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Comments
True, the dialogue between Christmas and Bond is mostly not that funny. She's one of the stupidest Bond girls anyway.
I hate how Wint is depicted as a homosexual in his final scene. He obviously likes what Bond does to him and then this final sentence. Just wrong.
Bruce Glover played Wint with such fine moments during the film, but this last scene didn't do him justice at all.
That's how I feel about it. I can understand if that doesn't bother someone else.
Is this 'henchman coda' exclusive to Hamilton's films or does it encompass other henchpeople such as Stamper, Necros etc. Either way, action-wise, it makes sense to have the henchman reappear after the villain dies, saving the best fight for last.
But Wint and Kidd are depicted as being homosexual in previous scenes in DAF: "Miss Case seems quite attractive. For a lady", then the disapproving look from Mr Wint.
I really don't see Mr Wint "enjoying" what he does to him, rather he looks to be in great pain. What makes you think that he actually enjoys it? There's nothing depicted he to show that he does...
I can understand people not like this scene due to it being a little silly (as is the rest of DAF), but these criticisms don't make sense to me...
Of course, I didn't phrase this right. They are clearly gay. I didn't like the way Bruce Glover acted in the last scene, it was more like seeing a clown getting one into his family jewels. Didn't fit the subtlety in many scenes that Glover had throughout the movie.
If he looks like being in great pain, then why is this scene so hilariously funny. Be it as it may, that scene is just wrong in many ways in my opinion.
The only probably I have with this scene is Tiffany's "eek!" and incompotence- do something you silly woman!
<font color=blue size=7><b>Tonally, LTK could never have worked with a John Barry score.</b></font>
Agree 200%. The idea that a Barry score would not simply add untold depth and enjoyment to a Bond movie is utterly absurd.
I also think Kamen did a reasonable (inoffensive) job, but the film would have been taken to a whole new level had Barry scored it.
I give Barry major props for his TLD score. It's one of my favourite Bond scores of all time! But the synthesizer thing reportedly wasn't to his liking, yet it was more or less demanded he went that way. The Bond music simply had to be spiced up along with the films themselves. Remember AVTAK? The action is brought loud and wild but basically with a fanfare. The age of dissonant sounds, electronics and experimental film music had already set in. Brad Fiedel's score from The Terminator, Horner's score for Aliens, Kamen's score for Die Hard, Poledouris' score for RoboCop... Williams was still going strong, Zimmer had just done his first couple of gigs, Silvestri had come in big with Back To The Future, and so on. Even Goldsmith kept looking for more modern touches. Yet Barry remained conservative and from the point of view of such films as Dances With Wolves or Indecent Proposal, that's a good thing. But at one point someone hired him for Mercury Rising. Whatever action they attempted with that film was virtually killed by Barry's refusal or inability to provide a modern action thriller with the music it needed for its action scenes. Still jazz and some old school suspense music which is always melodic and beautiful, but not necessarily adequate any more.
I'm afraid that had Barry done LTK, it would have resulted in a dichotomy of sorts. I wonder if any of his music could ever have been compatible at that point with what EON were trying to pull off. No doubt his score would have been heavenly beautiful, a greater composition than Kamen's, but what would Barry have given us when Krest's head is about to explode, when Bond drives a truck through a sea of fire, when Lupe gets whipped by Sanchez, ... ?
My comments apply to GE too. Say what you want about Serra's score, it got the tone of the film right for the most part. His dark electronics playing in the background as Onatopp and Ourumov take over Severnaya, worked. What would Barry have done? A jazzy cue like his suspense music for The Specialist the year before? A high-tech film like GE demanded a cold, metallic, cyber-age score. Whether you like the result or not as a stand-alone score, Serra's music nevertheless fitted the film IMO. I'd be intrigued to hear what Barry might have come up with for the film but seeing what kind of scores he delivered in those days, I think romance, jazz, flutes, strings and trumpets. I do not think loud bangs, dark underscores and modern twists on the Bond Theme.
In conclusion, I think John Barry is the greatest composer that ever lived, but I'm afraid he wouldn't have lived up to our late 80s and 90s expectations of Bond music. I'm not saying Kamen, Serra or Arnold pleased us all, but I think they were much more "of the time" with their scores.
Objectively I can see that his masterpiece was OHMSS.
I'm sure Barry would have done a marvelous job with Licence To Kill.
Indeed I find LTK one of the weaker soundtracks, which doesn't mean I don't like it.
Personally, I would love to have heard Barry's LTK score. The man was a master of atmosphere. I'm certain he could have found the right tone. Can you imagine something along the lines of FRWL? A little pared down compared to the rest but full of suspense and intrigue. Wouldn't that have worked beautifully? Anyway, regardless of the direction that might have been taken, I certainly don't believe that Barry was washed up by '89.
On a side note, I do enjoy Kamen's work outside of Bond. He clearly was a talented guy. I have no issues with anyone enjoying his LTK score. I just think it's another matter altogether to suggest that Barry couldn't have been just as (if not more) effective.
Back in 1989 I detested the score on buying the soundtrack ahead of seeing the film but hindsight, and some terrible scores from Arnold, have really made me appreciate Kamen's score.
Yes there's not the lush melodies and repeated themes of Barry but Kamen does give us a score which as you say compliments each scene. He was definitely writing tonally appropriate mood music and Barry as good as he is may have done a score which would have distracted us too much.
That said I do think a Barry score may have made it more acceptable to some fans and feel more of a traditional Bond film given that the rest of the film was somewhat of a departure.
Why didn't Barry do the LTK score. And why didn't he do any scores for Bond anymore?
He was active up to 2001!
I always thought I had read, that Barry moved to the US for tax reason and got into some unpleasant tax matters.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/music-obituaries/8292892/John-Barry.html
About the "fight with a-ha", Pal Waaktaar said in an interview:
http://magnef.org/bibliography/hotrod-interview.pdf
If the thorat surgery was the reason for Barry not to score LTK, there was no Bond moviie for six years. Maybe in 1995 h was too busy to score GE, or the producers and the director wanted Eric Serra to do the job.
And Babs and Mike offered him to score TND, but he declined and suggested David Arnold for the job. And maybe then BB and MGW were happy with Arnold. Who knows? And Barry did not score that many movies afterwards, the last being ENIGMA? (not sure though)...