Something Old, Nothing New : "
Bond, James... Ah, To Hell With It
I'm sure you've all heard, and become kind of sick of hearing about, the rumor that Pierce Brosnan might not be playing James Bond any more. Whenever a change in Bonds is made, the real question is, will this be a chance for the series to go in a new direction?"
Vince Keenan pointed me in the direction of this blog, so he has a lot to answer for. One thing I didn't need was another blog to read. Anyway, I was reading along and came to this comment about the James Bond series. I like the idea of doing a movie as a '60s nostalgia piece, but I also liked the direction the series took a long time back when Timothy Dalton took over as Bond for two movies. The old jokey Roger Moore style was dumped for a darker, more serious Bond. LICENSE TO KILL was probably the darkest in the whole series. I think it was also the one of the least popular. Maybe I'm the only one who liked these, which is why they replaced Dalton and lightened up again.
6 comments:
First of all, Bill ... I'm sorry.
And no, you're not alone in liking the Timothy Dalton Bond films. THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS remains a personal favorite in the series. Dalton strikes exactly the right note - tough but human.
You're forgiven, Vince.
And it's nice to know I'm not alone in liking the Dalton Bond movies. I also like Hugh Grant, who's been mentioned as the next Bond, but I hope they don't pick him.
I liked the toughness that Dalton brought... a welcome relief from Roger Moore's spoofy approach. That said, I found Dalton utterly charmless. I know he's capable of charm, he's shown it in many movies (particularly the ROCKETEER). To me, Pierce Brosnan is the best Bond since Connery... and I will be sorry to see him go.
By the way, I interviewed Timothy Dalton at length about Bond several years ago, back when I was a journalist. You can find part of the interview on my website at: http://www.lgoldberg.com/leegoldbergarticles.htm
Oh, my vote for the next Bond is Clive Owen...
Well, it's nice to know that I'm not the only one who liked Licence to Kill...I think it's one of the very best Bonds.
The only quibble I have is that they changed the title from the original "Licence Revoked"--because they thought people might not know what "revoked" meant...sheesh...
Well, that makes three (or is it four?) of us who think Dalton was a great Bond. After Connery, Dalton seems to me the closest to what Fleming envisioned in the books. Does ANYONE like Moore's interpretation? (Didn't think so.) Brosnan is in Moore's class. Those aren't even Bond movies anymore; more like Rambo with a martini. Brosnan to me always seemed like a pretty boy model of uncertain sexual orientation, snagged off the page of some fancy whiskey ad, pretending to be an action hero. But then, that's true of most of the current crop of action stars. A sneeze from Lee Marvin would be enough to knock most of these guys off the planet. But I digress. THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS is so good because, for a change, at least the first part of the movie pretty much adheres to the source material (which was a short story, after all). I do think Lazenby is underrated. His one shot at the role is in one of the closest translations of book into film.
--Steve Mertz
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