The James Bond Bedside Companion

by Benson, Raymond

  Before Bond stops Koskov in the Afghanistan desert and encounters Whitaker face-to-face in Tangier, the plot undergoes many twists and turns which keep the film moving with surprising, unexpected results. The story is more in keeping with the early films—more intrigue and less gimmicks.

  The romantic subplot is by far the most successful dalliance between Bond and a heroine since From Russia With Love. To gain Kara Milovy's trust, 007 pretends to be Koskov's "friend" who has come to help her defect and join her lover. He stalls the truth as long as possible until he is certain that Koskov is in Tangier with Whitaker. But before he can tell her the truth in his own way, Koskov himself informs Kara that Bond is a spy who tried to have him killed. In a powerfully dramatic moment, a drugged and quickly fading Bond explains to Kara that it was he who knocked the rifle out of her hands the night Koskov defected. "I was supposed to kill you," he stammers. "Well, why didn't . . . ?" she asks, but Bond falls unconscious as Koskov and his henchman enter the room. Then it hits her. She realizes that the man had been sent to murder her and he spared her life.

  Of course, from that moment on, Kara is in love with Bond, and the feeling appears to be mutual. Not since On Her Majesty's Secret Service have we seen a James Bond so obviously and sincerely involved with a leading lady. A lot of the credit goes to the acting talents of Timothy Dalton and Maryam d'Abo, but the script itself provides credible material. Because the audience is given a chance to become involved in the lives of the two characters, the love story is much more believable. For a Bond film, this is a revelation.

  And with this new, romantically passionate Bond, comes a modem sensibility. James Bond has only one leading lady in The Living Daylights. Excluding the woman on a boat in the pre-credits sequence, Kara Milovy is the only female character for whom Bond has eyes. Gone is the "three-girl formula" which has been so overused in the past.

  The mid-eighties had brought a new morality to society, and in turn, the cinema. In 1986, the AIDS epidemic was changing everyone's outlook on sex, and motion pictures and television were just beginning to reflect the new attitudes. It just wouldn't do to have James Bond jumping from bed to bed in this day and age. It wouldn't be responsible. James Bond is smarter than that.

  The producers were very courageous for presenting this 1987-model Bond. The character of James Bond has always been something of a role model. Whether it was the cool magnetism of Sean Connery or the witty nonchalance of Roger Moore, 007 was someone who was emulated. Just think of what James Bond would do for "safe sex" if he used a condom onscreen!

  As a result of Bond's new found politically correct attitude toward women and sex, female audiences responded more favorably to The Living Daylights than to any other Bond film. The days of Bondian chauvinism are gone.

  DIRECTION

  John Glen's direction of The Living Daylights is topnotch. With his fourth feature film, Glen achieved the perfect balance between the action and humor in Bond films. The story unfolds smoothly: there are no abrupt "bumps," and the changes in locale occur in a logical, cause-and-effect manner.

  Aside from eliciting strong performances from the entire cast, Glen accomplished the difficult task of turning what is basically a fantasy-adventure into something which audiences can believe as real. The tendency in the past, especially with the Roger Moore films, had always been to send up the Bond films as a genre unto itself; when events or gimmicks in the pictures became too outlandish, then the filmmakers acknowledged the fact by gliding over the absurdities with humor and self-parody. The Living Daylights doesn't need to make fun of itself.

  One sequence does push the humor toward that dangerous area that borders on burlesque and juvenility. The Aston Martin chase scene, the film's obligatory snow sequence, asks us to swallow some outrageous ideas, such as the car's being outfitted with laser beams and missiles, and Bond and Kara escaping from the Czech guards by using a cello case as a sled. Fortunately, the jokes tastefully refrain from any form of slapstick. As Bond and Kara slide under a border gate, 007 tosses the cello into the air and catches it on the other side. "We have nothing to declare!" he shouts to the bewildered Austrian border guards. "Just a cello!" Kara adds. Here, the timing is perfect and the joke is so good-natured and cleverly executed that one overlooks the lack of realism.

  All of the other action scenes are deadly serious. The pre-credits sequence is a real thriller. Bond is on a Service-sponsored exercise in which three Double-0 agents must penetrate the security headquarters on Gibraltar without being "shot" by guards using paint pellets. The three agents jump from a plane and we are treated to breathtaking aerial photography as the men land in various locations on the island. But an assassin supposedly working for the KGB is waiting to sabotage the exercise—by killing at least one of the Double-0 members. This is the beginning of the so-called "Smyert Spionam" scheme purportedly initiated by the Russians to murder top Western agents. But Bond, ever alert, immediately comprehends the situation when he finds one of his teammates dead. Before the assassin can escape, 007 leaps on top of the villain's Land Rover. The men fight as the burning vehicle (which is loaded with boxes of explosives) bolts over the famous cliff. Bond escapes in the nick of time by pulling the ripcord on his parachute. He is pulled out the back end of the Land Rover by the chute just before the explosives ignite. It's a magnificent stunt.

  Down below, on a boat in the water, an attractive woman is conversing on a cordless phone. "It's so boring here," she says, "what I need is a real man . . . PLOP! Bond lands on the roof of the vessel and swings down onto the deck. "Who are you?" the woman asks.

  And Dalton delivers those famous lines: "Bond. James Bond." He then quickly grabs the phone and speaks into it: "She'll call you back." The scene is a perfect example of Bondian style.

  There was one chase scene which wound up on the cutting room floor, and this is a testament to the intelligence and restraint with which John Glen and the producers made The Living Daylights. After Bond supposedly shoots General Pushkin at a conference in the Trade Centre of Tangier, there was to have been a foot-chase across the rooftops of the casbah. During the chase, the police are led by a comical captain who, like Sheriff Pepper and others before him, is exasperated by 007's clever methods of eluding capture. At one point, Bond was to have thrown an Eastern carpet over telephone lines and then ride it down the wires to safety, a la a "magic carpet." Thankfully, the scene was cut to a bare minimum, and all we see is 007 using a television antenna to springboard himself to safety. There is no clownish police captain, and the story is allowed to proceed without the interruption of a circus act.

  Let us hope that the filmmakers will continue this no-nonsense approach to their material.

  ACTORS AND CHARACTERS

  From the first glimpse of him—a dramatic shot of the actor climbing the rocky face of Gibraltar, his black hair blowing in the wind—it is clear that Timothy Dalton is a James Bond to be reckoned with. He is marvelously well-cast; for fans of Ian Fleming's novels, Dalton is too good to be true. Quite simply, Timothy Dalton's characterization of James Bond is the most accurate and literal interpretation of the role that we've ever seen on screen. None of the actors who preceded Dalton played Bond as Fleming actually wrote him. Sean Connery first typified the character as a tough man-of-the-world with a cynical, sardonic sense of humor and just a dab of self-parody; George Lazenby merely emulated Connery; and Roger Moore made the character his own by turning 007 into a superficially charming international playboy/party guy who uses witty repartee and nonchalance to get through dangerous situations. But it is Timothy Dalton who embodies the man from the novels.

  In the many interviews Dalton gave to promote The Living Daylights, it was refreshing to hear that he had read all of Fleming's books in order to get a handle on the character. "You'd have to, I think . . . even as we're making this film, I occasionally dip into some of them," the actor told Bondage magazine. "One is reastonished by just how good a writer Fleming was. How crystal-sharp, detailed and exciting he coul
d be . . . It is the foundation of all these films, you know. Therefore, for me, anyway, it has to be the foundation of what I do."

  Dalton acknowledges that the film series and the Bond character have "gone off down lots of different avenues." Dalton sees James Bond as a "real man, not a superhuman; a man who is beset with moral confusions and apathies and uncertainties, and who is very often very frightened and nervous and tense." Dalton says, "This has not come across in the films. The way I'm approaching my work, it will carry with it a lot of those qualities."

  It is evident that Dalton's theatrical experience influenced his performance. We can see him actively listening to other characters, then making the necessary emotional adjustments, followed by playing not only the text of the script, but the subtext as well. (One would think that any professional actor would play the subtext, but the dialogue in Bond films rarely has subtext—another testament to the quality of The Living Daylights script!) In other words, in a sequence such as the opening scene in which Bond must shoot a potential Russian sniper, the actor depicts 007 as maintaining a cool, professional exterior. But we can glean from the actor's unspoken actions that he is angry with fellow agent Saunders, and is tense and uncomfortable with the assignment—killing someone in cold blood. Later in the film, when Saunders is killed at the amusement park, we see the murderous rage in Bond's eyes—the realization that a friend is dead and that he must exact revenge at all costs. He then resumes his role of "Koskov's friend"—he tells Kara Milovy that he got a "message" from her lover and that they will be traveling to Tangier. But beneath these words of encouragement is pure venom, because he isn't sure if the woman is trustworthy or not. Underneath his lines of dialogue, we silently hear the questions bombarding his mind: Was she in part responsible for Saunders' death? Is he angry at this woman because, heaven forbid, he may be in love with her? It is evident that by playing the British spy with such intense realism, Timothy Dalton has made James Bond most human.

  There were many James Bond fans who objected to their hero's new morality. One might argue that Bond's rakishness is a vital part of his character. On the other hand, James Bond is someone who has a great deal of self-esteem and confidence in his dealings with the opposite sex. He has always been fashionable and stylish when it comes to matters of love. If "safe sex" was currently the mode of behavior between consenting adults, then James Bond would be all for it. Indeed, he is self-destructive in many ways—he smokes, he drinks, he gambles, he drives fast (and that's just in his private life)—but he would never endanger the lives of other innocent people, that is, women, by putting himself at risk to a deadly disease.

  Maryam d'Abo, a half-Dutch, half-Russian blonde brought up in France and Switzerland, portrays Kara Milovy, Bond's single love in the picture. Previous to being cast as the current Bond-girl, Miss d'Abo had small roles in such films as White Knights, Out of Africa, and Until September, as well as having had some stage and television experience.

  The scriptwriters provided the actress a much more complex role than what Bond leading ladies are accustomed to. Kara Milovy is a true innocent thrown into a frightening, exciting situation. She is brave but also quite vulnerable, intelligent but slightly naive, and she possesses a great talent as a musician. Her mistake in life was to become involved with General Koskov.

  Possessing a certain fragile beauty, Miss d'Abo turns Kara Milovy's innocence into something very endearing. She is not at all like the "glamour girls" of previous Bond films—Miss d'Abo wears little make-up, if any, and is quite thin and slightly gawky. Yet she is completely natural and believable, and she creates a credible character that is as real and human as Dalton's Bond. Their scenes together are loaded with chemistry and are a major factor in the film's success.

  As for the villains, The Living Daylights features two. General Koskov is played by Jeroen Krabbe, Holland's most popular actor, known mostly for his starring appearances in the films of Paul Verhoeven (Soldier of Orange, Spetters, and The Fourth Man). Koskov is a defector who is in love with the material luxuries of the West. He is a real weasel—handsome but smarmy, intelligent but rash, and ambitious but cowardly. Krabbe is very good in the role, providing some of the film's more comic moments.

  American actor Joe Don Baker plays Brad Whitaker, the mentally disturbed and selfish international arms and drugs dealer. Baker is best-known for his role as a small-town Tennessee sheriff in the film Walking Tall, but has appeared in a number of films, such as Cool Hand Luke, The Natural, and Fletch. The Whitaker character proved to be timely in light of the Iran-Contra affair, which practically coincided with the film's run. The self-appointed "general" makes a living by buying and reselling high-tech weapons, diamonds, and opium. He believes that he is one of history's great military men—his madness is such that he has fashioned and displays in his home life-size statues of his idols (Hitler, Napoleon, Alexander the Great, etc.). The statues, however, all have Whitaker's likeness. Baker plays the terrorist with stereotypical excess, and, not surprisingly, it works. It was most assuredly a role with which an actor could have a lot of fun, and Baker does.

  John Rhys-Davies, a versatile Welsh actor who has appeared in a number of films, including Raiders of the Lost Ark, Victor/Victoria, Predator, and Firewalker, portrays General Pushkin, the new head of the KGB. Rhys-Davies is extremely good, creating a complex character out of a relatively small role. The new KGB head is not a bad man, but he is set up as such by the traitorous Koskov. In one of the best scenes in the film, Bond breaks into Pushkin's hotel room in Tangier and overpowers the man when the Russian returns from the conference. At gunpoint, 007 tells Pushkin that his orders are to kill him. Before he does so, Rhys-Davies, as Pushkin, convincingly appeals to Bond's and the audience's instincts, and we know that he is not responsible for the murders.

  Art Malik, a Pakistani raised in Britain, plays the Western-educated Kamran Shah, the heroic leader of a group of Afghan freedom fighters. Malik shot to fame in the award-winning BBC television miniseries The Jewel in the Crown, and has appeared on stage and in films. The role of Kamran Shah is a bit underwritten—we don't know how or why this obviously Britisheducated man is where he is, but Malik makes up for it with enthusiasm.

  Andreas Wisniewski creates the most successful henchman character in a long time. As Necros, this former German ballet dancer is handsome, smooth, and quick on his feet. Throughout most of the film he wears a Walkman, and uses the headset cord as a garrote. He is like a chameleon, assuming whatever role his boss, Whitaker, orders. He is a threatening jogger, a deadly milkman, or a menacing balloon vendor. His fight with Bond on the airplane at the end is truly the high point of the picture, no pun intended.

  The Obligatory Sacrificial Lamb is Saunders, the stuffy British agent stationed in Austria who plays everything "by the book." He is portrayed by Thomas Wheatley, a young English actor with much stage and television experience. After Saunders gets a taste of how James Bond runs things, the fellow agent lightens up and becomes a likable and cooperative ally. He meets his death between high-powered glass doors at an amusement park snack shop.

  Felix Leiter returns in The Living Daylights, this time also with a much younger, fresher face. Played by American actor John Terry, Leiter hasn't much to do in the film. He intervenes, luckily, when Bond is running from the Moroccan police after supposedly assassinating General Pushkin in public. Two of Leiter's "helpers," the kind with long hair and long legs, avert Bond and steer him to the Tangier CIA headquarters.

  The regulars all return: Robert Brown as M, Geoffrey Keen as the Minister of Defense, Desmond Llewelyn as Q, and Walter Gotell as Russian General Gogol. Gogol has been promoted to the foreign service, and is now stationed in the West. Q has his funniest moment in years when he shows Bond a new device that he is "developing for the Americans." A technician, holding a large portable tape deck on his shoulder, points it toward a wall. KER-BLAM! A rocket blows a hole in the wall. "We call it a ghetto blaster!" Q exclaims proudly.

  Miss Moneypenny was re
cast for The Living Daylights, since the character's object of flirtation was a new, young actor. Caroline Bliss, an attractive blonde who played Princess Diana in Charles and Diana, A Royal Love Story for ABC TV, does what she can with two brief appearances in the picture. She is perfectly adequate in the role, but the film lacks a good Bond! Moneypenny scene akin to the amusing and warm interludes in earlier entries.

  OTHER ASPECTS

  Q Branch issues James Bond a brand-new Aston Martin "Volante," a convertible which is subsequently "winterized" to become a "Vantage" model. It is the Vantage model (with a hardtop) that 007 drives out of Czechoslovakia.

  The new Aston Martin is packed with quite an arsenal—perhaps the only example of overkill in the film. Besides the obligatory bullet-proof glass and rotating license plates, the car's hubcaps contain laser beam cutters which can fillet another vehicle like a knife through butter; there are automatic missiles and rockets which are aimed by a computerized heads-up display (like in a cockpit); the tires are studded for better traction on ice; a rocket jet-propulsion unit allows the automobile to leap over barricades; and to top it all off, the car has an "outrigger" option—protruding skis which transform the vehicle into a snowmobile.

  Bond also drives two Audis: a 200 Quattro, which he uses early in the film in Bratislava; and a 200 Avant, which the agent drives in Tangier. These cars have no Q Branch extras.

  Q gives Bond a handy Philips key ring (the kind that beeps when one whistles), which saves the agent's life twice in the film. If one whistles "Rule Britannia," the key ring emits stun gas with a range of five feet. If one makes a "wolf" whistle, the key ring ignites a dense mass of plastic explosives contained within.