livingdaylights

I came of age in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Timothy Dalton is my James Bond.

Say “James Bond” and I think of Dalton first and Sean Connery second. Connery was already riding
a new wave of popularity on screen during my boyish days and his Bond years were behind him. I
largely ignored Roger Moore. Even as a young boy, I only recall glimpses of his Bond films on the
Saturday Night Movie specials on television.

Many in the years since “The Living Daylights” have derided Dalton and his portrayal of 007. Quite
unjustly, I must say. He brought dignity and intelligence back to a series that after 25 years had lost
its way. Not since the early Connery films like “From Russia With Love” and “Goldfinger” had Bond
been given a chance to be the spy writer Ian Fleming envisioned. Even Connery’s legendary
portrayal descended into spectacle and camp in his later films.

“The Living Daylights” marked a return to stories about a British agent fighting plausible threats in
the real world, not evil bald geniuses with underground lairs. Dalton was a Bond firmly rooted in
Fleming’s written world, emotionally complex, moody and as quick to show anger as a grin. He was
not cheesy nor was he an aloof and invincible prop like Connery and Moore. Dalton’s portrayal is of
a dangerous and calculating man whose focus is the mission not the woman in the next bed.

His villains don’t try to destroy the world, just tip the balance of power in their favor at the expense
of potentially thousands of innocent lives. The stakes are real, and Dalton’s Bond meets that reality
with a steely stare and unwavering determination.

“The Living Daylights” begins with the assassination of two 00 agents and Bond finds himself the
next target. The Russians are suspected and Bond helps a Russian General, Koskov, defect.
However, Koskov actually has his own plans, to sell huge amounts of opium out of Afghanistan for
cutting edge weapons to fund his own private army. The British government sends Bond in to
avenge the deaths of their agents and root out Koskov and his accomplices.

Along the way, Bond makes contact with Kara, a cello player in Bratislava who happens to be
Koskov’s girlfriend and naive to the entire scenario. Bond begins by protecting her, only to find
himself falling for her.

This is a strong Bond film with great locations, plenty of European espionage and a refreshing understated and dignified surface, at least in the majority of the
film. There is a rather silly chase between Bond, riding a cello case down a snowy slope, and Russian military skiers. Fortunately right before that somewhat
dumb scene is the best gadget car chase in Bond’s film history as Dalton dodges Russian police and the army in his Aston Martin V8 Vantage.

Many viewers were used to Moore’s silly portrayal of Bond by the time Dalton appeared and “The Living Daylights” was viewed as mediocre and too serious
overall. The fact that Joe Don Baker plays a rather lackluster villain doesn’t help matters, but the writing of the story is intelligent and the film is a Godsend in
jerking the Bond series out of the well that preceding films like “Octopussy” and “A View to a Kill” were cementing the character in.

“The Living Daylights” succeeds in creating real tension at times and has more than one harrowingly cool action set piece. Not only does Dalton find himself
holding on for dear life on top of a military truck that’s rushing at breakneck speed around the tiny cliff roads of Gibraltar, later in the film he’s holding off the
entire Russian army with an AK-47 before stealing a C-130 and finding himself hanging off the back of it on a cargo net in midair!

Dalton wanted his Bond to be more real and the stories to be more dignified. He succeeded with “The Living Daylights” and forever earned his place as James
Bond in my mind’s eye.