In contrast, Dalton plays Bond as a character who understands and appreciates the necessity of violence and dishonesty in the work that he does, but who is never entirely comfortable with it – or even about what it says about himself. Lazenby’s version of Bond was perhaps the most human iteration of the character in the franchise, almost playing a version of Bond who didn’t know how to act as a secret agent, and unable to cope with the brutality or deception required. That Bond is capable of behaving in an objective way, as a professional, but he can respond with revulsion to the terrible things that happen. It happens that the early films captured the spirit of Fleming’s Bond best. But I went to the books – not the films, even the early ones – I went to Ian Fleming’s books for the character of Bond. Your opportunities for depth and for developing a character depend on what the story allows you, of course. In interviews at the time, he was keen to stress that he was returning to the books for inspiration: Despite being a second choice, Dalton himself seemed honoured to take the role. Still, I think it was an interesting time for the character. Bond assisting the soon-to-be-Taliban is a moment that I reckon the Bond producers would be happy to forget, while Licence to Kill occasionally feels a little bit too much like a tribute to Miami Vice. While the Cold War setting of the older Bond movies gives them something of an antiquated appeal, eighties nostalgia has yet to make the war in Afghanistan or cocaine manufacturing retroactively cool. In fact, Dalton’s time as Bond was very much anchored in the eighties, an aspect of his tenure that tends to date it quite severely. ![]() The actor’s tenure just smacks of the eighties… Whether that work, didn’t work, or was cheap pandering, remains in the eye of the beholder. Most would agree that The Living Daylights is a solid old-school espionage thriller that works well after the excesses of the late Moore era, and that Licence to Kill was a bold attempt to update Bond for a new audience. His two films are fairly divisive among fans, but neither has really attained the sort of critical re-evaluation that made George Lazenby’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service something of an underrated cult classic. Brosnan ended up succeeding Dalton in the role, and managing a massive reversal of Bond’s on-screen fortunes, with critical and financial success that had been largely absent from the franchise for quite some time.Īs a result, it’s easy to overlook Dalton’s time in the role. Dalton would make two films, and the financial disappointment of Licence to Kill, along with other concerns, forced the Bond franchise into hibernation until it was revived with GoldenEye in the nineties. ![]() Although Dalton had been screentested for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and briefly considered for For Your Eyes Only, the plan had been to recruit Pierce Brosnan to succeed Roger Moore in the wake of A View to a Kill, but the unforeseen resurrection of the cancelled Remington Steele saw Brosnan unable to take up the mantle as scheduled. Of course, there’s a sense that Dalton was really just a place-holder in the grand scheme of things.
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