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I personally gave up listening to critics years ago, my personal fav Sir Rog is endlessly slammed by critics and fans but it doesn't bother me in the slightest, I like what I like and that's all that matters!
It seems most reviews of the Bond saga resort to cliche's about particular actors tenures etc.
Totally agree @Regan When Dalton was Bond many were saying he was like Sean Connery in the role and had the danger. Daniel Craig may copy some of Sean's mannerisms but Sean will always be the best at the Sean style Bond. Even in DAF, he is incredible. Dalton said in 1987 that why he did not want to take over from Sean is because you would have to be mad. Imitation is never original no matter how well it is done.
Daniel is as much like Sean as Pierce was like Roger and it is simply not true. Bond is about the actor's personality and Dalton knew that there was no point in trying to be like Sean. The minute you imitate any actor's style you are in their shadow.
Where Dalton succeeds is he created his own character blueprint. He did not rely on using the crutch of Sean's style to get an easier acceptance by the audience.Connery is an original and so is Dalton. In fact the challenge of playing Bond is to truly make him your own man.
And why should Dalton have played it like Connery? What is the point if you have 6 Connery films already. As much as I like the new era of Bond, I can fully understand why Connery's era was as popular as The Beatles. Dalton's Bond was more like Led Zeppelin.
The series hallmark is the thriving on fresh ideas. When you try to recycle classic elements they will never have the same impact as those classic Bonds which were like nothing else that came before them. When Daniel says "You must be joking!?" in his Q scene though it is fine, I suggest watch Connery deliver it for the first time in Goldfinger and the difference is as plain to see. Not just Connery's line but his body language too!
True. Why Roger and Tim are criticised is because they are easy targets. The media overlook them and a general audience will not challenge the criticism even if it is wrong. In fact, I re-appraised the Moore era after seeing Die Another Day. I walked out of the cinema disappointed and went and bought Live And Let Die on DVD with Licence To Kill.
On watching Live And Let Die for the first time in years, I was amazed at how original the film was and the charm was unbeatable. Modern Bond sometimes tries to be too self-conscious whilst older Bond just tried new things. The wit was never bettered since the 60's or 70's.
And the one liners were dirty occasionally but so concealed in the class of delivery that you just had to laugh. I mean when Connery says in DAF : "Gentlemen, I'm afraid you caught me with more than my hands up!" is so sly yet delivered without making the sexual reference too obvious. And that has to be respected.
"She's very sexiful'
@Bain123 Thank you! You have made my day. One thing about you is that you argue at least from your own opinion and I can respect that.
Hollywood.com:
'The Living Daylights' Is My Favorite James Bond Movie
http://www.hollywood.com/news/The_Living_Daylights_Timothy_Dalton_Best_Bond_Movies/43767810
Some great excerpts, although the whole article is worth reading:
"That makes picking a favorite difficult, but there's a Bond movie that sums up everything to love about James and his particular brand of spy entertainment, it's the under-seen, under-appreciated 1987 gem The Living Daylights."
"Living Daylights goes from standard issued to quintessential Bond thanks to Dalton's pitch perfect performance. There's a reason he's barely remembered in the pantheon (and why certain Bond enthusiasts will dismiss those of us who enjoy him!): he attempted to do what Daniel Craig did in 2006, but at a time when people weren't ready for it. "
"The humor is there too, with Dalton coating the eyeroll-worthy one-liners with the level of gravitas only a Shakespearean-trained actor could provide. That's something Craig has rarely been able to land and a poison to the later Moore movies, but in Living Daylights, Dalton seamlessly transitions from smirking debonaire to lethal badass faster than the shot of a PPK. Not every Bond could pull off wearing a tux to a carnival."
I am also quite surprised why people talk so negative about TLD. It follows closely Ian Fleming's atmosphere. Moreover, I think TLD still has the best opening credit sequence, together with TSWLM, TWINE and now indeed SF.
By the time I’d finished, I was struck by how badly I’d misjudged Timothy Dalton. I didn’t think he was terrible by any stretch the first time around, but after Connery and Roger Moore, his take was just so different. He showed a great deal of emotion. The girl didn’t immediately get naked for him. Is he wooing her a little? You're charging clothes to her villainous boyfriend? Did you just annihilate a shooting gallery booth and win her a stuffed elephant? She called you a horse's @ss and you just laughed it off? You get to wear tuxes and kill bad guys and you'd actually be happy if M fired you? What’s going on here?
His take was so close to Fleming’s writing that it’s remarkable, and it’s a shame Fleming couldn’t have been around to see him. Dalton’s Bond truly was Ian Fleming’s James Bond, with Craig in a close 2nd. It was the only glimpse we saw of Bond (At that time) that showed his true nature. Sure he did the job, and sure he liked the excitement, but he hated it at the same time. He is pitch perfect in the scene where he tells Saunders to tell M he didn’t follow orders, and would be glad if M fired him. He completely sells a man that’s burned out, which is an incredible acting achievement since by that time, he’s only been playing the role for about 20 minutes of screen time. The new guy is selling a world-weary performance of Britain's best secret agent? Holy crap this guy is good.
Connery was excellent, but after “From Russia With Love”, the series concentrated more and more on Bond’s jet-setting lifestyle and the gadgets. Who cares that he’s killing person after person, look at how great this lifestyle is! Kill everyone and then you can take a nice vacation, and hey, we'll even throw in some extra cash from the Queen.
Dalton didn’t make Bond more than he was. A man who knew he had a duty, but made no qualms about the fact that he was living for today because he could die tomorrow. Who drank and smoked constantly to wash out the poison he felt in his system. He made Bond a spy again. He uses every ounce of that skill in his second outing, first making Sanchez his friend, then destroying him piece-by-piece from the inside out.
Anyone that says Dalton isn’t good with the ladies needs only watch his interplay with Maryam D’Abo in TLD. He goes from seeing her only as a piece of a puzzle, to exasperation, to admiration, to real fondness. You can see how much he’s grown to care for her in his final line. “You didn’t think I’d miss THIS performance, did you?” (Craig gets the same type of growth with Vesper. He works his way into her heart, despite her best efforts, and you only realize at the end that she thinks she sacrified her lover's life in order to do so)
And then there's Carey Lowell. Sure the script let her down in the second half by making her act like a jealous schoolgirl half the time, but to see them go from a sassy interplay to him holding her down on the bed with a gun in her face when he thinks she's betrayed him is almost as good as the Pushkin scene. And much like Craig's Bond, we see him realize that he's kind of screwed up. Craig's Bond screws up. But he fixes the wrong. Same with Dalton. So single-minded was his determination to destroy Sanchez that he actually created additional problems. But, we also see him become even more determined to finish the job and not allow for any more slip-ups.
Also, Dalton is, IMO, the best ACTOR to play James Bond. Craig is also a great actor, but Dalton takes the lead IMO. Dalton hits all the right notes, even in the throwaway one-liners. I think it's hilarious that he bluffs Kara at the beginning of the ice chase. "Oh, Salt corrosion." 'Must be an Atmospheric Anomaly." By the time he's getting set to blow up the barricade, he's given up on pretense and he's not even trying to fool her anymore with "I've had a few optional extras installed."
Dalton's standout scene The scene between himself and Pushkin in TLD is the best scene in any Bond film, Period Connery's "That's a smith and Wesson, and you've had your six." Is high up there, But Dalton's peortrayal is so multi-faceted that you weally don't know what the hell he's going to do. They even borrowed elements of it for Craig’s introduction in “Casino Royale” with the bent agent. Close second is the absolutely perfect comeuppance for Sanchez. "Don't you want to know WHY?" *ligher*
The reaction to Saunders’ death, pitch perfect. And he completely shows the continued impact Tracy’s death still has on him in one line in “Licence to Kill", and the emotion he conveys in “Licence to Kill” when he’s going through Leiter’s house in the aftermath of Sanchez maiming him and killing Della is better than a great deal of Roger Moore’s performance in all the Bond films combined. (Gotta give Moore his props though for the acting in "The Spy Who Loved Me" when Anya brings up the touchy subject, and Moore stepped it up in "For Your Eyes Only") Not only has the man who he probably considers his best friend been nearly killed, but that man now shares the same tragedy of losing his wife on his wedding day. Craig also shines after failing to revive Vesper, but there's still a bit more of an emotional performance in that Dalton scene than with Craig.
And that brief moment in LTK after he's finally killed Sanchez and the fight is over. Wow. He's so high-strung and intense that whole chase, a single-minded determination that's almost bordering on insanity to completely obliterate Sanchez and everything he has. He finally does it, and we see him so emotionally drained and relieved that it's over that he seems like he's about to cry with relief. He's tired, weak, in pain, dirty, bleeding...And happy to still be alive.
And finally, he brought the danger back. His was the first Bond performance in 20 years that made you fear the man. Sure he had the prerequisite gadgets, but it didn’t feel like he absolutely needed them to survive. And look at the final 30 minutes or so of LTK. Bond destroys an entire drug set-up, several henchmen, 20 tons of cocaine, and Sanchez with nothing more than a flaming beaker of gasoline, a tanker truck, a cropduster, and a lighter. Craig's bad@ss also, and it's nice to see that return to form.
Connery and Craig are great. Roger Moore was fun. Brosnan was good and Lazenby is good. But Dalton has taken the place of my, and I stress, MY number one James Bond. My order would be Dalton, Connery/Craig (Tie) Moore, Brosnan, and Lazenby. He’s the definitive Fleming Bond. Craig is very close, but Dalton has the edge in several ways.
No prophet is accepted in his own country.
I have the same question
I personally never heard of Fleming's Bond till Daniel Craig became a very popular and well respected Bond. Anyway even though im a huge Pierce Brosnan fan im glad hard core fans care about this or if they dont care that much are aware of the Fleming Bond take.
Its their distinction they are Bond Fans with Capital letters.
Once i was at one of my bffs borthday party and we were discussing bond me amd some friends and someone asked if Bond would ever get married and i answered he did once but that woman was killed and that was Tracy.
They didnt have a clue about it and one of my friends said she hatted Craig because he wasnt handsome and he was like a stone
Im not a huge fan of Craig and i don't care much for Ian Fleming's Bond but at least i know now that Craig is close to what Ian Fleming had in mind and i respect that take on James Bond.
In another small party i went again the Bond subject came up and the girl who said she is a James Bond fan she said her favorites were Sean Connery and Daniel Craig since they were close to Ian Fleming.
So i thought yep here is a ture fan and not because she likes Craig but she recognized Ian Fleming.
Personally i prefer much the cinematic Bond but i recognize the relevance Fleming has on this character.