The Living Daylights- A New Bond for 1987

The debut of a new James Bond after a decade of Roger Moore. What was Pinewood Studios thinking? Could Moore be replaced? Would this be the end of Bond? 

Timothy Dalton does a good job in the role. The Bond movies always push what audiences will take in absurdity until they swing the pendulum back. Moore was loose, humorous and fun. Basically the vibe was that you know Bond will win so let’s have fun with that. Moore could play serious, but there was a pigeon double take in “Moonraker” that is just absurd. You forget any kind of seriousness when you see that. It was time to swing the pendulum back to less jokey scenes. A less jokey Bond. 

Dalton plays this serious. He has a charm and ease in the role. 

There was studio drama that leaked out at the time. There was a story of how Pierce Brosnan was up for the role until his television career forced him out of the running. Producers have said that Dalton was always a front runner. As an American, I didn’t know Dalton but I knew Brosnan. It wasn’t believable. I was a Bond fan and thought Dalton was the fall back option. I still wanted to give him a chance. Audiences gave him a shot, but they didn’t fall in love with him. James Bond wasn’t going to be a big feature anymore. The fans would come out to see the movies so the movies made money, but just about. James Bond would survive but be compared to better movies and times ago. 

The movie takes parts from an Ian Fleming title. The original story was so short that is was basically the cold opening of the movie. There are definite pluses for this movie. Dalton has to do some investigating. The leads he was given turn out to be false. He faces international spies and militaries. There are double turns and action scenes. Maryam d’Abo was a fetching Bond girl. We have the return of Felix Leiter. We have a solid soundtrack. There is less jokey humor. 

This for the most part gets better over the years when you take out all the studio drama. 

There’s a few things that don’t hold up. Bond helps Afghani rebels expell the Soviets from Afghanistan. Perhaps not all to be fair, but many of those rebels will become an issue for the west in the new century. 

The movie was considered a success. It made money. 

Why didn’t fans fall in love with Dalton. I don’t think it was his fault. For all the silliness that the Moore movies turned to, he was popular. To take that character and turn him hardened, may have been a problem for fans. As noted before, the Moore movies know that Bond will succeed and they know that you know it. The Dalton movies added suspense. They want you to think Bond may lose. Fans weren’t ready for that. Bond was not going to lose. Don't even try to suggest that. 

That idea that Bond could lose would take almost 30 years to happen. Bond loses in "Skyfall." Or maybe how you see it, Bond wins, but it’s a win with a lot of loss. 

If you like Bond movies, give the Dalton movies a chance. You’ll be surprised how good they are.