Last week I hosted a screening of Licence To Kill (1989) at the University of Bristol and talked about its divergence as the first gritty Bond film. It was a lot of fun as me and my friend put on a bit of a performance by dressing as Miss Moneypenny and the man himself, James Bond, as well as running a roulette table for all attendees (see photographs above).
I also got the audience to think about the film in terms of its anomalistic nature by talking about some of the institutional and socio-politcal factors, which, I believe, had a hand in steering the film and its main character into more gritty territory. I also explained that despite the film's attempts to update the Bond franchise so that it reflected more of the trends and real-life matters of the time, Licence To Kill is not really regarded as a success and it was definitely back to basics when the next film, Goldeneye (1995) went into production. I asked the audience to consider these issues while watching the film so that we could discuss them at the end. Some interesting points were made.
I always wondered why this film did not perform so well at the box office even though it appears to be the perfect money-making combination of a well established popular franchise and the 1980s trend for one-man-army action movies and graphic violence. One audience member at the screening suggested that the time the film takes to explain how Bond goes from being the conventional smoothie we are used to seeing to the bitter, twisted, revenge-seeking vigilante is simply too long and it makes the film feel slow.
There also seemed to be real issues with the female characters in the film, one of which has the promise of representing some sort of female power, but this hope is quickly lost when the two women begin competing for Bond's attention.
One audience member also commented that there was a lot of wooden acting and some awkwardly staged scenes, making the audience (and me!) laugh at several points throughout the film.
These aspects may not be helping Licence To Kill in terms of its credibility amongst the other films of the franchise but I think its things like this which have caused me to maintain such a soft spot for this film and what it was trying to achieve.
I'll leave you with some Licence To Kill treats:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugiGaYggRro - After sleeping with her, using her to complete his mission and pretty much dumping her thereafter, Pam still cries for Bond (why??) until he FINALLY notices - what follows is probably the cheesiest set of closing lines of any film ever!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKhgGUpMTEc - Q turns up to save the day with his suitcase of high-tech gadgets! Fastforward to 1.39 and Q appears to be programming the highly technical signature gun with one of those calculators you get given in school Maths lessons???
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t7fBHepPXU - The gory parts of the film which have made Licence To Kill the only Bond film to this day to be given a 15 certificate by the BBFC. Not for the faint hearted!
