Barely Alive Daylights
[spoilers follow]
For all that Dalton is often criticised for how he played Bond, in retrospect, there's nothing really special about his Bond in The Living Daylights. He's functional throughout, plodding through an unspectacular Bond film. In contrast with the few we've recently talked about, this one hits the right kind of balance between spy and action. If Dalton dropped a few more jokes, this would probably be just stereotype Bond.
However, one notable factor in Dalton's time was a rejection of the worst excesses of sexism, which manifests in a Bond who is not a borderline rapist like Connery or Moore. He's a gent. And in this film, he seems to acquire a girlfriend, whom he then drags everywhere. Her major contribution seems to be different ways to cry out "James". So, you know, swings and roundabouts on the sexism front. On the one hand, Bond's not a shagger. On the other, his girlfriend is a cardboard cutout of "female sidekick". It doesn't help that Miriam D'Abo is one of the less accomplished female actors in the Bondiverse. She's not Denise Richards bad but she's not good either.
It's all fairly routine stuff. I'd describe Dalton as huffing and puffing through some end of Cold War guff, which rarely gets your blood pumping but is never so slow you want to turn it off either. I'll admit to not giving it my full attention so I'm not 100% sure what happened or why. But I know I didn't miss much. It's a pity that Dalton was wasted in this underfed stuff and more of a pity that he wasn't well directed. He could have done with being urged to be slightly more charming without tipping over into smirking chimp, because again, when he does drop a line, it's as though someone just whispered it to him.
It's all fairlly ungimmicky but I wouldn't say it rises to the level of fun. I'd go for a C again because there's nothing *wrong* with it. There's just nothing much right either.
posted by Dr Zen @ 8:10 pm
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