# Which was the best Timothy Dalton Bond film? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 24, 2012, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-was-the-best-timothy-dalton-bond-film/638725 "2012-10-24T13:28:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2012, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-was-the-best-timothy-dalton-bond-film/638725/21 "2012-10-25T01:53:34Z")
I liked Dalton as Bond, the problem he has was his films coming toward the end of the over-inflated, over-long, over complex stories that seemed typical of the later films. _The Living Daylights_ is a fine 105 minute movie lost inside a 210 minute one. \*License to Kill \* could have been made with any of the late 80’s action movie actors as a stand-alone film rather than a Bond and been a lot better without the extra baggage that entails. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2012, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-was-the-best-timothy-dalton-bond-film/638725/22 "2012-10-25T02:42:10Z")
> [@DSYoungEsq](#): > > _License to Kill_ is almost not a Bond movie, though it may well be a Bond story. Until they introduced the Daniel Craig version of Bond, this was the only truly gritty, truly bad-ass Bond performance. It’s too bad it was played by Timothy Dalton, who, frankly, never had what it takes to be a good Bond, if for no other reason than his size, IMHO. 😕 Dalton’s 6’2". Bruce Lee was only 5’7½". A friend of mine, long before Craig got tapped, remarked that Dalton was the first actor to play Bond as a stone cold killer, a man with few or no real emotions who fakes it real well, but basically is in it because he enjoys the thrill and the kill. ---
**Author:** ![SecretaryofEvil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@SecretaryofEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SecretaryofEvil)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2012, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-was-the-best-timothy-dalton-bond-film/638725/23 "2012-10-25T05:47:03Z")
Add me to the list of people who think the Dalton Bond films are seriously underrated. The Moores and the later Connerys don’t hold up well at all. I recently rewatched the two Daltons and they hold up surprisingly well. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2012, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-was-the-best-timothy-dalton-bond-film/638725/24 "2012-10-25T09:39:44Z")
_Licence to Kill_. It had a few over-the-top moments, but they were incidental to the main story. It had several shout-outs to Ian Fleming’s stories, which I thought were cool. Dalton is a good actor. The problem was the writing and directing. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2012, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-was-the-best-timothy-dalton-bond-film/638725/25 "2012-10-25T11:10:37Z")
I liked them both, Dalton WAS Bond. ---
**Author:** ![Damfino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Damfino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damfino)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2012, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-was-the-best-timothy-dalton-bond-film/638725/26 "2012-10-27T21:12:27Z")
> [@BMax](#): > > Dalton read the Bond books and decided to portray James Bond as a serious character. His portrayal of Bond was better than Moore’s smirk, and his age didn’t require any suspension of disbelief for the stunts. By time Moore finished with the role he was over 60. The problem with Dalton’s films was the writing and direction. The stories were a continuation of the assembly line formulaic Bond films that Roger Moore starred in. Nitpick : Moore was 58 years old when he made his last Bond movie. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2012, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-was-the-best-timothy-dalton-bond-film/638725/27 "2012-10-27T21:51:09Z")
One thing I am trying to remember is if there was a campaign to get Brosnan to play Bond at the time Dalton got the role. I am wondering if Dalton was seen as nothing more than a place holder until Brosnan was done with Remington Steele and whatever other projects he had going until Golden Eye. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2012, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-was-the-best-timothy-dalton-bond-film/638725/28 "2012-10-27T22:27:35Z")
Brosnan was the odds-on favorite to become Bond at the end of the Moore era. He would have become Bond, except that the notoriety he was receiving as the “next James Bond” induced NBC to renew _Remington Steele_ for a fifth season, having previously decided to cancel it. The Bond people decided they didn’t want a Bond who was still being seen on the small screen in a weekly series, so they terminated their pursuit of Brosnan and turned instead to Dalton. _Remington Steele_, as it turned out, didn’t actually run as a regular show that fifth season. Instead, it had a series of extended episodes (seven or eight, I can’t remember, and am too lazy to go look it up on my DVD set). Basically, Brosnan got completely screwed over by the whole thing. I have a very vivid memory of Dalton looking short in his two movies. I must have a very vivid, but somewhat out-of-kilter memory. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2012, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-was-the-best-timothy-dalton-bond-film/638725/29 "2012-10-27T22:37:48Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > I liked Dalton as well. It is too bad that he didn’t get more than 2 films but I guess some people thought he was too big a change from Moore. I liked Dalton the best until Craig. I think the story was Dalton did two and then Cubby Broccoli died, and there was a big legal wrangle over who had the rights to make Bond movies. By the time it was resolved, Dalton wanted to move on, and Brosnan took over (and they went back to making ridiculous movies). ---
**Author:** ![coolbyrne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bc79bd/32.png) [@coolbyrne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coolbyrne)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2012, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-was-the-best-timothy-dalton-bond-film/638725/30 "2012-10-28T00:01:05Z")
I’ve always looked at the Dalton and Craig introductions as being quite parallel to one another, where both came on to infuse a real grit and seriousness to the role after a decade (or more) of increasing ridiculousness. Dalton followed a 58-year old quipping dandy in Moore, and Craig followed an invisible car. The difference being- for whatever reason- the audience wasn’t ready for the franchise to take the turn Dalton offered. We were by the time Craig came along. I think the two Dalton entries are vastly underrated, with “Licence to Kill” being my favourite. It’s a Bond who at once seems to be just a regular guy (the Felix Leiter wedding showed he actually had friends) but in an instant can turn right back into a cold-blooded killing machine (perhaps M would say “a blunt tool”). When he comes in and discovers Della Leiter dead and Felix mangled by the shark (“He disagreed with something that ate him”), Dalton plays that completely right; shocked and horrified, immediately followed by fury and vengeance. I also enjoyed David Hedison as Felix Leiter and an early glimpse at the career of Benecio Del Toro. Robert Davi was a great villain and his death was a satisfying pay-off. Would have been interesting to see what might have happened had there not been the studio problems after “Licence to Kill”. By the time it was all done and dusted, six years had gone by and Dalton (now 49 or 51) and Eon decided to part ways. Dalton was then what we see Craig to be now. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2012, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-was-the-best-timothy-dalton-bond-film/638725/31 "2012-10-28T15:16:19Z")
Dalton is still my favorite Bond, and \*License to Kill \*my favorite Bond film, for reasons well discussed up-thread. I remember watching Flash Gordon (in theatrical release) and thinking, “This dude would make a great Bond some day!” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-was-the-best-timothy-dalton-bond-film/638725.md?page=1)