The Living Daylights (1987)
September 3, 2015 4:38 AM - Subscribe
James Bond is living on the edge to stop an evil arms dealer from starting another world war. Bond crosses all seven continents in order to stop the evil Whitaker and General Koskov.
This is the 15th James Bond film adventure.
The Wikipedia entry.
ShrunkenCinema.com reviews The Living Daylights.
The James Bonding podcast (Matt Mira, Matt Gourley and guest Cole Stratton) covers The Living Daylights.
Some Top Critic reviews from Rotten Tomatoes:
Pat Graham, Chicago Reader: "Expect the expected."
Variety: "Timothy Dalton, the fourth Bond, registers beautifully on all key counts of charm, machismo, sensitivity and technique."
Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: "This Bond is as fast on his feet as with his wits; an ironic scowl creases his face; he's battle ready yet war-weary."
Time Out: "Confused plot and digressive globe trotting notwithstanding, the best Bond in years."
Janet Maslin, New York Times: "Mr. Dalton, the latest successor to the role of James Bond, is well equipped for his new responsibilities. He has enough presence, the right debonair looks and the kind of energy that the Bond series has lately been lacking."
Rita Kempley, Washington Post: "A snazzy spy thriller."
This is the 15th James Bond film adventure.
The Wikipedia entry.
ShrunkenCinema.com reviews The Living Daylights.
The James Bonding podcast (Matt Mira, Matt Gourley and guest Cole Stratton) covers The Living Daylights.
Some Top Critic reviews from Rotten Tomatoes:
Pat Graham, Chicago Reader: "Expect the expected."
Variety: "Timothy Dalton, the fourth Bond, registers beautifully on all key counts of charm, machismo, sensitivity and technique."
Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: "This Bond is as fast on his feet as with his wits; an ironic scowl creases his face; he's battle ready yet war-weary."
Time Out: "Confused plot and digressive globe trotting notwithstanding, the best Bond in years."
Janet Maslin, New York Times: "Mr. Dalton, the latest successor to the role of James Bond, is well equipped for his new responsibilities. He has enough presence, the right debonair looks and the kind of energy that the Bond series has lately been lacking."
Rita Kempley, Washington Post: "A snazzy spy thriller."
I love this movie, though on this most recent watching I think I love it because Timothy Dalton is attractive, charming as hell, and makes a lot of exasperated/annoyed faces (TD gives excellent side-eye). The whole Gibraltar sequence, the whole putting-Koskov-in-the-pipeline sequence, and the whole car chase/cello ride sequence are all fantastic, but the rest of the movie is kind of whatever.
posted by everybody had matching towels at 7:40 AM on September 3, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by everybody had matching towels at 7:40 AM on September 3, 2015 [2 favorites]
Mostly I appreciated how much this one feels revitalized. By the end of the Roger Moore era, it seemed like everyone involved in the production was just kind of weary. They'd hit on a formula that worked and just kept cranking them out. With Dalton in and a new outlook, they had to make some actual choices about what Bond movies were going to be like, and making this one a little more brutal and smaller in scope worked pretty well.
That said, the Afghanistan part probably goes on too long (most of the individual parts are fine to good, but put together it drags a bit), but I might just think that because I was desperate for more Jon Don Baker in Joe Don Baker's Moroccan Palace of wax statues of Joe Don Baker dressed as famous generals. Plus, the whole mujahideen thing is pretty uncomfortable given the last 20 years of Afghanistan's history.
posted by Copronymus at 9:08 AM on September 3, 2015 [2 favorites]
That said, the Afghanistan part probably goes on too long (most of the individual parts are fine to good, but put together it drags a bit), but I might just think that because I was desperate for more Jon Don Baker in Joe Don Baker's Moroccan Palace of wax statues of Joe Don Baker dressed as famous generals. Plus, the whole mujahideen thing is pretty uncomfortable given the last 20 years of Afghanistan's history.
posted by Copronymus at 9:08 AM on September 3, 2015 [2 favorites]
Moore is over! If you want it!
Moore is over! If you want it!
Wow, you have no idea how much this movie meant to me at the time. It was the first non-Moore Bond I saw in the theater. (I think the first one I saw on the big screen would have been Octopussy. Peak Moore.) But I'd seen all the earlier ones on TV and knew that pretty much any other approach to the character than Moore's was better for me.
And then here came this thing. I didn't really know who Timothy Dalton was, but by the end of the pre-credits sequence, I was totally in his corner. I still think he's an underrated Bond and like both his films a lot more than most people do. Yeah, he can't do anything but grim and pissed off, but the movies themselves were so much better for minimizing the jokey bits at long last.
This one isn't perfect of course - none of them are. And the third act hasn't aged all that well given the history of Afghanistan.
But there's so much great stuff here. That pre-credits sequence in Gibraltar (at least after the office in a plane gag). The small, realistic scale of the villains' plans. That awesome kidnapping from the safe house - there's a shot when we don't yet know Koskov's defection was fake when they're hauling him out to the helicopter on a stretcher and he's struggling to get out of the straps that is just gripping.
Even the bit that sets off the final action sequence where they raid the Russian air base. Bond has suddenly ridden off in the back of a Russian truck, and Kamran Shah and his men are just sitting there while Maryam D'abo is trying to convince them to go after him. And they're not going anywhere.
So she just grabs Kamran's gun and rides off after the Russians by herself (it's like the one that redeems that whole annoying character). And so then they're all looking at Kamran and he's looking at them, and everybody's like, well fuck, now we have to go attack the airbase. It's just a great moment.
All in all, this is still in my top, hell, I don't know, five (?) of the Bond movies, if only for definitively bringing down the curtain on the Roger Moore era.
posted by Naberius at 9:24 AM on September 3, 2015 [2 favorites]
Moore is over! If you want it!
Wow, you have no idea how much this movie meant to me at the time. It was the first non-Moore Bond I saw in the theater. (I think the first one I saw on the big screen would have been Octopussy. Peak Moore.) But I'd seen all the earlier ones on TV and knew that pretty much any other approach to the character than Moore's was better for me.
And then here came this thing. I didn't really know who Timothy Dalton was, but by the end of the pre-credits sequence, I was totally in his corner. I still think he's an underrated Bond and like both his films a lot more than most people do. Yeah, he can't do anything but grim and pissed off, but the movies themselves were so much better for minimizing the jokey bits at long last.
This one isn't perfect of course - none of them are. And the third act hasn't aged all that well given the history of Afghanistan.
But there's so much great stuff here. That pre-credits sequence in Gibraltar (at least after the office in a plane gag). The small, realistic scale of the villains' plans. That awesome kidnapping from the safe house - there's a shot when we don't yet know Koskov's defection was fake when they're hauling him out to the helicopter on a stretcher and he's struggling to get out of the straps that is just gripping.
Even the bit that sets off the final action sequence where they raid the Russian air base. Bond has suddenly ridden off in the back of a Russian truck, and Kamran Shah and his men are just sitting there while Maryam D'abo is trying to convince them to go after him. And they're not going anywhere.
So she just grabs Kamran's gun and rides off after the Russians by herself (it's like the one that redeems that whole annoying character). And so then they're all looking at Kamran and he's looking at them, and everybody's like, well fuck, now we have to go attack the airbase. It's just a great moment.
All in all, this is still in my top, hell, I don't know, five (?) of the Bond movies, if only for definitively bringing down the curtain on the Roger Moore era.
posted by Naberius at 9:24 AM on September 3, 2015 [2 favorites]
Let's not forget that this one has Maryam d'Abo in it, one of the best Bond girls in my book. She has agency and capacity and delivers heart and romance to the movie, which helps our new Bond to shine.
She's a huge factor why this is one of the better Bond movies for me.
posted by bigendian at 9:29 AM on September 3, 2015 [2 favorites]
She's a huge factor why this is one of the better Bond movies for me.
posted by bigendian at 9:29 AM on September 3, 2015 [2 favorites]
This is, by the way, the one Bond for which I have the framed poster.
This one.
posted by Naberius at 9:41 AM on September 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
This one.
posted by Naberius at 9:41 AM on September 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
Bond crosses all seven continents in order to stop the evil Whitaker and General Koskov.
Also, why the hell do they keep saying this about this movie? I count three.
posted by Naberius at 9:46 AM on September 3, 2015
Also, why the hell do they keep saying this about this movie? I count three.
posted by Naberius at 9:46 AM on September 3, 2015
(Sam Neill was cast first, but Albert Broccoli didn't like him)
Man, this was hard to believe but apparently there is video proof on the Internet.
posted by Copronymus at 10:47 AM on September 3, 2015 [2 favorites]
Man, this was hard to believe but apparently there is video proof on the Internet.
posted by Copronymus at 10:47 AM on September 3, 2015 [2 favorites]
Yep, this one is the first Bond movie I saw in the theater. It really has a great balance of tone between playful and grim. The opening sequence has the Moore in-joke followed by three cold-blooded murders. Nekros, the headphone assassin, kills an innocent milkman and then chavs it up hilariously. Bond appears to murder Pushkin in public, but the general was wearing a bulletproof vest with blood packs—"It's the first time I've ever been grateful that James Bond is a good shot!"
The treatment of the Afghans is hella racist, tho. The filmmakers introduce Kamran Khan as a dirty, uncultured stereotype of a prisoner, try and fail to subvert that with his Eton-educated accent and exotic fabric palace, and then have him and his barbarian entourage show up at the end of the film to see a concert at a diplomatic function.
posted by infinitewindow at 10:53 AM on September 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
The treatment of the Afghans is hella racist, tho. The filmmakers introduce Kamran Khan as a dirty, uncultured stereotype of a prisoner, try and fail to subvert that with his Eton-educated accent and exotic fabric palace, and then have him and his barbarian entourage show up at the end of the film to see a concert at a diplomatic function.
posted by infinitewindow at 10:53 AM on September 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
Dalton was the Bond that I felt was closest to the books, but was given such ridiculous scripts. I had such hopes, but they never committed to that style. And then of course Brosnan followed with his uberMoore style... ugh. I'm glad they finally went that direction with Craig, but we could have had it a quarter century earlier with Dalton.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 10:57 AM on September 3, 2015
posted by GhostintheMachine at 10:57 AM on September 3, 2015
This distinction between suave, sophisticated Bond, who knows you must be a bad guy because you don't know your clarets, and tough, thuggish Bond who will shoot you just because he's pissed off, is one that has polarized the fan base for a very long time. We're still arguing about it.
You can see the same thing in the kerfuffle over Anthony Horowitz (author of the new Bond novel, Trigger Mortis) and his much savaged comment that Idris Elba is "too street" to be Bond. I've actually got Horowitz's back on this matter in general. He's not saying a black man can't play Bond. He's saying that if you want a black actor for Bond he thinks there are better choices, and he named one: Adrian Lester. I think that says a lot about what he's going for. To me Adrian Lester smacks more of smooth Roger Moore Bond, while Elba's persona tends to be pretty much just what Horowitz said it was - tougher and grittier. (Granted, under the circumstances, he could have chosen a better word than "street." These are hyper-sensitive times and you need to be aware that people won't look past a single trigger word before going off.)
But as it happens, I then disagree with him completely. I think Elba would be a far better choice than Lester precisely because he comes off as tough and edgy. I like my Bonds nastier than smooth. Others would doubtless prefer Lester for his characteristics. We keep tugging 007 back and forth between the two poles.
posted by Naberius at 11:59 AM on September 3, 2015
You can see the same thing in the kerfuffle over Anthony Horowitz (author of the new Bond novel, Trigger Mortis) and his much savaged comment that Idris Elba is "too street" to be Bond. I've actually got Horowitz's back on this matter in general. He's not saying a black man can't play Bond. He's saying that if you want a black actor for Bond he thinks there are better choices, and he named one: Adrian Lester. I think that says a lot about what he's going for. To me Adrian Lester smacks more of smooth Roger Moore Bond, while Elba's persona tends to be pretty much just what Horowitz said it was - tougher and grittier. (Granted, under the circumstances, he could have chosen a better word than "street." These are hyper-sensitive times and you need to be aware that people won't look past a single trigger word before going off.)
But as it happens, I then disagree with him completely. I think Elba would be a far better choice than Lester precisely because he comes off as tough and edgy. I like my Bonds nastier than smooth. Others would doubtless prefer Lester for his characteristics. We keep tugging 007 back and forth between the two poles.
posted by Naberius at 11:59 AM on September 3, 2015
Here's Patton Oswalt's take-down of the Anthony Horowitz comments.
posted by doctornecessiter at 12:58 PM on September 3, 2015
posted by doctornecessiter at 12:58 PM on September 3, 2015
“The whole idea of James Bond is that they found this fucking bruiser, this psychopathic bruiser, they cleaned him up so that he could wear a tux and infiltrate but then still be a total killer.
YES! Exactly! That's why I love Craig so much. Despite his iffy class background, Craig's Bond is a total thug that they've dressed up in a nice suit and sent out to fuck people up. I knew I loved Patton Oswalt for so many reasons. This is one more!
(Though I don't know. I could see Chiwetel Ejiofor as Bond based on his performance in Serenity. Yeah, he'd be smooth on the surface but god damn that character was scary dangerous and brutal underneath. Right underneath.)
posted by Naberius at 1:27 PM on September 3, 2015 [3 favorites]
YES! Exactly! That's why I love Craig so much. Despite his iffy class background, Craig's Bond is a total thug that they've dressed up in a nice suit and sent out to fuck people up. I knew I loved Patton Oswalt for so many reasons. This is one more!
(Though I don't know. I could see Chiwetel Ejiofor as Bond based on his performance in Serenity. Yeah, he'd be smooth on the surface but god damn that character was scary dangerous and brutal underneath. Right underneath.)
posted by Naberius at 1:27 PM on September 3, 2015 [3 favorites]
What I'd really like to see, if anyone has a time machine handy somewhere, is Tom Baker as Bond.
posted by dng at 3:59 PM on September 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by dng at 3:59 PM on September 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
Tom Baker as Bond
We all know James Bond is a Time Lord, but he's not that Time Lord.
I'm pretty much in love with Dalton as Bond but yeah, the uncomfortable stuff in this movie is really uncomfortable in the light of later events. I will always love the part where they end up sledding through the checkpoint in the cello case, though.
posted by immlass at 4:13 PM on September 3, 2015
We all know James Bond is a Time Lord, but he's not that Time Lord.
I'm pretty much in love with Dalton as Bond but yeah, the uncomfortable stuff in this movie is really uncomfortable in the light of later events. I will always love the part where they end up sledding through the checkpoint in the cello case, though.
posted by immlass at 4:13 PM on September 3, 2015
If there is any doctor who is cast as James Bond it would be Colin Baker.
Colin Baker is the the thug doctor, don't be fooled by the wacky coat (Very much NOT Colin Baker's choice)
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 1:28 AM on September 4, 2015
Colin Baker is the the thug doctor, don't be fooled by the wacky coat (Very much NOT Colin Baker's choice)
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 1:28 AM on September 4, 2015
Despite his iffy class background, Craig's Bond is a total thug that they've dressed up in a nice suit and sent out to fuck people up.
I part of the reason Craig's Bond works for me is that I think that thugishness has always been part of the subtext of Bond and spy thrillers in general - underneath this veneer of civilization, brutal things are happening because that's what it takes to keep the idea of "civilization" going in the first world. That "we sleep soundly in our beds at night because rough men stand ready to do violence on our behalf". Bond is the rough man doing the violence, but he's also an aspirational figure in terms of his high class lifestyle and appearance; he captures the dichotomy. And maybe we've come far enough in our thinking and self-awareness of what the Western nations do in preserving their own self-interest that we are ready for a Bond where that subtext dichotomy is closer to the surface.
posted by nubs at 8:33 AM on September 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
I part of the reason Craig's Bond works for me is that I think that thugishness has always been part of the subtext of Bond and spy thrillers in general - underneath this veneer of civilization, brutal things are happening because that's what it takes to keep the idea of "civilization" going in the first world. That "we sleep soundly in our beds at night because rough men stand ready to do violence on our behalf". Bond is the rough man doing the violence, but he's also an aspirational figure in terms of his high class lifestyle and appearance; he captures the dichotomy. And maybe we've come far enough in our thinking and self-awareness of what the Western nations do in preserving their own self-interest that we are ready for a Bond where that subtext dichotomy is closer to the surface.
posted by nubs at 8:33 AM on September 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
I part of the reason Craig's Bond works for me is that I think that thugishness has always been part of the subtext of Bond and spy thrillers in general - underneath this veneer of civilization, brutal things are happening because that's what it takes to keep the idea of "civilization" going in the first world. That "we sleep soundly in our beds at night because rough men stand ready to do violence on our behalf".
I was listening to the new War Nerd podcast last night, and while I don't know that I'd recommend it overall unless you're already a big fan, it briefly touched on British colonialism and said something interesting that I think fits into the Bond character. Basically, in contrast to the US (who tend to pick sociopaths of a different bent), the British were more than happy to have their colonial wars led by unbalanced loners who didn't fit into normal society but through sheer force of personality and willingness to commit horrible atrocities were able to exert power, quash rebellions, and do whatever else the British needed done in their colonies (the example they gave was Charles George Gordon). I think you can see Bond as an extreme version of that. He's not outwardly weird for the most part, at least not in the way those guys were, but he is very much a loner sent to the ends of the earth with carte blanche to do whatever queen and country require, and, as such, is continuing a long tradition of the British Empire.
posted by Copronymus at 3:12 PM on September 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
I was listening to the new War Nerd podcast last night, and while I don't know that I'd recommend it overall unless you're already a big fan, it briefly touched on British colonialism and said something interesting that I think fits into the Bond character. Basically, in contrast to the US (who tend to pick sociopaths of a different bent), the British were more than happy to have their colonial wars led by unbalanced loners who didn't fit into normal society but through sheer force of personality and willingness to commit horrible atrocities were able to exert power, quash rebellions, and do whatever else the British needed done in their colonies (the example they gave was Charles George Gordon). I think you can see Bond as an extreme version of that. He's not outwardly weird for the most part, at least not in the way those guys were, but he is very much a loner sent to the ends of the earth with carte blanche to do whatever queen and country require, and, as such, is continuing a long tradition of the British Empire.
posted by Copronymus at 3:12 PM on September 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
Ah, Living Daylights. One of the few media memories of a time when the Taliban were the good guys.
Overall I find TLD to be an enjoyable enough movie but lacking in any particularly good Bond-esque plot twists. It is, to me, one of the more forgettable Bond movies. Not that it's Dalton's fault, it's just sort of a generic plot. This is the movie with the ski scene where they toboggan in the cello case right?
posted by GuyZero at 3:33 PM on September 4, 2015
Overall I find TLD to be an enjoyable enough movie but lacking in any particularly good Bond-esque plot twists. It is, to me, one of the more forgettable Bond movies. Not that it's Dalton's fault, it's just sort of a generic plot. This is the movie with the ski scene where they toboggan in the cello case right?
posted by GuyZero at 3:33 PM on September 4, 2015
Also, the theme song by Ah-Ha was one of the better ones, at least it one of the ones I don't mind having stuck in my head.
posted by GuyZero at 3:49 PM on September 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by GuyZero at 3:49 PM on September 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
I was wondering when we would see some love for the theme. It is one of the better ones of the more poppy era.
posted by biffa at 6:56 AM on September 5, 2015
posted by biffa at 6:56 AM on September 5, 2015
The mix of synths and orchestra in the score is also surprisingly well-done and not as terribly dated as you might expect from an 80s movie.
posted by infinitewindow at 10:24 AM on September 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by infinitewindow at 10:24 AM on September 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
YES! Exactly! That's why I love Craig so much. Despite his iffy class background, Craig's Bond is a total thug that they've dressed up in a nice suit and sent out to fuck people up. I knew I loved Patton Oswalt for so many reasons. This is one more!
(Though I don't know. I could see Chiwetel Ejiofor as Bond based on his performance in Serenity. Yeah, he'd be smooth on the surface but god damn that character was scary dangerous and brutal underneath. Right underneath.)
I tend to agree with Horowitz as to Elba having the menace, but not being good for the suave, privately educated plummy side of things. Maybe this is a class marker thing that is more of an issue for Brits? I tend to think this is key to Bond being a part of the British establishment, adopted or otherwise. I agree with the comments above about Lester, very intellectual but no menace whatsoever. I think Ejiofor would be closer to a good Bond than Lester, but perhaps still not thuggish enough, his Serenity baddy was rooted in intellectual justifications for violence. Might be interesting to see whether he could muscle up a bit to do Bond. What becomes apparent pretty rapidly is the lack of black British actors who might be considered for this. Colin Salmon is likely too old. David Oyelowo could do suave, but does he have the underlying violence? Another better choice than Lester but would it be worth his while to be linked to Bond given his success in the last couple of years? Is he good looking enough? I think I would rather see Ejiofor or Oyelowo over Elba.
I would also rather see Mathowie over Henry Cavill, and his tech nous is really the way forward for the spy of the future. He is the only acceptable American for Bond though, I don't want to hear about any others. How is Cavill on this list? At best he should be the know-all posho chump with a big mouth who is made to look a tit by Bond.
Why all the focus on a black Bond though? If the choice for a black Bond is limited then try to come up with some British Asian actors to fit the bill. There are about 50% more British people of South Asian origin than there are Black British people yet somehow this debate ends up rendering this key section of the population invisible.
posted by biffa at 4:35 PM on September 5, 2015
(Though I don't know. I could see Chiwetel Ejiofor as Bond based on his performance in Serenity. Yeah, he'd be smooth on the surface but god damn that character was scary dangerous and brutal underneath. Right underneath.)
I tend to agree with Horowitz as to Elba having the menace, but not being good for the suave, privately educated plummy side of things. Maybe this is a class marker thing that is more of an issue for Brits? I tend to think this is key to Bond being a part of the British establishment, adopted or otherwise. I agree with the comments above about Lester, very intellectual but no menace whatsoever. I think Ejiofor would be closer to a good Bond than Lester, but perhaps still not thuggish enough, his Serenity baddy was rooted in intellectual justifications for violence. Might be interesting to see whether he could muscle up a bit to do Bond. What becomes apparent pretty rapidly is the lack of black British actors who might be considered for this. Colin Salmon is likely too old. David Oyelowo could do suave, but does he have the underlying violence? Another better choice than Lester but would it be worth his while to be linked to Bond given his success in the last couple of years? Is he good looking enough? I think I would rather see Ejiofor or Oyelowo over Elba.
I would also rather see Mathowie over Henry Cavill, and his tech nous is really the way forward for the spy of the future. He is the only acceptable American for Bond though, I don't want to hear about any others. How is Cavill on this list? At best he should be the know-all posho chump with a big mouth who is made to look a tit by Bond.
Why all the focus on a black Bond though? If the choice for a black Bond is limited then try to come up with some British Asian actors to fit the bill. There are about 50% more British people of South Asian origin than there are Black British people yet somehow this debate ends up rendering this key section of the population invisible.
posted by biffa at 4:35 PM on September 5, 2015
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This parallels the story that Cubby Broccoli tells about originally casting Roger Moore as Bond in Dr. No (although Moore's autobiography disputes this)
Following this logic, Henry Cavill will be the next to play Bond (After being rejected in favour of Daniel Craig)
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 4:54 AM on September 3, 2015 [1 favorite]