Duty has no sweethearts
My personal favourite of all the Bond movies, Timothy Dalton's debut in the role is an original, hard-edged cold war adventure film with interesting characters, a believable plot, some strong acting (Joe Don Baker takes the honours), and a truly awesome final stunt sequence. And Dalton, though he has his detractors, is easily the closest to Fleming's original literary Bond; he plays the part as a professional spy, and not a playboy. One of the most underrated thrillers of the 1980s. Top marks.

A worthwhile addition to the pantheon of Bond movies
This is a good old fashioned mid-80's spy thriller based around the theme of Soviet defections and dodgy arms deals. The Living Daylights stars my favourite Bond girl - Maryam D'Abo as cellist Kara Milovy, so I'm biased towards this film from the outset.

Timothy Dalton is fine as the new Bond here and brings his own personality to the role. Highlights include the Gibraltar pre-credit sequence, the one man raid on British Intelligence in the depths of the English countryside, the car chase through the snows of the former Czechoslovakia and the cargo plane sequence at the end. Some bits do perhaps go on a bit though e.g. the Afghan uprising.

It's worth pointing out that this Bond outing has great music throughout. The DVD also contains a package of useful extras.



A new Bond - better than I thought it would be
Timothy Dalton's first outing as Bond is better than I thought it would be. Dalton provides a certain gravitas to the role. It was a pleasure to watch someone who played Bond straight; for too long Roger Moore parodied the role and had too great a twinkle in his eye.

The notable change in style is exemplified by the thankfully greatly reduced gags and one-liners, and it was a refreshing change to watch a Bond movie where it took 61 minutes before he kissed a woman, and even then he this was only after a long courting. John Glen, the director, mentions in the commentary that the advent of AIDS definitely influenced the script.

The usual fancy set of locations is visited - Gibraltar, Vienna, Tangier - although it was amusing to see Bond helping the Afghan fighters attack the Russians in Afghanistan. How times have changed!

The accompanying commentary mentions how Bond may be different, but the production crew remain largely the same - and this is part of the problem. Perhaps they took their jobs for granted, since the same usual errors in continuity, editing, and shameless undercranking frequently dog the movie. And all those shots aimed at Bond and not one of them hits home!

The commentary, by the way, is mainly given by John Glen; there is no sign of any words from Timothy Dalton. The other extras include deleted scenes; different angles of the ice-chase sequence; a 45-minute documentary on bond's 25th anniversary, hosted by Roger Moore (this is just a rehash of former film-scenes); minor featurettes on the car etc; and interviews with the leading stars at the time of the film's release.


Bad start for Dalton
"The Living Daylights" is a disappointment for several reasons. The biggest reason is the surprisingly unengaging plot. The second reason is that Timothy Dalton doesn't seem comfortable playing James Bond. He's not a bad actor but instead of making his own interpretation of the character (like he did in the next movie, Licence to Kill) he seems to be imitating Roger Moore. The reason is most likely that the script was written with Moore in mind. Lois Maxwell was replaced by Caroline Bliss as Miss Moneypenny and she didn't seem right for the part at all.

"The Living Daylights" was not a good start for Dalton. Luckily the series did improve.

Licence renewed
As with George Lazenby, the brevity of Timothy Dalton's tenure as Bond - due to years of legal problems and lawsuits between EON and MGM/UA - has led to history merrily being rewritten by the press that once hailed him. Dalton, not the lawyers, was lined up as the fall guy with Pierce Brosnan the man who saved the series from disaster (even though Dalton's first Bond saw a massive increase in takings over Moore's last film). Those who are quick to dismiss him would do well to check out The Living Daylights.

Much of the scapegoating of Dalton seemed to come from the confusion of actor and role. At the time Dalton's Bond was the closest to Fleming's creation - more so than Connery, even - and given the right script he proved outstanding in the role. After Roger Moore's 12-year, seven-film tenure as Bond finally came to an ignominious end with A View to a Kill, as with OHMSS, Live and Let Die and Casino Royale, the producers broke in their new Bond with a more low-key, low-gadget approach, resulting in the best Bond since the Sixties, with Dalton initially looking the first Bond to seriously rival Connery. Where Connery had the danger and Moore the class, Dalton managed to combine both, with Bond's self-assurance that verges on the arrogant down pat, reclaiming the character from the increasingly comic-strip approach of too many of the later Moore films.

The film isn't without its faults - Caroline Bliss isn't up to much as Moneypenny, Maryam D'Abo's a bit of a wet leading lady while Jeroen Krabbe lacks the menace he brought to No Mercy - but it looks and feels like a classic Bond film, has little truck with gadgets and is less in thrall to silly jokes. Best of all, it's got a plot (involving a dubious defection, Mujahadin opium smuggling in Afghanistan and a re-activated Stalinist spy assassination programme). The political background may have dated - this was filmed when the Communists still held the USSR together and when the Mujahadin were the good guys - but it still comes up remarkably fresh. This is Bond with all the stops pulled out but without the overkill. The production values are superb and visually it's a treat, especially in widescreen, with John Barry making his final Bond score his best in years. The action scenes are often outstandingly good, with a return to the kind of good old vicious punchups that vanished in the latter Moore years and as well as some amazing stunt work involving a Russian troop plane and it has one of the series' best pre-title sequences, with a security exercise in Gibraltar turning into the real thing. The makers even have the confidence to remove Bond from one of the key setpieces - a superbly staged kidnapping from a safehouse, which runs nearly a full reel. John Glen's direction is so spot-on here it's hard to see why it would go so horribly wrong on Licence To Kill.

The extras package is excellent, including audio commentary, an extended scene and the infamous deleted `magic carpet' sequence, a bad idea that feels like a holdover from the Roger Moore era that was thankfully dropped due to the stunt looking distinctly unimpressive. There are enough new features on the two-disc Ultimate edition to make an upgrade worthwhile for the more ardent Bond fans - several promo featurettes from the original release, a press conference held in Vienna and 47-minute TV special `Happy Anniversary 007.' All the features from the original DVD release have also been included.

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