After 1985’s A View to a Kill, it became apparent (at least to me) that the Bond series needed a change if it was going to be viable. Enter Timothy Dalton and The Living Daylights. What a breath of fresh air! With Dalton, Bond was changed from a smarmy, one-line spewing 00 agent without the physical presence to any longer play the role into a more serious, mysterious, and athletic figure. Dalton’s Bond may come out with a clever line here and there, but he’s far form the ridiculous quip machine that Moore had become. And to top it off, The Living Daylights sees Bond returning somewhat to his roots and actually doing a little spy work. Imagine that – Bond as a spy!
I have nothing but praise for "The Living Daylights". It’s an explosive, action-packed ride from the glorious opening sequence through the ending, maintaining some level of (surprisingly effective) humor which was mostly included because the script was written, or edited, for Pierce Brosnan, who would only finally take over the role in 1995 for "Goldeneye.
Dalton makes a terrific Bond, even competing with Connery for the ’definitive’ title as far as movie Bond portrayals go, although Dalton is closer to Fleming’s Bond than Connery. After the ultra-suave Roger Moore Bond, Dalton’s Bond seems almost mean-spirited in comparison, there may be one-liners, but this guy at least seems fit to be a secret agent. Dalton’s arrival reinvigorated the whole franchise. The tone is back to the serious, tense style from the 1960s.
The suspense and action is at a level not seen since then. There is no more nonsense about light beams detonating nukes and no lunatics trying to create the perfect race or submerge a major city. In its place is a potent, dynamic film with a sterling plot. Sadly, it borders on surprising that the action has no inane wisecracks like "Women drivers" and "All those feathers and he still can’t fly."
The story begins in Czechoslovakia where Bond is ordered to protect General Koskov (Jeroen Krabbé), a KGB mastermind intent on defecting to the West during the intermission at an orchestra concert. During the escape, Bond notices the "sniper" assigned to Koskov is also one of the cellists and becomes suspicious. Mere hours later, Koskov is recaptured by a KGB agent named Necros (Andreas Wisniewski), but not before briefing the Minister of Defense about a distressing KGB scheme to kill spies. M consequently orders the death of Koskov’s boss, General Pushkin (John Rhys-Davies, from Indiana Jones).
The wary 007 decides to investigate the mystery-shrouded sniper before making good on his orders and discovers that she is no sniper, but Koskov’s girlfriend. He next tries to gain information by placing her under the impression that Koskov sent him to save her.
From that point on, the plot accelerates as Bond tries to find Koskov before he is forced to carry out his orders. He eventually unearths a link between Koskov and Brad Whitaker (Joe Don Baker), a disreputable arms dealer who was expelled from West Point. The story builds deliberately, and just when we think we have figured it out, Whitaker mentions something completely unexpected, further complicating the matter. The true nature of their plans is not ascertained until close to the end.
The action scenes in "The Living Daylights" are all great. I can’t think of one which I disliked, and the special effects might be the in the series up to this point. The plot here is actually intriguing, and neither too convoluted or too thin, and keeps you interested from start to finish. The screenplay is terrific, the best in a Bond film since "On Her Majesty’s Secret Service". Maryam d’Abo makes for a wonderful Bond girl in Kara Milovy, one of the smartest and most likable of all of Bond’s ’love’ interests. I really like Caroline Bliss’ Moneypenny as well. How fresh and exciting this is when compared to the previous entry.
I’m honestly hard pressed to find any serious flaws with "The Living Daylights". Some have said that it takes itself too seriously, but I never felt that it did. Sure, it was much more straight-faced than most Bond films, but a film is only taking itself too seriously when it becomes thoroughly ridiculous while maintaining a ’serious’ superficial look. I never thought that "The Living Daylights" did this. It, and the follow-up Dalton film "License to Kill" were both relative financial disappointments, mostly because audiences didn’t care for Dalton’s hard-edged Bond or the fact that the film had actual characters other than Bond, actual real-world stakes, and no silly villains. Then again, "The Living Daylights" did extremely well in comparison to most films that year, and it earned much more than "A View to a Kill" did, so perhaps it is only the lesser "Licence to Kill" that was a disappointment.
How can you go wrong with a movie this well-shot and well-acted, this well-scripted, and so well-scored by John Barry, which would sadly be his last score for the series? A terrific Bond film with a harder edge than most, and one of the few in the series that remains faithful to the spirit of Fleming’s novels. A contender for my favorite Bond film and among my favorite action films overall.