'License to Kill' turns 25: Why Timothy Dalton wasn’t the worst James Bond ever

In the annals of James Bond’s storied big screen history, the Timothy Dalton years are often looked back on with scorn.

Of Dalton’s two outings as 007 (1987’s “The Living Daylights” and 1989’s “License to Kill”), only "The Living Daylights" received any notable critical praise -- but neither film was a major hit. With ticket prices adjusted for inflation, the two films are among the worst-performing Bond movies of all time. It’s no surprise, then, that the Welsh actor’s tenure as Bond was brief. In 1994, Pierce Brosnan officially replaced Dalton as 007, debuting the following year in “GoldenEye.”

But was Dalton really so bad as Bond?

As “License to Kill” turns 25 this week, we look at how bad timing and poor decision-making conspired against Dalton, resulting in the 007 actor getting the short end of the martini stir stick.

Third choice

Dalton’s troubled time as James Bond began before he’d even been cast in the role. After the failure of 1985’s “View to a Kill,” then-Bond portrayer Roger Moore “retired” from the secret agent role (although others contend that he was fired) and producers began their search for a replacement. Several actors were screen-tested, including future “Jurassic Park” star Sam Neill, “Remington Steele” star Pierce Brosnan, and Dalton. Neill was reportedly an early favourite for the part, but Brosnan -- fresh off "Remington Steele," which had just been cancelled by NBC -- eventually won out and was offered the role.

However, when news broke that Brosnan had scored the Bond role, NBC opted to produce another season of “Remington Steele” to capitalize on the actor’s inevitable popularity. This move resulted in 007 producers offering the role to Dalton instead. As the third choice, however, Dalton had a lot to prove to both the producers and an audience that had been banking on Brosnan.

A change in tone

The 1980s were a difficult time for James Bond. Violent action movies headlined by the Arnold Schwarzeneggers and Sylvester Stallones of the world were king at the box office, making Roger Moore's over-50 adventures as James Bond look goofy and old fashioned by comparison. With Moore’s retirement from the role, Bond producers knew they had to take 007 in a darker, more violent direction.

They pulled it off somewhat successfully in Dalton's debut outing "The Living Daylights" and partially in "License to Kill" (where the excess of action set-pieces and gruesome violence is about the only notable feature). But in the process, they robbed the Bond series of the glib humour that had characterized it to that point.

The creative forces that had overseen the absurd and over-the-top later years of Moore's tenure as Bond (see: “Moonraker,” “Octopussy,” and “A View to a Kill”) were not well-equipped to helm Dalton’s darker, more action-heavy outings as 007. In trying to be more like the movies of the time, they lost the core of the franchise.

True to Bond

Although his 007 films performed poorly, Dalton himself earned high marks for his portrayal of James Bond, particularly from fans of Ian Fleming's novels. Dalton's secret agent was the anti-Moore: grounded, gritty, real, genuinely haunted by the grim business he engages in, and displaying real problems with authority. "License to Kill" even sees Bond quit MI6 to go on a mission of revenge.

Author Steven Rubin put it best in "The Complete James Bond Movie Encyclopedia":

"Unlike Moore, who always seems to be in command, Dalton's Bond sometimes looks like a candidate for the psychiatrist's couch – a burned-out killer who may have just enough energy left for one final mission. That was Fleming's Bond – a man who drank to diminish the poison in his system, the poison of a violent world with impossible demands.... [H]is is the suffering Bond."

In many ways, Dalton's troubled 007 was a perfect successor to Sean Connery's take-no-prisoners Bond and forerunner to Daniel Craig's own ruthless take on the secret agent.

Where is he now?

Dalton's Bond gets a bit of a bum rap, but that hasn't prevented him from having a fairly successful post-007 career. In the years since giving up his fictional license to kill, Dalton has carved out a nice career playing hammy villain characters (like in "The Rocketeer" and "Hot Fuzz"), and has found recurring character work on television shows like Showtime's "Penny Dreadful."

So the next time you catch "The Living Daylights" or "License to Kill" on TV and have the urge to change the channel, give Dalton the benefit of the doubt and remember all the factors that he had going against him. All things considered, he still makes a pretty great James Bond.