Debating Dalton: Total Film Reassesses James Bond Number Four

It is now 20 years since Timothy Dalton last played 007 but, although Dalton only starred in two James Bond films, interest in the RADA-trained Shakespearean actor remains high, as is shown by a short and provocative review article in the latest edition of the UK’s Total Film magazine (no.158, September, 2009).

In the review article, ‘Is it just me?... or is Timothy Dalton the best Bond’, which also has the views of some other contributors in a separate column, Total Film journalist Richard Matthews has reassessed both ‘The Living Daylights’ (1987) and ‘Licence to Kill’ (1989) in light of their recent re-release on DVD. He argues that the actor from Colwyn Bay, Wales, who was educated in Derbyshire and carved out a distinguished career on the stage, was the only actor “to play properly” Ian Fleming’s flinty hero. While acknowledging that Daniel Craig in ‘Casino Royale’ was “electrifying”, Matthews stresses his own pro-Dalton view is “purist, geeky proclamation”.

He sets out his stall by briefly summarising his views of the other Bonds: according to Matthews, Connery was “charismatic”, Lazenby was “undone by arch self-awareness”, Moore equalled “hover gondola”, Brosnan “aped Connery” with a trace of Moore, and Craig has been “the most brazen 007 ever to quaff a vodka martini”.

However, in Matthews’s view, back in the late 1980s, Timothy Dalton conformed to Ian Fleming’s blueprint for James Bond perfectly: “black hair falling down over the right eyebrow… something cruel in the mouth and the eyes cold”. And in both TLD in 1987 and LTK in 1989, according to Matthews, Dalton “brought Fleming’s fractured, damaged psychology back to Bond”. He notes that, in press interviews at the time, even Dalton acknowledged this was risky, especially after the camp humour and hi-tech of the Moore years. At one point Dalton said: “It’s important to make the man believable. Whether people like this kind of Bond is another question…”.

The answer to this question, notes Matthews, was that the critics responded well to this new interpretation of Bond, but the public “simply didn’t get it”, and LTK in particular performed weakly at the box-office (and, according to some views, was not helped by a lacklustre marketing campaign in the crucial U.S. market).

Matthews speculates: “Maybe it was Dalton’s lack of humour, too much of a U-turn from 1985’s ‘A View to A Kill’ and not clicking with viewers who, frankly, couldn’t care less about his commitment to realism and stuntwork. Or maybe Dalton was just ahead of his time”. In fact, Matthews argues, the world at that particular time was simply not ready for Dalton’s mentally-scarred Bond. Twenty years on, however, when Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson re-tried the “rough-and-tough” Bond with Daniel Craig, the results were far more successful.

Matthews concludes: “Now, in a post-Bourne world, surely it’s time to acknowledge that Dalton’s was the true screen Bond… Or is it just me?”.

Bond And Beyond: Dalton’s Career Yesterday and Today

Dalton’s motion-picture debut was in ‘The Lion in Winter’ in 1968, alongside another rising Welsh star, Anthony Hopkins. The film was also memorable for a highly atmospheric choral theme by composer John Barry. It was in 1968 that Dalton was first offered the role of 007 by Cubby Broccoli, after Sean Connery had made it clear that (as far as he was concerned) ‘You Only Live Twice’ (1967) was to be his very last Bond film. Anybody who has seen the famous ‘Whicker’s World’ documentary on the making of YOLT will appreciate the tremendous pressures Connery had experienced from both the press and public while filming in Japan. Connery had become a super-star, and many people expected the Scottish actor to behave like James Bond at all times. Despite the efforts of Broccoli to protect Connery from the antics of the paparazzi and over-enthusiastic fans, Connery had found it impossible to go out in public and relax with his wife.

The hard-working 22-year old Dalton refused the role of 007, however, on the grounds that he was too young and Sean Connery would be a very hard act to follow. The coveted role, as we know, went to relatively unknown Australian male model George Lazenby, whose main claim to fame was an advert for the ‘Big Fry’ chocolate bar. Ironically, given the way that director Peter Hunt returned Bond back to pure Fleming basics in OHMSS, it was a film that probably would have more than suited Dalton’s strong commitment to authentic character roles and faithful interpretation.

Dalton was next offered the role of James Bond in the early 1970s, and again in the early 1980s. Each time he declined, but Cubby Broccoli kept Dalton high on his wants list. When it became clear that the makers of ‘Remington Steele’ would not release a frustrated Pierce Brosnan from his contract, Broccoli once again turned to Dalton. This time Dalton agreed, on the proviso that he could give 007 a darker and grittier interpretation compared to the Moore era. Broccoli was more than happy to agree and, in 1986, Dalton was announced as the fourth Bond to a surprised and excited world.

Like Craig twenty years later, Dalton was determined to root his interpretation very much in the literary version of Bond. Dalton carefully re-read the Ian Fleming novels and other works on Bond, and the Bond of TLD and LTK (especially the latter film) showed a flawed and very human 007, who did not suffer fools gladly. As with Craig now, Dalton was also very keen to do as many of his own stunts as possible, much to the alarm of film insurers but to the respect of the EON stunt-arrangers. When the UK newspaper the ‘Sunday Mirror’ scored a coup with the first press shots of Dalton on set in Gibraltar as Bond, the Welsh actor was seen in his parachute gear getting advice on a dangerous stunt sequence and, in a break from filming, even smoking a cigarette. It was a nice foretaste of the TLD pre-credits, which (at the time) injected a grittier reality back into the fight-sequences of the Bond films.

It is not generally realised that, after TLD and LTK, Dalton came very close to making a third Bond film. A script outline scenario, co-authored by Michael G. Wilson, was even written, with a Chinese villain and Hong Kong locations, and possible use of advanced robotic technology. Pre-production began on the film in 1990, with the aim of a 1991 release date. However, a four-year legal tussle between the owners of UA/MGM and Cubby Broccoli/Eon then ensued and, shortly after it was resolved, Timothy Dalton announced in April 1994 that he would not be returning to the role of 007.

Dalton remained a close friend of the Broccoli family and attended, along with Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan, the Cubby Broccoli tribute event at the Odeon Leicester Square not long after the producer’s death. Dalton was also a guest at the premiere of Brosnan’s last Bond film, ‘Die Another Day’. In recent years, Dalton has returned to the stage in central London in ‘His Dark Materials’, a role played by none other than Daniel Craig in the recent screen version. Dalton has also played a villain in the successful comedy film ‘Hot Fuzz’ (2007), and has just filmed a guest role for the last David Tennant episode of the popular British sci-fi series ‘Dr. Who’.