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Brad Whitaker and General Georgi Koskov in The Living Daylights?
Dragonpol
https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
What are our collective thoughts on these two villains - 'Major' Brad Whitaker, arms dealer and the KGB General Georgi Koskov in The Living Daylights?
Are either of them convincing as credible James Bond villains. As there are two 'big bads' here, does the Bond villainy get rather diluted as a result. There was a similar experiment with Prince Kamal Khan and General Orlov in Octopussy, but that seemed to work better and Khan probably had more screen-time than Orlov did.
I think that Koskov comes across as one of the more cultured and less barbarian of the James Bond villains - perhaps even too much of a light touch while Whitaker is under-used, but he does have a brilliant fight scene with Bond at the end. Necros makes up for the lack of menace from the big two villains, but he's dispatched before the final act.
Are Whitaker/Koskov of the Stromberg school of Bond villainy?
I'd love to hear your thoughts....
Are either of them convincing as credible James Bond villains. As there are two 'big bads' here, does the Bond villainy get rather diluted as a result. There was a similar experiment with Prince Kamal Khan and General Orlov in Octopussy, but that seemed to work better and Khan probably had more screen-time than Orlov did.
I think that Koskov comes across as one of the more cultured and less barbarian of the James Bond villains - perhaps even too much of a light touch while Whitaker is under-used, but he does have a brilliant fight scene with Bond at the end. Necros makes up for the lack of menace from the big two villains, but he's dispatched before the final act.
Are Whitaker/Koskov of the Stromberg school of Bond villainy?
I'd love to hear your thoughts....
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Comments
Theire style of villainy fits in with the overall more serious tone of TLD. I like the way they're portrayed, especially Koskov, and Bond and Whitaker do have a great gunfight at the end - I especially like Bond and Whitaker discussing the battle he's reimagining on the board.
And sorry for the double post.
Koskov is just too happy go lucky and we never see any of his menace until the scene where he turns Kara over to the horney jailer. It just seemed so out of character for this easy going Georgi Koskov we had come to love up to this point.
Brad Whitaker is most interesting and obviously disturbed but he suffers from not being able to leave his "imprint" on the picture. Way too little screen time for this psychotic man.
Yes, you may have a good point there...
Koskov was a fun character, more humor than anything else, although Krabbe has done some serious work elsewhere such as No Mercy. It's a shame, Daylights, for such a powerful and commanding release, with the superlative Dalton, was let down by having such aforementioned characters that simply didn't offer much
Watched this properly for the first time in ages just the other day, never been overly enamoured with it but now I have to say what a cracking film!
I guess I'm in the minority here in that the villains in TLD worked fine for me, and more so since Bond faced such a singularly strong one in the next film.
I would have prefered Rutger Hauer as a baddie in the 007 franchise because imho he is the vastly better actor of the two Dutch actors. And he would have probably given TD much more game.
As Whitaker, I'd replace Joe Don Baker with Lance Henriksen (ALIENS, HARD TARGET, American TV's Millenium).
Interesting casting call there, but you can't have it all, I guess!
Once again, Koskov was all a bit too unrealistic, a humor character, disorganized even. At no time in a viewing of Daylights do you ever feel any threat from the character, and even feel sorry for him more often than not. The same goes with Whitaker. Two wasted opportunities that year to give us some credible villains in an otherwise standout release. Necros was arguably the best of a bad lot for Bond adversaries that year
Personal fav villain of the series for me is Brad Whitaker. Short scenes or not JDB fine actor too really could have been scripted better. the Afghan scenes just needed his presence maybe rolling up in a special military vehicle etc.
Here is what maybe could have happened.
Biggest missed was not giving more screentime to JDB in TLD.
He could easily have had a few more scenes and there is a fans idea over on CommanderBond. net i want to share here.
Different Daylights.
■1) Defer the Blayden Hall snatch back of Koskov. Instead devote time to Koskov’s persuasion and convincing of SIS that Pushkin has to be taken out as intercut with 2 and 3 below.
■2) Cut to Whitaker’s Tangier base where we seem him in huge war chamber eavesdropping on CIA/KGB reaction to escalating spy war (Necros either onscreen or implicitly taking out spies).
■3) Cut to a global briefing to the NATO agents intercut with the same scene in the Soviet Union (in unsubtitled Russian) would have been an economically visual storytelling device. The machinations are given context displaying the way Smiert Spionam was affecting the intelligence apparatus, heightening the tension Koskov spoke of.
■5) Koskov disappears while under Bond’s protection. Bond should have had the fight in the kitchen, knocking out one of Necros’s helpers. When Bond declines to kill Pushkin, M throws this failure in his face. Plus Bond is at the centre of the best fight in the film.
■6) The reveal that Koskov is in league with Whitaker must be a dramatic moment.
■7) Koskov and Whitaker extolling their plan to raise funds in Afganistan to fund Necros’ wars of revolution in said huge war chamber in the villa with maps and tin soldiers in Africa, Asia and South America (providing a more dramatic setting for the eerie shoot out at the finale). If there’s one Bond villain who needed his own private army, Whitaker was the man. These guards should be swarming all over the villa, to be taken out by Bond at the end. These wars will be Whitaker’s wars, where he will finally play general with real soldiers and then be a powerful man in those spheres of influence. The money raised is the means to this global threat. This would streamline the need for introducing new elements later (the diamonds, the raw opium would be understood and have context) and could shorten the running time of this already overlong film. Admittedly, some of the mystery element would be lost but Koskov’s duplicity would provide the intrigue
Very interesting, Whitaker1987 - don't get me wrong, I like Whitaker a lot too, it's just he needed more screentime, although Koskov seemed to get more instead, despite Whitaker being the more obviously villainous of the two.
Koskov didn't intrest me much but Whittaker was really underused I think. That's one of the few problems I have with TLD.
But then on the other hand we have Necros, who I think more than makes up for it. Although he's more of a henchman, you really get the sense that he's a cold blooded killer.
If Don Baker had been as good a villain as he was in Charlie Varrick, and Krabbe as before, in No Mercy, it could of been one of the finest James Bond releases ever, even better than it already is
The ending in Tangiers with Bond at Whitaker's Morrocan retreat was disappointing, and all over too quickly. I would of greatly enjoyed a finale at the Blaydon safe house with the main players that year. Seems a bit of a wasted location. There was plenty of scope for some more fine adventure there, rather than just the brief fight with Green Four and Necros for example. I would of had that over Tangiers at the end without question
Interesting point. TLD had a strong plot but average characters. Koskov was way too funny, that was the big problem. I thought about it, and I think it would have been better had he kept his general's dignity when he went to the West, instead of being all scared. And then when in England, if he had remained deadly serious instead of being all jovial, kissing Bond on the cheeks, etc. Make him friendly, but not warmly so, in a more distant, reserved, polite way.
What sort of uniform does Whitaker wear? Is it of US extraction, I wonder? We do know that he was expelled from West Point for cheating.
And as far as Koscov being "too funny" -- it's an act. He's playing the buffoon somewhat to hoodwink MI6. The real Koscov comes to the fore during the cargo plane flight from Tangier to Afghanistan.
So, is the dress-up uniform worn by Whitaker designed to mislead clients that he has a military background when he doesn't really in the conventional sense so they will contract with him to buy arms? A form of misrepresentation to ensure them into a contract with him?