What a load of nonsense. LTK is the best Bond film since FYEO, since OHMSS perhaps, and occupies the same emotional landscape of curtailed love, betrayal and revenge. Watching this again, what strikes me is how tightly it is plotted, specifically the way that Bond encounters the various gang members in such a way that it is only at the climax that he risks being identified. Throughout, though, each plot point has repercussions that build and feed back into the story, and the characters are all developed with clear motivation for their actions.
Sanchez, the drug baron, is a ruthless businessman whose stock is the loyalty of those around him. Robert Davi does a great job here and, like all the best Bond villains, Sanchez possesses a cool and almost charming persona that masks a terrifying sadism and an extremely violent temper. Anthony Zerbe is disgustingly slimy and horrible as the lecherous Krest and, yes, that is a very young Benicio del Toro as henchman Dario. The women are good too. Lupe (Talisa Soto) is a kept woman who has to trade on her beauty to get by - but she seems to understand that Bond's mission offers a chance for escape and, gradually, begins to help him. Carey Lovell plays Pam Bouvier with a slightly whiny sense of indignation - this is definitely a capable woman who feels that she is required to prove her efficacy to men over and over again. Of course she does prove herself throughout the film despite being somewhat held at arm's length by Bond. M, Q and Moneypenny all have their brief moments shoehorned in, but they're all nicely done. Caroline Bliss has had very little to do as Moneypenny but she did it very well, even if she has turned out to be the least steely incarnation. It's Robert Brown's last gig as M too. He took over from Bernard Lee for Octopussy but he has been very good - a little less gruff but no less reassuring.
LTK is presented as an aberration, a reckless departure from the Bond formula, but it is surely the most Fleming-esque of all the films. Far from being an ersatz Bond story, cooked up in the vats at EON Productions, the story mechanics here should be very familiar to anyone who's read Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever, or The Man With the Golden Gun: through cunning, deception and ruthless opportunism, Bond infiltrates a criminal gang and destroys their operation. Other recurring Flemingisms pop up too: the villains' ingenious business model is revealed and explained, as if Bond were an undercover reporter; 007 offering himself up as a gun-for-hire, a dissatisfied ex-employee of Her Majesty's Secret Service; the tense moment when Bond realises he is about to be exposed and can only wait for the single instant of opportunity that will allow him to try and turn the tables.
Although in the novels Bond makes a habit of convincing hoodlums that his services are for hire, he never really seems to fit in amongst the gangsters. Partly this is because we, the reader, never doubt his loyalty to Queen and country and partly because Bond's Fifties upper-middle-class background suggests an awkward gulf between him and his foreign criminal chums. But here, what's amazing is how Dalton's Bond does belong amongst Sanchez' men. Operating without M's sanction, Bond has no political cover for his actions in this film - he is, like Sanchez, just a killer, motivated purely by revenge. Having pushed his way into Sanchez's office at the casino, Bond introduces himself as "a problem-eliminator"; it's hardly a joke, but all the men in the room, including Bond, fall into a long, dark chuckle. Bond is not acting a part here - it is a genuinely shared moment where both he and Sanchez are revealed as men who have made themselves comfortable with the fact that they are killers.
There's something of the Conquistador about Bond's mission, in that it is a ruthless one-man war that brings down a latin-american empire. But unlike Cortes, Bond's religion is vengeance and he has no thirst for gold. In fact, throughout the film, Bond repeatedly proves that he, just like Sanchez, values loyalty more than money. He runs away from his job to avenge Leiter and Della, throws away two million dollars to make his point to Killifer, and hands over nearly five million to turn Sanchez against Krest. The money he does use is merely a means to a very bloody end.
But whilst LTK clears the decks to accommodate Fleming (incidentally, I know you know this, but: Leiter's ordeal by shark is lifted wholesale from Live and Let Die), does it completely do away with our suave super-spy? The all-capable secret agent that audiences love? Well no, he's still there, particularly in the action sequences. The bar brawl feels like it's from a Moore movie anyway, but the tremendous truck chase at the end is a wonderful chance for Bond to pull stunts, throw punches and generally be improbably amazing.
There is one other sequence though, which is even better. In fact it's so good that I would rate it alongside the PCS from Goldfinger. It's pure, skiing-off-a-cliff Bond but LTK incorporates it brilliantly in to its grittier reality. Milton Krest's ship, the Wavekrest, is anchored at sea so that a sea plane can land to conduct a drugs deal. Bond, having destroyed the drugs, is spotted in the water and set upon by divers who trap him and cut his air pipe. Bond grabs a spear-gun, takes a second to smash the butt into the mask of one diver, and then fires. The spear sticks into one of the floats of the sea plane and Bond is yanked to the surface where he water-skis behind the plane before climbing aboard as it takes off. He gets inside, kills the pilots and flies off with all the money from the drug deal. It's fantastic - all the more so because of Michael Kamen's score which liberally drapes the Bond theme over such antics. But the best thing, the BEST thing, is that later in the movie, Sanchez, suspicious that he has been ripped-off, asks Krest what happened. Krest explains what Bond did and, of course, Sanchez doesn't believe him. Our super-duper 007 has wandered off into another movie genre to do battle, and these guys don't understand, like we do, that Bond has brought with him his own set of rules.
* * *
Pre-Credits Sequence: It's flashy, with its helicopters and Florida Keys setting but it's not up to much really. It's a good little vignette and it ties into the story. There's also the parachutes-as-wedding-train which is a nice idea. Presumably the capture of the plane is a lot more impressive than it looks.
Theme: Gladys Knight, sans Pips, sings an American-flavoured track that's a bit R&B, a bit rock ballad and is very James Bond. Powered by some hefty horn work (based on Goldfinger) it is one of the better themes, although it has no connection to the score. (Kamen's contribution is good and heavily based upon the Bond theme - which shows up a lot - but it does get overly sentimental in the quiet bits.) For his last set of Bond credits, Maurice Binder does well. Although still reliant on jiggling women, there are thematic elements (gambling chips, a spinning roulette wheel, underwater photography) that relate to the content of the film.
Deaths: It's a not very high 23 but for once they nearly all mean something.
Memorable Deaths: Krest gets de-pressurised. Killifer gets dropped on a shark. One guard gets fed to the maggots, another gets shocked by eels. Lupe's boyfriend has his heart cut out.
Licence to Kill: 10. And every one of them a cold-blooded murder committed without the sanction of Her Majesty's government. I'm assuming the guy who gets thrown into the tray of maggots dies.
Exploding Helicopters: Plenty of helicopters but none of them explode. :(
Shags: 2, although it's difficult to see why either of them occur. Having just met him, Ms Bouvier jumps on Bond for some unknown reason. And Lupe inexplicably decides to pull Bond into bed despite what happened to her last boyfriend.
Crimes Against Women: Moneypenny pines after her AWOL 007 to the extent that she becomes incapable of doing her job. Lupe is on the receiving end, getting whipped by Sanchez and harassed by Krest. Pam gets heavily patronised by Bond (she's his 'executive secretary', "we're south of the border, it's a man's world," he tells her) and leered at by Professor Joe. They're all still better off than Della who, it is strongly hinted, is gang-raped and murdered on her wedding night.
Casual Racism: There's nothing overt, but there is a pervasive stink of stereo-typical latin american corruption: Bond's dollars elicit unctuous smiles from bank managers, bell-boys and casino staff; the President is bought and paid for by Sanchez. Of course there is, and has been, corruption in latin america but it would be nice if there was a character who obviously wasn't on the take. (On the other hand, there are plenty of US citizens who are shown to be corrupt.) Putting all that to one side, there is no excuse for Q's Mexican disguise (including Zapata moustache).
Out of Time: 1989 was the year the US invaded Panama to bring down the government of Manuel Noriega, but the General's regime was clearly an inspiration for Sanchez's fictional Isthmus City. The violence, swearing and revenge/drugs plot are all reminiscent of recent films (1987 saw the release of both Lethal Weapon and Beverly Hills Cop). Bond's (untaken) flight with Pan-Am is historically sandwiched between the Lockerbie bombing (1988) and Pan-Am's collapse (1991).
Eh?: I find it difficult enough to believe that Felix finds the time to arrest Sanchez and get married, but he apparently also is able to do a load of case-work on it and meet Pam Bouvier. Even more incredibly, Sanchez is able to instantly corrupt a police officer and conspiratorially design, arrange and execute a complex escape plan, all within hours of his arrest. But after all that, he is even able to coolly plot and carry out his revenge attack before bedtime. That's a busy day. >> It's not clear why Bond decides to look in the tray of maggots, let alone plunge his arms in up to the elbow. But lo and behold he finds drugs down there! Some kind of dowsing perhaps? >> M once again jumps half-way around the world to meet 007, rather than pick up the phone. But why is Hemingway's house his base of operations? >> Hang on, this drug deal: the plane is delivering drugs to Krest, and Krest is paying them money - but Sanchez is the drug baron, so who is he buying drugs from and why? Shouldn't this deal be going in the opposite direction? >> I'm not an expert on shot-guns, but I'm not sure they blow suspiciously neat round holes in things. >> What is the point of the 'signature gun'? (Obviously the point is so that a ninja can try - and fail - to shoot Bond with it in the next fight, but really...) >> Why does the ninja try and kill Bond with his own gun? Surely the ninjas have gunless ways to kill him? And why are they trying to kill him when they are hell bent on interrogating the bejesus out of him two minutes later? >> Both Bond's 'signature gun' and the fag-packet detonator are covered in green LEDs, which is just perfect for keeping them hidden and secret on a dark night. Well done Q Branch. >> Why is Pam, a known informant who Sanchez wishes to kill, chosen to be the emissary who goes to Heller with the deal about the Stingers? And who is she working for? The Attorney General? >> Where has Dario been? We see him in the bar brawl and then he magically pops up at the end with no explanation. I suppose the likeliest answer is that he was on Krest's boat, but that doesn't make a lot of sense either. >> I can't shake the feeling that only three of the Stingers get fired during the final chase. Have I missed one?
Worst Line: I need to say, for the record, that this film is laden with expletives. Within a few seconds of the gun-barrel intro we hear our first 'bastard' and then it's 'shit', 'ass', 'piss off', 'bullshit', 'bastard, 'bastard, 'bastard', all the way. Still - not exactly bad dialogue. No, bad dialogue is something like this, a shameless and clumsy piece of exposition from Killifer: "Even one of your famous one million dollar bribes won't get you out of this one, Sanchez!" And, pow! - suddenly everyone's on the same page.
Best Line: Looking back at the Sixties films, there's no denying that the scripts have lost a lot of their wit and cleverness during the intervening years. So it's nice to get some real gems here. When Bond offers his resignation, M snorts "We're not a country club, 007!" Having burst Krest all over his money, Sanchez orders his men to "launder it." The note pinned to Leiter's maimed body is an actual piece of dark and brilliant Fleming prose: "He disagreed with something that ate him." And there's more nifty recycling when Bond, having sent Pam away to get him a drink, silences her whiny complaint with a savage growl: "Shaken. Not stirred." Q executes a lovely eye-roll when Lupe announces to Pam that she too has slept with Bond.
Worst Bond Moment: Dalton is great in LTK, but there are some odd moments. During the bar-brawl there's one shot where he just stands and takes his punches- it's either badly staged or under-rehearsed but it's certainly very unconvincing. Then there are the strange noises he makes (the strangled cry "Della!" when he finds her body and a wobbly "aaahah!" when he's being pushed out of the aeroplane being two examples); they make him sound rather feeble and well, unBondlike. Worst of all, and possibly the worst Bond moment ever, is the sight of 007 being hoisted down out of the DEA helicopter. In full morning suit, his hair plastered into a bowl-cut by the down-force of the rotors, Bond dangles and gently flaps his arms like some sort of ugly flightless bird. It's not a good look.
Best Bond Moment: They are several great Bond moments here. The way Bond infiltrates the catering staff in the casino is nice, instantly and effortlessly blending into the background. The truck chase is full of them, not the least of which is pulling the petrol lorry onto eight of its sixteen wheels. But the best bit, of course, is the water-ski escape from the Wavekrest that I outlined earlier.
Overall: Okay, this is not family viewing - but who says James Bond can't be for grown-ups? And, over the course of a long series, it is right to mix up the formula from time to time. This is an excellent Bond movie that is faithful to the original books and shows that Timothy Dalton was a brilliant 007. And if Dalton had made another one, or two films, I think LTK would be much more highly regarded.
James Bond Will Return: ... it says. And at the time there was no reason to expect that he wouldn't. But there were distant rumblings in the innards of the film studios that would soon throw all this in to chaos. And while, despite the confusion, planning went ahead for a new Bond movie (set in Japan perhaps, with killer robots), beyond Hollywood, the world suddenly and irrevocably changed.
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