We continue and end the Dalton era with License to Kill, in which Bond goes up against a drug cartel pretty much single-handedly after having his license to kill revoked.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZxWKpJGajE
The film starts off with Bond and CIA now DEA agent Felix Leiter heading to a wedding, only to hear that notorious drug kingpin Franz Sanchez is in the area. And so Bond and Leiter jump into a plane, to nab the bad guy, and still make it back to the wedding in time to kiss the bride. However, after Sanchez’s gang spring him and go after Bond, Leiter, and those closest to them, Bond is out for pure revenge. M from MI-6 headquarters forbids Bond from going after Sanchez because he has too much emotion in the operation, and when Bond refuses, he strips him of his status of a government agent and revokes his titular license to kill.
Bond then becomes, in essence, a ronin warrior and goes about taking down Sanchez’s empire. You really don’t want to piss Bond off.
In this film we get some awesome stunts and action sequences, though maybe paling a bit in comparison with the films immediately before and after this, and yet, somehow, more over the top in parts. (Parachuting into a wedding? Barefoot water skiing behind a plane? A chase sequence between 4 tanker trucks filled with gasoline, all of which explode before the movie is over? One of which drives up on its side on only half its wheels? (check the trailer) And a flaming jeep flying off a mountainside over an airplane? Yeah, that kind of over the top.) So the film seems a little less grounded than its predecessor and yet also a little bit less spectacular.
However, we’ve failed to mention the trope in so many of the Bond films of people being eaten by sharks, which has seemingly appeared in almost half of all Bond films so far. You like that? There’s some more in this movie. And one of the worst puns of the entire series surrounding it, “He didn’t agree with something that ate him.” Boooooo. . ..
Speaking of, I have a fondness for the character of Felix Leiter, and the way he’s treated in this movie, almost as a MacGuffin, makes me mad. He deserved better than this.
But that being said, there’s a lot this movie gets right. Already we can see the shift away from Cold War conflict into the perestroika of the late ’80s. Hardly a Russkie anywhere, but instead the new war: the war on drugs. Well, I guess technically they fought drugs in Live and Let Die, too, but also voodoo. But instead of racist stereotypes, Bond’s villains here are downright scary– for the revenge they seek on Bond and Felix, for the cold-blooded way Sanchez is willing to dispatch anyone he suspects of showing disloyalty to him, and the ruthless efficiency of his henchman Dario, played by a young and spry Benecio del Toro. These guys are scary–like real world scary–not cartoonish normal Bond villain scary.
What else is right? The Bond girls are top notch. First, there’s Pam Bouvier (often referred to in a cute reference as Ms. Kennedy), played by Carey Lowell, who went on to later be one of my favorite ADA’s on Law and Order. (she’s no Sam Waterston, but, you know. . . ) Seriously, I think Pam Bouvier single-handedly began my interest in girls with short hair.
And if you like your girls a little more caliente, we have Talisa Soto as Lupe Lamora (a much more subtle name, don’t you think?). Interesting note: Soto would go on to marry Benjamin Bratt, so we have another Law and Order tie-in. Yay!
I think what I loved most about this, though, is that at the end of the film Bond literally has a choice between the two women. And he chooses. And it’s almost romantic. Or it would be if the credits didn’t start rolling and they started playing some horrible cheese-tastic “If You Asked Me To.”
And thus caps my final complain with the film. Gah, but the music was mediocre in this. A great film overall, but hampered by some 80’s cheese. Originally, Eric Clapton and Vic Flick, who played the original guitar riff in the iconic Bond theme, had written a gritty, guitar-heavy song to match Dalton’s dark and brooding performance, but the producers went with a mediocre Gladys Knight song ripping off the theme from Goldfinger. Uninspired.
But the film overall is quite good. I continue to love Dalton’s Dark Bond, and unlike any of the other Bonds out there, he remains the only one to make more than one film where at least one wasn’t a stinker. So congrats to Timothy Dalton, and let me continue my dream of one day seeing you as a Bond villain yourself (see my review of Die Another Day for more on this tidbit later this week). If you’ve never checked out the Dalton Bond movies, do yourself a favor and give them a peek. You’ll be glad you did. This one was better than good but not great, but in no way deserving of the derision of many, many worse Bond features. 2 3/4 martinis, with a twist of lime for the return to the tropical settings that make Bond so great, and make sure there’s no cocaine dissolved in there first.
