![]() ![]() ![]() Other than a few quotes of the main James Bond theme and several of the associated John Barry 007 themes, there is no similarity between this Bond score and anything that went before it instead, the score is wholly rooted in Kamen’s action writing of the period, which of course includes Lethal Weapon and Die Hard, but also scores like Edge of Darkness, especially with its judicious use of electric guitars. ‘Modernistic’ really is a great word to describe Kamen’s work. Kamen’s modernistic orchestral writing stands well on its own, and the two disparate sounds complement each other well despite sharing no melodic material. Normally, I would consider this to be something that hurts a Bond soundtrack, considering that the two musical elements are usually deeply intertwined, but for some reason that isn’t the case here. ![]() Interestingly – but not unsurprisingly, considering Kamen’s lack of involvement in either song – neither of the song melodies appear in Kamen’s underscore, making this soundtrack one of the only Bond scores where this is the case. However, for some reason I have always preferred Diane Warren’s song “If You Asked Me To,” which is silkier, smoother, and more contemporary, with enticing smoky vocals by Patti LaBelle, and a luscious string arrangement under the main melody courtesy of composer Aaron Zigman. The Walden-Cohen-Afanasieff song, “Licence to Kill,” features a riff on the horn line from the classic song from Goldfinger, and is a quintessential Bond power ballad belted out with aplomb by Knight. Initially Eric Clapton (who collaborated with Kamen on Lethal Weapon) and legendary guitarist Vic Flick were asked to write and perform a theme song together, which was to have been based on Monty Norman’s classic Bond theme, but for reasons unknown this collaboration fell through, and songwriters Narada Michael Walden, Jeffrey Cohen, Walter Afanasieff, and Diane Warren ended up contributing instead. But, of course, Bond soundtracks must always start with the song, and this time around there are two of them: “Licence to Kill,” performed by Gladys Knight over the opening titles, and “If You Asked Me To,” performed by Patti LaBelle over the end credits. Kamen, who was a hot commodity for action scores at the time following his successes in the Die Hard and Lethal Weapon franchises, became only the sixth composer to score a Bond film, and the first person other than Barry to score one since Bill Conti and For Your Eyes Only in 1981. The score for Licence to Kill was composed by the UK-based American composer Michael Kamen, who was approached to score the film instead of John Barry, who was unable to score it due to him being in recovery from life-saving throat surgery at the time. It remains the lowest-grossing Bond film of all time, something which, sadly, hastened to the end of Dalton’s tenure and his subsequent replacement with Pierce Brosnan in Goldeneye in 1995. The film co-stars Robert Davi, Carey Lowell, Talisa Soto, and a very young Benicio del Toro, but unfortunately the film was not a commercial success adjusted for inflation. The perpetrator is Franz Sanchez, a drug lord and ruthless cartel boss in a fictional Central American country seeking personal vengeance, Bond teams up with Pam Bouvier, an ex Army-pilot with a vendetta against Sanchez of her own, and crosses paths with two very different members of Sanchez’s entourage: the beautiful Lupe Lamora, and the sadistic henchman Dario. In it, Bond finds himself disavowed by British secret service agency MI6 and ‘going rogue’ after his best friend, CIA agent Felix Leiter, and his new bride Della are viciously attacked on their wedding day. I have long been of the opinion that Dalton was a hugely underrated Bond who should have been given more opportunities to succeed and develop his gritty version of the character, and that Licence to Kill is one of the best of the entire series. The second – and last – James Bond film to star Timothy Dalton was 1989’s Licence to Kill, directed by John Glen from a screenplay by Michael G. ![]()
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