34 replies to this topic

[Byron]

This is a companion to the other thread "How would you improve LTK?". If i had to choose between TLD and LTK, i would pick TLD ever so slightly as my favourite Dalton and 007 series film. But there are certain things i would change.

For one i would have made Whitaker a more shadowy and sinister figure.

And i hate that Felix Leiter. He totally sucked.

How would you improve TLD? Where there parts you would change?

Let us know.

[Double-0 Six]

That's a difficult one, since TLD is in the top three of my favourite Bond films.

As Byron said, the actor playing Leiter isn't very effective, but its only a short scene so he's okay. I'd drop the music when the two female agents pick Bond up to take him to Leiter too, it doesn't really fit in with the Bond style.

I'd probably cut some of the stuff at the fairground, on repeated viewings it seems to drag a little bit.

I'd also make Whitaker a bit more menacing, perhaps extend the ending battle with him a little bit to feature more of the military memorabilia.

Other than those minor changes, I'm happy with TLD as it is.

[SeanValen00V]

Perhaps change the actor who plays Felix Lighter, on the plus side, Felix looks modern and all that, but missing the magic touch David Hedison had in Golden Gun and LTK, and with LTK after, David Hedison, seeing his felix before LTK would of been for some more continuity.

But I'm happy with TLD, if you change some things, other things maybe effected, movie making is a comprimise, the makers did a awsome job to balance it all together.

[brendan007]

id kill koskov, bond villians should always die. other than that tld is fine the way it is.

[Honey Rider]

I'd change Kara...she's bit of a sissy really..! Sorry!

[Loomis]

I wrote this on another thread, but hey, it still applies:

THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS is one of those Bond films I admire more than like.

It was sorely needed at a point when the series had become a joke. Undeniably, it's one of the most down-to-earth and adult Bond outings ever. Dalton is good (although he doesn't, IMHO, take possession of the Bond role first time out), Maryam d'Abo excellent (again, IMHO), and there are some great action scenes and stunts.

There are, however, are few serious problems.

The story is overcomplicated and uninvolving. It's hard to care about what schemes are being hatched, who is doublecrossing whom, and what exactly it is that's at stake for those involved. Call me a dummy, but having watched TLD several times over the years I'm still puzzled as to what it's all about. A Death to Spies directive? A Russian general's personal ambition? Drug-running? Arms dealing? LTD succeeds in painting a murky world of espionage, but it has just too many messy plot strands. It seems to be a handful of McGuffins sandwiched together.

More seriously - for one doesn't really expect a Bond movie plot to make sense - the villains are unthreatening. Koskov and Whitaker are buffoons. And what can you say about a Bond picture in which the main bad guy is slapped into handcuffs at the end and dragged off with a silly, surprised look on his face like a pantomime villain getting his comeuppance? I wanted to see Dalton "make strawberry jam" of Koskov!

Another problem is pacing. Koskov's defection seems to take forever, and the battle between the Russians and Afghans goes on far too long. Bond disappears for an age shortly after Koskov is smuggled to the West and doesn't seem fully involved in the action until much later. For too much of the film, he reacts to incidents rather than incites them. TLD moves far too slowly and deliberately.

Other annoyances: Barry's final Bond score is dull and overbearing. a-Ha's song and the opening credits sequence are weak and now very dated, screaming the 1980s. For Felix Leiter, they seem to have picked some random bloke off the street and not bothered to tell him or Dalton that the pair are supposed to be old friends.

There are many good things about TLD, but for me it lacks the zing of a classic Bond film. It's aged a lot worse than the superior LICENCE TO KILL, in which Dalton found his feet as 007.

[flares]

I love the Barry score. IMO it's one of the very best. The Rykodisk CD of it is tremendous (buy it!)

I agree that Leiter is rubbish, especially when he says "you mean this is a put up job". I get annoyed when I watch bond waste so many rounds aiming at Whittakers head shield when he could simply shoot him in the nuts or anywhere else to that matter.

Necros is a much better baddy as a cold hearted killer. I thought Koskov was very good the way he was a scumbag hidden behind a charming exterior, I think Jeroen Krabbe was excellent.

As for the rest of the film, I absolutely love it. The Bladen safe house is great, the Hercules sequence is fantastic, the locations are terrific (Morocco was a great choice, Tangier looks great and Ouarzazat is perfect for Afghanistan).

There, thats my two penneth!

[RITZ]

1. Have another Bond girl - a brunette working for the opposition/KGB

2. More involment from Felix Leiter (and a better actor)

3. Simplify the story a little(bogus sniper, bogus agent, drugs deal, fake assasination of Puskin - it was all a bit too much)

4. Bond doesn't destroy the beautiful Aston Martin Vantage(!)

Other than that, its a classic 007 adventure!

[Loomis]

Originally posted by RITZ
1. Have another Bond girl - a brunette working for the opposition/KGB

I'm not sure that TLD needed a "bad" Bond girl, but why on earth did they pick Julie T. Wallace to play Rosika Miklos? Today's equivalent would be casting Kathy Burke as a Bond girl.

Wallace is a great actress, but why didn't they make the Rosika character a babe and pick a foxy actress to play her? It was a Bond movie, for heaven's sake. It's pretty obvious that the filmmakers intended to milk some comedy from Wallace's unusual looks, but personally I didn't find the Rosika scenes particularly rib-tickling. Am I the only one who thinks this was a bizarre bit of casting?

[Turn]

I agree with Whitaker's need to be more menacing. His scenes with Puskin make him seem more like a buffoon than a dangerous enemy. All he does is give orders and eat. He does prove a threat to Bond at the end, but it was too little too late.

And I understand the need to make Koskov seem goofy, but aside from Necros, there is little threat to Bond in the film. Even the Russian jailer seemed more threatening. Sure he gets by on his BS ability, but how in the world did such a guy ever make it to general under the old Soviet regime?

When TLD was filming, Jerone Krabbe played a heavy in another film in which he seemed imposing, and I hoped for the best in TLD, but was disappointed. Keeping the villains in the background wasn't a bad move and the screenwriters should be commended for coming up with something different. I just wish they would have been more convincingly menacing.

[Carver]

Hmmmm, TLD. This is one of my all-time favourite films, a film I class as ''perfect'', nothing can be changed. But now I think about it, yes, there are a few things I would have changed. I agree, John Terry (yes?) was weak as Leiter, and to be honest, they didn't really need the character in the film. Yes, it was nice to see Felix back, but I think he was just a last minute addition or something, at least it looked like it. They just didn't need him, they could have just had an MI6 agent, like someone from Station A or something, to guide Bond round the mansion at the end.
I think though, that Whitaker need'nt be changed, he wasn't that bad. The only other thing I would change is some of the bits with Koskov. In the scenes aboard the Hercules, he was very good, witty and intelligent, but at the safe house, he was percieved as a dweeb, and too stupid to be a KGB General. Thats the only thing I would change, those scenes with him being completely clueless.

[Martini]

I would take a better actress for Kara. Someone who can make her more appearing as a femme fatale in the first half. A Grace-Kelly-type. Rosamund Pike would

[General Koskov]

There's more I'd change in GF than TLD...

I want TLD to stay the same, and have Koskov come back in another film as the head of a criminal organisation.

[Byron]

Some interesting points raised.

Come to think of it, a brunette bombshell instead of that ugly bird in the beginning of the film, would have been nice. Famke Jensen would have been interesting.

And i would have loved to see Dalton go head to head with an elite KGB sniper in the Bratislava scenes. Although he already did that in the best ever Pre Title Sequence. Would this have been overkill?

[rafterman]

I'd pick David Hedison as Leiter instead of John Terry, but that's it, I love the film...

[ChandlerBing]

Bond pummeling the guy in the runaway truck instead of the other way around. Is this the same Bond who took on all those guys on the Disco Volante in Thunderball? Nope.
Use CGI to get rid of Dalton's watery red, alcoholic eyes. Granted, Bond does drink his share of martinis, it's still somehow shocking to see.
Bond puts up more of a fight with Necros in the cargo plane. You've waited all throughout the movie for these two guys to go at it, a la Shaw and Connery in From Russia With Love, and, basically, if the dummy driving the plane hadn't screwed up, Bond would have been a goner.
Oh, hell, can we just ignore this insipid film?

[Simon]

Can't think of anything I'd want to change that would leave it as the same film..........

.............nope, thought of something - Julie T Wallace and the breast implant. A solid spy thriller to this point, flattened by the "joke" of weedy man having his mush buried in the mounds - ha ha.

Otherwise, really liked Kara and feel the same about Whittaker's face protector - shoot him in the nuts (nicely put by whoever it was above)

[ChandlerBing]

This movie also did make the case for Bond updating his weaponry. When the main villain refers to your piece as a popgun, and you prove him right, you're in deep doo-doo.

[Daltonitus]

TLD is a great film, but it has plenty of stupid bits in (i'm not blinded by my love for it).

The 'our man here' bit was kinda sad (someone said before the 'breast implant', kinda silly, especially with the machine and the TV noise all contributing to the 'climax' atmosphere - this is a moore type joke.)

The fact that Bond has an escape route already planned and that section V didn't know about it is silly too, equally silly is that we are meant to believe an agent would think putting someone in the boot of a car would be good enough to pass a border inspection....

People seem to cite the story as confusing, but I think it couldn't be simpler:
Koskov lies to the Brits to get Pushkin killed so that Koskov can assume command in the KGB - a post of supreme power.
To help him achieve this power he joins forces with Brad the arms dealer.
They both decide to use the downpayment for the Russian arms to get drugs instead, sell the drugs at a huge profit and still be able to get the arms they need and have plenty of capitol left to keep koskov in power.
If all that seems rather 'non threatening' to you, then think of this.
If someone like koskov was in power he could start all kinds of crazy wars, heck, he says it best himself in the film "murder will follow murder....god forbid this could lead us to...war" So just cos he doesn't have a giant space laser or want to rule the universe, I think alot of people are missing the point of just how menacing the thought of what he could do is.

Felix was a poor choice, get Hedison in, since he was in the next one too it would have set it up better.

The end fight was a bit poor. Aim away from the armour Bond.... but at least he let him "met his waterloo" sadly though, we didn't get to see him make "strawberry jam" out of koskov....

[Double-Oh-Zero]

It's been said many times, and I'll say it again: the Felix needs improvement in this one. Even the scenes leading up to it with the female agents seem awkward, especially with the obviously 80s sunglasses Bond picks up. Also, some of the scenes with Kara can get pretty sappy for a Bond film. The titles are laughable, and Dalton's "Bond, James Bond" line is wasted terribly in the beginning. Whittaker should have been more menacing and shadowy, but he ends up being kind of goofy whenever he's in his military museum and when he's happily eating his lobster. I don't think he seems like a villain Bond would find particularily threatening. Other than those, I really enjoy TLD.

[Dr Noah]

Having Brosnan play James Bond?

(Seriously, TLD is possibly the best Bond movie of the '80s)

[Daltonitus]

Brosnan was too young then, he looked too young.

Being in TLD could have ended with him as a Lazenby in many fans eyes.

I think he arrived just in time for GE. The last good Bond film, and one of the coolest ever.

[Mr. Kidd]

I would have killed off Koskov during the fighting with the Mujahadeen,
perhaps Bond could have fought him hand to hand in the jeep and
jumped out at the last minute sending Koskov crashing into the tanker
and his "old comrade" Col. Feyodor in a huge explosion. Koskov's
death at that point would have fueled more rage in Necros for the
cargo plane fight. As for Whitaker, I agree he is not a real menacing
villian, but this could have been redeemed in a truly ferocious hand-
to-hand fight which then could have led into the gunplay and
Whitaker "meeting his Waterloo".

[White Tuxedo]

But if Koskov was killed on the runway, would Bond have gone after Whitaker. He wanted Koskov when he went there.

One thing that always bugged me was Bond's insane mistake of walking off the main entrance of the plane with his head thing off of his face. What the hell was he thinking? Although, then the plane would simply blow up and the movie is over.

[Righty007]

If I could change TLD, I would make it more interesting. I don't hate the movie, its just that I didn't enjoy it as much as other Bond films I have seen.

[Simon]

But how would you make it more interesting?

I am sure that when the movie makers set out to make TLD, they didn't think about taking it down a mundane route just for the hell of it.

[taity]

I like the plot having some complicated bits. Felix could have been replaced by M, or even Q. (Q could have quided him across Whitaker's compound) Also, up the scenes with Whitaker. He made no sense.

I loved the movie, but

[SirMiles83]

Get rid of that crappy Felix Leiter. If Dave Hedison would have played him and gave him a longer part in the film, then it would have been great in setting up LTK. Other thatn that, I would of liked Tim to have played a little less serious and more casual with some funny humor.

[Robinson]

Originally posted by Loomis

1) The story is overcomplicated and uninvolving. It's hard to care about what schemes are being hatched, who is doublecrossing whom, and what exactly it is that's at stake for those involved. Call me a dummy, but having watched TLD several times over the years I'm still puzzled as to what it's all about. A Death to Spies directive? A Russian general's personal ambition? Drug-running? Arms dealing? LTD succeeds in painting a murky world of espionage, but it has just too many messy plot strands. It seems to be a handful of McGuffins sandwiched together.


2) More seriously - for one doesn't really expect a Bond movie plot to make sense - the villains are unthreatening. Koskov and Whitaker are buffoons. And what can you say about a Bond picture in which the main bad guy is slapped into handcuffs at the end and dragged off with a silly, surprised look on his face like a pantomime villain getting his comeuppance? I wanted to see Dalton "make strawberry jam" of Koskov!

3) Another problem is pacing. Koskov's defection seems to take forever, and the battle between the Russians and Afghans goes on far too long. Bond disappears for an age shortly after Koskov is smuggled to the West and doesn't seem fully involved in the action until much later. For too much of the film, he reacts to incidents rather than incites them. TLD moves far too slowly and deliberately.


4) Other annoyances: Barry's final Bond score is dull and overbearing. a-Ha's song and the opening credits sequence are weak and now very dated, screaming the 1980s. For Felix Leiter, they seem to have picked some random bloke off the street and not bothered to tell him or Dalton that the pair are supposed to be old friends.  

There are many good things about TLD, but for me it lacks the zing of a classic Bond film. It's aged a lot worse than the superior LICENCE TO KILL, in which Dalton found his feet as 007.

1) The "Smiert Spionon" bit was designed to have MI6 kill Pushkin- the only Russian threat to Koskov's defection/drugs for arms deal. Bond doesn't feel Pushkin's a psychotic so he let's Pushkin live- much to Koskov's chagrin. This whole drugs-for-arms bit played out in real life w/the Iran/Contra affair.


2) Koskov's no buffoon, he's simply using his purported "charm" to con British Intelligence, His KGB superior and his girlfriend who knows too much. As I posted before, "here baby, take this rifle and point it at me when I run past you. It'll make things go smoother, I'll be free and we can be together forever." Yeah, right.
Whitaker does come off almost cartoonish, but he does meet a good end- if not his Waterloo. Oh, and the line about Koskov being shipped back to Moscow in the diplomatic bag- didn't mean he was flying coach. The diplomatic bag is a suitcase or a duffel that's beyond any government inspection. I don't think Pushkin's people would've had too much trouble stuffing Koskov into that carry-on!

3) That's bond movie-making from another era- when you didn't have to rely on constant jump cuts and a hidden desire to resemble a Michael Bay film. You let the plot develop slowly, have the romance between Bond and Milovy develop along the way and BOOM- you kill Saunders and the film's tone changes.

4) Chalk this one up to EON again. It worked with Duran-Duran and got a number one hit on the charts, why not do it again. However, the two songs from the Pretenders rocked. Dalton's intro is priceless. You don't see him as urbane as Moore- he's just witnessed a colleague's death- in that moment alone, the series had changed. Kudos to Dalton for bringing back the head-butt.

TLD wasn't perfect but it's one of my favorite Bond films. It's the Bond film I came of age on- I got all the innuendos and the intrigue. And while much was made about Bond bedding only one woman- this film was borderline romantic. I'm not talking Meg Ryan "chick flick" territory but a film that recalls Grant and Hepburn's "Charade."

[zencat]

I like TLD, but there are a few areas that I think could have been improved. Whitaker was a good idea for a villain...but he was introduced far too late in the story, and as portrayed by Joe Don Baker lacked all menace. He's like a big kid, isn't that scary? No. And speaking of recasting, where did they find that Felix? They could have done better.

Also, I would have worked in some larger threat that Bond discovers and thwarts at the end. TLD has no stakes. All Bond really does is help out the Afghans at the end (thanks a lot, James). And the production design is very weak. Compare the Russian airbase jail in TLD to the Russian jail in GE. Okay, maybe that's what jails really look like on Russian airbases, but this is a James Bond film! I don't what reality.

And put back in the flying carpet sequence.