Pros: Dalton as Bond, three-dimensional Bond girls and villain, great action, strong contemporary story
Cons: Mediocre score; few quality gadgets; so-so locales
The Bottom Line: This is probably the most hard-edged Bond film of all-time and one of the four best post-Connery Bond films (despite weak box office showing)
Plot Details: This opinion reveals everything about the movie's plot.
I mentioned before that my taste in Bond films doesn't very well match their box office success. In fact, my ratings likely have closer to an inverse correlation with their box office popularity than a positive correlation, except for the inimitable Goldfinger (1964), which succeeded in both respects. Nowhere is this trend more evident than for the present film, which had the least box office success of any Bond film to date. I rate it as one of the best – certainly in the top third. It's strong in all of the essentials: great Bond, great villain, a Bond girl with beauty, personality, chemistry, and skills, a good story, and great action. This was the first Bond film not to take its title from a Fleming novel or short story.
Historical Background: Englishman John Glen, who directed five of the Bond films, exhibited a remarkable versatility in approach from one film to another. He began and ended his stint as director with two of the most hard-edged and intriguing of the post-Connery 007 entries. With For Your Eyes Only, Glen countermanded the trend established by Moonraker (1979) toward science fiction fantasy and special effects. After that, however, Glen drove the series to new heights (or lows) of parody, with Octopussy (1983) and A View to a Kill (1985). Later, when the lead role was transferred to Timothy Dalton, Glen shifted again to a darker, edgier kind of style. Glen had earlier gained experience on three Bond films as a film editor: On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), and Moonraker (1979).
The Story: The pre-credit sequence finds James Bond (Timothy Dalton) preparing for a wedding, though not his own. He's serving as best man for his old friend Felix Leiter (David Hedison) and Leiter's bride Della Churchill (Priscilla Barnes). There's one hitch, however. Leiter now works for the DEA in Florida and his agency has just received indication that a plane carrying Central American drug lord Franz Sanchez (Robert Davi) is making an unexpected landing in Key West. Sanchez rarely leaves the sanctuary of his home country, Isthmus, but his mistress, Lupe Lamora (Talisa Soto), has run off with a lover and Sanchez doesn't countenance betrayals of that sort. The sadomasochistic Sanchez catches up with the luckless couple and has the lover's heart cut out of his chest. Lupe gets off with a few lashings.
Meanwhile, Leiter gets word from his colleagues about the much-coveted opportunity to grab Sanchez, just as he, Bond, and fellow DEA agent Sharkey (Frank McRae) are on their way to the church for Leiter's wedding. First things first! Leiter hops a helicopter in hopes of intercepting Sanchez. Bond figures his job as best man is to make sure Leiter stays alive, so he goes along. Poor Sharkey is left with the miserable task of informing the bride-to-be that her man will be late. Sanchez is tricky, however, and evades the DEA agents and is able to take off in a waiting plane. Bond orders the DEA helicopter to pursue and hover above Sanchez's plane. Bond then descends on the helicopter's pulley line and attaches it to Sanchez's plane, basically fishing it out of the sky. Bond and Leiter then parachute into Miami, landing right outside the church.
Della and Felix both obviously value Bond's friendship. Della, though, is the rare case of a Leiter girl in a Bond film rather than a Bond girl. Felix has to duck out on the reception for a few minutes for some undisclosed business in his home office. Bond goes looking for him and briefly encounters the lovely Pam Bouvier (Carey Lowell), though Felix doesn't introduce her (which suggests to viewers that she's probably a secret agent or DEA informant). Bond has the professional courtesy not to inquire. Leiter does introduce Bond to DEA agent Ed Killifer (Everett McGill), who drops by to kiss the bride. Killifer is also the man assigned to deliver Sanchez to Quantico, for security purposes. Later, however, Sanchez bribes Killifer with $2 million. Killifer helps Sanchez make a dramatic escape, which entails driving the police transport van off a bridge where frogmen are waiting below with air tanks for Sanchez and Killifer.
After the wedding festivities, Felix and Della give James a parting gift – a lighter that's engraved, "James, love always, Della and Felix." James heads to the airport where he's due to fly out to Istanbul on his next assignment. At the airport, however, he learns that a big drug lord has just escaped. He turns around and rushed back to Leiter's residence. He's too late, however. Della has been murdered and Felix has been partly fed to a shark. He's alive but has lost one of his legs. We now see a Bond more furious than in any other Bond film, save the beginning of Diamonds Are Forever (1971), when Bond is pursuing the man who killed his wife, Tracy.
The police and DEA are so bound by regulations that it is soon evident to Bond that the maiming of Felix and murder of Della will go unpunished unless he undertakes the job himself. Sharkey is the only one prepared to help him. Sharkey knows that Felix's leg wounds are indicative of shark bites, so he and Bond begin by visiting various coastal fisheries. At one, owned by Milton Krest (Anthony Zerbe), Bond finds all the evidence he needs – the carnation from Leiter's lapel sitting on the floor in a pile of sweepings. That night, Bond breaks into the facility and discovers a stash of cocaine, effectively linking Krest to Sanchez. Two security guards discover Bond's presence, but he overcomes them. The traitor Killifer is also there, however, and gets the drop of Bond. He's about to feed Bond to the same shark that earlier munched on Leiter's legs, but Sharkey's sudden arrival turns the tables and it is Killifer who ends up as the shark's dinner.
Back in Miami, a DEA agent intercepts Bond. The DEA doesn't care for Bond's freelance activity. The DEA man turns him over to a couple of British Secret Service agents, who then deliver Bond to M, at Hemingway House. M is unhappy with Bond's vendetta and reminds him that he's supposed to be in Istanbul on a mission. Bond is insistent on avenging Leiter and tenders his resignation. M revokes Bond's license to kill and demands that he turn over his weapon, but Bond makes a quick escape, evading three agents in the process. All M can do is muse, "God help you, 007. God help you!"
Bond's next target, with the help of Sharkey, is the Wavekrest, which is Krest's luxury sea craft that he also uses for drug smuggling. It has a remote controlled drone, which is ideal for sneaking drugs into the marina. Bond sneaks aboard and, in one of the cabins, encounters Lupe (whom he met previously in Key West). From the cabin window, he observes Sharkey's body being delivered to the ship. Out on deck, Bond shoots one of the killers with a spear gun before diving into the water and recovering the man's tank and mask. Bond now finds the drone and destroys most of the cocaine stash. He has to evade and later fight divers from the Wavekrest. Bond manages to spear the back of the water plane, which delivered the cocaine, as it is pulling away. He water glides behind it for a while and finally grabs hold of one of the pontoons. After a few minutes, he has overcome the two men on board, tossing them out, and is flying away with $5 million in cash. Krest has lost the cocaine and Bond has the money as well.
Bond returns to Miami and sneaks into Leiter's office to recover a data disk that Leiter had tucked behind Della's picture. On it, Bond finds the name of the agent, Pam Bouvier, that Bond had earlier seen in Leiter's office. The next rendezvous is scheduled for the Barrelhead Bar in Bihimi. Bond heads there and links up with Bouvier, but Sanchez's men have also learned her name and are waiting to see who arrives. The lead thug in the group is Sanchez's right-hand henchman, the sadistic, knife-wielding Dario (Benicio Del Toro). Bond has his pistol, of course, but Bouvier, who is a pretty tough customer in her own right, is packing a shotgun. They manage to shoot and brawl their way out of the bar into Bond's waiting speedboat, which he has had the sense to dock stern in. They make their getaway, but Bond's boat later runs out of gas, out at sea, at dusk. Bond asks Bouvier, who is a professional pilot, if she'll fly him into Isthmus. They negotiate a price – $75,000 – before turning to another kind of negotiation, as the light pales.
Arriving in Isthmus City, with $5 million in his pocket (less payment to Bouvier), Bond extends his bankroll at the blackjack table. Since Sanchez owns both the bank and the casino, Bond naturally gains his attention. Bond arranges a meeting with Sanchez in his office and uses the opportunity to survey it for a future assassination attempt. The glass is bulletproof, so he'd have to blow that away first. After he leaves, Bond finds his "uncle," Q, waiting for him in his hotel room. Though Bond is persona non grata with M, at the moment, Miss Moneypenny has taken it upon herself to alert Q, and Q has decided to take some overdue vacation time – in Isthmus. He's brought some toys, including plastic explosives disguised as toothpaste and a hand signature rifle. Bond is able to set up the assassination attempt, but is foiled at the last moment by Chinese ninjas working for Hong Kong narcotics. They want Sanchez alive so they can discover how his drug smuggling operation works. Bond is mucking up their agenda. Bond is overcome and carted off to their headquarters. Bond is about to be turned over once again to British agents, but Sanchez's head of security, Col Heller (Don Stroud), brings down his tanks and army units on the group. All are killed except Bond, who is tied to a table. Sanchez arrives and surmises that Bond's circumstances indicate he could not be one of the drug agents. On the logic that his enemy's enemies are his friends, Sanchez takes Bond under his wing as his new amigo.
Bond uses that role to seed doubts in Sanchez's mind about the loyalty of Krest, providing the evidence to back it up by planting money in the pressure chamber on Krest's boat. When Sanchez discovers the money – his money – hidden on Krest's boat, no amount of protestations of innocence from Krest can save him. Sanchez tosses him into the pressure chamber and literally blows his head open. The next day, Sanchez, still imagining that Bond is a new ally, takes James into the heart of his operation, which is disguised as a meditation retreat. Bond's ruse falls apart, however, with the arrival of Dario, who well remembers Bond from the Barrelhead Bar. Meanwhile, Pam Bouvier has risked her life to get to Sanchez's operation as well, posing as a cultist from Wichita Falls with a large donation for the center. After fending off a libidinous guru, Professor Joe Butcher (Wayne Newton), Bouvier finds Bond just in time to save him from being ground up in a shredder, courtesy of Dario. Dario is the one who becomes the ground beef.
The ending is spectacular, encompassing Sanchez murdering two more of his errant henchmen (Sanchez deciding to cut his overhead), a chase involving four fuel trucks loaded with cocaine saturated gasoline, stinger missiles, Bouvier in a crop dusting airplane, and a final confrontation between Bond and Sanchez. A gasoline-soaked Sanchez is about to kill Bond for his betrayal, when Bond interrupts him by asking, "Don't you even want to know why?" When Sanchez hesitates, Bond ignites him, fittingly, with the lighter given to him as a gift by Felix and Della.
Production Values: Although Dalton only made two films, he is my second favorite Bond actor and even then second only to the best five of Connery's performances. Dalton was excellent in his first outing, but was even more self-assured in this second go around. Dalton put his own stamp on the role, avoiding imitations of either Connery or Moore. Dalton gives us the "most dangerous Bond" ever, with a dark, brooding aspect, and strong emotional core. He's also more human and vulnerable. Many reviewers consider Dalton's Bond the closest to what Fleming intended. Dalton was aided in his endeavor to reinvigorate the Bond persona by some excellent direction from John Glen and strong writing from Michael G. Wilson and Richard Maibaum.
Although some reviewers decry this film's story as less spy related than Bond films ought to be, I find it to be an outstanding change of pace. I love Bond's cold, ruthless, emotional intensity in this story, triggered by the mistreatment of his friends Felix and Della. Furthermore, this film has plausibility. The villain is merely a greedy drug lord rather than the usual megalomaniac bent on world domination. There's extra tension because Bond has to take on both the villains and government agents who want to reign him in, as a rogue. There's precious little flippant humor in this film and what is there is pretty darn clever. A few well-chosen bits of humor go a lot further with me than a whole lot that's lame.
This film has a richer variety of subtexts than most Bond films. Sanchez has real relationships with each of his henchmen and each relationship is distinctive. I was glad to see Sanchez blow away the twerpy technobabble-spouting geek, Truman-Lodge (Anthony Starke). Bond's relationships with each of the two main Bond girls are deeper than typical. The film even develops several peripheral relationships, such as Bond and Della, Bond and Felix, Bond and M, and Bouvier and Q.
The action scenes are skillfully directed and quite exciting, though fewer in number than in most Bond films. That's the way I like it, especially when the intervening time is used for character development and drama, as it is here. The pre-credit sequence is above average for the series though not in the top half-dozen. The brawl at Barrelhead Bar is beautifully choreographed and believable. The scene at the Wavekrest, which runs from underwater to aerial, is exceptional, but the film's top action sequence is its finale. The locales are good, but only about average among Bond films. The soundtrack is also just mediocre, both for the credit song and throughout the film.
Robert Davi, as the villain Sanchez, is one of the best in the series. The part requires a delicate balance between intelligence and gullibility. He's an alert, shrewd man but troubled by a streak of paranoia, which Bond play on effectively. Davi invests Sanchez with a full personality, albeit a sadistic one. I was also very impressed with Benicio Del Toro as henchman Dario, a scary cruel little beast of a man. Anthony Zerbe, Wayne Newton, Don Stroud, and Anthony Starke each added unique dimensions to the coterie of henchmen.
Carey Lowell as Pam Bouvier is one of the most interesting Bond girls that the series has offered. All of the last six Bond films have provided a Bond girl who is also a competent woman, which is a welcome trend. Two of those six (a cellist and a nuclear scientist) were competent in arenas unlike Bond's expertise. Four were action heroines of a sort, competing with Bond in his own domain. Of those four, Lowell provides the nicest balance between traditional and modern Bond girl traits, somehow managing to be both resourceful and beautifully feminine. She's in the upper quarter of all Bond girls in my personal register. Her part really gives her a chance to show a full range of emotions and skills. Talisa Soto is a bit less successful as Lupe Lamora, but I still like the way that her part was written. She has a history and a personality.
Desmond Llewelyn, as Q, gets his best opportunity of the series, joining Bond in the field, for a change, and relating to both Bond and Bouvier meaningfully. Caroline Bliss is rather ineffective as Moneypenny and didn't last long in the series. Robert Brown is superb as M. David Hedison plays Felix Leiter twice in the series and is my favorite in the role. His other appearance was in Live and Let Die.
Bottom-Line: If you purchase the Special Edition DVD, you'll get a whole host of extras with this film. There is an audio commentary track featuring director John Glen. There are two music videos, one with Gladys Knight and the other featuring Patti LaBelle. There are also theatrical trailers and two featurettes. This is a great Bond film, if you like your Bond with rough edges rather than campy humor. Here is my Overall Certified Gold Bond Rating for this fine film, using my system that facilitates comparisons across the series:
Bond: Timothy Dalton Rating: 5/5
Villain: Franz Sanchez (Robert Davi) Rating: 5/5
Henchmen: Dario (Benico Del Toro) 5/5; Milton Krest (Anthony Zerbe) 4/5, Col. Heller (Don Stroud) 3/5; Truman-Lodge (Anthony Starke) 4/5; Professor Joe Butcher (Wayne Newton) 4/5 Overall Rating: 4/5
Bond girls: Pam Bouvier (Carey Lowell) 5/5 Rating: 5/5
Secondary Bond girls: Lupe Lamora (Talisa Soto) 4/5; Della Churchill (Priscilla Barnes) 4/5 Rating: 4/5
Colleagues: M (Robert Brown) 5/5; Q (Desmond Llewellyn) 5/5; Miss Moneypenny (Caroline Bliss) 2/5; Felix Leiter (David Hedison) 5/5; Sharkey (Frank McRae) 4/5 Overall Rating: 4/5
Storyline: Central American drug dealer; revenge motive and resignation from British Secret service; hard-edged plot Rating: 5/5
Action: Pre-credit capture of Sanchez 5/5; brawl at Barrelhead Bar in Bihimi 5/5; underwater fight to water gliding to plane hijacking 5/5; assassination attempt and raid on Hong Kong narcotics hideout 4/5; shredder escape 5/5, gasoline truck and stinger missile battle 5/5 Overall Rating: 5/5
Drama/Character Development: Hard-edged plot, villain and henchmen with real personalities, good chemistry between Bond and both Pam Bouvier and Lupe Lamora, Bond girls actively involved in plot; tense relationship between M and Bond Rating: 5/5
Music: Mediocre theme song written by Diane Warren and sung by Gladys Knight, mediocre score by Michael Kamen Rating: 3/5
Locales: Miami, "Isthmus City" Rating: 3/5
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Overall Certified Gold Bond Rating: 51/60
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