His bad side is not a good place to be

Part of the strength of the Bond movies, and the secret to their endurance over the years was the ability to adapt to what was popular with audiences. Live And Let Die was “Bond Does Blaxploitation” The Man With The Golden Gun was “Bond does Kung-Fu” and Moonraker was of course “Bond Does Star Wars. Despite the success of all these outlandish changes to suit audience taste, Broccoli’s step-son Michael G. Wilson, now on the production team, really wanted to go back to a more realistic style of Bond. Many critics felt that the Bond movies had descended almost into self parody – and during Roger Moore’s tenure in the role that much is certainly true.

Bond needed to evolve again. Two years previously, Timothy Dalton made a successful, critically acclaimed debut as Bond, in the really rather terrific The Living Daylights. However, after this, there were no original Ian Fleming stories left to adapt. For Dalton’s next adventure, the film-makers had to come up with something new.

What was going on in the world? South American drug barons and their cocaine cartels were big news. Seemed like a more realistic breed of villain for Bond to go up against.
What was popular in cinemas? Violent action thrillers like Die Hard and Lethal Weapon – these seemed to be what audiences wanted. What were Timothy Dalton’s strengths as Bond? Moody intensity, stark realism, tough, macho, charisma.

All these elements were added into a heady mix – and resulted in easily the most controversial James Bond film of all time.

Beginning with Michael Kamen’s sinister, foreboding rendition of Monty Norman’s iconic theme over the obligatory gun-barrel opening, we find Bond acting as best man at his old friend Felix Leiter’s wedding. Leiter (David Hedison) is no longer with the CIA and now instead is in charge of the DEA in the Florida Keys. As they are literally on the way to the church, Leiter is alerted that Franz Sanchez (Robert Davi) is in the keys. Sanchez is a huge drug baron, hiding in the banana republic of Isthmus where he is protected by a lack of extradition laws. Sanchez is in the keys, to track down his unfaithful girlfriend and take her home. We get the measure of this man soon enough, as he orders his henchmen to cut out her latest lover’s heart – whilst he is still alive.

As Sanchez attempts to escape from the Keys after this wicked deed, Bond and Leiter manage to capture him, put him in custody and get to the church in time for Lieter to marry his sweetheart Della.
However, one of Leiter’s fellow DEA agents Killifer, accepts a $2Million bribe to free Sanchez, and get him to Milton Krest’s underwater research laboratory – from where he can get back to Isthmus indetected.

Unaware of this, Leiter and Della marry. And after Bond says goodbye and heads off to the airport to catch a flight back to the UK, Sanchez and his evil henchman, led by Dario (Benicio Del Toro) ambush the newly married couple at the house. Knocking out Leiter they rape and murder his new bride (thankfully this is all offscreen) and when Leiter comes around, they take him to Krest’s lab where they feed him alive to a shark – in one of the most shocking sequences ever seen in a Bond film.

Just as Bond is about to board a plane, he notices a lot of police activity and instinctively thinks of Della and Leiter. He rushes to their home where he is horrified to find Della dead, and Leiter barely alive with one of his legs missing.

Bond, begins to investigate – and one of his first courses of action is to have Killifer killed by the same shark that maimed Leiter. Bond, remembering the death of his own wife Tracy (which occurred in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service) is consumed by a thirst for revenge against Sanchez. A thirst so strong that he resigns from his position with the secret service in order to carry it out. He teams up with Pam Bouvier (Carey Lowell) a colleague of Leiter’s and with millions of dollars of Sanchez’s stolen money – he puts his powerful plan into action.

Here, the story begins to take on elements of Yojimbo and A Fistful Of Dollars. Bond, no longer a secret agent, has become like a Ronin. A warrior without a master. An anti-hero with an agenda that is completely personal and self serving. After he accidentally botches an assassination attempt on Sanchez, Sanchez takes Bond into his organization after Bond is able to convince him that he’s looking for a job as one of his lieutenants. Despite Sanchez’s evil deeds, he respects loyalty and rewards it.
Bond uses this weakness to infiltrate Sanchez’ organisation and slowly destroy it from within.

We see a new side to Bond here. One of a cunning manipulator. He places seeds of doubt in Sanchez’s mind. He even goes as far as to frame Milton Krest for theft and watches impassively as Sanchez kills him in a decompression chamber (a scene which required cuts from the British Board Of Film Classification).
Soon, Bond discovers Sanchez’s plan. Sanchez has come up with a method to smuggle cocaine by dissolving it in gasoline and also has acquired stinger missiles to use as a threat against American forces if they don’t stay out of Isthmus.

The scene is set for a bloody confrontation, in which Bond must use all his wits and cunning to survive in an adventure unlike anything he’s encountered before. An adventure in which by the end, it’ll be impossible to tell the good guys from the bad.

When this movie was released in the UK, it made headlines. Due to it’s graphic violence it was awarded a 15 rating by the BBFC, rather than the usual PG certificates that all the previous films in the series had received. And watching it now, it is still quite shocking. The scene where Leiter is fed to the shark is harrowing and difficult to watch, and the scene were Bond finds Leiter’s dead bride is shocking and disturbing. The scene were Krest is blown up inside the decompression chamber is also very unpleasant (made all the more so by the fact that it was Bond himself who engineered those chain of events).
The violence in general is brutal, and the ending in which Bond finally defeats Sanchez by turning him into a human fireball is actually almost sickening.

Bond in this movie is no hero. You can’t really call him the good guy. His actions and motives are as almost morally corrupt and as ruthless as Sanchez’s – and it’s a pretty sobering light to see this character portrayed in.

Simply put – this Bond film shocked the world.

Due to the controversy over the movie’s violence, a lacklustre marketing campaign, an age restrictive rating in the U.K – and competition from other massive blockbusters like Batman, Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade and Lethal Weapon 2 this Bond film under-performed at the box office.
Plus, seasoned Bond fans at the time were disappointed by the all too realistic villain, and the lack of gadgets and innuendo laden quips. Another movie wouldn’t be made in this franchise for another six years, and Timothy Dalton never again got to wear the tux and utter that immortal line “The name’s Bond, James Bond”.

However… the years have been kind to this movie. Modern day Bond fans praise the movie now, for it’s “Fleming-esque” flavour and mesmerising central performance from Dalton. Many fans also now rate Sanchez as one of, if not THE best Bond villains. Director John Glen has also said he thinks it’s the best film he’s ever made, and the one he’s most proud of.

21 years later, the controversy has died down. Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig’s Bond films have taken the series back to the top of the tree when it comes to action franchises. Fans and audiences have forgiven and forgotten, and all Licence To Kill is now, is one more DVD in the collection.

Daniel Craig’s movies Casino Royale and Quantum Of Solace have especially enjoyed acclaim and success – for making Bond more realistic and gritty. It’s funny how that everyone thinks this is a fresh approach and a shot in the arm for the series… when the filmmakers actually attempted to take it into this direction all those years ago. Sadly back then, audiences just weren’t ready for it.

Licence To Kill is still somewhat regarded as the unruly child of the Bond series. The black sheep. The experiment that didn’t quite work. But don’t write it off. It may not be the kind of 007 movie you’re used to, but take it on it’s own merits it’s a taut, thrilling, violent and cathartic revenge thriller.

Happy 21st birthday Licence To Kill.

Comment on this article by clicking here