BOND PART III: The Living Daylights / Licence to Kill
A double feature in tribute of the “forgotten” Bond.
CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of racism, violence, specific acts of violence in the film, sex, misogyny.
It’s officially season 4 of Macintosh & Maud Haven’t Seen What?! but instead of taking a break, we’re already on the clock to finish our James Bond film watch before we see the 20th Bond film, No Time to Die.
So we’re kicking things off with an epic double-feature of the Bond that time forgot, the man who could have been Bond as early as 1968. That, of course, is Timothy Dalton, an incredibly charming and dashing Bond with an undercurrent of violence and tension. Watching these two movies now, you’re left wishing Dalton had been on board as early as For Your Eyes Only, to take over the mantle from the clearly gassed Roger Moore. By 1987, though, action films had been radically transformed, and even with a good-faith attempt to update their feel, Eon Productions failed to deliver satisfying stories and characters to match a strong vibe Dalton was bringing to the table. Secretly, many think Dalton might be the best Bond ever, but we can’t know because the team surrounding him just didn’t know how to make the leap into a new era. We’re discussing The Living Daylights and Licence to Kill this week on Macintosh & Maud Haven’t Seen What?!
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Intro music taken from the Second Movement of Ludwig von Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Hong Kong (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 HK) license. To hear the full performance or get more information, visit the song page at the Internet Archive.
Excerpt taken from "James Bond Theme," written and composed by John Barry, and performed by the John Barry Orchestra. ℗ 1962, 2012 Capitol Records LLC.
Excerpts taken from “The Living Daylights,” written by Pål Waaktaar and John Barry and performed by A-ha. Copyright 1987 Danjaq, S.A. and United Artists Company, phonographic copyright 1987 Warner Bros. Records.
Excerpt taken from “Princes of the Universe,” written by Freddie Mercury and performed by Queen. Copyright 1986 Raincloud Productions Ltd. / Queen Productions Ltd.
Excerpt taken from “If There Was a Man,” written by Chrissie Hynde and John Barry and performed by The Pretenders. Copyright 1987 Danjaq, S.A. and United Artists Company, phonographic copyright 1987 Warner Bros. Records.
Excerpt taken from “West End Girls,” written by Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe and performed by Pet Shop Boys. Copyright 1985 Cage Music Ltd.
Excerpt taken from “Licence to Kill,” written by Jeffrey Cohen, Narada Michael Walden, and Walter Afanasieff, and arranged by Michael Kamen and Walter Afanasieff. Performed by Gladys Knight. Copyright 1989 Danjaq, S.A. and United Artists Company. All rights reserved.
Excerpt taken from “Banned in the USA,” written by Bruce Springsteen with additional lyrics by Luke and the 2 Live Crew, by permission of Bruce Springsteen. Copyright 1990 Luke Records.
Excerpt taken from “If You Asked Me To,” written by Diane Warren and Stewart Levine, and performed by Patti LaBelle. Copyright 1989 Danjaq, S.A. and United Artists Company. All rights reserved.
Excerpt for the Spooky Bond segment taken from “Dark Drone.flac,” created by jdagenet on the Freesound platform. Licensed under a Creative Commons 0 License. Find the file on Freesound here.
