Timothy Dalton's second outing as Bond is heralded by a curious rearrangement of the James Bond theme by this movie's composer Michael Kamen, presumably given the fact he had a fair bit of street cred at this point in his career. Interestingly, the pretitle sequence is nothing more than an extension of the main movie, introducing us to the main villain in the form of Robert Savi's Franz Sanchez and his girlfriend Lupe Lamora (Talisa Soto), along with Bond's two allies; Sharkey, played by Frank McRae, who plays the part in the same way he was playing all parts in the eighties; by shouting a lot (I suspect that it was part of his contract that if he were to appear in a movie he had to shout a lot, which was great for the enormous amount of times he was playing police captains); and Felix Leiter, thankfully not portrayed by the wet fish that was John Terry. This time around - and for the first time ever - David Hedison reprises the role he played in Live And Let Die, and how great is it to see? He and Dalton have a good chemistry (clearly everyone loves David, as Moore had a similar connection) and this makes it a lot easier to believe Bond's motives later in the film.
Kamen's music (and let's talk about it for a moment) is really good and he makes an appropriate successor to John Barry. His Bond action theme arrangement is very engaging, but Kamen's piece-de-resistance is easily his love theme for Pam (Carey Lowell), which is the most beautiful piece of music the series has ever seen. On the downside, however, is that he didn't write "Licence To Kill" as performed in true Shirley Bassey style by Gladys Knight. It's a very stirring piece of music that is a little let down by a fairly generic title sequence from Maurice Binder that, aside from showing us Dalton, is essentially girls dancing around and a casino motif...for some bizarre reason. But as Kamen didn't write it, it appears soley in the title sequence. The close song - "If You Asked Me Too", performed by Patti LaBelle, is possibly even better than the title song, and is one of the best songs ever to appear in a Bond movie - at least that's what Celine Dion thought when she covered it.
There's something very different about this Bond movie, and it feel as though both John Glen and Timothy Dalton are making more of the kind of movie that they want to make. The very ruthless, vengeful Bond we caught a glimpse of in For Your Eyes Only is made manifest by Dalton throughout the whole movie, using the anger that we saw when Saunders was killed in The Living Daylights. This is Bond througout the entire movie, throwing away a lot of the humour that he had in the previous film. Don't get me wrong though, Bond is not humourless and there are some very witty moments in the film, just few from Bond himself. In fact the best lines in the film go to Sanchez.
There's also a great deal of "reality" in the film - Bond's enemy is a common, though very powerful, drug baron. There is a barroom brawl at one point. These are all things that ever so slightly change the feel of the movies. In addition to this, two regulars who have been around since The Spy Who Loved Me - Gogol and Gray - are both gone. Finally, of course, the level of violence in this film is the highest we've ever seen. The death of Milton Krest is particularly gruesome, and Leiter's torture is equally disturbing. We also get another oblique reference to Tracy Bond and her death. That said, the amount of reality is perhaps more indicative that this movie is a product of it's times, as most Bonds are.
However, the production of the film is of its usual high quality. The underwater sequences are beautifully shot and the pace of these is far better than those in Thunderball and the stuntwork in general is again exceptional. Glen and writers Richard Maibaum and Michael G Wilson continue to try to push the boundaries of the Bond films. Some of the film is grounded in another of Fleming's short story - The Hildebrand Rarity, which gives us Krest and the WaveKrest yacht, along with Sanchez's disturbing beating of Lupe with a stingray tail. A lot of original action sequences feature in the movie, from the opening where Bond in a helicopter literally catches Sanchez in his light plane, to the end where a truck chase gives us the most impressive explosions the series has seen. Indeed, the truck doing wheelies on both the side wheels and back wheels is an amazing stunt. The movie as a whole moves along at a cracking pace and is extremely watchable.
And so to the cast. Dalton, as noted, gives us a grimmer Bond in this film, his licence revoked after he can't let Leiter's death go (interestingly the original title of the movie was Licence Revoked, but American audiences were unable to wrap their heads around the meaning of revoked), but he has gone back to some of the more traditional Bond foibles. Once again he is a womaniser, happy to sleep with Lupe Lamora when she offers herself, and even appears to have a rather more than "best man" relationship with Della Leiter (not that Felix appears to care). But this is the Bond of TLD - a man who is happy to deliver a headbutt, and one who develops more than just a shallow relationship with his primary girl.
Carey Lowell is perfect as Pam, not only absolutely stunning (there is a priceless moment when Bond double takes on seeing Pam stripping down to a swimsuit), but also extremely resourceful. Her feelings for Bond develop throughout the film, their partnership forged in fire as she feels Bond's desire for revenge, but also aware - far more than him - that there is more at stake than just Bond's desire for justice. The ending of the film is a beautiful moment with not even the winking stone fish able to destroy it. The other Bond girl, Talisa Soto, is extremely beautiful as well, but is sadly rather passionless.
Franz Sanchez, on the other hand, is one of the most interesting Bond villains to date. In very many ways, he is the anti-Bond; smooth, suave and debonair, remaining constantly calm and dedicated to something more than just money. He has his traditional Bond villain moments - notably he delivers a lecture to a group of drug dealers in the same fashion that Goldfinger and Zorin addressed their allies - however, when he lets his anger out, it is pure viciousness. In the final showdown with Bond, both men are torn apart; Bond is the most shattered we've ever seen him in the entire movie history, and Sanchez is in a similar state.
But whereas other Bond villains have been supported by a faceless army, Sanchez's generals are all personalities of their own. From the sadistic Dario (Benicio Del Toro), to the loyal Braun (Guy De Saint Cyr); from the opportunistic Heller (Don Stroud) to the money obsessed Truman-Lodge (Anthony Starke); from the traitorous Killifer (Everett McGill) to the treacherous Krest (Anthony Zerbe); all the henchmen are brought alive by uniformly fantastic performances. That said, though, the scene-stealer of the movie is Professor Joe Butcher, played by Wayne Newton; ostensibly a televangilist he is actually the connection for all of Sanchez's major drug deals. It's such a brilliant performance that you can't help but laugh with him.
Finally, Robert Brown again gets a chance to shine as "M", while sadly Caroline Bliss' Miss Moneypenny is relatively wasted. It's interesting to see Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa make an appearance as a Hong Kong narcotics agent, and the underrated British actor Christopher Neame is MI6 agent Fallon. But, at long last, Desmond Llewellyn gets "Q"'s finest hour in this movie, as "Q" joins Bond and Pam in their mission and becomes an effective field agent. It's great to see Llewellyn get so much screen time, and it's so well deserved. Again, noting the humour, the scene between Pam, Lupe and "Q" is one of the funniest in the film.
Their are a few minor plot niggles about this movie. It's a shame that an imaginary country was created to house Isthmus City, but I suppose it would have been difficult to do it with a real country. The police are stupid, but to be fair all police are stupid in the world of James Bond. Given that Sanchez (or more accurately Heller) is made instantaneously aware of Bond's five million dollar deposit, surely its withdrawl would have been reported immediately as well?
Overall, this is an interesting experiment for the Bond films, which works well and gives a nice variety. However, it would be nice to see Dalton return a little more to TLD for his next movie than continue down this gruesome, darker path.
Favourite Bond: 1. Timothy Dalton; 2. Roger Moore; 3. Sean Connery; 4. George Lazenby
Favourite movie order: 1. The Living Daylights; 2. On Her Majesty's Secret Service; 3. Dr No; 4. Licence To Kill; 5. A View To A Kill; 6. Live And Let Die; 7. Thunderball; 8. For Your Eyes Only/Octopussy 10. The Spy Who Loved Me; 11. From Russia, With Love; 12. Goldfinger; 13. You Only Live Twice; 14. Moonraker; 15. The Man With The Golden Gun; 16. Diamonds Are Forever
Favourite Bond girl: 1. Carey Lowell/Pam; 2. Claudine Auger/Dominio; 3. Diana Rigg/Tracy; 4. Carole Bouquet/Melina; 5. Barbara Bach/Anya; 6. Maud Adams/Octopussy 7. Mie Hama/Kissy; 8. Daniela Bianchi/Tanya; 9. Ursula Andress/Honey; 10. Jane Seymour/Solitaire; 11. Maryam D'Abo/Kara; 12. Lois Chiles/Holly; 13. Honor Blackman/Pussy; 14. Tanya Roberts/Stacy; 15. Britt Ekland/Mary; 16. Jill St John/Tiffany
Favourite Bond villain: 1. Robert Davi/Sanchez; 2. Donald Pleasance/Blofeld; 3. Gert Frobe/Goldfinger; 4. Christopher Lee/Scaramanga; 5. Jeroen Krabbe & Joe Don Baker/Koskov & Whittaker; 6. Christopher Walken/Zorin; 7. Louis Jordan & Steven Berkov/Kahn & Orlov 8. Adolfo Celi/Largo; 9. Michael Lonsdale/Drax; 10. Yaphet Kotto/Mr Big-Dr Kananga; 11. Julian Glover/Kristatos; 12. Joseph Wiseman/Dr No; 13. Lotte Lenya/Klebb; 14. Telly Savalas/Blofeld; 15. Charles Gray/Blofeld; 16. Curt Jurgens/Stromberg
No comments:
Post a Comment