Licence to Kill (1989)
Synopsis
Bond’s best mate Felix Leiter has his wedding day irrevocably ruined and Bond feels it’s his duty as Best Man to seek revenge. This decision will see his licence to kill revoked, rendering him a rogue agent against a bunch of cartel drug lords whose preferred weapons are tiger sharks, not chainsaws.
Particulars
Director: John Glen
Writer/s: Richard Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson
Producers: Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson
Stars: Timothy Dalton as James Bond, Robert Davi as Franz Sanchez, Carey Lowell as Pam Bouvier, David Hedison as Felix Leiter, Talisa Soto as Lupe Lamora, Anthony Zerbe as Milton Krest, Everett McGill as Ed Killifer, Benicio del Toro as Dario, Robert Brown as M, Desmond Llewelyn as "Q" and Caroline Bliss as Moneypenny
Budget: $32 million
Shot: Mexico, the US and Estudios Churubusco
Based on: Mostly an original script, with elements from Ian Fleming’s Live and Let Die and “The Hildebrand Rarity” from For Your Eyes Only (a short story collection), as well as elements inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo
Bond goes full revenge thriller
I forgot how full on Licence to Kill is. It’s pretty different to The Living Daylights in that it leaves Cold War espionage behind and centres Bond in a plot that’s more Brian de Palma than anything John Glen has made previously in the series.
There’s more blood and violence in this one outing than in any Bond film thus far; people get minced, eaten by sharks, blown up in decompression chambers and set alight. I’m a big fan of that stuff, so Licence to Kill is the Bond film that most appeals to my preferred brand of 80s brutality.
It’s interesting that the budget is lower than its predecessor given the amount of action Bond gets up to. Filming completely outside of the UK apparently helped with this and I never felt the missing $8 million. Here’s the stuff I loved.
Another awesome intro
After hooking an escaping plane in a fab aerial stunt Bond and Felix parachute into Felix's wedding to a delighted Della (Priscilla Barnes), a sequence so joyful by design that it makes the contrast of what comes later so grim. The transition from this triumphant pre-credits opening to the song and title credits gave me the same elation that I got from Bond’s ski jump to title credits in The Spy Who Loved Me.
Another personal fave Bond theme
We go from 80s pop rock to a Gladys Knight ballad, which is seemingly at odds with the dark tone of the film and yet it just works so well for me. It’s got the horn line from Shirley Bassey’s ‘Goldfinger’, an homage they had to pay in royalties but that I think is money well spent.
‘Licence to Kill’ is another Bond song that I play on repeat and never skip; it’s so unabashedly big with its key changes and brass sections and Knight’s brilliant voice command that I don’t even mind sounding like a mouse when attempting to sing along.
The Scarface of it all
While I couldn’t find mention of it anywhere there’s definitely some atmospheric DNA being taken from the 1983’s Scarface, particularly in the characterisation of cartel villain Franz Sanchez (hello, Frank Lopez?) and Robert Davi’s performance. The scene where Everett McGill’s Ed grills Sanchez feels very Scarface too, as does “Our biggest problem is what to do with the money!”
I think this is the Bond film where the relationships between the villains is at its most interesting, driven by Sanchez’s “loyalty over money” motto. It’s not until the final stretch of the film, once Bond has managed to stoke Sanchez’s paranoia about being betrayed by his crew, that the baddie gang disperses. They coulda had the world, chico, and everything in it.
A farewell to arms
Bond has threatened resignation a few times before in the franchise and at most he’s been given two weeks’ annual leave and a “won’t you reconsider?”. This time he has his licence to kill revoked and his gun taken off him, effectively rendering him a spectacularly qualified rogue civilian.
What I wonder is, will he be able to get his licence backdated to cover him killing all these cartel guys? Will Pam’s DEA credentials or Sharkey’s CIA credentials cover him in the event of legal proceedings? I can’t remember if the film covers Bond’s awkward legal position, I just hope it all gets cleared up.
Q as a field agent
There are few things I love more in this franchise than the expanded characterisation of secondary MI6 characters and Q gets to do a lot more in this film than he’s done previously.
It leads to some lovely scenes between he and Bond, like when he shows up to provide Bond with gadgets on his unauthorised mission, and the two bunking together in a hotel room to give Bond girl Pam Bouvier her space.
Mrs Ms Bouvier
While I’m not a fan of the forced love triangle between Bond, Bouvier and Lupe, I do like the agency that Bouvier has; she’s the one who kisses Bond and she’s the one who has to come and help him out in the final stretch, only to seemingly lose out to the second tier Bond girl. She can also wear the fuck out of a slicked back short hairstyle — very practical for women in her line of work.
Licence to Kill ends with a massive, explosive truck tanker sequence, revenge served hot and Bond jumping into a pool to show Bouvier that he chooses her over Lupe. That latter part is a bit convenient but it doesn’t take away from my enjoyment of the rest of the film.
In no uncertain terms, I fucking love Licence to Kill. I don’t think general audience sentiment towards it is as strong as mine but if the general audience has qualms with my scoring of the film, they’re welcome to write their own 30,000+ word Bond piece.
RANKING CATEGORIES (70%)
Bond execution = 9
Villain = 7
Bond girl(s) = 7
Song = 8
Opening titles = 8
Plot/action/gadgets = 8
Franchise identity = 8
PERSONAL ENJOYMENT (30%)
9/10