There’s an alternate cinematic realm in which Pierce Brosnan, having concluded his run on the short-lived, hit NBC action drama “Remington Steele,” inherited the James Bond role from Roger Moore and arguably shepherded the franchise through a rapidly changing geopolitical landscape. It may have failed, but that would have been the fault of the production team led by Albert “Cubby” Broccoli. Because Brosnan was born to play Bond. Broccoli even said as much when he met the actor on the set of 1981’s “For Your Eyes Only.” While I’m a big Timothy Dalton supporter, I think versions of “The Living Daylights” and “License to Kill” tailored to Brosnan’s more dapper persona would have been far bigger hits and brought a quick resolution to the legal dispute that hastened Dalton’s departure.
Pierce Brosnan was the platonic ideal of a James Bond on the big screen.
Unfortunately, NBC blatantly misinterpreted the ratings boost that “Remington Steele” received in the wake of Brosnan’s rumored Bond casting as renewed interest in the fading series, and thus exercised its option for a sixth season. Suddenly, Brosnan disappeared from the market, forcing Broccoli to quickly move on to Dalton.
When Dalton’s run ended and the franchise was greenlit for reboot six years after the tepid box-office performance of “License to Kill,” Brosnan found himself taking over a franchise that arguably needed him more than he needed it. It was a bracing reanimation. Though director John Glen had done his best work for the series on Dalton’s films, cinematographer Martin Campbell gave Brosnan’s first Bond, “GoldenEye,” the punch of a modern 1990s action movie. 007 was back and more dazzlingly lethal than ever.
All four of Brosnan’s James Bond films were resounding commercial successes, though there isn’t a single film in the top five among them. One is borderline great, one is solid, one is a frustrating failure, and one is the worst 007 film ever made. Given the lack of an overarching arc (which the series offered with Daniel Craig’s five-film saga), you’re free to watch the Brosnan films in whatever order you like. But if you’re looking for maximum Brosnan Bond pleasure, here’s how I’d play it.
The production order
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The production order of Pierce Brosnan’s version of James Bond is as follows:
“Golden Eye” (1995)
“Tomorrow Never Dies” (1997)
“The World Is Not Enough” (1999)
“Die Another Day” (2002)
Though critics cooled on Brosnan’s films after “GoldenEye” (Pierce’s only certified-starrer on Rotten Tomatoes; Sean Connery’s “Goldfinger” is the undisputed RT Bond champion), the first three films came out of the factory with little in the way of behind-the-scenes drama. But if you watch these films in chronological order, you’ll notice a progressive decline in quality. That’s why I recommend taking a different route.
The correct order
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“Die Another Day” (2002)
“The World Is Not Enough” (1999)
“Tomorrow Never Dies” (1997)
“Golden Eye” (1995)
If you’re determined to see all four Brosnan Bonds, start with the worst or, trust me, there’s no way you’ll be able to see it. (I certainly can’t guarantee you’ll finish “Die Another Day,” but if you drop out, you’ll miss the movie’s best scene: a third-act swordfight between Halle Berry and Rosamund Pike.) It will also lessen the disappointment of “The World Is Not Enough,” which, under Michael Apted’s competent direction, opens with a spectacular boat chase around London’s Millennium Dome (a top-ten opening sequence in the franchise). And since your expectations won’t be very high after “GoldenEye,” you’ll be able to almost Forgive director Roger Spottiswoode for not giving Michelle Yeoh more to do in “Tomorrow Never Dies.”
Why this is the correct order
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Again, the only way to get through these four installments is if you save the best for last. And I think there’s value in this if you supplement your viewing with at least a look at why Brosnan failed in the role he was always meant to play.
While Brosnan’s entries continue to get worse, they are undercut by an increase in conceptual ambition. It was fairly common in Bond up until the Craig films for us to get a new 007 adventure every couple of years. That three years passed between “The World Is Not Enough” and “Die Another Day” probably doesn’t seem like much on the surface, but there was a significant push behind the scenes, much of it on Brosnan’s part, to portray the character in a manner closer to the colder-hearted killer of the Ian Fleming novels.
So when you watch “Die Another Day” and find yourself a little reeling from our hero’s cruel torture at the hands of North Korean soldiers, know that this is effectively all that remains of Brosnan’s vision for a darker 007 installment. How close did the production team come to giving us a rougher Bond? We know that they hired and fired Michael Apted before quickly moving on to A-listers John Woo and Tony Scott. When the latter balked, he recommended his friend Quentin Tarantino, who made a passionately drunken proposition. Brosnan also liked John McTiernan and Ang Lee (the latter having just won the best director Oscar for “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”), but his biggest influence was Martin Scorsese. The two apparently discussed the possibility on a flight, but, like many of these other filmmakers, Scorsese likely demanded the final cut before signing on (something the Broccolis would never have granted).
The tragedy is that the perfect director for “Die Another Day” had become available during this search, but he had yet to prove himself on a major studio production.
The Nolan Option
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When “Die Another Day” began principal photography on Jan. 11, 2002, Christopher Nolan was ensconced in an editing room putting the finishing touches on his studio film “Insomnia.” “Memento” had firmly cemented him as a filmmaker to watch (he’d share a Best Original Screenplay Oscar nomination with his brother Jonathan later that month), but no one looked away from that small-scale neo-noir thinking about their next logical step; he was running a $140 million studio. And unless he revealed it in an interview at the time, not many people knew the man was a James Bond fanatic.
If Nolan had gotten the job through some miracle of the film industry, the Broccolis and Michael Wilson would have had so much influence over him that he probably would have been fired the moment he tried to color outside the lines. I’d like to think he would have objected to the movie’s most idiotic scene (Bond speeding in an invisible Aston Martin), but the man made three Batman movies with vehicles capable of performing a multitude of unrealistic functions. Maybe the car would have stuck around. (And maybe we’ll get a Nolan Bond one of these days.)
A golden beginning (or an end, if you follow our advice)
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Keeping all of this in mind might give you something to think about when “The World Is Not Enough” slows down — which, aside from that opening, is basically any time Sophie Marceau isn’t on screen (she gives a legitimately excellent performance here). In terms of improbable car stunts, Bond driving a BMW from the backseat via remote control seemed silly at the time, but is now well within the realm of possibility. But I’ll tolerate all sorts of ridiculousness when the payoff is Michelle Yeoh proving time and time again why she should have been one of the biggest action stars in the world at the time.
And then there’s “GoldenEye,” an expertly directed action film that gives us two impressive villains (Sean Bean and Famke Janssen), some of the franchise’s most impressive stunts (that dam jump in the opening scene is no joke) and Brosnan at his most suave. I only wish he could have made a Bond movie as thrilling as “The Living Daylights,” one with a proper score by John Barry (the legendary composer left the franchise after “Daylights,” and the producers made the disastrous decision to hire goofball Éric Serra for “GoldenEye,” whose score was so abysmal that they had to hire John Altman to re-score the tank chase).
“GoldenEye” is no classic, but it is a very good Bond film that will make you think about what would have happened if NBC hadn’t renewed “Remington Steele” in 1986.
