Review of Licence to Kill (1989) by Brandon S — 11 Jun 2011

Some watch 007 films for the action and stunts. Some for the international intrigue. Others for the hot babes, or James Bond's charming personality. But with the reboot of the franchise in 2006, Bond is now updated, energized, revved up and cooled down to the ultimate hard-hitting, sharpshooting, steel-veined spy. Timothy Dalton is no match for Daniel Craig's new Bond, but he sure beats Roger Moore as 007.

While critics are in general agreement that Moore was a poor choice for Ian Fleming's spy, there has been more heated debate about the merits of Dalton and Craig. Of course, their progenitor, the immensely popular Sean Connery, dragged these evaluations off course by establishing Bond on the silver screen as a suave and charming creature who rarely got dirt under his fingernails. Moore continued in that vein, while Dalton offered a gritter alternative that became fully realized in Craig, who was tortured and in full revenge mode by the end of his first Bond film, Casino Royale. Dalton's Licence to Kill is very much a revenge story, too, ending his career as Bond and thrusting the franchise into turmoil for six years. So it is interesting to revisit the film and poke around under the hood.

Licence to Kill gets off to a jolting start when Bond's CIA buddy Felix Lighter (David Hedison) is no sooner married than his wife is murdered and Felix himself is nearly tortured to death. The villain is drug baron Franz Sanchez (Robert Davi), who Felix recently incarcerated. Having broken out of prison, Sanchez gets revenge on Leiter. Then Bond goes after Sanchez, defying MI6 orders. Depending on how you interpret the events, Bond resigns or M (Robert Brown) decides to strip Bond of his licence to kill. The bottom line is that MI6 does not believe Sanchez to be a threat to England or a strategic target and suddenly Bond is on his own. Instead of rendering Bond powerless, the revocation of his 007 status makes his more dangerous than ever. With the help of one of Felix's friends, Pam Bouvier (Carey Lowell), Bond gains access into Sanchez's production facility and his his hot on the trail of the drug lord in a vendetta unlike any Bond film that came before.

Like every Bond film that came before, Licence to Kill features an exotic woman in Sanchez's girlfriend, Lupe Lamora (Talisa Soto). It also takes the violence and stunts up a notch over the preceding adventures of 007. But the real departure here is to turn Bond into an unsympathetic, vengeful character motivated not by duty or justice but purely by revenge. The idea was done better in Quantum of Solace, where Bond appeared to defy M and pursue his vengeance, but he was really acting in the interests of the MI6 all along and effectively saved countless lives in Bolivia and beyond. In Licence to Kill, this is not the case and Dalton's Bond has fewer redeeming qualities. Little wonder it was Dalton's last stint as 007.