The Living Daylights

John Glen (1987)

130min

PG Certificate

Review

Our Score

by Mark Braxton

After the creaky pantomime of the late Roger Moore era, Timothy Dalton's take on 007 is a breath of fresh air. Though lean and flint-eyed, his serious approach never takes the secret agent beyond our sympathy. For a story that segues from Soviet defection and arms dealing to the struggles of the Mujahidin, this is an endearingly human Bond. He sweats, he bleeds and, unusually for the sleep-around spy, he falls in love - with Czech cellist Kara (Maryam D'Abo). It's a freewheeling, romantic adventure with a sweetly staged prologue, nods to the gadget brigade and a hair-raising aerial scrap - one of the best of the series. In common with many of the superspy's outings, the villains themselves are colourless but there's a killer henchman - in this case the sleek, wordless Necros (Andreas Wisniewski). The hero's warmongery is iffy and the finale a little lame; otherwise this is a savagely underrated escapade.

Summary

James Bond crosses the continents to help a KGB agent to defect to the West. While protecting him from an unknown assassin, the super-spy is drawn into the world of arms dealing and a plot to trade millions of pounds' worth of diamonds for weapons to supply mercenaries around the world. Action adventure, with Timothy Dalton making his debut appearance as 007, alongside Maryam d'Abo, Joe Don Baker and Art Malik.

Cast & Crew

James Bond Timothy Dalton

Kara Milovy Maryam D'Abo

General Georgi Koskov Jeroen Krabbé

Brad Whitaker Joe Don Baker

General Leonid Pushkin John Rhys-Davies

Kamran Shah Art Malik

Necros Andreas Wisniewski

Saunders Thomas Wheatley

"Q" Desmond Llewelyn

"M" Robert Brown

Minister of Defence Geoffrey Keen

General Anatol Gogol Walter Gotell

Miss Moneypenny Caroline Bliss

Felix Leiter John Terry

Director John Glen

Other Information

Language: EnglishColourTheatrical distributor: U.I.P. (UK)Guidance: May be edited for violence and nudity. Available on: video, DVD and Blu-ray

Drama

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