I really enjoy the James Bond series and have seen plenty of its films, but I've never ended up going through all of them. I could just fill in the blanks whenever one pops up on a streaming service, but I've always do a full marathon, see all the movies one after the other. And with Amazon Prime getting all of the Bond films for a "limited time", I thought this was as good a time as any to go through the series once and for all.
There is one issue, however. Spectre, one of the last Bond films, is leaving Prime in like a week. So I decided to give this marathon a bit of a twist. I'm going to watch the James Bond movies in reverse actor order, meaning I'm going to start with the Craig movies, then watch the Brosnan films, and keep going until I end with Connery. So Spectre will be one of the first movies I watch, and I won't have to cram 23 movies into like 9 days. Let's continue things with the underdogs of the series, Timothy Dalton and George Lazenby:
Since I've watched plenty of these movies already, I wanted to mark the ones that I'm rewatching rather than going into blind. To keep things simple, if you see the (R) symbol next to a movie, that means that I've seen it before and that this is a rewatch.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service: It probably may have made more sense to group OHMSS in with the other Connery films, but I didn't want to devote an entire blogpost to Dalton's mere two movies, so here we are, jumping all the way back to the 60s. On Her Majesty's Secret Service is a pretty divisive film for being the first Bond movie to replace Sean Connery with another actor, George Lazenby, and seeing as he only starred in this one film, it's easy to figure out that the change wasn't very well-received at the time. And that's a shame, because this is one of the best films in the series.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service is quite simply about James Bond hunting down Blofeld to stop his plan to... just a second... use brainwashed woman to threaten all of the plants and livestock in the world. Yeah, kind of a stupid plan, but it's everything around that plan that's great. OHMSS has a similar structure to Goldfinger where Bond spends a long time in the antagonist's lair and slowly uncovers their plan, and it works just as well. OHMSS is actually a pretty slow film, it's nearly two and a half hours long and we don't get our first large-scale action scene until the final hour, yet it does a fantastic job of building up tension. The 40-ish minutes we spend in Piz Gloria especially is tense and gripping, and I found that the film flew by shockingly fast despite its length. Once Blofeld goes full antagonist, he serves as a perfect rival to Bond, only helped by Telly Savalas's smooth performance. Something I really liked about OHMSS is how constantly in danger Bond is, it goes a long way to show off just how dangerous being a spy is. Once Bond is found out, he's relentlessly chased by Blofeld and his soldiers, with never a moment to breathe. From Russia With Love also tries to send a similar message, but OHMSS does it better, especially when the Bond girl is concerned. OHMSS's Bond girl is named Tracy, and she's particularly special because Bond ends up falling in love with her. Not in the usual Bond girl way, though, Bond falls fully in love, to the point where they end up getting married. While Tracy isn't around for the whole film, Diana Rigg makes the most of her screentime, and the character has an impressive amount of agency for a 60s Bond girl. She plays into the theme of how dangerous Bond's work in the infamous final scene where Blofeld abruptly shoots her dead right after her wedding with Bond. It's a jaw-dropping moment that I'd even say is more effective than Vesper's death, partially because Tracy is just simply a better character, and partially because the film ends immediately after her death, with no catharsis ever. Unlike in Casino Royale, OHMSS left me stunned as the credits rolled.
But as much as I love the story in On My Majesty's Secret Service, what really elevates the film is the all-around phenomenal production. It feels like everyone working on the movie is at the top of their game, from the acting, to the directing, to the score. As far as acting goes, I already praised Diana Rigg and Telly Savalas's performances, but how is Lazenby? Personally, I think he's fine. Definitely the weakest Bond in terms of acting, but he's nowhere near as bad as I've heard. Honestly, my issue with the guy is the fact that he looks too much like Sean Connery. All the other Bond actors have drastically different appearances, but here, it feels like the crew tried to get as close a lookalike as they could, which led to a bit of an uncanny valley feel. But in terms of acting, Lazenby's perfectly fine. He's great in the action scenes, but I think his greatest strength is his vulnerability. OHMSS is about an emotional James Bond. A James Bond that falls in love, that fights with M and resigns in a fit of rage, that breaks down into tears. Connery wouldn't be able to pull that off, but Lazenby's Bond is believably emotional. And in that heartbreaking final scene, the son of a gun absolutely kills it. Outside of the acting, Peter Hunt's direction is remarkable. It's hard to believe this movie is from the 60s with how striking and beautiful the cinematography is. To this day, this is the best looking Bond film outside of the obvious Skyfall (which, if anything, makes it look even more impressive than Skyfall). The lighting is consistently dynamic and expressive, the set design is polished as hell, and every scene feels grand. The action is fantastic too. As mentioned earlier, there isn't much at first, but the final hour is nonstop action scenes and they're all phenomenal. While the editing can be a bit chaotic at times, it's always clear what's going on, and if anything, it makes the already brutal and destructive fight scenes all the more visceral. And of course, John Barry's score is absolutely killer.
Overall, On Her Majesty's Secret Service is probably a perfect Bond film. Sure, I could pick at Blofeld's ridiculous plan or Lazenby's inconsistent performance, but there's no point because the film fundamentally works on pretty much every level. The vulnerability added to Bond's character, the fantastic Bond girl and Blofeld interpretation, the masterful buildup and release of tension, the full realization of its themes, the chaotic but thrilling action scenes, the stunning direction and cinematography, the pitch-perfect score, it all makes for a Bond film that is greater than the sum of it's already fantastic parts. OHMSS truly feels like Peter Hunt's vision of what a Bond film could and should be, and it's a vision that I'm fully on-board with.
5/5 Stars
The Living Daylights: Similarly to OHMSS, Dalton's films are also fairly divisive, this time being because they're a bit darker than your standard Bond film. With the Craig films, they probably don't seem to grim nowadays, but after seven straight Roger Moore movies, it lead to a lot of polarization for Bond fans. While not as much of a homerun as Lazenby's first flick, The Living Daylights is yet another criminally underrated Bond film that deserves reappraisal.
The Living Daylights is a fairly straight-forward Cold War spy thriller about James Bond learning that a KGB agent he helped defect ended up staging the whole thing, and in the process of looking into it, proceeds to get involved in a complex opium trade between Russia and America. While not anything amazing, I really like how grounded and espionage-driven this movie is, with a fairly believable villain plan and a larger-than-usual focus on spy agents in general. The Cold War backdrop also feels more prevalent than usual, even if some moments kinda feel like a product of their time. Although, while I like how grounded the villain's plan is, the villains themselves are honestly pretty unremarkable. It's the henchman Necros that truly steals the show, a brutal super spy who gets some of the best action in the movie. Speaking of which, the action in The Living Daylights is great, especially the fight scenes. There's a balletic sort of brutality to the action in The Living Daylights, every beat flows into the other perfectly, and at its best, we get gems like the kitchen fight, the mountain chase, and of course, that phenomenal cargo plane battle. That last fight in particular is so good that the actual final battle struggles to top it. I also pleasantly enjoyed Bond's romantic subplot in The Living Daylights. It helps that Kara Milovy is actually there for a large portion of the film, so you get a decent amount of time to watch Bond and Milovy's relationship develop.
So great, the film is good. Now's the time that I rave about how fantastic Timothy Dalton is in the role of Bond. I was going into these movies with a bit of a preconceived bias towards the actor, since I already loved him in Hot Fuzz and Chuck, but his more serious and no-nonsense portrayal of the character is fantastic. More than with any other Bond actor, with Dalton it really feels like behind his suave demeanor, James Bond is a sad, broken man. Between Dalton, Casino Royale, and OHMSS, I think this sadness is what makes Bond a compelling character. I also think it's worth noting that while Bond is more serious than usual, that doesn't necessarily mean the film itself is this grim, humorless affair. I'd actually say The Living Daylights had some of the most effective jokes in the series, with Bond's priceless reactions to the madness that occurs around him making for some brilliant dry humor. Not to mention Bond goes to an amusement park and spins around in a bumper car, how the hell is that "too serious"? Anyway, my point is that Dalton makes for a fantastic Bond. He's nowhere near as deathly serious as people seem to suggest, yet his generally more cold and hard-edged demeanor actualy gives the character a bit more depth.
I know I just spent half of this segment talking about Dalton's Bond rather than the movie, but trust me, I probably wouldn't have been defending him as hard if the movie wasn't also pretty great. While the villains are overshadowed by the much superior henchman and the third act is uneven, the tight Cold War-centric plot, brutal and hard-hitting action, and Dalton's strong lead performance makes for an incredibly solid if unremarkable Bond film.
3.5/5 Stars
License To Kill: Oh man, this one was so good! License To Kill feels like a predecessor to the Craig films in the best way possible. It's dark and brutal, with a revenge-centric storyline that gives off some serious Quantum Of Solace vibes. It's a different kind of film, but still one that's unmistakably bond, and an easy new favorite.
License To Kill is basically an 80s revenge thriller starring Bond. When a druglord named Franz Sanchez kills Felix Leiter's new wife and destroys his leg, Bond resigns and goes on a rampage to kill him and all of his associates. In theory, it definitely feels like more of a John Wick plot than a James Bond plot, but I love how personal it is. Felix was always a really important and yet underused element of the Bond mythos, so I'm glad we finally got a film that revolved around him. Even more, the parallels between what happened to Felix and what happened with Tracy in OHMSS (who is even mentioned at one point) gives Bond's actions a fascinating and tragic context. As far as the other characters go, I like the villains way more than in The Living Daylights. Necros was already a pretty good henchman but he didn't have too much time to shine. A young Benicio Del Toro's Dario, on the other hand, gets plenty of time to show off his charismatically psychotic persona. Franz Sanchez is one of the more realistic Bond antagonists, but his terrifying nature in spite of that realism makes him all the more memorable. And I really like Pam as the Bond girl, as I'm a huge fan of whenever the female lead is more of an equal to Bond.
What surprised me about License To Kill was just how brutal it is. The torture scenes are crueler than ever, the action is more violent and bloody, and the death scenes have turned into an art form, with each and every one trying to one-up its predecessor in sheer brutality. I'm perfectly fine with this, by the way, these moments of brutality really help to solidify LTK's darker atmosphere and tone. And speaking of brutality, the action is once again pretty fantastic, probably even better than in The Living Daylights. There's a much stronger emphasis on stuntwork in this movie, with plenty of setpieces containing some really impressive feats, particularly involving planes. In the course of a single film, Bond couples two planes together in mid-air, boards another plane whilst water-skiing, and leaps from a plane onto a tanker trunk. It all culminates in a gloriously balls-to-the-walls final chase sequence, easily one of the best third acts in the series. And it's a good thing LTK sticks the ending as well as it does too, because I actually think its biggest issue is that it goes on a bit long. I feel like such a simple revenge plot would warrant a fairly lean runtime, but LTK is 2h10m and it kinda shows near the end.
Overall, while it definitely could've been trimmed a bit in the middle, License To Kill is a fantastic entry in the Bond series and definitely the better of Dalton's two films. Though a bit different from your standard Bond movie, LTK has a gripping and personal revenge story, some great antagonists, and plenty of brutal action with some truly stunning stuntwork.
4/5 Stars
Since there are only three films here and we're now at the rough halfway point of this marathon, I thought I'd rank all of Bond movies I've seen so far:
- On Her Majesty's Secret Service
- Casino Royale
- Tomorrow Never Dies
- Goldeneye
- Skyfall
- License To Kill
- The Living Daylights
- No Time To Die
- The World Is Not Enough
- Spectre
- Quantum Of Solace
- Die Another Day
See you next time when I review the Pierce Brosnan era of Bond.
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