Bond even quickly gets a female partner, Pam Bouvier (Carey Lowell), who is a CIA-contract pilot and good with a shotgun. So it's business as usual, really. Bond isn't running from other 00-agents sent to retrieve or silence him; indeed, M seems to just feel, 'Oh let the lad run wild a bit, he'll come back once he blows off some steam.' Possibly M secretly agreed with Bond but couldn't say so because then there would be trouble with the Home Secretary or something.
I rather liked LICENCE TO KILL at the time, it seemed like a nice change of pace from the usual blow-up-the-world threats ending in a confused battle between armies of good guys and bad guys. It had more of an Ian Fleming feel. But it wasn't what audiences in general wanted (and there was serious competition for their dollars in the summer of 1989: LETHAL WEAPON 2, INDIANA JONES AND THE HOLT GRAIL, and BATMAN.)
As it happened, there would not be another James Bond movie for five years, when Pierce Brosnan took the role. But I have always had a feeling that, if Dalton had gotten one more Bond film to do in 1990 or so, the producers and writers and director would have found just the right balance for him. But you know, "of all sad words of tongue or pen..."
____________________
*Hedison is seen at the end of the movie, quite chipper and cheerful as he chats with Bond on the phone. Dude, what's wrong with you? Your new bride has been brutally murdered and you've been chewed up by a shark! How much Percocet did they give you, anyway?
statistics: Posted by doctorhermes428 — 11:48 PM - 2 days ago — Replies 15 — Views 910