The Living Daylights

4 comments on Hacker News

1. NeutralphilistineApr 4, 2023

   I think you forgot the only Bond movies who dealt with direct Soviet threats were :

   - From Russia With Love (Rosa Klebb secretly works for SPECTRE but is a KGB operative so let's count it)

   - Octopussy (vilain's a defector)

   - The Living Daylights (defector also)

   It's in Goldeneye that is created the idea that James Bond constantly fought the Soviets. I don't fault you for thinking that it's an easy thing to illustrate your point, but I like my James Bond and I like him because he's always fighting weirdo rich assholes, not the Soviets.

2. Neutralpjc50Nov 17, 2021

   The specific message is indeed a photoshop, but the film was broadly pro-Mujaheddin as it was anti-Soviet.

   As was The Living Daylights, in which the Mujaheddin led by an Oxford-educated Afghan help James Bond destroy a rogue Soviet drug-running operation.

3. NeutralpgeorgiDec 22, 2019

   Careful about the milkman: https://youtu.be/lZTrb49wi3o?t=30 (scene from James Bond, The Living Daylights)

   That movie was the first time I learned about "milkman" being a job. We had glass bottles that we filled ourselves at a self-service station that a farm just outside the city set up.

4. NegativelogicalleeMar 29, 2017

   Very interesting historical example! (I did not know this about the film industry.)

   But when I think of the 80's, I think of awesome concepts for films. When I think of the early 2000's I remember...nothing outstanding?

   Compare for yourself:

   http://www.imdb.com/search/title/?release_date=1980,1989&title_type=feature

   (Many of which I had in mind as I wrote the first paragraph.)

   And:

   http://www.imdb.com/list/ls057556971/

   I've seen many of those films: I couldn't remember a single one. Also throwaway films like Bond films are in the list.

   There were between 5 and 9 Bond films in the 80s depending on how you count (for example License to Kill, For your eyes only, The living daylights, Octopussy, A view to Kill, Never say never again, The Naked Face, Bonds are Forever) not one of which made it to the first cited list above, edged out by better and more memorable stories and films.

   Who is going to remember "Up in the air" in ten years?

   The fact is, although there are twice as many (my first link shows 50, my second list 100), there is hardly a concept among them.

   So the interesting fact you've stated about the eighties can be seen very, very clearly. The concepts from the 2000s...simply suck. Your additional information about the market history of concepts is most interesting.

   --

   EDIT: in response to ajmurmann's reply below:

   So I consider those worse concepts than the concepts embodied in the first list, movies from the 80s. Really look at the two lists (really) and see the strength of the concept behind them. They're worlds apart (to me.)

   I realize this will be a subjective judgment. Look at the overall impression, not just one or two films.