Would Goldeneye have been a success with Dalton?

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  • Posts: 677
    I just don't know that we would have gotten the same GE if that had happened, and I would't want to give that up.

    I thought Dalton movies were fine, but I just wasn't very big on him.

    Maybe I was being too hard and he deserved another go, but again I wouldn't give GE up.
  • NeverOnTheFirmsTimeNeverOnTheFirmsTime A plane tree'd square off the Kings Road
    Posts: 34
    As much as it pains me to say it, the answer to the question posed in the thread title is.... no.
    TD was - and is - my favourite Bond, but I had to accept back in 1994 that time had moved on and that, sadly, the need for change was too strong to resist. I would have loved TD to have been able to prove to the naysayers what a great Bond he was, and it is a crying shame we missed out on further TD entries in '91 and' 93 - but the simple fact is that his portrayal of a dark yet vulnerable 007 was ahead of its time, and the majority of film goers were just not ready for his gritty, Fleming inspired take on the role.
    I enjoyed GE immensely when it came out, and thought PB played it well in his first outing - I still to this day maintain that this was his best turn as Bond and, despite being number five on my list of favourite Bond actors, I accept that he helped keep the franchise alive.
  • Posts: 11,425
    All the films made money. All the Bonds played their part in keeping the series afloat.
  • thedovethedove hiding in the Greek underworld
    Posts: 4,971
    I am not sure if Dalton had the recognition with audiences for GE to have been a success. If we look at what Dalton brought to the role those were mostly abandoned with GE. Which means GE would have been a different movie with Dalton.

    Dalton took the character back to the books. Many of the things that makes Bond who he is on the screen are different from the books. He was a sensible choice after Moore as to continue on that track would have been too played out.

    GE represented Bond getting his swagger back. Embracing who the character had become and playing some of the "greatest hits" within the movie. Dalton had taken the character in a different direction and I think it would have been jarring to see him do this role after LTK. With the time between films this became a "reboot" (geez I dislike this term) of the character. Having him removed and all other recurring characters be different enhanced this idea.

    I don't think GE would have been a success with Dalton.
  • Posts: 11,425
    It would have been better though
  • MurdockMurdock The minus world
    Posts: 16,330
    Unlikely.
  • 00Agent00Agent Any man who drinks Dom Perignon '52 can't be all bad.
    Posts: 5,185
    Impossible.
  • edited August 2019 Posts: 11,425
    00Agent wrote: »
    Impossible.

    I'd say entirely possible. Not just possible but an unavoidable outcome of replacing Brozza with Dalts.
  • 00Agent00Agent Any man who drinks Dom Perignon '52 can't be all bad.
    Posts: 5,185
    Getafix wrote: »
    00Agent wrote: »
    Impossible.

    I'd say entirely possible.

    At the end of the day that's entirely subjective and based on one's Personal preference. And I just happen to prefer Brosnan.
  • thedovethedove hiding in the Greek underworld
    Posts: 4,971
    I enjoy these types of discussions as they show our passion as fans. I doubt anyone else in my family would care 2 hoots about Dalton being in GE.

    I enjoy Pierce in GE and have come to appreciate what he did over the arc of his 4 movies. I will always recall leaving the theatre excited and amped to see another Bond. To me it brought back the character of my teen years. I was the ripe old age of 26 when GE was released.

    As much as I can appreciate Dalton and his 2 movies, I just can't picture him doing GE justice. To me GE was written with another actor in mind. I always felt it was telling that the PTS took place 6 years earlier which would have meant it was before LTK.

    Come to think of it I just thought of something is GE the only Bond movie to feature and flashback?
  • MajorDSmytheMajorDSmythe "I tolerate this century, but I don't enjoy it."Moderator
    Posts: 13,894
    The PTS takes place 9 years earlier, conveniently placing it before TLD.
  • Posts: 11,425
    Bit of an insult to Dalton. I remember Campbell slagging off Dalton when GE was released.
  • MajorDSmytheMajorDSmythe "I tolerate this century, but I don't enjoy it."Moderator
    Posts: 13,894
    Can't say i'm surprised, they were trying to sell Brosnan, even if it had to be at the expense of Dalton. I can take some comfort in knowing that Dalton's reputation has slowly increased over the years.
  • MaxCasinoMaxCasino United States
    Posts: 4,113
    We would have more than likely had Sir Anthony Hopkins as Alec Trevelyan, which would have been a plus.
  • thedovethedove hiding in the Greek underworld
    Posts: 4,971
    The PTS takes place 9 years earlier, conveniently placing it before TLD.

    Oh geez I had forgotten that. Do we think it was scripted that way? Or did Campbell really have that much of a problem with Dalton that it was added by him?
  • Posts: 2,896
    The press was also heavily anti-Dalton at the start of the Brosnan era. I remember Entertainment Weekly had a rank-every-Bond-film feature that placed LTK as either the worst or second-worst film in the series. Just as Lazenby and OHMSS were once widely regarded as failures because of their one-off status, Dalton was also considered an embarrassment for appearing in only two films, neither a blockbuster.

    It would be interesting to see the Goldeneye treatments prepared when Dalton still was Bond. It would have been a much different film and almost certainly less successful too. What the public wanted in the frivolous 90s was a pastiche of Moore and Connery; not until the post 9/11 era were audiences ready for a darker Bond.
  • matt_umatt_u better known as Mr. Roark
    Posts: 4,343
    Getafix wrote: »
    It would have been better though

    Difficult to say, it would've been a completely different movie. All I know is that TLD and LTK are better than GE.
  • Posts: 15,818
    TBH, I think I prefer the original Michael France draft of the script to the final film.
    I'd probably watch GE far more often had Dalton starred.
    Regardless, I was thrilled Bond had returned to the screen after such a long hiatus.
  • GE is far superior to TLD and LTK.
  • thedovethedove hiding in the Greek underworld
    Posts: 4,971
    ToTheRight wrote: »
    TBH, I think I prefer the original Michael France draft of the script to the final film.
    I'd probably watch GE far more often had Dalton starred.
    Regardless, I was thrilled Bond had returned to the screen after such a long hiatus.

    What were the differences in that original script?
  • MajorDSmytheMajorDSmythe "I tolerate this century, but I don't enjoy it."Moderator
    Posts: 13,894
    thedove wrote: »
    The PTS takes place 9 years earlier, conveniently placing it before TLD.

    Oh geez I had forgotten that. Do we think it was scripted that way? Or did Campbell really have that much of a problem with Dalton that it was added by him?

    It's hard to say. The PTS could have taken place in 1990, with would have bridged the gap. But instead it goes out of its way to ignore the Dalton era, by taken place after Moore.
  • Posts: 11,425
    A nasty little dig at Dalton.
  • matt_umatt_u better known as Mr. Roark
    Posts: 4,343
    GE is far superior to TLD and LTK.

    I feel the two Dalton entries have a more specific identity, which is something very important to me, with a concept behind them closer to what Fleming wrote and arguably the best direction by Glen. GE is a good Bond film, arguably one of the most important of the series regarding its impact on the masses and the capital role it played reinvigorating successfully the franchise, but as a movie itself I find it generally overrated. It was the right film at the right moment, but all in all I find Alec a really bland villain, I find the movie pacing quite rushed in the middle section, the score is the worst of the series and there are some really naive moments throughout the film. For example, the end with the marines hiding in the field and the ridiculous fact that Bond really believes Alec is dead as they fake his death with a "gun shot" in the head just in front of him...
  • Posts: 19,339
    GE is far superior to TLD and LTK.

    Looking at my last rankings I made,back on 13Jun this year,i have LTK at #5,GE at #8 ,and TLD right at the bottom on #24.
  • Posts: 11,425
    Weirdest rankings ever
  • Posts: 19,339
    Getafix wrote: »
    Weirdest rankings ever

    Why follow the crowd ? ;)
  • Posts: 15,818
    thedove wrote: »
    ToTheRight wrote: »
    TBH, I think I prefer the original Michael France draft of the script to the final film.
    I'd probably watch GE far more often had Dalton starred.
    Regardless, I was thrilled Bond had returned to the screen after such a long hiatus.

    What were the differences in that original script?

    The PTS , for example, was completely different; set on a train. Trevelyan is considerably older and more of a mentor to Bond, the TWINE buzz saw copters are in it........... I believe there's a link to the script on one of the threads here.

    Can't find that thread so here it is from another source.........

    https://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/Goldeneye.pdf
  • matt_u wrote: »
    I feel the two Dalton entries have a more specific identity, which is something very important to me, with a concept behind them closer to what Fleming wrote and arguably the best direction by Glen. GE is a good Bond film, arguably one of the most important of the series regarding its impact on the masses and the capital role it played reinvigorating successfully the franchise, but as a movie itself I find it generally overrated. It was the right film at the right moment, but all in all I find Alec a really bland villain, I find the movie pacing quite rushed in the middle section, the score is the worst of the series and there are some really naive moments throughout the film. For example, the end with the marines hiding in the field and the ridiculous fact that Bond really believes Alec is dead as they fake his death with a "gun shot" in the head just in front of him...
    I find the GE set of villains superior to those of Dalton's (especially TLD's) and some of the best Bond villains period, I think the Eric Serra score works perfectly with the movie and I find it a good listen on it's own as well, the movie flows incredibly well and has the glamour mixed with suspenseful atmosphere that I love about Bond, I'm not high on Dalton as Bond either because I find him too dry and Brosnan is at the top of his game in GE in my humble opinion, and I also find Natalya one of the best Bond girls.

    Overall I do think memorable characters go a long way in a Bond movie for me, which is why I'll never rank QOS and SP as some of the best entries because I find their characters middling or forgettable and thus why I'm not looking forward to the returning SP characters in B25, but fortunately there's other stuff to look forward to!
  • Posts: 2,896
    TLD undoubtedly had a weak set of villains, but Treveylan in Goldeneye suffers from transitioning from a traitorous ex-agent in the first two-thirds of the movie to a more mastermind in the last third, though Sean Bean's acting is very strong (so strong that some reviewers thought he should have been Bond instead of the comparatively bland Brosnan). Sanchez in LTK is ultimately a better-rendered and more convincing villain.

    Eric Serra's score works only as chloroform. GE is crowd-pleasing post-modernist Bond--it marries old Connery/Moore Bond tropes to those of 90s action movies. It's successful and soulless.
  • DoctorKaufmannDoctorKaufmann Can shoot you from Stuttgart and still make it look like suicide.
    Posts: 1,261
    I just don't know that we would have gotten the same GE if that had happened, and I would't want to give that up.

    I thought Dalton movies were fine, but I just wasn't very big on him.

    Maybe I was being too hard and he deserved another go, but again I wouldn't give GE up.

    First of all, wasn't there a Bond 17 screenplay to do a Bond Film in 1991, which can also be found on this website? And did they not have to rewrite the GE script, when they realized, that TRUE LIES actually had some stunning similar passages? But would it have worked with Dalton in the lead? With the TLD Dalton it probably would, but with the LTK Dalton, it might have been different. But it's all hypothetical. GE is in my Top 5 of Bond movies, and so is TLD.
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