It’s time to say goodbye to Sir Roger and enter the age of Timothy Dalton. The year is 1987. We have a brand new Bond, a Fleming based story and quite possibly the best pre-title sequence in the entire series.
This week on James Bond Radio, we’re going deep on The Living Daylights. We talk about everything from Timmy’s performance in the gun barrel to Kara’s skills on the cello. Daylights is a firm fan favourite but does it hold up 30 years on? Find out on this week’s edition of JBR.
Review begins at 36:00
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10 Responses
LOVE this pod! Timothy was the first new James Bond in my lifetime, so I was ecstatic as a pre-teen to see this film opening day as this film would become part of cinematic as well as Bondian history. TLD captured my imagination and got me into reading the Fleming novels. Dalton was magnificent as Fleming’s Bond.
”The Living daylights” was the Changing of the Guard with actor timothy Dalton
and Composer/director John Barry’s last Bond film score.
this film remains my Favorite Classic like ”Goldfinger” Probably this film set the atmosphere for Daniel Craig’s Bond. the Late John Barry’s score will Probably remain his Finest work for me, this serious edgy Bond was ahead of it’s time Back then, But i loved it. Today ”the Living daylights” still a Great Movie to watch.
The Possibility of director Christoper Nolan directing Bond 25 is Great even if
it’s not True, Obvious tom hardy Could be Nolan’s choice for Playing James Bond, But Hardy doesn’t have the Suave and sophisticated Style, That Sean Connery and Sir Roger Moore Had. But Christopher Nolan would Make a Great Bond Film.
Maybe…There’s one little detail that might make it a bit tough for Tom Hardy to play Bond. Someone wrote stuff on him. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0cdcc1b02bf31c95a27b1e3e933bb2c95b773fefcb0f680a12b30829de7aa583.jpg
Wonderful show!
Chris is definitely right: while the second hour is no slouch by any means, the first hour of this movie is absolutely top-notch Bond. I’d say it’s probably the best first hour, and your review encapsulates why. There are so many incredible scenes, just one after another. We have sneaky Bond (lots of sneaky Bond), lover Bond, action Bond, Fleming Bond. The pre-titles, the defection scene, the kitchen fight, the trick escape, the car chase, Saunders’s death. All great stuff.
And what really works here, and part of why Tom gets a “cold war thriller” vibe from the film, and why one has to pay more attention than usual here, is that all of this stuff is completely in service of a story. One of the reasons I love the Dalton films is that they tend not to have extraneous scenes. Now, I love Bond, and this isn’t at all any kind of complaint, but the majority of Bond films between Dr No and this one contain a number of scenes that are there because the writer or producer had a cool visual idea or stunt sequence in mind. And that’s great, because it gives us some of the best scenes in the series. They could always send a random henchman in every 20 minutes or so to make something crazy happen.
But in Daylights, everything has a reason. There’s no henchmen popping up out of the bushes because they just have a job to kill James Bond. If there’s a chase, we know who’s chasing and why. You couldn’t cut any of these sequences out, unlike say, the gondola, or the hockey fight, or the helicopter car magnet. And if you were to go to the loo for a couple minutes while watching, you’re likely to have missed something you need to know. Licence to Kill is even more plot focused, and I probably like it even more than this one, but Daylights does it while more clearly keeping the Bond feel going.
Looking forward to part two! I love the second half of this film, which in my opinion is way above average, but I think it suffers in the imagination a bit after the first half, er, sets one’s hopes up way too high. 😉
When should we send in the TLD reviews (90sec)?? I listened to the AVTAK one and I’d like to join in for this film because I love it so much. It’s Dalton’s best Bond movie and certainly under-appreciated amongst the community of fans!
Why is it not a visual podcast? I would have loved to seen you guys in video form but its okay i will listen to this on the drive either way, its good material film. I love this film alot even though the plot might be confusing, its is the first dark bond, and very good, as well as making allies with the middle east and i think they are muslim, which is cool because i am also muslim, the outfit that you see dalton where at the fight with the army, is what i wear to religious holiday which is coming up, called ramadan. So this is a movie for me. Also i would love to add earlier this week was an anniversary of doctor NO, which is really cool, i loved the soundtrack podcast for goldfinger. Also i was on a king kong movies binge, because Skull island was a good movie, that made me watch the other ones, and the one that they made in 1978, was good but not only that, it was scored by no other than john barry, and people if you heard this soundtrack it feels all bondian. please check out my summary of my fan mashups on this youtube video comment section. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/223055de69d69454a1e8f2a45dd8090fadd88a1abf4e0532381139f398b9b643.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dbd41feb9451f6368627637b55b73cf6cd7d687cb26cd79fb77b94999a1d0ad8.jpg
check the fan summary on this video https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5ef24186e2b9eafe00eb9947cc92854d4a85843859b7da840a7f242de90c9bb1.jpg youtube comment page
I agree with the train sequence it does feel a little flemingisque. Car sequence is killer i love that scene its so bondage, the tracker and everything similar to DAD ice chase but way better man i dig that chase. the shed scene with the car was so good. The cello scene is pretty corny but nice idea none the less to enter comedy and a little suspense all in one showing his passport, talk about immigration. One she was a dummy really i didn’t know that. I think i maybe noticed that. there was two villains like octopussy so it happened before. the villain obsessing over dictators and other leaders are pretty cool it actually said this in an essay of my shakespeare class, where i related this scene with the dictators in his room. I love the carnival stuff its a nice touch. I didn’t really notice that, really the whole raped thing was not the directors direction. I love the death of sanders and the madness of bond rage, that was where my heart broke kind of to be honest that is the only friend bond really had. The first part was so good, I really want with my mom, i told my friend bond went to Afghanistan, he acted surprised, even though he likes pierce and never wathced a bond movie ever since goldeneye he found it hard to believe. The soundtrack is better for sure, i am actually going to hear it again. You guys should do a trivia as its own podcast and talk about it make it three hours of goodness. the deleted scene with the carpet was bad but the fact it did keep the tradition of istanbul or aladdin. That was funny for the example for guess the quote round. propably confused everyone who was listening to that segment. Natalya would win i disagree. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2761d671760dff53afc53cf14a2e11b7d11e895d108f6883dadc464d20881c25.jpg
The thing that Tom adresses concerning the balance between Timmy’s hard-edged Bond and Roger-like antics during the Aston chase is very true for me. Sadly, these things throw me out of the movie every time, although I do love Roger’s Bond. I also agree with Tom that Timmy doesn’t do too well with the ladies and the cool one-liners.
That being said, I greatly appreciate Dalton’s approach being more Fleming-like and the first 30-45 minutes are pretty much top-notch Bond for me.