86 replies to this topic

[danielcraigisjamesbond007]

To be honest, Licence isn't my ABSOLUTE favorite Bond movie. But it's not the worst either (I'm looking at YOU, Diamonds are Forever!). I certainly like the tanker chase at the very end, and I like the fact that it made Bond more "realistic," but honestly (and this is a complaint that I've heard a few people say), the plot feels like it's right out of an episode from Miami Vice.
So. Perfect? No. Worst Bond movie ever? Not at all.

[Tybre]

Am I the only one who really loved the score by Michael Kamen? Some of the big Bond cues, with the inclusion of that standout Spanish guitar, sound better than late-period Barry (Moonraker, Octopussy, and A View to a Kill come to mind)!

I think Kamen's score is brilliant. Personally his rendition of the Bond theme is my favorite. Pops into my head whenever I start driving.

[JimmyBond]

Am I the only one who really loved the score by Michael Kamen? Some of the big Bond cues, with the inclusion of that standout Spanish guitar, sound better than late-period Barry (Moonraker, Octopussy, and A View to a Kill come to mind)!

I will say it's my favorite of the non-Barry scores, but I wouldnt place it above anything that Barry produced.

[Dekard77]

Dario was not present most of the movie. Newton was a very silly addition to a very serious movie. Never liked him.
Lowell plays to her strengths of CIA agent/Bond girl well. Something I enjoyed is that she was soft when needed.

[The Ghost Who Walks]

Am I the only one who really loved the score by Michael Kamen? Some of the big Bond cues, with the inclusion of that standout Spanish guitar, sound better than late-period Barry (Moonraker, Octopussy, and A View to a Kill come to mind)!

I love it too, though I wish Kamen had incorporated elements of the title song into the movie, like Barry used to do. The song would have been perfect for such a purpose. I can imagine a version of it in some of the more romantic scenes, as an example.

[Dekard77]

Dalton is far more serious and bit more theatrical, Craig gives a Connery vibe or imitates him to some extent. At the same-time I feel he does have a pleasant side/playfulness like Moore.
LTK a good Bond film, a few flaws though like Design and the fact that Dalton is not given enough Bond moments.

Edited by Dekard77, 21 July 2009 - 10:06 AM.

[Zorin Industries]

Am I the only one who really loved the score by Michael Kamen? Some of the big Bond cues, with the inclusion of that standout Spanish guitar, sound better than late-period Barry (Moonraker, Octopussy, and A View to a Kill come to mind)!

I would personally disagree with that. I think Kamen's score is flat at best. John Barry did his best work on those films you cite. WINE WITH STACEY is one of his own personally defining Bond suites. I think Kamen's work comes alive on the "why don't you wait until you are asked" boat scene but a lot of his action scoring here oversells the visuals so we get a score for a lone Bond out for simple revenge that sounds like we are missing 100 ninja extras and another mile of Ken Adam set somewhere - i.e. it is too big for the visuals.

[Dekard77]

My problem with Kamen's score is that it's too similar to Lethal Weapon 2. Maybe the producers wanted that but it doesn't five the film the right feel. Tracks Pam,Ninja and Licence Revoked are really cool. Maurice Binder titles are quite disappointing, his best 80's work was with AVTAK.

[Zorin Industries]

My problem with Kamen's score is that it's too similar to Lethal Weapon 2.

And everything else he did in his short career.

[Dekard77]

X Men 1 , Die Hard with A Vengeance and Highlander were ok scores. I actually started liking him a lot after X men score. Otherwise a boring musician.

[tim partridge]

I have said it before but I think Barrys renditions of the Bond theme became stale after DAF. For me, that gunbarrel main theme should be sexy, twangy and poppy, as it was throughout the 1960s. From MWTGG onwards Barry had it turned into a very restrained, style string arrangement, betraying the twanging, guitar-lead pop roots. Martin Hamlisch, Kamen and Conti all did the 60s twang thing and it sounded so muc fresher.

Kamens gunbarrel was a refreshing masterwork, in my opinion, and sounded so fresh when the film came out. It captures the sexy spirit of the 60s gunbarrel but has a latin American flamenco flavour relevant to LTK. The music that plays over Bond planejacking Sanchez in the PTS has to be a series musical higlight! Love the way it segues in from the cymbals, performed by a real jazzy ensemble and not some pompous Out of Africa style orchestra (see any Barry score made after 1971).

another mile of Ken Adam set somewhere

I think 1 metre of Ken Adam set would have been apprectiated on LTK.

[Dekard77]

True to some extent. Barry is restricted when it comes to composing but at the same time he is very melodically timeless in his own way. Few composers have reached that peak in my book. Somehow much like Ken Adams understood the look of the Bond world, Barry had the sound for it.
The series will be nice if they bring in a new composer. Mostly an European one.
It was refreshing to have Kamen but he did duplicate the Lethal Weapon score into this movie. I didn't like that.

[Safari Suit]

Am I the only one who really loved the score by Michael Kamen? Some of the big Bond cues, with the inclusion of that standout Spanish guitar, sound better than late-period Barry (Moonraker, Octopussy, and A View to a Kill come to mind)!

I would personally disagree with that.

As would I. Vehemently. And I actually quite like the score. Hey, at least he spared us the saxophones this time out.

[DamnCoffee]

You know, after listening to Kamens score, I've become a lot more appreciative of it. Even though I like his work on DIE HARD more. Anyway, I think that Kamens Bond theme renditions are probably rhe best we've had in the franchise history.

Let's face it, Barry's only good Bond theme renditions were the one at the beginning of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, and maybe the Moonraker freefall. I absoloutly hated how he used the same Bond theme rendition throughout the 1980's.

Kamen was fresh, and I love all of the Bond theme renditions he gave us in Licence to Kill.


Speaking of which, anyone seen this...

[Safari Suit]

Let's face it, Barry's only good Bond theme renditions were the one at the beginning of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, and maybe the Moonraker freefall.

Let's not.

[DamnCoffee]

Well from what I recall there aren't many other Bond theme renditions that he has done? He used Monty Normans Bond theme throughout the 60's. From what I recall, we didn't have a Bond fanfare in Diamonds Are Forever and The Man with the Golden Gun. Granted, he is a good composer, but he didn't do much, Bond theme wise.

I liked what he did with From Russia With Love though.

[Mr. Blofeld]

I liked what he did with From Russia With Love though.

So do I; "Bond with Bongos" is a classic track.

Also, I'm surprised there's no love for The Living Daylights; at least Barry took his usual scoring techniques in a different direction (though, with the orchestra backing it all), and I enjoy what he did with the new electronic sound of the time.

[Dekard77]

You know, after listening to Kamens score, I've become a lot more appreciative of it. Even though I like his work on DIE HARD more. Anyway, I think that Kamens Bond theme renditions are probably rhe best we've had in the franchise history.

Let's face it, Barry's only good Bond theme renditions were the one at the beginning of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, and maybe the Moonraker freefall. I absoloutly hated how he used the same Bond theme rendition throughout the 1980's.

Kamen was fresh, and I love all of the Bond theme renditions he gave us in Licence to Kill.


Speaking of which, anyone seen this...

The first bit reminded me of MWTGG. The rest is good. Love the scene where Bond slashes through the dope underwater. Really Really cool scene. COOOOOOOOOOOOOL

[DamnCoffee]

I liked what he did with From Russia With Love though.

So do I; "Bond with Bongos" is a classic track.

Also, I'm surprised there's no love for The Living Daylights; at least Barry took his usual scoring techniques in a different direction (though, with the orchestra backing it all), and I enjoy what he did with the new electronic sound of the time.

I love Barry's work on The Living Daylights, the only thing is, his Bond theme rendition on Ice Chase, is basically the exact same one as he used in Octopussy and A View to a Kill, just with a few instruments threw over it. It isn't that exciting at all, and dare I say out of place with the rest of the brilliant soundtrack.

[Mr. Blofeld]

I liked what he did with From Russia With Love though.

So do I; "Bond with Bongos" is a classic track.

Also, I'm surprised there's no love for The Living Daylights; at least Barry took his usual scoring techniques in a different direction (though, with the orchestra backing it all), and I enjoy what he did with the new electronic sound of the time.

I love Barry's work on The Living Daylights, the only thing is, his Bond theme rendition on Ice Chase, is basically the exact same one as he used in Octopussy and A View to a Kill, just with a few instruments thrown over it. It isn't that exciting at all, and dare I say out of place with the rest of the brilliant soundtrack.

You think so? In my mind, "Ice Chase" is actually pretty close to the rendition from "Exercise at Gibraltar".

[DamnCoffee]

Exactly, the same rendition was used in Octopussy and A View to a Kill. You would think that for a new Bond, he would have had a different sound.

Unforunately no, he used probably one of the blandest Bond theme renditions to date.

[Zorin Industries]

Exactly, the same rendition was used in Octopussy and A View to a Kill, you think that for a new Bond, he would have a different sound.

Not that I agree with you, but why?

[Tybre]

Am I the only one who really loved the score by Michael Kamen? Some of the big Bond cues, with the inclusion of that standout Spanish guitar, sound better than late-period Barry (Moonraker, Octopussy, and A View to a Kill come to mind)!

Kamen's score is easily one of my favorites, but then I'm a bit of an oddball in that I don't much care for the majority of Barry scores. In fact, aside from the occasional odd track, the only Barry soundtracks I enjoy enough to listen to them are OHMSS and TLD. Version of the Bond theme from LTK is also my favorite take to date

[DamnCoffee]

Exactly, the same rendition was used in Octopussy and A View to a Kill, you think that for a new Bond, he would have a different sound.

Not that I agree with you, but why?

Well, it just seems obvious. Darker Bond, darker Bond theme. It's just that Octopussy and A View to a Kill are so different in tone to The Living Daylights, it makes you wonder why on earth Barry decided to use the exact same Bond theme rendition.

Look, i'm not an expert on Bond music, but even in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, when we first hear the Bond theme, it's sounds so different than what we've heard in previous movies. (Makes me wonder why he decided to throw the Monty Norman Bond theme into the middle of the Piz Gloria chase, instead of improving on the version from the beginning of the movie).

[Mr. Blofeld]

(Makes me wonder why he decided to throw the Monty Norman Bond theme into the middle of the Piz Gloria chase, instead of improving on the version from the beginning of the movie).

The Cat can explain it better than I:

OHMSS is perhaps not the best comparision because there the most noticeable usages of the Bond theme were put in by John Glen during the editing phase, and since Barry deliberately avoide the tune, that score is in deed low on Bond theme. For the most part, Barry preferred to use his own OHMSS main theme in this score and use a complex set of themes (there's really a lot going on in this score). The lack of the theme is especially evident in the major action set pieces which use the OHMSS theme instead of the Bond theme. As I said, the thickest appearance was initiated by Glen during the editing of the final scene - the hideous cuts from the Dr. No score in particular.

Barry tended to incorporate the Bond theme into his own original material a lot more than later on. For aesthetic and financial reasons, many of the latter scores barely incorporate the Bond theme into Barry's own work - instead, the movies feature complete recordings of the Bond theme. (That's not even counting the notorious re-usage of the Dr. No recording which was used as a gap-filler whenever they producers realized they goofed up the spotting.)

For novices, spotting is the process during which the filmmakers select in what scenes they want music. This is usually done together with the composer and the music editor - only the scenes that were decide to have music in this meeting receive music. However, when it turns out that a given scene needs music and it wasn't written, the filmmakers can either ask the composer to come back and write one more cue (an even for which I can't think of an example off-hand) or simply patch up the whole with a piece of existing music. In the early Bond films, this piece was the original recording of the James Bond Theme - if you hear it somewhere other than Dr. No, you know there was some minor issue (I won't go into detail what happened in each case).

As an example, YOLT (as almost any movie to this day) was cut to the last possible date. However, there's this some kind of myth that Peter Hunt edited the movie and they only credit Thelma Connell because of contractual obligation. In reality, Hunt merely shortened the movie because the producers felt that it was lagging at a couple of places, even they weren't sure where. Hunt touched up several sequences, but the bulk of the editing was done by Connell.

Let me give you an important example: As Bond and Kissy are climbing the mountain, Bond suddenly becomes non-Japanese again in a matter of minutes. In reality, there was a long sequence of mountain climbing / character building / helicopter spying. What Hunt did was shorten this whole sequence by 1-2 minutes. If you look at the scene now, you'll see that Hunt took the existing footage and liberally re-shaped it, often placing the dialogue at different points. This is why towards the end of the scene, you'll see that there is dialogue, yet you never say the person who speaks, we're given reaction shots. When Bond speaks, we see Kissy, when Kissy speaks, we see Bond. This is because this was taken from a completly different scene and there was no clear footage of Sean saying those lines while lying on his back; Hunt solved the issue by only using the audio and not showing the act of speaking.

Barry scored the movie after these more drastic changes were made, but there were several minor cuts later on in which he was not involved. In this case, the situation was once again saved by the unnamed crewmembers whose job was to fit the music to slightly re-edited scenes. One sequence where this is evident is Bond being tied to the chair with Helga "torturing him". If you listen to the CD, you hear the cue as it was recorded. If you watch the movie, you'll see several minor differences - apart from some minor shift in pitch and tempo, you'll notice that opening four note motive is repeated again to fill out the time. Barry however just watched and scored one version of the picture - everything else was either already done or was changed without his direct involvement.

If you check the studio logs and recording dates, it's clear as to when Barry recorded the music to YOLT. Regarding those two cues, "Tanaka's World" was written for the sequence where Bond meets Tanaka, but it was left out because it didn't feel right in the scene. It was put on the album though because they wanted a good track that would represent the Japanese setting of the picture, hence the unused cue was retained as a so-called moodsetter.

"Twice is the Only Way to Live" was written as the End Credits of the picture - if you compare Track 12 with 19 on the expanded, you realize they are the same recording to a point; however, two things came up:

A.) The end credits were slightly reformatted (it was one of the few end credits Binder was involved on as well, hence the change) and they didn't want to cut the instrumental piece.

B.) The producers thought that it would be better to close the movie with a reprise of the song, so they cut Sinatra's recording to fit the length of the credits. No surprise there, Barry wrote instrumental end credits for both Goldfinger and Thunderball - the first wasn't used and the second was used only in some prints (and not the one that was used for the DVD).

By the way, there are at least 8-10 cues on the soundtrack that are not used in the movie and they were similarly all written for the locked cut of the picture. I can only say that nothing was ever recorded instead of the James Bond Theme for OHMSS, so you're not missing out on anything.

Also, here's an interesting find from YouTube of all the music from the PTS of Licence to Kill cut together in the order of the actual film, including the titles theme (but be warned; the fellow used the pitched-up, sped-up version of the theme by accident).

Listen in, and be amazed:

[Dekard77]

Licence to Kill.....................................to Killlll. Love the song.

[Harry Fawkes]

Hi all. Just watched LTK and TLD again. Couldn't help thinking how bloody good Timothy Dalton was as James Bond. Those two films are in my books as two of the best Bond films ever made. Not because of the stories really but because of Dalton's great performances. Simply put, he was JB.

Harry Fawkes