Dalton didn’t resonate with audiences because he didn’t play Bond with swagger (which was by design). That’s why Craig succeeded more. He fused Fleming’s cynicism with Connery’s machismo.
Craig does swagger better. Dalton just has a more intense emotional range. Both are really good actors but I just appreciated Dalton's show of agony, sadness and regret in LtK more than I do Craig's in all the films save for when Vesper dies in Casino Royale.
Absolutely. Tracy drives as well as Bond, skis as well as Bond, fights as well as Bond...The most well rounded Bond girl by far. And you won't be the last... You can go off posters you know.
You’re all wrong. Lazenby was the worst. I love OHMSS, but thank goodness there’s so much great about it to offset Lazenby’s stilted acting and poor line delivery.
Oh, I'm the same. OHMSS is peak James Bond and I like George Lazenby a lot - he's an endearing and giving man who loves the fans - but he is the worst cinematic Bond actor.
I appreciate that Dalton was trying to do Fleming's Bond justice, but something that Lapis Exilis posted around here many years ago stuck with me and informed my view of him in relation to the other Bond actors...the thing that he and Lazenby had in common is that they didn't have that "It" factor that the other Bond actors each had in their own way. Dalton was a solid thespian who was playing the part of James Bond as portrayed in the novels...but he didn't own and embody the part the way that Connery, Moore, Brosnan, and Craig did. Yet the RPG gave her substantially lower stats.
Watch THE ROCKETEER and you can see that Dalton could have easily turned up the swagger and charm that people associate with Bond. He simply wasn’t going for that. It makes me wonder if had he done his third film he would have been asked by Cubby to lighten up his Bond but in a way that felt consistent with his Fleming approach, the same way Roger Moore was recalibrated in TSWLM after they tried toughening him up in TMWTGG.
Would have been the equivalent of Austin Powers after Vanessa was killed. "Hang about, I'm single again!"
Dalton's toughness isn't the issue. His Bond was furious at Leiter's predicament and acted properly to his enemies. What I found Mooreish was Wayne Newton's presence, plus the return of LIVE AND LET DIE's Leiter, who seemed to me improperly happy at the end. Yes, his wife's killer is history. Perhaps he seemed lightweight to me in comparison to the others. Even Dalton moaning ''Della!'' instead of screaming it seemed odd at the time, and still does. He sounded rather..........Brosnany? Despite that I'm a Dalton man, be it HOT FUZZ or FLASH GORDON. And I enjoyed DAYLIGHTS very much as it let the main villain survive, had a typically terrific John Barry score, avoided the sacrificial babe routine and even made me root for the Taliban, which seemed like a good idea at the time. And it's certainly slightly or much better than Moore's last, even though I enjoyed that too. You're seven years too late, I say. I saw BATMAN, THE ABYSS, LICENCE, TREK V and INDY 3, but in the end, it was the year of SAY ANYTHING, DO THE RIGHT THING, HENRY V, GLORY and other less-predictable but better thought-out dramas. One reason I saw fit to hold this view is that my top five '89 faves are ALL-drama, which I definitely can't say about any following year. (In '82 my top five were ET, THE THING, BLADE RUNNER, TOOTSIE and a non-drama I can't quite remember at the moment. The best was ET, but my favorite became THE THING, despite its ran-out-of-money ending.)
Connery was not a good actor for emotional depth and tenderness. When Aki the Japanese agent was poisoned to death he just went: "She's dead" and went on with his mission even though he'd displayed affection for her in previous scenes. Lazenby may not have been much of an actor but he got it right when it counted, and his pained expression and body language after Tracy is shot dead is all that scene needed short of maybe a few tears. And Peter Hunt said: "James Bond doesn't cry" so he didn't use the take wherein Lazenby shed tears over Rigg's crumpled form.
I doubt this will be for Craig as he will be properly placed when history looked back at his work. I think now, viewers have made a proper assessment of Pierce Brosnan's tenure because we have viewed his movies with more of an objective eye as the new Bond reigned. When the next OO7 has his run I think Craig's body of work as Bond will have a lot more criticism than the rose colored approval he continues to receive. Dalton was a good Bond in an off movie; "Licence to Kill" has never felt like a Bond movie - it's more of chasing trends the Broccoli's has shamefully continued to do I think the movie was spawned from the popularity of the Lethal Weapon, and Die Hard movies which were very lucrative back then. I wouldn't doubt the casting of Robert Davi was a reflection of their appreciation of the trend in the late 80's early 90's. The movie just doesn't fit as a Bond flick so Dalton's performance felt off all over the picture. The one thing Craig and Dalton will always have was how they appeared in their first outing as OO7; their first appearance as James Bond was so magnetic and interesting I'm dumbfounded their sequels were sooooooooooooooooooooo subpar.
What I was talking about isn't about long-term critical appraisal of the actors or the films that they appeared in. It's about how the actors sold themselves in the role and how audiences responded to them. Did they own the role / make it their own? Is their Bond somebody that men want to be and women want to be with? History already tells us that Lazenby and Dalton fell short in these areas with general audiences.