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The Living Daylights - Who Do You Trust?

lapis molari

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THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS - Who Do You Trust?

Tagline "I only kill professionals."

Bond%201987%20The%20Living%20Daylights%20cover.jpg


INTRODUCTION
James Bond changed in the 1980s. With the retirement of Roger Moore and introduction of Timothy Dalton, we transition from action movie with-a-wink to spy thriller. Well... mostly.
Dalton, inspired by the novels, presents a colder, more cynical Bond. His approach to win the confidence of a beautiful woman behind the Cold War's Iron Curtain, reminds of Richard Burton's performance in the Spy Who Came In From The Cold.
Perhaps the filmmakers feared that changing Bond overnight from the suave, cheery gentleman to a cynical smoking alcoholic, would feel as jarring to the audience as dislocating your shoulder. Perhaps they were right to fill Dalton's first adventure with comedic moments. In hindsight, however, we know the audience responded just fine to the comparable transition from suave and jocular Pierce Brosnan to steely-eyed and cynical Daniel Craig.

INTENTION
What if Timothy Dalton's first Bond adventure was a more complete break from Roger Moore's jokes? This edit tries to answer that. We keep the lies and manipulation. Keep the rough and gruff. Tighten the pacing. Ditch the romance (Bond charms the girl because she's a useful asset in the case, that's all). Cut the slapstick (the ghetto blaster felt like a left-over Moore-era joke). Cut the cello sledding (I can't picture Connery, Craig, or Lazenby's Bond doing that). Cut the caricature Felix Leiter. Cut the sappy happy ending.

CHANGE LIST
- Clean up Opening Title music card: erase 1 Pretenders song.
- Mute off-screen Bond tapping Moneypenny's behind, cut Moneypenny sighing after Bond.
- Cut real milkman.
- Trim Q Branch: cut ghetto blaster, cut turning couch.
- Bond and Kara in tram: micro-trims for pacing.
- Bond with cello in toilet: micro-trim to reduce comedy.
- Bond / Kara in her apt: micro-trims to long pauzes in dialog for pacing.
- Begin car chase: cut "must be atmospheric anomaly".
- Cut cello bobsled chase!
- Tangier: cut Leiter's rooftop lookout and yacht.
- Mute/cut 2x Where Has Everybody Gone around Prater Cafe, copy Living Daylights tune from Hercules plane scene in its place.
- Cut several Dabo's swooning one-liners.
- Cut shot of Moroccan harem during Bond's rooftop escape. No plot relevance.
- Cut officer inspecting the heart-transplant container.
- Add establishing shot of heart from previous scene when Kara opens the container.
- Trim Bond and Kara in Soviet jail to reduce comedy.
- Replace Bond line "save for harem" with "come".
- Small trims when Bond and Kara are with Mujahideen, for pacing.
- Bond carries bag to truck: cut Necros stops Bond.
- Cut Dabo rides away from Afghans.
- Trim Afghans attack Russian base.
- Bag out of airplane: trim 1 cycle of Barry theme for pacing, mute/cut Necros "please, no".
- Cut Leiter lookout in Tangier.
- Cut Leiter.
- Small trims when Bond faces Whitaker, for pacing.
- Edit closing concert: remove bullet-hole in cello (using photoshop).
- End on applause at Kara's concert: cut Gogol, Afghans, Bond. I love General Gogol, but his appearance here didn't strengthen the film. No armed Mujahideen in Vienna, no Bond and M fawning over a cellist. Just a happy ending where for once our spies were able to do something nice for someone.
- Remove "Gogol" and "Felix Leiter" from end credits.
- Replace end credits song w Aha instrumental TLD.

DETAILS
original run-time: 131 minutes
new run-time: 117 minutes
cut: 14 minutes

1080p
Surround
English subtitles
 

Canon Editor

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This sounds great, as it could turn one of my two favourite James Bond movies in a great one.
 

lapis molari

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@"Problem Eliminator" , I couldn't resist! I just had to see TLD end with the concert, without bullet hole and without Bond. Once I made that, I couldn't help myself and gave the whole film the same love. :rolleyes:
 

Zarius

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Great surprise, lots of Dalton to enjoy on this site now :)
 

lapis molari

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Submitted, not stirred. ;)
Now back to work on my other 007 edits!

Bond%201987%20The%20Living%20Daylights%20poster.jpg
 

Zarius

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Really enjoyed that edit Lapis, I've given you a glowing review :)
 

lapis molari

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Zarius said:
Really enjoyed that edit Lapis, I've given you a glowing review :)

Thanks, @"Zarius" . I did spend quite a lot of time on the audio. In some instances I had 36 channels going in Audacity.

The most work was probably swapping the Pretenders tune for the A-ha tune at the Prater (when we see the glass sliding door).
 

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One thing I should point out is some of post-credit credits and the MGM logo is slightly chopped out at the end

likeso2.png


likeso.png
 

lapis molari

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An alternate cover for my The Living Daylights edit. Inspired by the outstanding quality of Sean Longmore's alternate posters, and the mock-up for my future The Three Musketeers edit.


Bond 1987 The Living Daylights alternate cover.jpg
 

Moe_Syzlak

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I’m taking off for the summer in a matter of hours but this sounds like something I will definitely check out in the fall. The summary is exactly what I was thinking while watching.
 
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