Licence To Kill to me represents a missed opportunity for the Bond franchise. It’s not a bad film. I would rate it somewhere in the middle of the pack, but after going darker and edgier in The Living Daylights, they regressed somewhat more to the silly and absurd in Licence To Kill. The film starts out in a very promising way with Bond and longtime CIA partner Felix Leiter working together to arrest the notorious drug smuggler Franz Sanchez (played with ruthless guile by Robert Davi). Sanchez is set up to be the stereotypical sadistic drug lord, brutally killing his enemies in terrifying ways.
Unfortunately what follows is a laundry list of things that are so implausible, they take the audience out of what should have been an outstanding film.
-After capturing Felix Leiter, Sanchez lowers him into a shark tank, where he is attacked by the shark. Not only does he very improbably survive, but they take his body back to his home, where he is discovered hours later by Bond, still alive and moaning.
-During the climactic chase scene, Bond gets the big rig to go up on its side wheels to avoid getting hit by a missile fired from a hand held rocket launcher. As if that weren’t enough, the big rig later pops a wheelie in order to get through some flaming wreckage.
Those are the most egregiously implausible moments, but there are others spattered throughout the film. While watching this film, it actually felt like we were moving back into the Roger Moore days of the series. I believe that’s very unfortunate because underneath all of that absurdity is a film that is dark and edgy and sinister. I’m sure that the filmmakers felt the need to add all of the silliness in order to keep the film from getting too heavy, but they over reached.
Timothy Dalton brought his brooding style back, and the premise of the film also turns him vengeful. He wants revenge for what happened to Felix, and for the murder (and implied rape) of Felix’s wife, and Bond’s obsession with this revenge interferes with other agencies’ attempts to get to Sanchez. Dalton’s portrayal of Bond is again top notch, and he continually straddles the line between heroism and villainy. It’s actually in interesting look at the human psyche and how good people can do bad things when they’re pushed beyond their limits. We see bond genuinely happy for his friend and his friend’s wife. Then when that happiness is ripped away by an evil man, Bond fights that evil with more evil of his own. He becomes as ruthless as Sanchez in order to bring him down, but the filmmakers missed yet another opportunity by not keeping the audience guessing as to whether Bond would permanently go to the other side. In fact, when Q shows up to help him, we know that, even though he’s technically a rogue agent now, he’ll end up back in Her Majesty’s good graces at the end. That should have been a constant question throughout the film that would have kept the audience guessing.
As mentioned above, Licence To Kill has a terrifically ruthless villain in Sanchez. Robert Davi is very good in this film with an under played and subtle sadism that is ruthless and maniacal. What’s even better is that Benicio Del Toro plays his psychotic henchman Dario, who serves as a great adversary to Bond and threatens to and ultimately reveals Bond to Sanchez. I think Sanchez is an under rated villain in the Bond pantheon and his character really helps keep this film afloat.
There are 2 Bond girls in this picture. The first one we meet is Lupe Lamora, Sanchez’ girlfriend, who ultimately falls for bond. She’s definitely a damsel in distress, but she provides Bond with valuable information and assistance as he’s trying to infiltrate Sanchez’ cartel, and she serves as a nice foil to the other bond girl, Pam Bouvier. Pam is much more proactive, and her jealousy of Lupe certainly humanizes her. She’s a slightly above average bond girl who has a subtle sexiness that lies just beneath a hardened military exterior. Bond tries to protect her, but she constantly reminds Bond that she needs no such caring from him, and she becomes his equal over the course of the movie.
Overall Licence To Kill is a mixed bag. It should have been one of the darker Bond films, and had that been the case, it probably would have been much more successful at the box office as well as with critics. But as it is, it serves as a cautionary tale for writers and filmmakers. Make sure that your story has a strong spine, and don’t try to be all things to all people. Just make a good film and the audience will find you. However, if you consciously try to make a film that pleases everyone, you will make a film that pleases no one.
