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Comments
I consider DAF to be the worst Bond film precisely for the fact that it didn't follow up OHMSS.
I also think that GE would unequivocally be the best Bond film had they cast Dalton again.
So for me it's a question of making DAF "not the worst Bond film with the potential of being one of the best entries"
OR
The certainty of making GE the best Bond film
I'm gonna go with Dalton in GE.
What was so different about it in the original script?
The settings, the characters, the sets, the scenes. Only a few lines survived from the first, and the cradle sequence remained almost the same.
As for GE rewritten for being similar to another film, I don't think that's true. That might be the previous B-17 script that has nothing to do with GE.
For years I always thought Dalton shouldn't be in GE, it just didn't seem fitting. Recently I've changed my mind. While I still think Brosan should be in it more than Dalton, I think it would've been a great send off for Dalton. I can just picture him and Hopkins in the climax of the movie, "For Enland, James?" "No. For me." Damn, that would've been badass! Although I am having a hard time picturing the two of them in what I consider one of the best fist fight scenes in a Bond movie, at the end GE. Still though, I like Brosnan and Bean in the roles.
I'd much prefer Dalton in his own Bond-17.
Agreed. Brosnan's best fight scene by a country mile. I also quite liked the short fight he had with that nameless guy on the yacht.
For whatever reason Brosnan softened up throughout the rest of his run.
I would have LOVED to have seen a third Dalton, but I would like to have gone in the other direction, with Dalton replacing Moore one film sooner and doing a far more serious version of AVTAK. Bond 17 would have been a bonus.
I definitely agree with this. I loved GE and the tone that it set for his era as Bond. It was a highly over the top film (satellite weapon in space, cradle coming out of the water in Cuba, etc.), but there was legitimate tension that seemed to ground the film in a way. I feel like Tomorrow Never Dies was similar up until the end of the parking deck car sequence. After that the film went off the rails with non-stop action, no personal developments, and then TWINE & DAD never righted where TND went bad.
It's certainly implied by Peter Hunt that DAF was intended to be a straight revenge story if Lazenby had continued, with Savalas returning as Blofeld. As much as I like Dalton I'd rather see an alternative "classic era 007" if given the chance.
And as @sauvejmf pointed out Dalton's third would've been Property of a Lady with killer robots which could've killed any goodwill Dalton had procured from his previous two Bond movies.
Anyway, I'd rather have seen GL in DAF.
Since that didn't happen .. Having more Dalton movies would be really interesting.. As his bond is very different and serious.. Maybe bond 17 in 1991 and two more movie following that up in : 1993 and 1995 .. I would like more Dalton bond instead of Brosnan for sure ..
A well marketed film with a script tailored to his strengths would have altered the perception of his 007 by a mile.
The reason being that Lazenby worked for OHMSS - but with a weaker film he would have blundered. Dalton didn't even need a half-decent film to shine in the role (or any role, really...), his Bond's were good because of him, not the other way around as with Lazenby (who did v well and I like his OHMSS portrayal, but he would not have worked in DAF or LALD....)
I like Dalton in the role. However, LTK played perfectly to his strengths as 007. Unfortuntately it didn't fair well at the box office so I guarantee (as quoted on the DVD commentary) that Cubby would have gone back to a more comic film in 1991, regardless of whether Tim was in it or not.
Yes, that's what swings it for me. Hunt's presence is more important to me than the actors involved--although I would have loved to see more Dalton Bond films. Hunt was one of the most forceful directors to ever work on a Bond movie--he shaped OHMSS to conform to his own vision. He insisted on following the novel and rewrote Maibaum's drafts (with Simon Raven's help), and because he was a trusted member of the Bond team, the producers gave him creative freedom. He brought in a new director of photography and a new editor, thus introducing the most experimental editing ever seen in a Bond film (the cutting in QoS looks derivative in comparison). Most Bond directors have been guns-for-hire--few have been as hands-on and as passionate about Bond as Hunt. The auteurs in the Bond series have usually been the producers, but Hunt was the guiding force of OHMSS. Had he directed DAF, whether with Lazenby, Connery, or Moore, the film would have been a much tighter production with an individual vision. There might have been more humor than in OHMSS, and there would have been major deviations from the source novel (in order to incorporate Blofeld) but I have little doubt that Hunt's DAF would have been a classic. Another Bond movie with the drive, force, look, and feel of OHMSS? Yes please.