James Bond 007 - License to Kill
James Bond 007 - License to Kill (original title License to Kill ) is the 16th film from Eon Productions Ltd. produced the James Bond series and the second and final film with Timothy Dalton in the role of the title character. It was the fourth and final film in the series with the team Michael G. Wilson and Richard Maibaum as screenwriters , Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli as producer and - the fifth film - with John Glen as director. Gladys Knight sang the title track License to Kill , which was composed and produced by Narada Michael Walden . The film opened in German cinemas on August 10, 1989.
action
Bond, Sharkey and Felix Leiter are on their way to his wedding in the Florida Keys , but interrupt their journey to arrest the South American drug lord Franz Sanchez during a short stay in the Bahamas in a spectacular action together with the DEA . With the support of the US Coast Guard , they will reach the wedding location on time.
Sanchez, who bribes entire governments, breaks out with the help of the bribed DEA agent Ed Killifer. When Bond finds out about this and returns again, he finds Leader's newlywed wife Della dead and his friend, mutilated by a shark, seriously injured. Bond swears vengeance and, with the help of Sharkey, sets out to find Sanchez. They infiltrate a fish company owned by their business partner Milton Krest, which is used as a cover for a large-scale drug trade. They catch Killifer and throw him before the sharks, then blow up the business. Bond is then reprimanded by his superior "M" and withdrawn from the case, whereupon Bond resigns. "M" accepts and expressly withdraws his "license to kill".
Bond and Sharkey now infiltrate Krest's smuggler yacht on their own, with Sharkey being discovered and killed. Bond destroys Krest's drugs and escapes in a seaplane with US $ 5 million intended as payment for a drug delivery. Bond meets former Army pilot Pam Bouvier , who was briefed on the operation through Leiter. She is also investigating Sanchez and has his confidante Heller ready to bring back stolen Stinger missiles. Bond and Bouvier travel to Isthmus City, from where Sanchez controls his business. There he receives unexpected support from an old friend: "Q", who says he is "on vacation" and provides Bond with a few tools.
Bonds carries out an attack on Sanchez, but it fails because the Hong Kong narcotics department , which is also investigating Sanchez, sees its success in jeopardy and wants to ship Bond to London. Sanchez wants to get this out of the way and frees Bond, who uses the chance to infiltrate Sanchez 'organization and stir up the drug lord's suspicion of some of his own people. Bond learns from Sánchez's friend Lupe that Krest is about to arrive in the isthmus. Bond and Pam hide parts of the previously stolen money on Krest's yacht and Bond gives Sánchez a clue to gain his trust. He then had Krest executed in the yacht's decompression chamber .
To camouflage his activities, Sanchez uses a sect-like organization around the television preacher Professor Butcher, whose TV appearances are actually used to exchange information. Drug receipts are also disguised as donations from believers. The laboratories in which Sanchez dissolves his drugs in gasoline and smuggles them all over the world are also housed in the temple of the pseudo-church. During a tour of these production sites, Bond is exposed by Sanchez's henchman Dario. However, 007 succeeds in eliminating the henchmen and wreaking havoc on the escape with Pam, which leads to the destruction of the facility.
In the meantime, Sanchez has killed Heller, who has been discredited by Bond, and with his millions and four tankers full of cocaine - "fuel", left. However, Bond can catch up with him and destroy the convoy. Finally, Bond shows Felix and Della's lighter to Sánchez, who is soaked in gas and wants to know the reason for Bond's actions, and sets them on fire.
production
script
Richard Maibaum designed the plot for the film together with Michael G. Wilson. However, due to a strike by the Writers Guild of America , Maibaum was unable to complete the script, so Wilson finished the script alone. He worked as much of the plot as possible into the story at the already given location Mexico and this time had the opportunity to adapt the script to the already established main actor Timothy Dalton.
Once again, the final script had little in common with Fleming's books. The plot about Felix Leiter's injury by a shark and Bond's subsequent search in a fishing lure hall comes from the novel Live and Let Die ; the scene was not used in the film of the same name. In addition, the name of the character Milton Krest and his ship Wavekrest comes from the James Bond short story The Hildebrand Rarity (German: The Hildebrand Rarity ).
title
License to Kill is the first James Bond film that does not use the title of a novel or short story by Ian Fleming . The film was originally titled License revoked ( withdrawn license ) contribute, but yielded test shows that the title for the American English -speaking audience in the United States was not granted. There was also discussion about changing the British spelling License to the American spelling License . However, the version originally envisaged remained.
In the plot of the film, reference is made to the title when M Bond announces that the license to kill has been revoked with immediate effect.
Staff and cast
Timothy Dalton had signed a contract for three James Bond films and was therefore available for license to kill as a leading actor.
Bond's opponent Sanchez was played by Robert Davi.
David Hedison returned to Life and Let Die after 1973 in the role of Felix Leiter and was the only actor who twice played the role of CIA agent until the 22nd Bond film Quantum of Solace .
The future cinema star Benicio Del Toro can be seen here in one of his earlier roles. He is one of the small circle of James Bond actors who later received an Oscar . Del Toro received it for Traffic - Power of the Cartel .
Carey Lowell, who was married to actor Richard Gere from 2002 to 2013 , was hired as Pam Bouvier and Talisa Soto as Lupe Lamora as Bond girls.
Desmond Llewelyn alias "Q" has the longest appearance of his career in a Bond film, as he supports Bond on his behalf and not only equips him with the gadgets typical of a Bond film .
Robert Brown as "M" and Caroline Bliss as Moneypenny are both last appearing in a Bond film. Brown already appeared in The Spy Who Loved Me as Admiral Hargreaves and has played "M" in four films since 1983. Bliss replaced Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny and played this role in the two Bond films with Timothy Dalton.
Pedro Armendáriz Jr., who plays the role of the dictator of the isthmus, Hector Lopez, is the son of Pedro Armendáriz , who appeared in From Moscow as the Turkish businessman and Bond helper Ali Kerim Bey.
The truck stunt - like the vehicle stunts in the previous Bond films - was realized by Rémy Julienne .
This is the fifth time John Glen has directed a Bond film.
Title sequence
The opening credits were last designed by Maurice Binder , who had designed all the title sequences since Fireball .
Filming
The shooting took place from July 19, 1988 to November 18, 1988.
Locations
- London , United Kingdom (only one scene occurs here; only scene in the film that includes Moneypenny )
- Key West , Florida (including the Hemingway House )
- Seven Mile Bridge , Florida
- Acapulco , Mexico City and Temoaya, Mexico
- The recordings for the final hunt for Sanchez and his tankers were taken on the road between Mexicali and La Rumorosa, Mexico.
vehicles
- Due to his unauthorized activities in this film, Bond is not given an official company car.
- After the wedding, Bond leaves Della and Felix's house in a (presumably rented) Lincoln Continental Mark VII.
- At the Hotel de Isthmus, Bond is pulled up by Q in a light blue Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow.
- In some sequences, Sanchez drives a Maserati Biturbo 425 i .
- The vehicles of the truck stunts were converted directly by the manufacturer Kenworth .
Gadgets
- "Dentonite", an explosive disguised as toothpaste; the associated igniter is housed in a cigarette packet;
- dismountable rifle disguised as a camera (Hasselblad V series) with signature handpiece ( adapted to Bond's palm);
- Instant camera with built-in laser and X-ray function ;
- a broom with a built-in radio.
An exploding alarm clock is presented by Q , but is not used.
Film music
The film music was composed by Michael Kamen . John Barry was unavailable to work on License to Kill, and director John Glen selected Michael Kamen because he expected him to produce a score that would come close to that of John Barry. Kamen was already known as the composer of many action films such as Lethal Weapon and Die Hard in 1989 .
The title song License to kill , interpreted by Gladys Knight, was composed by Narada Michael Walden, Jeffrey Cohen and Walter Afansieff. At the beginning of the song elements from the song Goldfinger are used, which is why the composers of this song are named as composers of License to kill in later publications . The accompanying music video was directed by Daniel Kleinman , who became the title designer for GoldenEye in 1995 . The single reached number 6 in the UK charts.
Originally, a new version of the James Bond theme recorded by Vic Flick and Eric Clapton was intended as the title song , which was ultimately not used.
For the credits, the Diane Warren composition If You Asked Me To , sung by Patti LaBelle , was used, which was covered by Celine Dion in 1992 and only became a worldwide hit in its version.
The songs Wedding Party by Ivory and Dirty Love by Tim Feehan are used as additional pieces of music in the film .
In the scene in which Pam Bouvier is in his room with Prof. Joe Butcher, an arrangement of Beethoven's piano piece Für Elise can be heard in the background .
Soundtrack The soundtrack was first released in 1989 by MCA Records on LP and CD. It was the last Bond soundtrack to be released on LP. After the 40th James Bond anniversary in 2003, this soundtrack was the only one that Capitol could not reissue for legal reasons. The US version differed in that it used the teaser poster as the cover.
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Original edition
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synchronization
The synchronization was carried out by Cine Adaption GmbH in Munich. The dialogue book was written by Pierre Peters-Arnolds and the dialogue was directed by Michael Brennicke .
| role | actor | German voice actors |
|---|---|---|
| James Bond | Timothy Dalton | Lutz Riedel |
| Sanchez | Robert Davi | Uwe Friedrichsen |
| Pam | Carey Lowell | Christina Hoeltel |
| Magnifying glass | Talisa Soto | Madeleine proud |
| Crest | Anthony Zerbe | Horst Naumann |
| Sharkey | Frank McRae | Michael Gahr |
| Felix Head | David Hedison | Reinhard Glemnitz |
| Dario | Benicio del Toro | Ekkehardt Belle |
| Truman Lodge | Anthony Strong | Pierre Peters-Arnolds |
| Killifer | Everett McGill | Frank Engelhardt |
| Q | Desmond Llewelyn | Manfred Schmidt |
| Prof. Joe Butcher | Wayne Newton | Leon Rainer |
| Hector Lopez | Pedro Armendáriz junior | Werner Abrolat |
| M. | Robert Brown | Wolf Ackva |
| Della | Priscilla Barnes | Viktoria Brams |
| Brighter | Don Stroud | Willi Roebke |
| Moneypenny | Caroline Bliss | Dagmar Heller |
| Kwang | Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa | Joachim Höppner |
premiere
The world premiere of the film took place on June 13, 1989 in "Odeon Leicester Square" in London in the presence of Prince Charles and Princess Diana .
It was released on July 14, 1989 in US cinemas and on August 10, 1989 in German cinemas.
Aftermath
License to Kill was the last James Bond film on which screenwriter Richard Maibaum and opening credits designer Maurice Binder worked - both died in 1991. It was also for director John Glen (who had made all the official Bond films of the 1980s) the last work so far for this series.
Although the next Bond film was announced for 1991, due to legal disputes it would be six years before another James Bond film was released. The next film in the series was originally planned as the third film with Timothy Dalton, but there were only two appearances for Dalton's big screen Bond.
Financial success
In the United States, the film competed with several blockbusters such as Focal Point LA , Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade and Batman . Although EON had adapted License to Kill By Locations and Supporting Actors as best they could to the US market, the commercial result was disappointing, with all of the above films doing better. Audience numbers were down, 11.7 million tickets were sold, and revenue was between $ 33.2 and $ 34.7 million, which was either just about or not quite the estimated cost of production of between $ 32 and $ 36 million covered.
In the Federal Republic of Germany only 2.4 million viewers saw the film in the cinema, as few as in any Bond film before or after.
The global grossing figure is stated as an inflation-adjusted US $ 285 million, which is the worst result of a Bond film to date.
Contemporary criticism
The contemporary reviews have been mixed. In July 1989, Variety magazine saw a "cocktail of high-proof action, spectacle and drama" and was reminded of the early Bond films by Dalton's drama full of "energy and physicality". The New York Times saw "smart innovations" and "stylish action" at the same time. Dalton was at home in the role "as angry Bond, in the romantic role and as an action hero", but could "never combine two of these qualities." Time praised the action, but called it pitiful that neither the scriptwriters nor did the director find something smart to do for the characters in the film.
Later evaluation
Timothy Dalton's acting performance in the two Bond films he played is mostly praised in retrospect. The critics recognize today that Dalton portrayed Bond more seriously and thus closer to the literary model. In retrospect, some critics even consider Dalton to be the best actor of all Bond actors.
In retrospect, however, the film License to Kill is rated rather negatively, in particular the pronounced depiction of violence is often criticized, the film was also referred to as "Rambond" as an allusion to the film Rambo .
Entertainment Weekly magazine ranked James Bond films in 2006, with License to Kill ranked penultimate. In the same year, the staff of the multimedia website IGN rated the Bond films and voted License to Kill 15th out of 20 films.
Between 2011 and 2012, visitors to the James Bond fan site MI6-HQ.com voted for the best Bond films, with License to Kill ranked 12th out of 22 films.
In 2012, the Bond films were rated by the readers of 007 Magazine . License to Kill took 13th out of 24 places. In a list published by Rolling Stone , also in 2012, License to Kill takes 23rd and penultimate place and is described as "barely recognizable as a Bond film". In the special issue 50 Years of James Bond published by Stern in 2012, the film was rated 2 out of 5 stars (“weak”). The film is described as “an average, unusually brutal action thriller without any Bond sophistication”. In November 2012, License to Kill was named in the film blog The Playlist as one of the five worst Bond films, as the film is "hardly like a Bond film". However, Dalton is a "pretty decent" lead actor.
The website mi6-hq.com published an article in January 2013 which stated that License to Kill is now one of their favorite films for many fans and was "perhaps too far ahead of its time." Timothy Dalton is in the same article with the Words cited, "License to kill was a forerunner of today's bonds," but "people were unwilling to accept a new formula."
particularities
- The film received up to three different logo fonts and two spellings (License to kill and License to Kill).
- At the end of the film, the harmful effects of smoking are pointed out for the first time. It is also the last Bond film to see Bond with a cigarette.
- When Bond meets "M" in the Ernest Hemingway House, who withdraws his license to kill and asks him to hand over his service weapon immediately, Bond pulls out his Walther with the words: "So this is a farewell to arms." (German dubbing: "Now it's probably time to say goodbye to the guns.") This sentence is an allusion to the Hemingway novel A Farewell to Arms from 1929, which is set in the First World War .
- During the truck chase at the end, the sound of bullets ricocheting off the truck creates the Bond theme song.
- The shot of Bond walking past the fish tank shows a popular running gag. The machine in the background is labeled “ ACME ”.
- License to Kill is the only Bond film that was near "R" rated in the United States. Due to market-economy aspects, the most brutal bond to date for the desired “PG-13” approval was cut in advance by the MPAA. So far, only this version can be seen in the States.
- If a Stinger missile is aimed at Bond's truck in the final chase , one sees the same target screen that enabled Bond to aim his car with the missiles in the previous film .
Adaptations
literature
John Gardner wrote a novel based on the script. It was the first novel based on a Bond film since 1979.
In 1989 a comic of the same name by the artist Mike Grell was published , the content of which is based on the film.
computer game
The game license to kill was the last computer game for a current Bond film until 1997 ( GoldenEye 007 ) and was developed by Domark for the C64 , Amiga and Atari ST .
Awards
License to Kill was nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Picture in 1990 .
The German Film and Media Assessment (FBW) in Wiesbaden awarded the film the title “particularly valuable”.
publication
The film was released on VHS by Warner Bros. in Germany from 1990. Warner held this right until the late 1990s, when it was given to 20th Century Fox Entertainment. The first DVD version was released as part of the Special Edition in 2000. As a Blu-ray Disc , the film was one of the first versions of the Gold Sleeves series from 2008. In 2012, the version was released for the 50th anniversary.
The film ran on December 23, 1995 at 10:10 p.m. on ARD for the first time on German free TV.
Web links
- James Bond 007 - License to Kill in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- James Bond 007 - License to Kill at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- James Bond 007 - License to Kill at Metacritic (English)
- James Bond 007 - License to Kill in the Online Movie Database
- James Bond 007 - License to kill in the German dubbing index
- MGM's official License to Kill website
- Detailed information about the film on a private website (English)
- Comparison of the cut versions FSK 16 VHS by Warner - FSK 16 DVD , FSK 16 DVD first edition (= PG-13) - NL LD (= R-Rated) by James Bond 007 - License to kill at Schnittberichte.com
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g Production Notes - License To Kill at mi6-hq.com (English), accessed on January 3, 2013.
- ↑ License To Kill on mi6-hq.com (English), accessed on January 29, 2015.
- ↑ a b c d Start dates for James Bond 007 - License to Kill on: imdb.de , accessed on January 3, 2013.
- ↑ a b c License to Kill at: mjnewton.demon.co.uk , accessed on January 3, 2013.
- ↑ German synchronous index | Movies | Licence to kill. Retrieved July 12, 2020 .
- ↑ a b c box office results worldwide In: Stern-Edition 2/2012 , pp. 72–73.
- ↑ Time Tunnel: Review Rewind at: mi6-hq.com (English), accessed on January 3, 2013.
- ↑ a b Timothy Dalton: Best. Bond. Ever. ( Memento of January 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) at: gq-magazine.co.uk (English), accessed on January 3, 2013.
- ↑ Timothy Dalton at: jamesbond.de , accessed on January 3, 2013.
- ↑ Timothy Dalton, who scorned James Bond on: welt.de , accessed on January 3, 2013.
- ↑ Celebrating Timothy Dalton's James Bond at: denofgeek.com (English), accessed January 3, 2013.
- ↑ a b Direct hit and gunfire: all Bond missions in maneuver criticism In: Stern-Edition 2/2012 50 years of James Bond , pp. 64–71.
- ↑ a b James Bond 007 - License to Kill ( Memento from January 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) on: 1080-highdef.de , accessed on January 3, 2013.
- ↑ Countdown: Ranking the Bond Films on ew.com (English), accessed on December 26, 2012.
- ↑ James Bond's Top 20 - Ranking 007's films from worst to best. On: ign.com (English). Retrieved January 6, 2013.
- ↑ Best Bond Film Results. from: mi6-hq.com , accessed December 26, 2012.
- ↑ 007 MAGAZINE readers vote On Her Majesty's Secret Service as greatest ever Bond film! at: 007magazine.co.uk , accessed December 26, 2012.
- ↑ James Bond's Best and Worst: Peter Travers Ranks All 24 Movies at rollingstone.com (English), accessed December 22, 2012
- ↑ Skyfail: The 5 Worst James Bond Films at blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist , accessed January 4, 2013
- ↑ Comic Book - License To Kill ( Memento January 5, 2011 in the Internet Archive ). At: bondpix.com (English). Retrieved January 11, 2013.
- ↑ James Bond 007 - License to Kill on fbw-filmbeval.com
- ↑ http://007homevideo.com/vtape_de_postcert.html ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from January 12, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ YEAR 1980 - 2000. TV audience ratings, accessed on February 18, 2018 .
