The Dalton Era (1987-1989) Part 2: Licence to Kill

 

Dalton's second and final performance as James Bond was 1989's "Licence To Kill", my candidate for most underrated Bond film. I think it's a great one on all levels and not just for an action film. Originally the film's title was going to be "Licence Revoked", however American audiences didn't know what the word revoked meant, I guess they would think of it as a sequel to "Licence To Drive" that starred the Corys or mainly that would associate that word with driving privileges, I guess it's a rational explanation. The film was initially planned to be set in China, with Bond facing off against a Chinese drug lord. Filmmaker wanted to bring Bond to location that they hadn't taken him yet. There had been planned numerous sequences to take advantage of the location, a motorcycle chase on the Great Wall of China and a fight in a Chinese Museum. However demands by the Chinese Government made filmmakers decide on another option with the film taking place in the fictitious of country of the Republic of Isthumus, the film would focus on 007's personal vendetta against a powerful drug lord. Operating on his own, he would seek revenge on him and his whole empire, the would would be the darkest film the series would venture into. 

The film opens with Bond and CIA agent turned DEA agent Felix Leiter making their way to Felix's wedding, where Bond is the best man, but before they get very far, Felix is informed that the drug lord Franz Sanchez has escaped from prison and they have an opportunity to catch him, not missing a beat Bond and Felix are off. Robert David as Sanchez has a cool introduction, it's quickly clear that he is going to be a violent adversary from his very first scene, Bond doesn't get to face too many villains that look his equal physically and Davi fits the part. It can get boring for Bond to face villains who sit behind a desk and push buttons all the time. Immediately Sanchez orders his men to cut out a guy's heart and precedes to whip Lupe, played by Talisa Soto. What follows is a cool opening sequence of Bond capturing Sanchez plane, which is what inspired the opening sequence to Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight Rises". Bond and Felix then parachute down to the wedding, very cool. It established that Felix and Bond are more than professionals to one-another and have closer friendship, it's also a sign to why he's Felix's best man and Felix's bridge Della is Bond of him. The best gift that is given to him by the couple is an engraved lighter is another telling indication of their relationship along with the setup of the finale to the film. I like the one parting note of Felix mention to Della that Bond was married once, it remain delicate topic to Bond who flatly refuses to catch Della's garter, I like that the filmmaker kept the continuity and history of the character. In past films the character Felix is basically there to give Bond information, here he becomes the catalyst for the story and Bond's motivation for revenge. Sanchez manages to make a simple but effective escape and seeks out Felix, his henchmen capture him leaving behind Della, who is killed after apparently being raped. With Sanchez facing the who causing him problems, he remarks that what's meant to happen is business, nothing personal. Felix is then lowered into an awaiting shark, although he survives, he loses his leg and his arm get badly maimed, it's a pretty twisted scene, the series had used sharks before, but this one is brutal. It's a powerful catalyst to what motivates Bond. The scene is memorable and echo throughout most of the film. Up to this point, the character of Felix has appeared in seven films, all played by different actors but "Licence to Kill" would mark the first time that Felix would be played by a returning actor, David Hedison, he played Felix, 16 years earlier in 1973's "Live and Let Die" alongside Roger Moore as Bond. I always thought it was a missed opportunity for the series to keep one actor in the recurring role of Felix, an actor would have made the part his own as what Desmond Llewelyn, Lois Maxwell and Bernard Lee had with their role, it's strange how the role of Felix became a came of musical chairs, it's a big role but I think most actors would welcome the opportunity of being attached to the franchise, just for the attention alone they would get. I do like the scene with the twisted note that Bond finds from a unconscious Felix, that too is directly taken from the "Live and Let Die" novel. So Bond is unhappy wit the laws the DEA have to follow and them just resigning themselves that Sanchez is out of their jurisdiction and their little left to do, Bond set out on his own to exact revenge on Sanchez for Felix and Della. Bond and Felix's fisherman buddy, Sharky played by Frank McRea start their own investigation and they discover the spot Felix was taken. He first meets Milton Krest, you can tell right away that some guy in movies are bad and this guy looks weaselly. When Bond returns a suspenseful shootout happens, the marine setting is utilized for some fun stuff and Bond and Sharky manage to get a hold of Kilifer, played Everett McGil, the one guy who betrayed Felix and helped Sanchez escape. Before Bond sets out to find Krest's boat, the WaveKrest, he is confronted by Hawkins, Felix's DEA associate played by Grand L. Bush, who starred alongside Robert Davi as the Johnson agents in "Die Hard" a year earlier.   At the Hemingway house, M threatens Bond to go the Istanbul for his next mission, however Bond refuses and his licence to kill get revoked, it's a great scene and it is clear M wouldn't have any major qualms about having him killed, the only reason he doesn't is too many witnesses. We also get a brief appearance of Miss Moneypenny, marking the last time Caroline Bliss would play the role, while the scene was short, it just shows that Moneypenny has feelings for Bond and supports his vendetta against Sanchez and reaches out to Q for help. As Bond and Sharky track down the WaveKrest, Bond deploys an inventive disguise to avoid detection, it's a believable and creative solution and it's not like Roger Moore in a plastic crocodile. The film sets up the submersible that plays a part in the action, along with the pool that Bond will use to slip aboard undetected in the upcoming scenes. Bond then discovers Lupe who is seemingly more a prisoner than a lover of Sanchez. As Bond see that Sharky was caught and killed, it sets up one more exciting Bond set pieces in the recent films. Director John Glen who directed every Bond film since "For Your Eyes Only" really knows how to set up an action sequence. We're slowly introduced to the geography and components and when things start to happen, it's a progressing escalation to a fun ride, as more and more henchmen try to look for Bond, he discovers the drugs and the submersible which leads to a funny and unexpected reveal to Krest. Drivers come about to look for him and the underwater fight scenes are more exciting than previous films. Bond waterskiing to the seaplane is unexpected and leads to an unexpected getaway as he coolly makes off to the plane full of money, leaving the bad guys staring wondering what has happened. Great stuff. 

We eventually meet the main Bond girl Pam Bouvier, played by Cary Lowell,  there this declaration by Bond girls that they just don't want to be eye-candy and want to be strong independent woman, more of Bond's equal and I think she actually fulfils the requirements. She's tough, knows how to fly a plane, fight and all that. The romance from "The Living Daylights" isn't present, it's more of traditional Bond girl role but I think she's one of the better ones and fulfills the role nicely. We also get a closer introduction to Dario, played by Benicio Del Toro who is Sanchez's main henchman and he's a pretty slimy character, he exudes mean with his creepy smile and all that. In fact Sanchez has a pretty diverse group of followers, it's an interesting casting decision, they're not the henchmen would find in typical Bond villain, they're not big guys who look dangerous and threatening, I can imagine most of them are working for him because they knew him when he was nothing and coasted along for him for a free ride and their loyalty has secured them a position in Sanchez's trust.

Later on in the film, a major theme starts to develop, Sanchez constantly proclaims that loyalty is more important than anything to him, he keeps his word to may the money Kilifer is owed for his escape, even though he could have just killed him and saved himself from paying him. When Bond sets up Krest, making him look like he stole Sanchez's money, he's immediately killed. This loyalty theme starts to mirror Bond where it's his loyalty to Felix and Della that drives him for revenge, ironically, Sanchez's importance he places on loyalty that is how Bond ultimately destroys him. At first Bond is going to assassinate Sanchez, he has his plan all worked out, but is interrupted by ninja's who turn out to be Hong Kong Narcotic agents, fortunately he is saved by Sanchez of all people and simply killing him gets replaced by a unique plan. In a lot of ways the story is like Kurosawa's "Yojimbo", a lone samurai which was said to have been a basis for the script, a lone samurai comes into town and pits two gang families against each other, it's similar to what Bond does with Sanchez. He begins casting doubt on Sanchez's workers and framing them for breaking their devotion to him, all the while making himself appear to be an honest and helpful associate, doing this, Sanchez kills his own people and Bond doesn't have to do anything. I think it's an interesting way of going about hurting the villain than had Bond going from one place to another, physically destroying his empire in big action scenes. The traditional Bond humor is pretty much absent from this movie, I think this a good thing because one, the humor was not Dalton's strong suit as shown his previous film, 2, I think it would have felt out of place in dark entry to the series. Really the only humor in the film is given by Q, he shows up while he's on leave to check in on Bond, which is pretty unusual considering what Bond and his relationship have been throughout the series. I never got the impression that Q was a big fan of Bond and he certainly would be hanging out with him at the local pub, even if it's out of character, I can go along with it. Q does provide him with some reasonable weapons that get used and saves the question of how Bond get a hold of them had Q not shown up, also it was an excuse for Desmond Llewelyn make his required appearance and he's given more to do than being in his workshop. Wayne Newton as Professor Joe also provides some chuckles. 

The finale at mountain retreat and the tanker truck chase is just a great one, unlike the usual Bond climax where a load of good guys coming in and fighting the bad guys, lot of explosions, but this it's Bond own his own as he was for the entire film, okay Pam and Q helped out a little. Everything is set up and things start rolling, watching the tanker truck chase unfold, it's clear there was a lot of thought of planning and choreography to make it all come together, it's one of the most exciting and well put together climaxes in the series, you planes, cars, trucks and a bunch of gasoline. After Bond catches Sanchez, he pulls out the lighter he was given by Felix and Della, it's a poetic end to Sanchez and Bond's personal vendetta. Before the credits end, I don't get the winking fish statue, don't know what that was about. 

I think Dalton gives another great performance as Bond, Davi is a memorable sinister villain, Pam and Lupe are great Bond ladies, the stunts are amazing and the story is simple and straight forward. This another Bond I consistently see ranked as one of the worst in the series. I don't get it, I can't see some of the problems like when Felix wakes up after Bond defeats Sanchez, he seems way too happy when he's on the phone with him without a mention about his wife being dead, maybe it's the medication, but that scene always bothered me. Maybe some fans see this a straight action movie with Dalton being too brooding with no sense of fun as some of the other films had. For me I would place this as one of the best films in the series. The film grossed over $150 million at the box office worldwide, but didn't fare well in the U.S. as past films had. It's poor reception had been attributed to the film's late title change, it affected already promotional materials which had to be changed, also the slate of big popular action films that were released that summer like Tim Burton's "Batman", "Lethal Weapon 2" and "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade", might have helped draw attention away from it.

For me, Dalton presented a perfect combination of toughness, intensity, sophistication, intelligence, cool and some real human emotion. He didn't portray Bond as an unflappable superhero or comical persona joke. I think he picked the right note to play the character in this two films. Not sure how he'd would have done in a Bond film like "The Spy Who Loved Me" or "Moonraker", I don't think a light comical Bond would have been his strong suit and the film wouldn't have probably been as good mainly due to his performance. Had Roger Moore or Pierce Brosnan been given "Licence To Kill", I think the same thing could have happened. Dalton's performance works for the stories that were told and his two films were real high points in the series. He was initially contracted to do three Bond films, but a lawsuit concerning the character and franchise resulted in the longest delay between films in the series, six years. By 1993, Dalton was still expected to return in a film that was scheduled to start filming in 1994 but never happened when Dalton had announced that year he would no longer play the role of James Bond. After leaving Bond, Dalton continued to work in film and television, following LTK, he appeared in films like "The Rocketeer" (1991) and "Made Men" (1999), he played Julius Caesar in "Cleopatra" (1999), a  spoof of James Bond in "Looney Tunes: Back in Action" (2003), and he played the villain in the action-comedy "Hot Fuzz" (2007). He also had supporting roles in television shows like "Scarlett" where he played Rhett Butler, "Penny Dreadful" and the DC comics-based show "Doom Patrol".  Today, Dalton seems very happy about what he did with the Bond character about maintained a good relationship with the Broccoli family and was one of the pallbearers at Cubby's funeral in 1996. 

But now, fans had to wait and see what was coming next with the series and who was going to be the fifth actor to play James Bond.