67 replies to this topic

[JimmyBond]

It's interesting that the film was released halfway through the Bond series lifecycle.

Too bad it's also not the midpoint of the series (movie-wise), that would mean we'd be awaiting Bond 30 soon, lol.

Edited by JimmyBond, 01 August 2012 - 02:58 AM.

[DaveBond21]

25 years since my first official Bond film in the cinema! That makes me feel old!


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[O.H.M.S.S.]

To me, The Living Daylights starts with probably the most Flemingesque moment ever put on film. After that the movie evolves in an excellent Cold War action mystery and Dalton really captures the character as he was written by Fleming more than anyone else. Sean Connery in the Terence Young films and George Lazenby come close though.

[tdalton]

To me, The Living Daylights starts with probably the most Flemingesque moment ever put on film. After that the movie evolves in an excellent Cold War action mystery and Dalton really captures the character as he was written by Fleming more than anyone else. Sean Connery in the Terence Young films and George Lazenby come close though.

Well said.

The film also contains probably the best scene in the entire series, which is Bond's interrogation of Pushkin in his hotel room.

[Guy Haines]

I remember being apprehensive about TLD, particularly having seen stills of the "magic carpet ride" and its aftermath. But then I went to see the film and was very impressed indeed, both with it, and with Timothy Dalton The carpet scene was, sensibly, carpeted, and a rumoured end scene involving doubles of the Prince and Princess of Wales never saw the light of day either. It was a film I went to see several times in that summer of 1987.

Mention has been made of something being "lacking" about Dalton and/or the film. On reflection, very good as TLD was, I think an opportunity to clear house was missed. As I've said here before, Dalton played Bond one way with a production team which was used to a different interpretation of the character, and at times it showed. Maybe with a new writing team and new director TLD would have been even better - or it may have been too soon to change gear completely, and had they done so the series might had lost more audience share than it gained. We'll never know, really.

One thing I do know is that in my neck of the woods (I live only a few miles from the county of Derbyshire where Dalton was brought up), the local media was pleased and amused that a "local lad" was, for a while at least, the world's "least secret agent".

[Dustin]

At the time I loved practically everything about TLD. The last two films both did seem to lack something in the thrills department. I wasn't exactly disappointed when leaving the theatre, but not as blown away as after FYEO, MR or TSWLM. And now a new guy I hadn't heard a lot about before was Bond and all of a sudden the thrills were back. The PTS is still one of the best in the series (and earned spontaneous cheers and applause for the audience) and on the black market then you could get a rough cut lacking action sequences on VHS-tape for a King's ransom. The Herald Tribune did a very positive piece on Dalton's Bond, after ignoring the last few films mostly because they had become a bit samey. All in all it was a splendid time and a splendid film I saw three times at the cinema during that summer.

[Iceskater101]

I wish I was alive when a lot of these bond movies came out. I remember in 3rd grade watching the James Bond movies. Anyway, I have always liked Timothy Dalton as Bond. I mean he wasn't my favorite actor to portray him, but he wasn't horrible either.

[Donovan]

Seventeen years ago?

 

Make that thirty years ago.