A Dark Man Gone Too Soon

As we work our way through the James BondThe world's most famous secret agent, James Bond has starred not only in dozens of books but also one of the most famous, and certainly the longest running, film franchises of all time. film series, we end up in a weird place with the longest run of any of the actors, Roger Moore, effectively bookended by two of the shortest. George Lasenby’s run was marked by one quite excellent film, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, that promised a different kind of series moving forward with the character, only to see it cut short with the actor elected to leave because he worried that the film series would be bad for his career. And then, after Moore was done, we came to Timothy Dalton’s two films, The Living Daylights and Licence to Kill, that could have led to a different kind of James Bond series… except production issues behind the scenes kept the character off the Silver Screen long enough that Dalton aged out of the role.

In a way, then, we’re left with a Bond actor that seemed to be filled with potential, a performance that could have spelled something new and different for the series if only more films had been made for them. Because of that, all we can really think is what could have been while we watch the two films we actually got.

Of those two films, The Living Daylights is the weaker movie. In many ways it feels like a Roger Moore film with a different actor in the lead role. Moore never intended to return for the role, as he was 57 when A View to a Kill (his last movie in the franchise) came out, and EON Productions were already looking for a new actor that could take over the franchise. They wanted something new and fresh after the critical drubbing (and weaker Box Office) the previous film saw. But James Bond films came out like clockwork and EON cranked this film out in two years, marking a 1987 release date for Dalton’s first effort.

In fairness to Dalton he tries to bring something different to the role. He’s darker, with a shadow behind his performance. He wanted to try and be a Bond that was closer to the character in Ian Flemming’s books, and it shows in the version of the character he plays. Unfortunately the plot, which sees another conspiracy from a Soviet secret agent, doesn’t feel nearly as fresh or interesting as EON wanted. There are some decent parts to the film, but there’s also plenty of silliness that feels like it came straight out of a Moore movie. The chase sequence with Dalton’s Bond and Bond Girl Kara Milovy riding down a snowy mountain in a cello case is a particularly cringeworthy moment.

Still, there is a spark to the film that is undeniable. For all the flaws the film has, The Living Daylights really isn’t that bad a film by James Bond standards. It could have been better, but it could have been much worse, standing head and shoulders above most of Roger Moore’s output. Most importantly, though, it illustrated that EON has made the right decision hiring Dalton to be their next Bond. They just had to capitalize on it.

And that came two years later with the release of License to Kill. With this 1989 effort we got to see the true potential of Dalton’s Bond. The character is called to be the best man at Felix Leiter’s wedding, but when a Latin American drug lord, Franz Sanchez, kills Leiter’s new wife and maims the CIA agent, Bond drops everything to chase down Sanchez and exact his bloody revenge. It’s a story that we hadn’t seen before, with Bond not acting as a secret agent but as a man on a mission of vengeance, and Dalton is perfect in it.

The film works as well as it does because it’s a story we haven’t seen before from the franchise. Darker, bloodier, and certainly more violent, this was a new direction for the franchise, and Dalton’s shadowy Bond fit perfectly at the center of it all. It’s the kind of revenge story we honestly probably should have gotten after Tracy was killed at the end of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, and it works so well in the series.

Yes, there are still moments that are pure Bond, like Q showing up to give James a collection of elaborate (and frankly pretty stupid) gadgets. But Dalton grounds it all, showcasing his talent as an actor and his firm grasp in the role. Had he stayed with the franchise you can’t help but think that his version of Bond would have continued down this dark path, becoming less the honorable secret agent and more someone willing to do whatever it takes for his mission (even if that wasn’t the mission he was assigned). I would have liked to see that Bond. As with Lasenby’s one film, I think it’s a pity we didn’t get to see Dalton continue on to have more adventures.

Instead the franchise went dormant for six years while legal disputes over the character were worked out. By that point Dalton’s contract to play Bond had expired and the actor, who was 49 at the time, decided to leave the role. And who can blame him. He’d obviously seen Roger Moore stay with the role for too long and get pretty long in the tooth in the process. He ended his run with a film that was decently enjoyed by critics, and which did well enough at the Box Office, a relative high note he might have felt he couldn’t exceed considering the time away. So, instead, the franchise continued on with Pierce Brosnan for another era.

But the thought of what could have been, with a James Bond film series that went in a different direction is still tantalizing. Somewhere, in some universe, we got two or three more Dalton films that suited his character and let the actor really explore this darker version of the world’s most famous secret agent, and I’d frankly like to know what those films were like. Maybe they sucked (as EON wasn’t exactly consistent with this series… and still isn’t), but I like to think there was potential for Dalton to have one of the best runs of the franchise. Is era capper was great, so why knows how far he couldn’t have taken it if given the chance?

Ranking Dalton’s Films (Best to Worst):

1. License to Kill
2. The Living Daylights