In the movie, The Living Daylights, James Bond was smiling. Laughing. And going on carnival rides. And when he got to the hotel with a beautiful female, he asked for two rooms. Surely, this James Bond is an imposter!
This is my fifteenth James Bond movie. It’s 1987 and there’s a new actor playing Bond–Timothy Dalton. I didn’t expect to like him as Bond and wanted to get through Dalton’s two movies quickly to get to the Pierce Brosnan era because Brosnan’s the best looking Bond…I know, how shallow.
But keep in mind, I’m not a fan of James Bond. I’m watching these movies to see how he evolved since 1962. So, here’s my impression of James Bond in The Living Daylights.
Timothy Dalton, the New & Improved Bond?
Timothy Dalton is a grittier James Bond. On the other hand, in some scenes with his female lead, Kara, I felt like, “who’s this?” He was smiling, laughing and went on carnival rides, even winning her a stuffed animal. He was doing normal human things!
He didn’t come across as Dr. Jekyl, Mr. Hyde, but it wasn’t a Bond I’d seen before. Even when James Bond (George Lazenby) met and married his wife in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service I don’t recall him being so emotionally revealing and free.
I couldn’t decide if this gentler side of Bond came across as genuine or not. I think it did. What got in the way was the overt romantic music in some of the scenes with Bond and Kara. When they were simply talking, walking or getting into a carriage ride, the romantic music played.
It was obvious that the music was trying to persuade the audience that the two were building an emotional connection. But it was annoying. It’s better to let the audience think for themselves based on the visuals and dialog.
James Bond and Women in The Living Daylights
There’s a new actress (Caroline Bliss) as Moneypenny, the secretary. She’s different than the former Moneypenny, but I think she studied the former Moneypenny so much that she tried to sound like her.
Lois Maxwell, the previous Moneypenny, played the role in the first fourteen James Bond films. As she aged, she and Bond continued banter between them, but not the hard core flirting.
Now that Moneypenny is young again the flirting is back. At one point Bond smacks her on the bottom. They didn’t show that on the screen, but there was a smacking sound and the captions read, ” slapping buttocks.” Who writes these captions?! That’s called sexual harassment except in this case, Moneypenny enjoyed it.
I was pleasantly surprised Bond was only with one woman in this movie. Oh, but actually, that’s not true. I forgot about the woman in the very beginning. Escaping from a crashing jeep going over a cliff into the ocean, Bond parachutes onto a yacht with a bikini-clad woman on board. She offers him champagne and a tryst is insinuated. (eye roll goes here)
Thankfully, there are no vile names for female characters in The Living Daylights. There were none in the last movie either so hopefully, they’ve put that awful tradition to rest.
There was a scene where James Bond ripped a woman’s robe off to distract a security guard coming after him. She stood there topless and humiliated.
The Movie Overall
Speaking of ripping off a woman’s robe, The Living Daylights is only rated PG but it should be rated R for violence and nudity and other sexually suggestive scenes.
I liked the movie. But thank goodness for Wikipedia because I needed to look up the plot at one point because I’ve said it before–when there’s too much action it distracts me from the plot, and I didn’t know what was happening.
Filming & Production Info for The Living Daylights
I’ve been amazed at the production turnaround time of the Bond movies. In the early days, the 60s and early 70s, they would film year after year, producing a movie each year. Although not as quickly produced as films in the 60s and early 70s, this movie came out only two years after the previous movie, A View to a Kill.
If you’d like to know why I, a non-Bond fan, am watching all 25 James Bond movies you can read about it in detail here: Who Is The Next James Bond? A Non-Bond Fan Makes Her Prediction.