Although not entirely without unnecessary gadgets,the juvenile humour that is so evident in the Moore era is largely gone, and the film relies upon a good story rather than disconnected set pieces and is backed by a John Barry score that really makes The Living Daylights feel like a 007 film.
Although the pre-titles sequence is everything it should be, the title song by A-ha must rank as one of the weakest of the series and the sequence that is directly based on Ian Fleming’s finest short story is rather wasted as it discards the build up of tension in favour of some rather hasty action Dalton certainly looks the part, playing the role with a much harder edge than was in evidence during the Roger Moore years, and stands head and shoulders above any of Pierce Brosnan’s films.
What we say
Timothy Dalton’s first outing as James Bond demonstrates a return to par that had sadly been lacking for much of Roger Moore’s reign.
Locations
Original release
Premiere: 29th June 1987 at the Odeon Leicester Square
UK: 30th June 1987
US: 31st July 1987
Principal crew
| Director | John Glen |
| Screenplay | Richard Maibaum & Michael G Wilson |
| Producer | Albert R Broccoli & Michael G Wilson |
| Music | John Barry |
| Editing | Peter Davies & John Grover |
| Production design | Peter Lamont |
| Cinematography | Alec Mills |
Cast
| Timothy Dalton | James Bond |
| Maryam d’Abo | Kara Milovy |
| Jeroen Krabbé | General Georgi Koskov |
| Joe Don Baker | Brad Whitaker |
| John Rhys-Davies | General Leonid Pushkin |
| Art Malik | Kamran Shah |
| Andreas Wisniewski | Necros |
| Thomas Wheatley | Saunders |
| Desmond Llewelyn | Q |
| Robert Brown | M |
| Geoffrey Keen | Minister of Defence |
| Walter Gotell | General Anatol Gogol |
| Caroline Bliss | Miss Moneypenny |
| John Terry | Felix Leiter |
| Virginia Hey | Rubavitch |
| John Bowe | Colonel Feyador |
| Julie T. Wallace | Rosika Miklos |
| Belle Avery | Linda |
| Catherine Rabett | Liz |
| Dulice Liecier | Ava |
| Nadim Sawalha | Tangier Chief of Security |
| Alan Talbot | Koskov’s KGB Minder |
| Carl Rigg | Imposter |
| Tony Cyrus | Chief of Snow Leopard Brotherhood |
| Atik Mohamed | Achmed |
| Michael Moor | Kamran’s Man |
| Sumar Khan | Kamran’s Man |
| Ken Sharrock | Jailer |
| Peter Porteous | Gasworks Supervisor |
| Antony Carrick | Blayden Male Secretary |
| Frederick Warder | 004 |
| Glyn Baker | 002 |
| Scott Hoxby | Sergeant Stagg |
| Bill Weston | Blayden Butler |
| Richard Cubison | Trade Centre Toastmaster |
| Heinz Winter | Vienna Hotel Concierge |
| Leslie French | Lavatory Attendant |
Drinks
- Vodka martinis (one of them spiked with chloral hydrate
- Jim Beam
- Champagne
Cars
Aston Martin V8 Vantage Coupe (1987)
Quotes
- “Why didn’t you learn the violin?”
- “I’ve had a few optional extras installed”
- ”Hold on you’re dead!”
- “You should have brought lilies.”
- “We have an old saying too, Georgi. And you’re full of it.”
- “This is a mission, not a fancy dress ball!”
- “Sorry, old man, section 26, paragraph 5. Need-to-know. Sure you understand.”
- “If he fires me I’ll thank him.”
- “That must have scared the living daylights out of her.”
- ”I’ll report in an hour… Better make that two.”
- “They’re looking for a foreign car… A man and a woman…”
- “He met his Waterloo”
Buy The Living Daylights DVD/Blu-Ray from Amazon
Poster Art
Buy a The Living
Daylights poster or print.
Soundtrack
Read more about the The Living Daylights Soundtrack or buy it online.
A View To A Kill | Licence To Kill
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