Timothy Dalton and the JAMES BOND Franchise
TIMOTHY DALTON AND THE JAMES BOND FRANCHISE
I am going to start out saying that EON Productions have been lucky in choosing six actors who managed to bring their own sense of style to the role of James Bond . . . and I mean all of them. And all were smart enough to portray Bond in a way that suited them, instead of adhering to what the public or the producers wanted them to play Bond.
That said, I want to say a few things about Timothy Dalton. Even though I was a major fan of Roger Moore, I realized by the mid-1980s that it was time for him to retire from the role. With great fondness, I bid adieu and breathlessly anticipated Timothy Dalton's debut in the 1987 film, "THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS". And I was not disappointed. The movie easily became one of my all time favorite Bond films and I became a major fan of Dalton's. I have been . . . ever since.
Although the drug smuggling angle in 1989's "LICENSE TO KILL" seemed a little too "MIAMI VICE" for my taste, I still recognized it as a good revenge story that allowed Dalton to take the Bond role to a grittier edge. So, when I heard that he would no longer be playing Bond in the early 1990s, I had felt a little disappointed. I had really enjoyed his interpretation of the role and felt that one or two more movies starring him would not hurt. I just was not ready to give up on him as Bond.
In the past twenty-nine years since "LICENSE TO KILL"'s release, I have come to appreciate Dalton's contribution to the Bond franchise even more. Whoever said that he was the right Bond at the wrong time was probably right. The man was ahead of his time . . . not just for the Bond franchise, but for many espionage films and television series. But I feel that his impact upon the Bond franchise has been a lot stronger than many Bond critics are willing to admit. First of all, it seemed very obvious - at least to me - that Dalton' interpretation of Bond may have strongly influenced Daniel Craig's debut as Bond in 2006's "CASINO ROYALE". It is also possible that Dalton's performance may have even influenced his immediate successor, Pierce Brosnan, as well. After all, it seemed apparent to me that Brosnan was not above utilizing Dalton's darker take on Bond every now and then.
I also believe that Dalton may have been partially responsible for the influx of edgy, angst-filled spy or action/adventure characters that have emerged in films and television over the years. Mind you, there have been a good number of angsty spy thrillers over the years. But Dalton's two Bond films seemed the first to feature such an edgy protagonist in the more action-oriented spy thrillers in the past twenty to thirty years. There have been an increasing number of movies and television shows that featured angsty protagonists portrayed by the likes of Matt Damon, Jennifer Garner, Matthew McFadyen, Rupert Penry-Jones, Angelina Jolie, Kiefer Sutherland, Claire Danes, Harrison Ford and possibly even Richard Chamberlain and Robert DeNiro.
Some directors of action films that popped in the immediate years that followed "THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS" seemed quite willing to shoot their own interpretation of the Tangier hotel scene between Dalton and actress Maryam D'Abo in the 1987 movie. EON Production even tried to repeat the success of that scene in another one featuring Dalton and actress Carey Lowell in "LICENSE TO KILL". Similar scenes have appeared in "DIE HARD" with Bruce Willis and Bonnie Bedalia; Harrison Ford and Allison Doody in "INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE"; Brosnan and Izabella Scorupco in the 1995 Bond film, "GOLDENEYE"; Brosnan and Teri Hatcher in "TOMORROW NEVER DIES" and again, Brosnan with Sophie Marceau in "THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH". Even Matt Damon and Franka Potente tried it in both "THE BOURNE IDENTITY" and "THE BOURNE SUPREMACY". But no one did it better than Dalton and D'Abo, as far as I am concerned.
I had read in another Bond forum that Dalton, along with other Bond actors like Brosnan and Craig, did not have much an impact upon the Bond franchise as Sean Connery and Roger Moore. Of course I had disagreed . . . at least on behalf of Datlon. As I had stated earlier, Timothy Dalton's impact on the James Bond franchise proved to be far reaching impact. And the actor's interpretation of the famous literary spy may have also had a major impact on how many action characters would be portrayed over the next two to three decades.