11 Things You Learn Rewatching The Living Daylights

A major return to form.

By Jack Pooley /

MGM

Our weekly Bond re-watch series continues with 1987's The Living Daylights, the fifteenth entry into the venerable spy franchise and the first (of sadly just two) starring the terrific Timothy Dalton.

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The fourth of five Bond films directed by John Glen, it was a major turning point for the Bond series - at least for a time - though nevertheless not a film beloved by all fans. Indeed, many were left missing the decidedly sillier shenanigans of the Roger Moore years.

Still, it is an undeniable return to the more straight-laced roots of the series and far closer to the tenor of Ian Fleming's source material, even as Dalton's performance continues to prove divisive among fans (with some deeming him "too serious").

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Though not held up as a classic among the likes of Goldfinger, Goldeneye, Casino Royale and Spectre, The Living Daylights is an underrated, flawed classic of the Bond canon, and well worth revisiting if you haven't seen it in many a year...