The Living Daylights Appreciation

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  • edited July 2017 Posts: 11,189
    Getafix wrote: »
    If you don't like the opening of TLD a then you don't like Bond

    He doesn't.

    there are parts of the opening I still don't like to be fair.
  • Agent_99Agent_99 enjoys a spirited ride as much as the next girl
    Posts: 3,176
    Enjoy Gibraltar, @BAIN123! It's on the list of Bond-related places I'd like to check out some day.
  • Posts: 11,189
    Agent_99 wrote: »
    Enjoy Gibraltar, @BAIN123! It's on the list of Bond-related places I'd like to check out some day.

    Thanks, it's one of several places we will be visiting over the next few days.
  • Posts: 11,189
    Does anyone get a sense of deja-vu with this clip at 0.37? :))
  • MajorDSmytheMajorDSmythe "I tolerate this century, but I don't enjoy it."Moderator
    Posts: 13,978
    BAIN123 wrote: »
    Does anyone get a sense of deja-vu with this clip at 0.37? :))

    Maybe that is why I have always had a fondness for Batman Forever. ;)
  • Posts: 11,189
    BAIN123 wrote: »
    Does anyone get a sense of deja-vu with this clip at 0.37? :))

    Maybe that is why I have always had a fondness for Batman Forever. ;)

    Much like the Bond film of that year I too loved Batman Forever as a kid.

    Now not so much, but I still have a fondness for Nicole Kidman ;)
  • Posts: 11,425
    BAIN123 wrote: »
    Getafix wrote: »
    If you don't like the opening of TLD a then you don't like Bond

    He doesn't.

    there are parts of the opening I still don't like to be fair.

    It's a near perfect PTS. What's not to like? Definitley one of the top 5
  • edited July 2017 Posts: 11,189
    It's mainly very good but hate the last bit. Cheesy and too contrived. Forget those people who had been murdered, Not-RogerMooreBond wanted to act like Roger Moore and get his leg over.
  • edited July 2017 Posts: 11,425
    It's a well established convention that Bond needs a sexual outlet after some extreme action. I thought this was done nicely in SP after the train fight.

    It's flippant on one level but also realistic in another in that it is not unusual for a near death experience or proximity to death to provoke lack of inhibition and an urgent need for Life affirming experience. War situations and conflict often leave soldiers and those around them keen to grab every sexual opportunity as they know life can be snatched away at any moment.

    Film Bond is not a morose mourner. He knows life can be taken away in an instant. He cannot bring his fellow agents or the dead soldiers back to life. As in QOS with Mathis, he doesn't mourn and wouldn't expect others to waste time mourning for him either. That is why he behaves the way he does.

    Obv exceptions are Tracey and perhaps Vesper but they are very different contexts.
  • Posts: 11,189
    To say Bond isn't a mourner when discussing the TLD PTS is an unconvincing argument. They weren't doing it for those reasons in TLD. They were doing it to make the audience laugh and break the ice. It was in the trailer. Obvious crowd pleasing that just seems cheesy today.
  • Posts: 11,425
    Well cheese was a large part of the menu back in the 80s. You either liked it or you didn't.
  • MajorDSmytheMajorDSmythe "I tolerate this century, but I don't enjoy it."Moderator
    edited July 2017 Posts: 13,978
    I think that was there to reassure the audience. And honestly, I like that moment.

    If you are going to question why Bond would be like that after losing a colleague, then you might as well question how one man (Bond as a whole) could have so much luck.
  • Mendes4LyfeMendes4Lyfe The long road ahead
    Posts: 8,392
    The Craig era will very soon be considered maudlin and passe. It happens every time.
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    Posts: 23,883
    BAIN123 wrote: »
    It's mainly very good but hate the last bit. Cheesy and too contrived. Forget those people who had been murdered, Not-RogerMooreBond wanted to act like Roger Moore and get his leg over.
    It's all about the way it's done. Dalton could never handle those scenes convincingly imho, and that's why it appears contrived to some.
    BAIN123 wrote: »
    Does anyone get a sense of deja-vu with this clip at 0.37? :))
    This is a great scene. I remember it well, and Kidman is fantastic in it. I don't get any deja vu with TLD though. What scene in TLD does this remind you of?
  • Posts: 11,189
    I was thinking of the line "my interest is...purely professional"
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    Posts: 23,883
    BAIN123 wrote: »
    I was thinking of the line "my interest is...purely professional"
    Oh right. Once again, Dalton's delivery did nothing for me so I didn't remember it.

    I don't have a problem with the action in TLD though (headbutt aside). It was quite a step up from AVTAK. Folks sometimes criticize Dalts running down that hill after the jeep but could anyone imagine Rog doing it in 1987? They'd have needed all sorts of film trickery!
  • chrisisallchrisisall Brosnan Defender Of The Realm
    Posts: 17,789
    BAIN123 wrote: »
    Heading to Gibraltar over the next few days with a (non-Bond fan) friend and just showed him the opening to TLD. His response? "Such bad 80s action"

    He wasn't impressed.

    In light of modern action filmmaking I don't think a lot of the 80s movies hold up well.
    Modern action filmmaking has slid into a chasm of relentless, unyielding & unrealistic CGI assisted nonsense. It works really well for superhero movies, but now every non-superpowered character is fighting like that. The action in TLD is fantastic, it's just not attention deficit video game in-your-face overdrive. Most action movies today (with the superhero exception) bore the felgercarb out of me with all that cartoon stuff.

  • echoecho 007 in New York
    Posts: 6,277
    bondjames wrote: »
    BAIN123 wrote: »
    I was thinking of the line "my interest is...purely professional"
    Oh right. Once again, Dalton's delivery did nothing for me so I didn't remember it.

    I don't have a problem with the action in TLD though (headbutt aside). It was quite a step up from AVTAK. Folks sometimes criticize Dalts running down that hill after the jeep but could anyone imagine Rog doing it in 1987? They'd have needed all sorts of film trickery!

    I don't see what's wrong with Dalton's running.
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    edited July 2017 Posts: 23,883
    echo wrote: »
    bondjames wrote: »
    BAIN123 wrote: »
    I was thinking of the line "my interest is...purely professional"
    Oh right. Once again, Dalton's delivery did nothing for me so I didn't remember it.

    I don't have a problem with the action in TLD though (headbutt aside). It was quite a step up from AVTAK. Folks sometimes criticize Dalts running down that hill after the jeep but could anyone imagine Rog doing it in 1987? They'd have needed all sorts of film trickery!

    I don't see what's wrong with Dalton's running.
    Me neither. It's been criticized on here in the past though, hence why I mentioned it.
  • Posts: 11,425
    He doesn't run like he has a military background but not as bad as Rog's running apparently
  • PrinceKamalKhanPrinceKamalKhan Monsoon Palace, Udaipur
    Posts: 3,262
    chrisisall wrote: »
    SaintMark wrote:
    And of course role the Mujahedin is quite amusing when one looks at the current wars on the same guys, now called taliban. A political choice in a 007 movie that was debatable even then.
    Bond working with the Mujahideen, whilst troubling to me back in the day, works well as pure espionage when you realise that they were not yet taken over by Taliban warlords, and that some good people there were still fighting the good fight, as it were.
    Or so I'd like to believe in the context of the movie.
    :-?

    Since I love TLD, I subscribe to the theory that Kamran Shah and his compatriots later fought for the Northern Alliance instead.
    And i'm 4 days late, but happy 30th birthday to The Living Daylights.

    Ditto. TLD will officially hit 30 on my side of the pond on July 31st so I'll celebrate it again then.
    I think that was there to reassure the audience. And honestly, I like that moment.

    Agreed. A perfect ending to a perfect PTS.

    I saw TLD on its opening weekend in my country back in 1987 and absolutely loved it. During just seeing the PTS for the first time I knew it was going to be a vast improvement over its disappointing predecessor AVTAK. And even though I had initially been somewhat disappointed that Brosnan wasn't able to play the role of Bond here Dalton quickly won me over and became my 2nd favorite Bond after Connery. I love how the first 1/4 of it is a pretty faithful adaptation of Ian Fleming's TLD short story. I also love how Maibaum and Wilson followed it with an intriguing Cold War espionage/international intrigue plot reminiscent of FRWL. The stunts and action are spectacular. Plus, Dalton's Bond and Maryam d'Abo's Kara share the most believable and natural Bond/Bond girl chemistry in the series. All of it underscored nicely by master composer John Barry's final Bond score.

    This review more or less sums up my opinion of it:

    http://www.rinkworks.com/movies/m/the.living.daylights.1987.shtml

    "Bond is back in top form, and this time Timothy Dalton is agent 007. Dalton's Bond is grossly underrated by the media and casual viewers, while Bond purists and fanatics often rank him with Sean Connery for the best Bond. (In my book, Connery is a close second to Dalton.) Dalton brought an edge and a tangible sense of danger to the role. When Dalton's Bond walks in to a room, you don't know what he's going to do, but you know he's capable of anything. Watch the fantastic scene where Bond confronts Pushkin (John Rhys-Davies) for a perfect example of this. The first twenty minutes of The Living Daylights, from the opening frame up to where Bond says, "Whoever she was, I must have scared the living daylights out of her," comprises the best screen translation of Ian Fleming's hero ever filmed -- Bond's character, the dialogue, the imagery, etc, make up a stunningly accurate and exciting adaptation of Fleming's short story The Living Daylights. The rest of the film is a well crafted extension to that story that continues in the same spirit. The Living Daylights, like For Your Eyes Only, was a conscious attempt to return the series to its more serious roots and was a grand success. It suffers only from a slightly flawed ending and a weak villain (Jon Doe Baker), but neither are bad, and Daylights, even so, manages to rank in the list of top five or even top three Bond films of all time. Maryam d'Abo is a welcome change from the traditional Bond girl, and the plot is so full of twists and action (enhanced further by Dalton's performance), that you won't want to take your eyes off the screen for a split second. Highly recommended, and a must for even the most casual Bond fan."


  • MajorDSmytheMajorDSmythe "I tolerate this century, but I don't enjoy it."Moderator
    Posts: 13,978
    Hey, welcome back @PrinceKamalKhan. :)

    I got to see both Dalton films on the big screen back in 2015, but such an experience doesn't compare to seeing them in 1987 and 1989.

    I can't really dispute anything in that review. "Dalton brought an edge and a tangible sense of danger to the role." That one sentence sums up Dalton's take on Bond.
  • Posts: 19,339
    Right...time to tear apart Kara Milovy...aah shit I cant,this is an Appreciation thread,not open to anything but love...so I'm gone...Ciao.
  • SatoriousSatorious Brushing up on a little Danish
    Posts: 233
    Talking PTS: the shot after the assassin shoots through the top of the Land Rover at Bond's "nethers" and he seemingly flails over the side to avoid it whilst somehow managing to hang on still greatly impresses me "stunt-wise" to this day. It is a short moment but massively unrated stunt (probably extremely dangerous - would probably be CGI these days). The shot of the 00's all free-falling into Gibraltar against Barry's majestic score also gives me goose-bumps every time. It's my favourite PTS by some margin.
  • BondAficionadoBondAficionado Former IMDBer
    Posts: 1,889
    Satorious wrote: »
    Talking PTS: the shot after the assassin shoots through the top of the Land Rover at Bond's "nethers" and he seemingly flails over the side to avoid it whilst somehow managing to hang on still greatly impresses me "stunt-wise" to this day. It is a short moment but massively unrated stunt (probably extremely dangerous - would probably be CGI these days). The shot of the 00's all free-falling into Gibraltar against Barry's majestic score also gives me goose-bumps every time. It's my favourite PTS by some margin.

    I thought he was tied to the roof. They wouldn't dare try that stunt out without a safety harness.
  • edited July 2017 Posts: 11,189
    visited Gibraltar the other day. Managed to do a Daylights moment at (what hope was) the right gate.
  • Posts: 7,405
    Apparently Dalton wanted to do a lot more but second unit director Arthur Wooster had to restrain him as he had been warned by Cubby Broccoli not "to damage him".
    It is definitely the finest PTS, from the stunning freefall shot of the 3 agents to the fab intro image of Dalton, the jeep action and that final explosive crash over the cliff! Brilliant stuff.
    The film itself is full of wonderful scenes and set pieces and Dalton is a compelling Bond!
    Oh and Kara is a wonderful leading lady with genuine chemistry with Tim!! (Sorry barry007!)
  • LeonardPineLeonardPine The Bar on the Beach
    Posts: 3,996
    Though I'd enjoyed Moore's last two films it was TLD that kickstarted my Bond obsession.

    It's my favourite PTS and climax of the series, with the film sitting 4th in my Bond ratings.

    It never gets old no matter how many viewings and it also has one of my favourite scores.

    Love it!

    (Probably why LTK was a thundering disappointment)
  • Posts: 7,405
    I saw both of Daltons movies when they were released. I dont share your view on LTK. I remember 1989 as a very hot Summer, loved Daltons return and for me if TLD has the best opening, LTK has the best climax in the Bond series!
  • Creasy47Creasy47 In Cuba with Natalya.Moderator
    Posts: 40,960
    I don't care for Dalton's initial delivery of "Bond, James Bond," but aside from that, overall that PTS easily makes my Top 10, if not Top 5. Cracking stuff. I've been pining for another PTS with a dressed-down Bond in full military/tactical garb like that, infiltrating some locale/building.
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