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Specs |
- Widescreen 2.35:1
- 16:9 Enhanced
- Dual Layer (RSDL )
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Languages |
- English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
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Subtitles |
English, Hebrew, Greek, Polish, Hungarian, Portuguese, English - Hearing Impaired, Turkish, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian |
Extras |
- 1 Deleted scenes
- 2 Teaser trailer
- 1 Theatrical trailer
- Audio commentary
- Featurette
- 1 Music video - A-Ha
- Booklet
- 2 Documentaries
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The Living Daylights - Special Edition |
MGM/20th Century Fox .
R4 . COLOR . 125 mins .
PG . PAL |
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By 1987, the long-running James Bond franchise was starting to look and feel a bit tired and outdated. While the popularity of the series of films based on Ian Fleming’s spy character remained at an all time high, the version of the character that Roger Moore had created seemed at odds with the more ruthless ‘80s, and with the public demanding more visceral excitement from their action movies, Moore’s cheesy, tongue-in-cheek version of Bond appeared to be ill-equipped to take the series to its next stage of development. But Moore was also dissatisfied with his role as James Bond, and after threatening to abandon the character before shooting on several of the previous films had begun, he finally made good on his promise and announced that he would no longer be playing the secret agent on the big screen This, of course, left the Bond production team with something of a dilemma - a replacement Bond had to be found, and he had to be capable of bringing back some of the harder edge to the character that people remembered so fondly from Sean Connery’s portrayal. Various actors were screen-tested for the role - including Sam Neill, who was the choice of all but Albert “Cubby” Broccoli himself - before the producers settled on Pierce Brosnan, the actor very much in the right circumstances after achieving fame and success with his role of TV’s Remington Steele. But the producers of that TV show were having none of it - just before shooting was to begin, they suddenly decided to shoot more episodes of the series that they knew their star was abandoning. Trapped in his contract to the show, Brosnan would be unable to play James Bond - at least for now. The actor chosen to fill the gap was Timothy Dalton, who had been considered before as a possible Bond. Dalton took to the role with a vengeance, bringing an instant hard edge to the character that made him arguably more believable than even Connery at his peak. The script was re-written to suit both Dalton and the changing morals of society, with this new Bond no longer a playboy spy chasing and bedding multiple women in the course of the film; this time, Bond was to be a one-woman man. In The Living Daylights, Bond finds himself in the midst of what’s almost a private cold war, with an apparent KGB plan to assassinate British agents turning out to be a lot more complex, and of course more dangerous. Dealing with a defected Russian General, a slightly bonkers arms dealer and various cold-blooded assassins, Bond tries to unravel an increasingly convoluted world-domination plot whilst trying to protect Kara Milovy (Maryam d’Abo), a woman who he has been sent to eliminate. Such a global conspiracy, of course, involves plenty of frequent flier points, and Bond takes in the sights of countries ranging from the snows of Austria and the genteel pleasantries of the English countryside to the deserts of Morocco, all the way being shot at, blown up, punched, kicked and inflicted with bad puns by good and evil persons alike. The wide variety of locations and the large-scale plot make perfect fodder for a new-generation Bond, and Dalton takes to the role with enthusiasm, his seriousness tempered by some lighter moments that reveal the original intentions of the script (the next - and last - Dalton Bond film Licence To Kill would strive for an even harder-edged Bond). Curiously, veteran Bond director John Glen tackles this heavily-overhauled Bond with a curiously old-fashioned directorial approach, and many of the techniques used here recall the ‘60s Bond films strongly. While the stunts and special effects are taken to new levels here, the drama that links them suffers slightly from muddled scripting and almost half-hearted direction. But it’s the action that fans really pay their hard-earned for, and there’s plenty of that in The Living Daylights - with a particularly impressive aerial fight (done, as always, for real by a skilled stunt team) the showpiece. Looking at The Living Daylights now, 14 years after it was released, this “new-generation” Bond seems more than a little bit dated - but to be fair, the series was in a transitional stage at the time, and the political climate, too, has changed markedly since The Living Daylights went before the cameras. Still, there’s plenty of action and a suitably large dose of intrigue to be found here, and Dalton offers a very different take on James Bond that’s an important contribution to a series that’s quite literally become its own genre.
Video |
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While mostly sourced from fairly pristine film materials, MGM’s Bond DVD releases have often suffered from sub-standard MPEG compression, and The Living Daylights is no exception. But here, the telecine transfer also seems a little bit lacking, especially in terms of contrast, saturation and shadow detail. The 2.35:1 image (16:9 enhanced as usual) is clean enough, but it’s hard to shake the impression that you’re watching an old movie - and this is odd, considering that many of the earlier films have been graced with excellent transfers on DVD. In brightly lit scenes here, everything looks as it should; it’s in the many more sparsely lit sequences that the transfer’s lack of finesse shows through. Nevertheless, compared to the previously available VHS versions of this film, it’s a substantial improvement. The image on DVD suffers from very frequent aliasing on hard edges - implying the over-use of edge enhancement, this is far less of a problem on progressive displays - and some very noticeable instability in finely detailed backgrounds on many occasions. This may have more than a little to do with the fact that the 125-minute film is encoded at a fairly low average bitrate to accommodate the 90-odd minutes of bonus material on the DVD, the movie only getting the equivalent of a single-layer disc to itself. That said, most people won’t be hugely bothered by most of the video problems here - it’s still the best this film has looked on home video so far. However, the fussy should be aware that this disc sits at the lower end of the picture quality scale compared to the other Bond DVD titles.
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As usual, the audio transfer on The Living Daylights is just about flawless, with the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix (very likely the same multi-channel mix used on 70mm prints of the film) equipped with plenty of dynamic range and a very enveloping surround stage. John Barry’s terrific orchestral score (which at times recalls the score he would do a few years later for Dances With Wolves) is reproduced with warmth and clarity, and the myriad sound effects happily fly around the room during action sequences to place the viewer right in the midst of the action. Only the dialogue seems to be lacking in quality, sounding somewhat muffled for most of the film - though this isn’t severe enough to cause any problems understanding what’s being said, it does sound curiously flat when paired with the much brighter-sounding music and effects. That’s a minor complaint, though; surround equipped 007 fans are going to have a great time with this soundtrack.
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Overall |
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The first instalment in what was to become an entirely new way of dealing with the character of James Bond, The Living Daylights is a fast-paced, hugely entertaining episode that is nevertheless showing its age more than you'd expect. Far more in tune with Fleming’s creation than he had been in previous films, Bond is played to perfection by Timothy Dalton, but played in a style that many first-time Bond viewers will find unusual. The action sequences, though, reach new levels of technical skill and are almost all genuinely exciting. MGM’s DVD is somewhat disappointing in terms of image and sound quality in the main feature, but comes loaded with a superb set of bonus material that’s well produced and genuinely worth the time it takes to explore.
LINK: http://www.dvd.net.au/review.cgi?review_id=511
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And I quote... |
"...a fast-paced, hugely entertaining episode that is nevertheless showing its age..." - Anthony Horan |
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Review Equipment |
- DVD Rom:
Pioneer 103(s)
- MPEG Card:
RealMagic Hollywood Plus
- TV:
Panasonic - The One
- Receiver:
Sony STR-AV1020
- Speakers:
Klipsch Tangent 500
- Surrounds:
Jamo
- Audio Cables:
Standard RCA
- Video Cables:
Monster s-video
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