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I think he improved in TND.
1. the public was craving Bond as he had been away for the longest period in his film history. The pent up demand was huge
2. Goldeneye was a film with a superb charismatic supporting cast, excellent use of locations and amazing traditional Bond elements that were to some extent missing from LTK. The public would have embraced the film regardless of the lead star
3. If there's one thing 50+ years of movie Bond should have shown us, it is that Bond is the hero. Bond is what people come to see. The Bond universe. Some more successful than others. The actor can enhance and add to that - but ultimately people come to see Bond. When a movie does not do as well at the Box office, it is because the premise of the movie has been rejected (relatively speaking) rather than a slight on the actor.
4. Dalton all dressed up and looking smart (circa TLD) would have perfect for GE. In fact, there are scenes in TLD (particularly in the briefing with Q) that eerily echo similar MI6 briefing scenes with M and Tanner in GE.
5. The public has shown that is willing to forgive a movie that is not so successful if the succeeding movie brings back elements that they like, even if the same actor is playing the role (i.e. TMWTGG to TSWLM). So even though some blame Dalton for LTK (I'm not one of them) I'm sure he would have been embraced in a GE type adventure, especially after the long 6 year wait for Bond.
It's so funny how Dalton is 'blamed' for LTK. He only got the script a week or two before shooting. Sure, he wanted to go back to the literary Bond, but the tone and direction of LTK was very much down to EON. MGW even worked on the script! A third, more light-hearted movie, along the lines of GE, would have nicely topped and tailed his era. Three would have been enough probably and I think that third one would have cemented Dalton's status in the eyes of Joe Public. I'm sure they would have done a few things differently in GE as well if Dalton had been in it _ undoubtedly it would have been a much better movie.
Imagine GE with Dalton and John Barry back for the score...
I haven't gone back to it literally hundreds of times over the years for nothing.
Your last statement is particularly difficult for me to think about. We were truly robbed of a second Dalton/Barry collaboration due to that MGM mess.
Actually, I think you may been doing just that - it was all for nothing! ;)
I know. I don't know why I torture myself like this. Must learn to let go of the past.......
May be we should blame Harry for his rather petty and unpleasant act of selling his share to the studio, instead of Cubby. Wonder what direction the films would have gone in if EON had retained complete control.
These days that wouldn't have mattered so much, as the global market is more important. Back in LTK's time the film did perfectly well outside the US.
1989 was a blockbuster year and crowded (a bit like 2015 imo). I think LTK just got lost in the hype for the Bat & Indie.
After GE? I hated it. I was with a group of friends - all Bond fans - and I really was probably the only one who didn't like it. I didn't actually like anything about it, apart perhaps from the theme song. But I was probably the only one who liked Dalton as well - all the others were big Rog fans, so I think for them they felt they had 'their' Bond back. Not that I'm not a Rog fan of course, but I'd really liked the direction they'd taken to Dalton. GE felt like a straight to DVD movie to me. I felt Brosnan just didn't have any gravitas and pretty much everything he did and says was 'wrong' for Bond.
And LTK used to be one of my favourites.
LTK made less than Batman in its opening weekend, I guess it is safe to say that the US public were just not enamored of Daltons version of 007.
The movie did not get drowned, there were other far more exiting movies to see than a 007 movie with an actor that did not work at all.
I dare to say that had Brosnan started with TLD his second would have fared much better than Dalton. He just was not the face people wanted to see as 007.
Craig was more lucky with no heir apparent being around and having a CR to start with.
I have to admit I wasn't as excited for LTK as I was for Moore's Bonds, but I did look forward to it (but admit I was most excited for Batman). I was extremely disappointed with it after I saw it though. I thought it was terrible at the time. The problem was I was too young and could not appreciate how good it was then. Now I think it's brilliant, and as I said, I am ashamed that I wanted Dalton out at the time.
I think you're right - the general public for the most part did not want him - they wanted Broz. I personally had not heard of Dalts when they cast him but I knew who PB was.
You're probably right that if PB started with TLD his 2nd would have done better box office than LTK, because they probably wouldn't have made LTK the same way. It probably would have been a more bombastic Bond movie imo, similar to TND.
I think we would have gotten a darker version of Brosnans 007, in trying to make him somewhat different from Rogers tenure.
Did you read my posts in another thread? You say exactly the same thing as I did, especially the "heir apparent" thing. It sank Dalton. I dare to say I think LTK, regardless of its qualities, probably sealed his doom as Bond.