Rent Licence to Kill (1989)

A More Violent, and Gritty Bond - Licence to Kill review by GI

This second of Timothy Dalton's outings as James Bond was the most violent and darker of the Bond franchise up until that time. It's an interesting addition to watch today. Whilst it has all the usual Bond tropes and action set pieces you can see shades of the Connery and Moore films wrapped up in the narrative whilst Dalton brings a softer, more human and yet dangerous slant to the character. The very spoof nature of the Moore films has gone whilst maintaining some of the daft plot lines. And I have no doubts without Dalton there would not have been Daniel Craig as you can see now where the influence from this film has crept into Craig's version and Pierce Brosnan was a sort of Dalton clone. Licence To Kill hasn't the espionage roots that The Living Daylights (1987) brilliantly went back to, here we have a full on action/adventure film with Bond tackling a drug cartel in a vengeful mood when his best friend is cruelly maimed (that scene is a lift from the novel Live And Let Die by the way). There's sexual violence, some very nasty torture and deaths and colourful language chucked in for good measure. You can see that the producers were trying to reinvent the franchise. They nearly succeeded but it would not really work until Craig took over in 2006. In any case this and Dalton's previous film as 007 are worthy of re-evaluation as they represent a sea change in the approach to Bond after Roger Moore departed. I often think it's a pity Dalton didn't make more.

Awesome water stunts - Licence to Kill review by JD

The bar brawl stunts are poor but the water stunts incredible. A more emotional plot than usual but also more brutal. Some parallels with Crocodile Dundee which was better acted but lacked the high budget stunts. Dalton is a good Bond but, as is so often the case, surrounded by some stunning poor performances. So glad Judi Dench took over as Q.

A brilliant, brutal & gripping Bond adventure, often criminally overlooked as one of the best - Licence to Kill review by TB

In 1987, Timothy Dalton took over as James Bond from Sir Roger Moore. By the end of Moore's tenure, despite him being my favourite Bond, the film series was in a pretty atrocious state. A View To A Kill is by some distance the worst Bond film ever made, to the extent that Bond himself didn't intentionally kill a single person in it (even the shotgun he used was full of rock salt.) Many critics were openly speculating that the Bond franchise was now too tarnished & past it's sell-by date.

Fortunately, Dalton came to the rescue with the brilliant The Living Daylights, which introduced a world-weary, almost burnt-out Bond but one which had an extremely dangerous air about him, with a capacity for violence. There was also a radical departure from the Moore era, with Dalton's insistence on doing as many of his own stunts as possible. When it came to the sequel, especially with the rise of drug lords in the USA, Licence to Kill had found it's new story, but also the driving force of Dalton to make this an extremely dark & violent film (to this day, it is still the only Bond film to be released rated 15 for the violence, something not done before or since.)

James Bond manages to, with the help of his friend Felix Leiter, capture Franz Sanchez, an extremely dangerous & lethal drug baron. However, after a significant betrayal, Sanchez escapes and enacts a terrible revenge against Leiter & his new wife. Bond, furious and seeking to avenge his friend's maiming, then deserts MI6 after they refuse to bring Sanchez to justice, launching a one-man crusade against him & his criminal organisation.

Make no mistake, this is in many ways the true Bond film, as inspired by the novels. We are in the "take the gloves off & get honest" territory, whether it is with psychotic drug barons feeding their enemies to sharks, killing people they think have betrayed them in horrific ways or Bond slaughtering villains so all that is left is a red mist & the echo of a scream. 007 himself is also brutalised & beaten, Dalton really making you believe why his Bond is the burnt-out wreck only hinted at in later films such as Skyfall.

But despite the extremely heavy subject matter, this also delivers everything you could possibly want from a Bond film. The stunts are incredible, the women beautiful, the locations stunning. We dash all over the world, from the USA to the UK to Mexico. The locations, especially Sanchez's mansion & the Olympia drug factory, are amazing. There is also, amusingly, a Western-style bar brawl which is brilliantly choreographed.

But for me, this film is made by it's cast. Robert Davi is absolutely sensational as Sanchez. The monster he creates is genuinely terrifying, a demonic & pure evil abomination who you totally believe as this unchained, vicious psychopath. In one of his first starring roles, Benicio Del Toro is equally horrific as Dario, Sanchez's right-hand man, with brains as well as brawn. Talisa Soto is the beautiful & fiercely free-willed Lupe, who steals Sanchez's then Bond's heart, with Carey Lowell as Pam, the fiery & highly competent CIA agent Bond joins forces with. The cast is absolutely perfect in every way.

However, the most praise has to go to Dalton. His singular vision, as confirmed by the other actors, to make Bond the lethal killer he was written as, really laid the ground work for the series to reinvigorate itself, as well as what in many ways Craig carried on. Bond is probably here the most human he will ever be, really showing us as the audience that all the violence & brutality he has endured has a devastating impact. This is 007 at its most pure, which despite some scripting & pacing issues, is the most honest the character will probably ever be.

The biggest tragedy is that we never got a third film. I so wish we could have seen where Dalton's Bond went next...