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MI6 looks back at The Living Daylights premieres
around the world, and what the critics had to say...
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The Living Daylights - The Premiere & Press
2nd March 2006
On June 29th 1987, James Bond returned to the silver
screen in the shape of Timothy Dalton. However, June 1986
saw the prospects of a different actor planning James Bond
take a severe blow.
Insiders reported that a hopeful Pierce Brosnan coming
to the end of his MTM contract would be taking up the mantel
of 007. But NBC renewed Brosnan's 'Remington Steele' series
meaning the race was on for a new Bond at the last minute.
Bond number four Timothy Dalton debuted with Eon’s
hope of revitalising the franchise after a recent slide
with the last couple of Roger Moore outings.
Originally, a reboot was planned by Michael G. Wilson,
going back to explore 007’s roots and discover what
defined his character. This did not meet with Cubby Broccoli's
approval and was sidelined.
Both The Prince and Princess of Wales attended the Royal
Premiere at the Odeon Cinema Leicester Square, London. Timothy
Dalton and Maryam D’Abo where in attendance with other
members of the cast and crew.
Right: Pierce Brosnan, Albert R. Broccoli
and Michael G. Wilson during ill-fated contract negotiations
in 1987, and Princess Diana meets Timothy Dalton whilst
Michael G. Wilson looks on at the London premiere.
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Box Office Performance
The film went on general release in the USA with a PG rating
on 31st July. It opened on 1,728 screens against Joel Schumacher’s
"The Lost Boys" which opened on 1,027 screens.
Averaging $6,395 per screen on its opening weekend, the
drop off for "The Living Daylights" was sharp.
After six weeks of release the film had been dropped from
only 81 theatres but takings were down, totalling $39,820,817
for the period compared to $11,051,284 for the opening weekend.
The domestic gross for the film was only $51,185,897 making
it one of the poorer performers in the franchise.
Sweden got to see The Living Daylights on July 10th, with Finnish audiences having to wait until July 31st with
a K-14 rating. Opening with a 15 certificate and total admissions
of 930,410, the film earned 39,238,803 Krona. August 5th
saw Norway's release, then in Denmark on the 14th August. The Living Daylights
went on general release in Germany on the 13th August and drew in 918,786 admissions. The Non-USA total came in at $140,000,000 - giving
the film a worldwide gross of $191,200,000 .
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What The Critics Said...
"Timothy Dalton looks poorly served by John Glen, once a
tight editor and now a slack director, and doesn't begin to share
the joke with the audience the way that the other Bonds did. He
looks as if he takes it all for real and dislikes much of it...
Cubby Broccoli and his associates should start the Think Tank
going for the film after this, and decide what kind of Bond they
want, for at the moment they haven't got one. And it's no good
saying 'give him time: you can't be Bond first time off.' Connery
was." - Alexander Walker, The Evening Standard
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"If the film probably won't
be among the biggest-grossing Bonds, it contains some highly
enjoyable set-pieces... The film is essentially an 'action
circus', Douglas Fairbanks swashbuckle updated by secret-agent
costume [cloak-and-gadget], and sex with everything. No
doubt its good humour is beginning to seem slightly dated
by contrast with the rather grimmer [and, in physical violence,
more savagely detailed] tone of the comparable Indiana Jones
sagas" ." - Raymond Durgnat, Monthly Film
Bulletin
"The Living Daylights is just the ticket to mark James
Bond's 25 years on the screen... This one will be tough
to top... Pic isn't just a high-tech action replay with
the usual ravishing visuals and ditto games. Everyone seems
to have tried a little harder this time... Everyone seemed
up for this one and it shows" - Pit, Variety
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""If not the best Bond, then certainly up there with
From Russia With Love, Eyes Only [sic] and On Her Majesty's Secret
Service... The most impressive factor in the film, the one on
which its success depends more than the story, is one Timothy
Dalton, who is so damn good as James Bond you feel like asking
where he's been since Connery left. Although he's only done this
one [and there's still no confirmation he's signed for another]
I feel safe to proclaim Dalton the best of the four, and one that
Ian Fleming would have approved of... All in all, The Living Daylights
has paved the way for a further twenty-five years of good James
Bond films, and that is largely due to Timothy Dalton, who deserves
as much credit as possible" - Gary Russell, Starburst
"All the traditional elements are in place and Dalton
has restored a vital element to 007 - the very best of British,
the amateur gentleman who is better than any professional.
He is kinder, more human, charming and low-profile. For
me he is Bond, James Bond" – Victoria
Mather, The Daily Telegraph
"You no longer expect more than you get, and by now
are left noting only the fine tuning of the formula... Dalton
hasn't the natural authority of Connery nor the facile charm
of Moore, but George Lazenby he is not. It's an able first
go in the circumstances, though perhaps it could do with
a bit more humour. The other main newcomer is Caroline Bliss
as Miss Moneypenny, who looks as if she might prefer to
be called Ms. And, of course, Maryam D'Abo as the one and
only girlfriend in this episode - a Czech classical cellist
who opens her legs for Dvorak rather quicker than for Bond"
- Derek Malcolm, The Guardian
"Timothy Dalton, an '80s-male Bond, explores monogamy
and probably also practices safe sex. In past adventures,
we would have known for sure, but this 007 is right on top
of things. Either because his consciousness has been raised
(unlikely) or because he is afraid of AIDS (more likely),
he's taken to faithfulness and the ever so more romantic
fade-to-black.
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And 007's latest, "The Living Daylights," a snazzy
spy thriller, is all the more alluring for its new conservatism.
It's right up there with the early Bonds, though not in the league
with "Goldfinger." But oh, what a difference. Here,
only the villains -- an arms dealer and a KGB double agent --
keep pools full of bikini-bimbos, with moues and runaway libidos.
And even the notorious Bond "girls" have changed. They
used to have names like characters out of "Cats." Here,
love interest Maryam d'Abo is a sensible Czech cellist named Kara
Milovy, who enjoys a better bond than Bond-bonders past. You might
even call it a relationship.
Dalton, no waffler, develops the best Bond ever. He's as classy
as the trademark tuxedo, as sleek as the Astin-Martin. Like Bond's
notorious martini, women who encounter his carved-granite good
looks are shaken, not stirred. Dalton does not play a pompous,
mean-spirited Bond like Sean Connery or a prissy, sissy Bond like
Roger Moore. Both were as aggressively heterosexual as pubescent
Playboy subscribers.
Calling on a background that includes everything from the Joan
Collins' potboiling mini-series "Sins" to a stint with
the Royal Shakespeareans, Dalton creates a dashing and endearing
secret agent. And unlike the creaky Connery and the mushy Moore
in their later years, he looks fit for derring-do." -
Rita Kempley Washington Post
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Hasn't aged well -- but it was once a refreshing change
of pace" - Jeffrey M. Anderson, San Francisco
Examiner
"The raw materials of the James Bond films are so
familiar by now that the series can be revived only through
an injection of humor. That is, unfortunately, the one area
in which the new Bond, Timothy Dalton, seems to be deficient.
He's a strong actor, he holds the screen well, he's good
in the serious scenes, but he never quite seems to understand
that it's all a joke.
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The correct tone for the Bond films was established right at
the start, with Sean Connery's quizzical eyebrows and sardonic
smile. He understood that the Bond character was so preposterous
that only lightheartedness could save him. The moment Bond began
to act like a real man in a real world, all was lost. Roger Moore
understood that, too, but I'm not sure Dalton does.
Dalton is rugged, dark and saturnine, and speaks with a cool
authority. We can halfway believe him in some of his scenes. And
that's a problem, because the scenes are intended to be preposterous.
The best Bond movies always seem to be putting us on, to be supplying
the most implausible and dangerous stunts in order to assure us
they can't possibly be real. But in "The Living Daylights,"
there is a scene where Bond and his girlfriend escape danger by
sliding down a snow-covered mountain in a cello case, and damned
if Dalton doesn't look as if he thinks it's just barely possible.
The plot of the new movie is the usual grab bag of recent headlines
and exotic locales. Bond, who is assigned to help a renegade Russian
general defect to the West, stumbles across a plot involving a
crooked American arms dealer, the war in Afghanistan and a plan
to smuggle a half-billion dollars worth of opium. The story takes
Bond from London to Prague, from mountains to deserts, from a
chase down the slopes of Gibraltar to a fight that takes place
while Bond and his enemy are hanging out of an airplane. The usual
stuff. " - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sunday Times
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