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Tuesday, November 29, 2011
BD impressions: Licence to Kill
3:23 PM / BD Impressions / 
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The film: I suspect there was probably a time when it would have been fair to call Timothy Dalton the most underrated Bond and LICENCE TO KILL the most underrated Bond film. Thankfully - and no doubt in part inspired by Daniel Craig's gritty, thuggish take on the character - both Dalton and his two films now seem to be getting some of the respect they've been long overdue. It's not a new hypothesis by any means, but I think there's something to be said for the oft-repeated claim that THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS and particularly LICENCE TO KILL were ahead of their time. After twelve years of campy theatrics from Roger Moore (barring the occasional glimpse of the character's harder edge, which shone through briefly in the likes of FOR YOUR EYES ONLY), Dalton's intense, steely-eyed take on the character was probably a bit too much for some people.
And I can understand that. In taking the character closer to that of Ian Fleming's novels than any other incarnation, many viewers who had grown up with the film series ironically felt that the Dalton films were the least Bond-like to date. Many of them missed Roger Moore's turn as the quintessential English gent, outwitting the bad guys with a smile and a witty quip. Dalton's smouldering rage is a different kettle of fish entirely, but the fact that it's taken me this long to watch another Bond film after LIVE AND LET DIE and FOR YOUR EYES ONLY ought to make it clear that I don't miss Moore's take on the character one bit.
Lest there be any doubt, I think Dalton's Bond is the best of the bunch.
A decade ago, I suspect that would have put me in the extreme minority. Like I said, though, nowadays I get the impression that people are re-evaluating Dalton and his two films and coming to realise that they in fact have a great deal to offer. Look at the polls on the IMDB forums for any of the Bond films and you'll invariably see one if not both of the Dalton films finding their way into most people's Top 10 lists. And that's a Very Good Thing, because he is quite brilliant in the role. There's something about the look he gets in his eyes at times that suggests his version of Bond is ever so slightly mad, which when you think about it makes a great deal of sense for someone who's experienced the sort of life he has. And given the reference to him having been married once, "a long time ago", this is evidently the same Bond from ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE, which gives you some idea of the sort of baggage he's carrying. (As it happens, Dalton was offered the role for OHMSS but turned it down - ah, what could have been.)
That's not to say that LICENCE TO KILL is a masterpiece. It's actually a frustratingly uneven film, suffering from some cack-handed dialogue and a number of lurches in tone and characterisation. The reason it largely works, in spite of its problems, is because it was tailor-made for Dalton's interpretation of the character: it is, by a considerable margin, the most violent and (dare I say it?) mean-spirited Bond film I've come across (CASINO ROYALE may offer some stiff competition, but in that film Bond doesn't off people anything like as sadistically as he does here), and sees the character at his nastiest and most vindictive. He has good reason: a drugs baron, Franz Sanchez (Robert Davi), has offed long-term friend Felix Leiter's wife and fed poor Felix's leg to the sharks for good measure. And it looks like he's going to get away with it. Stripped of his licence to kill by M, Bond finds himself operating as a rogue agent hunting down Sanchez on his own, making this a purely personal mission. This time, it's not about queen and country: it's about killing a nasty (but all too human) crime boss by any means necessary.
The clarity of focus and Dalton's intensity in the role of Bond make it possible to overlook the film's many glaring problems. I already mentioned ropey dialogue and uneven characterisation. The latter is most apparent in the form of Pam Bouvier (Carey Lowell), one of the two Bond girls in this outing and Bond's sidekick for the bulk of the film. For the record, I like Lowell a lot: she's a stunning-looking woman and one of the few Bond girls to actually get something useful to do and look convincing doing it to boot (whether it's flying a plane, deliberately crashing a boat or brandishing a pump-action shotgun), but her character lurches between "tough-as-nails army pilot" and "petulant little girl having a tantrum" a few too many times. On the whole, though, the character works, mainly because Lowell takes the harder-edged aspects of the character as seriously as Dalton does, meaning that you remember the Bouvier who holds her own against a bar full of thugs rather than the one who goes off in a strop because she sees Bond with another woman. (The other woman, by the way, is Lupe, played by Talisa Soto, who may not be one of the worst Bond girls in history, but is somewhat lacking in terms of acting ability.)
Unlike THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS, LICENCE TO KILL was written no-one but Dalton in mind. That said, I get the sense that writers Michael Wilson and Richard Maibum (this was the last Bond film penned by the series veteran, who had been around since the days of DR. NO) weren't entirely comfortable with committing fully to the darker tone that was Dalton's signature style. While his cold-blooded intensity is invariably what you take away from the film, it also has its share of the sort of silliness that wouldn't have seemed out of place in one of Roger Moore's more puerile romps. I'm thinking in particular of the character played by Wayne Newton, a crooked televangelist on Sanchez's payroll, or the sight of Bond and Leiter parachuting down to Leiter's wedding right after foiling the bad guys... to say nothing of the winking fish statue in the final shot. Desmond Llewelyn's Q shows up too, with an array of useful gadgets, and while most of them are at least halfway practical, there's at least one item - a camera that emits a laser beam and takes X-ray photographs - that never actually serves any purpose and feels like it belongs in a different movie. (Contrast this with Daniel Craig, who got a much more tonally consistent script in CASINO ROYALE.) And then there's the one-liners. They're the one aspect of the character that I've never felt Dalton was able to master. When asked to deliver lines that are meant to be deliberately funny - such as "Looks like he came to a dead end" - he just seems to look and sound awkward. That said, the puns and one-liners have never been my favourite element of this series, so perhaps I'm biased in that regard.
Writing flaws and Alec Mills' rather bland camerawork (in comparison to most of the other entries in the series) aside, I must say there's something extraordinarily watchable about this film. I can completely understand why some hardcore fans dismiss it, saying it feels more like a DIE HARD film than a Bond film, but personally I think the change in tone and atmosphere was much-needed after the worst excesses of the Moore years. It's a real fish out of water scenario for the character, and the essence of that character - a ruthlessly driven bastard with a weakness for the ladies and more than a hint of a sadistic streak - shines through, regardless of the location or forces he's up against. I prefer CASINO ROYALE and FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, but in terms of my chronological trek through the series (and bearing in mind that I've missed out a good many instalments, including most of Roger Moore's filmography), this is the most fun I've had with a Bond film since GOLDFINGER. Now hurry up and release THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS on BD. 8/10
Image quality: A mixed bag like all the Lowry Bond restorations, but this time with its foot firmly in the "good" camp, leaning towards "very good". After the softness of FOR YOUR EYES ONLY, this is on the whole a crisper affair, and the grain freezing and "cut-out" effects are less pronounced than in earlier entries in the series. Some ringing is apparent throughout, but it's definitely not the worst I've seen and certainly doesn't make the film unwatchable. Basically a decent but flawed presentation of a catalogue title, and one that has been treated considerably better than its reputation as the red-headed stepchild of the Bond series had led me to expect. 8/10
Licence to Kill
label: 20th Century Fox/MGM; disc country: USA; region code: A;
codec: AVC; aspect ratio: 2.39:1
The list as it currently stands:
- Dr. No - 7/10
- From Russia with Love - 8/10
- Goldfinger - 8/10
- Thunderball - 6/10
- On Her Majesty's Secret Service - 7/10
- Live and Let Die - 4/10
- For Your Eyes Only - 6/10
- Licence to Kill - 8/10
- Casino Royale - 8/10
- Quantum of Solace - 5/10
DIE ANOTHER DAY follows in the queue, and I promise I'm going to give it a fair hearing.
Updated Monday, July 9, 2012 at 12:23 PM: Transferred images from imgPlace to ImageShack. Full resolution captures should now be loading properly again.
7 Comments
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1. Christopher D. Jacobson said:
I've never seen a Bond film older than GoldenEye, though Amazon had all the current Blu-rays on sale for $10 so I bought the first four. If I like those enough, I suppose I'll go further and check out the rest—either through rental or purchase (though apparently they may be going in moratorium until late next year).
(Posted on Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 5:35 AM)