Movies - TV
Timothy Dalton Has A Theory On Why His James Bond Went Under-appreciated
By JEREMY SMITH
The transition to a new 007 agent after Roger Moore’s disastrous James Bond feature “A View To Kill” was a tough task. It, unfortunately, fell to Timothy Dalton, who was fairly well known in the U.K. for his theatrical work and his preening turn as Prince Barin in Mike Hodges' "Flash Gordon," but had failed to make an impression in the U.S.
Dalton was more than up to the task, as he was more rugged than Moore and less aloof than Connery. His Bond was a straight-up killer with a mild romantic streak, but both his movies, “The Living Daylights” and “License To Kill,” fizzled out at the box office and were not well received by critics.
Two decades after "License to Kill," the actor gracefully discussed his ill-fated, ahead-of-its-time take on 007 with Entertainment Weekly. He said, "We wanted to take it back to that earlier toughness. But, of course, it's got to be funny. It should be funny. Out of great danger often comes great humor.”
Dalton noted, “But when we made 'The Living Daylights' and 'License to Kill,' everybody by then was so used to something else. I think people like to stay with what they're comfortable." However, time has been kind to both "The Living Daylights" and "License to Kill," but moviegoers simply weren't ready for a flawed Bond at the close of the Reagan/Thatcher era.