Overall, I think Pierce Brosnan by far was the best actor for the role, and Roger Moore the poorest.
However, I think that the best single performance, and also the worst single performance, were delivered by Timothy Dalton. In The Living Daylights I got the sense that he couldn't make up his mind whether he was playing Sean Connery or Roger Moore; and he kept switching back and forth between rather poor impersonations of these two previous actors. In License to Kill he finally got it; he wasn't playing Sean Connery, nor was he playing Roger Moore; he was playing James Bond. In this movie, he gave a powerful performance of James Bond in an unusual situation. Not the calm, professional James Bond just doing his job; but a passionate, angry, venegeful James Bond out to totally destroy the man on whose orders Bond's best friend was maimed and the friend's new bride raped and murdered.
Although License to Kill is my favorite of all the James Bond films to date, I really don't think Timothy Dalton was ever really the right actor to play the role. I credit the unusual story more than Dalton's own talents for the strength which which he ended up playing the role. He did well enough with the role, but I think Sean Connery or Pierce Brosnan would have played the role even better if cast for the part in that movie.
Sean Connery, of course, got to be the actor who initially defined the character of James Bond, and he certainly played the part well enough.
I never got the sense that Roger Moore took the role as seriously as he ought to have. He played the role almost as if it were meant to be a comedy; making the characacter into something of a wisecracking buffoon.
Pierce Brosnan; what can I say about him? I enjoyed very much his performance in Remington Steele and was disaapointed when I learned that that show was to be cancelled. When it was announced that he had been selected to be the next James Bond, my reaction was to think that of course, he was the most perfect actor for the role, and James Bond, conversely was the most perfect role for him, as an actor. But it was decided to make one more season of Remington Steele (which turned out to be quite disaapointing compared to all the previous seasons) and so he lost out on that chance to be James Bond, and the role went to Timothy Dalton for the next two movies.
Pierce Brosnan did finally get to take over the role, and he played it every bit as well as I thought he would. I remain convinced that he truly is the most perfect actor for this particular role, and I am dissapointed that he is giving it up so soon. I'd be happy to see them remake all the older James Bond movies, with Brosnan in that role. I don't think there has ever been, nor will there ever be, another actor who is as suitable to portray the James Bond of Ian Flemmings' writings, as Pierce Brosnan.
Comments
Agreed.
by Keysha on December 19th, 2011