The Living Daylights: Review By slysnide

Despite the poor critical reception of "A View To A Kill" (1985), the producers once again considered Roger Moore for an eighth James Bond adventure, but he thankfully bowed out of the franchise. With Moore's departure left an era of colorful characters, exotic locales, zany plots, egomaniacal villains, and some truly unique Bond girls. But most of all, it was end of the english gentlemen portrayal of James Bond. Given that each of the three actors brought something new to the character, the producers feverishly searched a new Bond.

Their first four choices were Timothy Dalton, Sam Neil, Lewis Collins, and Pierce Brosnan. Dalton had previously been wanted for "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1969), but refused citing he was too young. Now he once again declined instead wanting to focus on the film "Brenda Starr" (1989) whose distribution rights would delay its release for three years. Neil & Collins failed their screen tests, while Brosnan got the producers approval after three screen tests. However, when an announcement was made that he was chosen as the next James Bond, NBC renewed his cancelled television series "Remington Steele" (1982-1987), forcing Brosnan to continue work on the series as he was contractually obliged to should it be renewed for any reason. NBC only renewed it figuring Bond fans would tune in to see the new Bond in a similar caper series, but Cubby then withdrew the offer saying that "Remington Steele will not be James Bond," as he knew fans would pre-judge Brosnan's performance based on his character from the television series. The producers then returned to Dalton who accepted, but he didn't sign a contract, and so, the film's casting director persuaded Robert Bathurst to audition for the role, despite that he knew it was only a facade to get Dalton to sign the contract, which he finally did. Allegedly, other actors like Mel Gibson, Lambert Wilson, and even Sean Bean were considered for the role.

For the story, the producers looked to a short story of the same name featured in Ian Fleming collection of short Bond stories titled "Octop*ssy and the Living Daylights" (1966). However the professional sniper was also a cellist here, and a totally new backdrop was featured. Due to the ongoing Afghan-Soviet War, the producers felt it would be a fitting setting to keep up with the times as they had done with the predecessor, but the overriding plot remains the same. The script was once again written by Maibaum & Wilson.

For the role of the new Bond girl, cellist and KGB sniper Kara Milovy, Cubby's wife Dana suggested Maryam d'Abo who'd previously auditioned for the role of Pola Ivanova in "A View To A Kill." For the major role of the soviet defector General Georgi Koskov, Dutch actor Jeroen Krabbe was cast. His character however wasn't nearly as flamboyant as General Orlov (Steven Berkoff) from "Octop*ssy" (1983) despite being of the same tapestry; Rather he was a very competent character. But for the role meant to be fulfilled by longtime supporting character General Gogol (Walter Gotell), the producers were forced to create a totally new character when Gotell was too ill to take on the major role. But he did make a brief appearance in the film. So instead, John Rhys-Davies was cast as General Leonid Pushkin; the new head of the KGB.

In his fifteenth adventure, James Bond (Timothy Dalton) must aide in the defection of Soviet General Georgi Koskov (Jeroen Krabbe) who claims the KGB has reinstated their SMERSH program, which sends Bond off on a mission to assassinate the new head of the KGB (John Rhys-Davies) before he causes more tension between the superpowers, but Bond quickly discovers that not everything is as it seems once he begins tracking KGB sniper Kara Milovy (Maryam d'Abo). On his globe trekking journey to uncover the truth, he'll make unlikely allies like Mujahideen leader Kamran Shah (Art Malik), and even more unlikely enemies like the crazy american arms dealer Brad Whitaker (Joe Don Baker). How could such a simple assassination mission lead him to ally & square off against these people? How could they in any way be involved in the mystery villain's plot? And how the hell did Bond find himself in Afghanistan from a mission to Moscow? All the answers may surprise you in what was another return to the realistic Bond, steeped in Cold War tensions & paranoia, with a real war zone as the backdrop for the climax.

Production began with the second unit on 17 September 1986 at the Rock of Gibralter, which was deemed to not look like a real military base, resulting in signs, barbed wire, and fake beach defenses being built to make the place look more menacing. Some of the signs are allegedly still there. Trick photography by Alec Mills made the Land Rover sequence look far more dangerous than it really was, with the Mojave standing in for a cliff dive, while aerial stuntmen B.J. Worth & Jake Lombard performed the parachute jumps from a C-130 Hercules on loan from the Spanish Air Force which was painted to look both like an RAF craft, and later as a Soviet craft which finds Worth & Lombard dangling from a cargo net off the back of the real plane at high altitudes for another tricky parachute jump. First unit got underway almost two weeks later at Stoner House in Oxfordshire, England doubling for a safe house. The press then finally met Dalton & d'Abo on 5 October 1986 while filming in Vienna, Italy commenced. Ouarzazate, Morocco stood in for the Afghan desert, and Elveden Hall in Suffolk, England stood in for Whitaker's home.

Despite the vast array of Bond's vehicles over the years, none matched the popularity of his Aston Martin DB-5, and so the filmmakers chose the Aston Martin V8 Vantage for the frozen lake chase filmed at Weissensee Lake in Carinthia, Austria. While numerous models of the same car are typically used to perform the various stunts in the chase scenes, there were several continuity bloopers when viewing it in the chase as opposed to the convertible model at the safe house, which was also different than the hardtop in Q (Desmond Llewelyn) Branch. Fans were nonetheless pleased that Bond's famous car returned to the franchise.

As Bond, Timothy Dalton came off more as an independent action hero than James Bond. The Welshman was confident in his performance, but not anything like a brit in his mannerisms and overall portrayal. So for that, the performance is docked some points. He did however make for a good action hero, which is redeemable as the film would probably have been better received as an independent film than a Bond film, for it received a lot of unfair criticism. For example, fans and critics alike criticized the alleged 'mediocrity' of the plot as opposed to the more classic plot in the predecessor, despite the fact that that film's plot was also criticized for being too ridiculous, despite that more logic & reason was pumped into it than most installments in the Connery Era combined. So this seems to be fans subconsciously able to enjoy the sixties films as regular Bond films, but they consciously would reject such plots as outlandish decades down the line, despite enjoying the Connery Era films better than most modern Bond adventures, so in effect, they're being hypocritical in their criticisms as they wanted a sic-fi Bond, and that's what they got in "Moonraker" (1979), then wanted a more realistic Bond, and that's what they got in "For Your Eyes Only" (1981), then wanted it to be more adventurous with "Octop*ssy," then more classic like "A View To A Kill." So that pretty much is a brief rundown of the producers satisfying the desires of the audiences, which was always a plus for this franchise. Hell, they even criticized "Quantum of Solace" (2008) more for its 'mediocre' plot than the action hero version of Bond, yet last I checked, funding a vicious dictator's coup de-etat for the sake of monopolizing a third world nation's water supply for your own selfish greed was both evil, and realistic. I mean hey, it happened before. Yet here they wanted a more realistic and less ridiculous Bond film and got one. This and its sequel actually would've fared much better in the Craig Era; especially the sequel for its vengeful drive. Both of them fit the definition of realistic for a Bond film, and both would fit right in with the types of films fans expect from Daniel Craig's Bond, but unfortunately, it would have to be reworked there to match the time period.

As for everything else in the film, Maryam d'Abo annoyed me as she seemed too dreamy throughout, and the villains I agree were rather dull. The physically intimidating, yet quiet henchmen with the bleached hair named Necros (Andreas Wisniewski) made for a better villain, and that's saying a lot, for he was along the lines of a Red Grant ripoff, but not as good. For this story was steeped in the same espionage that "From Russia With Love" (1963) had, and what do you know, there was another such ripoff in "For Your Eyes Only" which was also centered around espionage. So this seems to be a recurring ripoff with these espionage laden Bond films. I don't mind them at all, but they're not original nor creative after Red Grant. However, Joe Don Baker's comedic performance as the delusional war obsessed arms dealer was very creative, and you kind of just wanted to see him win because of his personality you know? Well, I totally sympathize with Bond fans who couldn't stand him, but apparently the personality was well liked enough to bring Baker back in a watered down personality in "Goldeneye" (1995) & "Tomorrow Never Dies" (1997).

When released, the forty million dollar debut of Timothy Dalton reigned in $191,200,000 in profits, which excelled Roger Moore's final outing by $38,400,000, a significant boost for the franchise, and stamp of approval for Dalton. However, not all critics were as enthused, despite that the film is still considered a good installment on the whole. One harsh critic was the Red Cross, whom were so angered by the film's drug cartel's packages being marked with a version of their logo that they threatened a lawsuit, though none was filed, and a disclaimer was added to some dvd releases instead. But on the whole, people liked Dalton enough over the aging Roger Moore that they tolerated his first outing for the time being. Though the title song by aHa would be liked much longer, as several fans look back on the film with more mixed feelings than they originally had. For me, I thought this return to realism was better than "For Your Eyes Only," but not as good as "From Russia With Love," and ultimately felt like an independent action film which featured a leading secret agent character who happened to be named James Bond.