Licence to Kill

Details

Felix Leiter has spent many a day tracking ruthless drug lord Franz Sanchez and, when the US authorities finally locate him, they hastily interrupt Felix's wedding day plans. Abandoning the wedding motorcade, Felix and best man Bond board a helicopter and head for the island where Sanchez has been hiding out. With Sanchez distracted by the discovery that his girlfriend Lupe has been seeing another man, the DEA finally get their opportunity to bring him into custody.

Unfortunately, Sanchez has plenty of friends in plenty of places and his preferred language - money - usually communicates rather well. During his transportation to prison, a corrupt DEA agent helps Sanchez escape in a daring underwater operation. Worse still, Felix's list of informants has been compromised and Sanchez wastes little time in gatecrashing his honeymoon to exact a particularly brutal revenge.

With Felix seriously injured and his new wife murdered at the hands of Sanchez's men, Bond takes it upon himself to go after the drug lord and dish out his own brand of justice. Unfortunately, this puts him in direct conflict with his orders and, after refusing to abandon his personal vendetta, his licence to kill is revoked. Going rogue, Bond begins working his way into Sanchez's organisation, determined to destroy it from within.

Along the way he joins forces with CIA pilot Pam Bouvier and receives some unofficial assistance from his ever-reliable "uncle" Q. Rather than simply attempting to shoot his way through Sanchez's heavily armed organisation, Bond begins exploiting the drug lord's greatest weakness - his absolute obsession with loyalty - and slowly turns Sanchez against the very people he trusts.

Picture & Sound

The picture actually starts rather poorly, with some hideous scratches and dust marks evident on the print. Fortunately, things dramatically improve and the remainder of the film provides what is probably one of the best pictures of the Bond series to date. Although the bit-rate remains on the low side, the image is generally bright and colourful with some excellent colour tones and plenty of detail.

The sound is also much improved over some of the earlier Bond films, with plentiful use of the surround channels. Dialogue is clearly audible and remains firmly locked in the centre channel throughout, whilst the musical score and numerous ambient effects ensure that the rear channels are rarely left idle. During the explosive tanker chase finale there's also plenty of low-frequency activity to keep the subwoofer amused.

Menu & Extras

The extras are up to the normally high standard of the Bond series, although the audio commentaries are something of a disappointment. I do wish John Glen could have provided one of his usual excellent solo commentaries rather than the slightly disjointed affair presented here. I can't even comment on the second audio track as every time I selected it there was nothing to be heard.

The Inside Licence to Kill documentary is much more interesting, with plenty of interviews and behind-the-scenes material from the production. There are also several contemporary featurettes which may look decidedly tacky now, but they're fascinating little time capsules and at least one of them manages to extract a few words from the notoriously interview-shy Timothy Dalton.

With the age of MTV well and truly upon us, there's also the now almost obligatory collection of music videos, including Gladys Knight's powerful title song and Patti LaBelle's If You Asked Me To. A Kenworth truck featurette, stills gallery, theatrical trailers and collectable making-of booklet round off another substantial Bond package.

Overall

Licence to Kill is the sort of Bond film that grows on you. When I originally saw it I wasn't particularly impressed and would probably have been ready to write a fairly scathing review. Returning to it again, however, reveals a much better film than I remembered and one which brings out considerably more of the harder-edged James Bond originally created by Ian Fleming.

Timothy Dalton's Bond is colder and far more ruthless than audiences had perhaps become accustomed to, but that suits this particular story perfectly. This isn't Bond saving the world from a megalomaniac with a secret base and a giant laser; it's a much more personal affair, driven almost entirely by friendship and revenge. Bond is angry, disobedient and prepared to risk his career to settle the score, giving Dalton considerably more dramatic material to work with than the average 007 outing.

Robert Davi also makes an excellent villain. Franz Sanchez doesn't need a hollowed-out volcano or plans for world domination to make him threatening; he's simply a vicious and extremely powerful criminal who places loyalty above everything else. Bond's decision to exploit that weakness and gradually make Sanchez suspicious of his own organisation is one of the more intelligent aspects of the story.

The increased level of violence gives the film a noticeably harder edge too, resulting in it becoming the first Bond film to receive a 15 certificate in the UK. It's certainly darker than the Bond adventures surrounding it, but that doesn't mean all the familiar ingredients have disappeared. Q gets a particularly welcome expanded role, Pam Bouvier makes a suitably capable Bond girl and the spectacular tanker chase provides the sort of outrageous action sequence you'd expect from the series.

It may not be everybody's idea of the perfect Bond film and it certainly represented a major change of direction at the time, but perhaps that's why it deserves another chance. Dalton's interpretation of Bond fits the material remarkably well and the darker, more personal story makes it stand apart from the rest of the series. Consider Licence to Kill like a bottle of wine - it improves with age.

Special features

• Audio Commentary Featuring John Glen and Actors
• Audio Commentary by Producer Michael G. Wilson and Crew
• "Inside Licence to Kill" Documentary
• "Licence to Kill" Music Video by Gladys Knight
• "If You Asked Me To" Music Video by Patti LaBelle
• Kenworth Truck Featurette
• "Behind the Scenes" Featurette
• Stills Gallery
• Original Theatrical Trailers
• Collectable "Making of" Booklet