Who else feels bad for Krest in Licence to Kill?
Redland
NYCPosts: 19MI6 Agent
I rewatched Licence to Kill last night, and found I loved it just as much as I did growing up. Sure there's that sleazy Scarface/1980s aesthetic going on, but it's a blast. Dalton is great in it, and I love the supporting cast (probably with the sole exception of Talisa Soto).
Krest never left a big impact on me as a kid, and I figured that his death was well-deserved considering the fact that he is a villain. However, I felt really bad for him last night when I watched the film.
He's not actually an evil guy. He's such a creepy uncle type, he just comes off as sort of pathetic. He has built this cover and has managed to hire so many men to work for him, but he's sort of a sad guy. His drunken advances at Lupe are more sad than threatening or vile. He's obviously an undersexed, underliked, awkward man who has managed to create a successful illegitimate business. Unfortunately, Bond shows up, ruins the drugs, takes the money, kills some of his men, steals a plane, and makes a tremendous embarrassment out of this little man. Krest, compared with Sanchez, is a small time crook, and normally in a Bond film, we wouldn't hear about the character again.
However, Bond finds out that Krest is arriving in town and makes up his story about the Hong Kong operatives and the fact that they would be meeting someone who was arriving that evening. Bond sets up Krest by filling the pressure chamber with Sanchez's money, before Sanchez comments on Krest's poor luck (soon after Pam crashes into the dock).
The scene of Krest, obviously dependent on alcohol to calm his nerves, but still acting like a sad, creepy uncle, explains what happened to the money. It's a true story, but he is such a poor speaker with an undeveloped set of social skills that his speech is nervous. It sounds like he's lying, and the pathetic quality of his speech makes me feel so sorry for him. He has no idea that he has been set up, but he's trapped. They find the money, which he has never seen before, and the poor guy begs to explain in vain in those last moments of his life. He gets one of the most unpleasant and violent deaths in the entire series (Dario's is also up there), and whereas the juvenile me laughed and thought the effect was cool, the mature me felt so bad for him. More than that, I was disgusted with Bond who set up this guy. The cruel, villainous mechanics Bond uses to engineer Krest's demise are so much easier to despise than the cold, instinctual murders he performs himself. Krest might be Bond's coldest kill, even if it was indirect.
What did he have to gain? He earned Sanchez's trust, got rid of a man who could have recognized him (Krest might not have put together that the man who inquired about buying a shark was the same man who wreaked havoc on his boat...but he would still remember the face and probably put it together if he saw him, or at least react to him in such a way as to arouse Sanchez's suspicions), got Sanchez's money off of his hands, and made Sanchez feel even more suspicious about his accomplices. Bond came up with the plan in mere seconds, between Lupe notifying him of Krest's arrival and Sanchez inquiring about the Hong Kong operatives, but it's still surprising that his morals were totally absent. He gets a man killed for a crime he didn't commit or even know about, without really needing to. I'm sure there could have been another way to achieve his ends. Krest is not necessarily likable, but he does feel like plenty of emasculated older men I've seen in my lifetime, who easily earn an infinite amount of pity from anyone that realizes their pathetic life.
tl;dr version:
Bond is a jerk when he gets Krest killed for a crime he didn't commit.
Krest never left a big impact on me as a kid, and I figured that his death was well-deserved considering the fact that he is a villain. However, I felt really bad for him last night when I watched the film.
He's not actually an evil guy. He's such a creepy uncle type, he just comes off as sort of pathetic. He has built this cover and has managed to hire so many men to work for him, but he's sort of a sad guy. His drunken advances at Lupe are more sad than threatening or vile. He's obviously an undersexed, underliked, awkward man who has managed to create a successful illegitimate business. Unfortunately, Bond shows up, ruins the drugs, takes the money, kills some of his men, steals a plane, and makes a tremendous embarrassment out of this little man. Krest, compared with Sanchez, is a small time crook, and normally in a Bond film, we wouldn't hear about the character again.
However, Bond finds out that Krest is arriving in town and makes up his story about the Hong Kong operatives and the fact that they would be meeting someone who was arriving that evening. Bond sets up Krest by filling the pressure chamber with Sanchez's money, before Sanchez comments on Krest's poor luck (soon after Pam crashes into the dock).
The scene of Krest, obviously dependent on alcohol to calm his nerves, but still acting like a sad, creepy uncle, explains what happened to the money. It's a true story, but he is such a poor speaker with an undeveloped set of social skills that his speech is nervous. It sounds like he's lying, and the pathetic quality of his speech makes me feel so sorry for him. He has no idea that he has been set up, but he's trapped. They find the money, which he has never seen before, and the poor guy begs to explain in vain in those last moments of his life. He gets one of the most unpleasant and violent deaths in the entire series (Dario's is also up there), and whereas the juvenile me laughed and thought the effect was cool, the mature me felt so bad for him. More than that, I was disgusted with Bond who set up this guy. The cruel, villainous mechanics Bond uses to engineer Krest's demise are so much easier to despise than the cold, instinctual murders he performs himself. Krest might be Bond's coldest kill, even if it was indirect.
What did he have to gain? He earned Sanchez's trust, got rid of a man who could have recognized him (Krest might not have put together that the man who inquired about buying a shark was the same man who wreaked havoc on his boat...but he would still remember the face and probably put it together if he saw him, or at least react to him in such a way as to arouse Sanchez's suspicions), got Sanchez's money off of his hands, and made Sanchez feel even more suspicious about his accomplices. Bond came up with the plan in mere seconds, between Lupe notifying him of Krest's arrival and Sanchez inquiring about the Hong Kong operatives, but it's still surprising that his morals were totally absent. He gets a man killed for a crime he didn't commit or even know about, without really needing to. I'm sure there could have been another way to achieve his ends. Krest is not necessarily likable, but he does feel like plenty of emasculated older men I've seen in my lifetime, who easily earn an infinite amount of pity from anyone that realizes their pathetic life.
tl;dr version:
Bond is a jerk when he gets Krest killed for a crime he didn't commit.
The bitch is dead now.
Comments
I've always liked Milton Krest and it's sad that not more was done with him as a character. He was the last ever Fleming villain until Le Chiffre came along in Casino Royale (2006). I suggest you go back and read the short story 'The Hildebrand Rarity' if you want to know more about the seedy drunk that is Krest. There he is murdered in a most horrible fashion by one of two suspects. I'm pretty sure that you have already read it, though.
Yes, James Bond is a real jerk here, and I can't really think of any link back to the novels to support this - alrthough it is said that Licence to Kill is a partial throwback to the novel of The Man with the Golden Gun (1965). Yes, Krest is a sympathetic character - perhaps Bond could have killed him himself in a gunfight or something, but Krest's death, ugly as it indeed was (Kananga II if you will) was required to move the insider nature of the revenge plot along. There's a link here with the Mathis dumping scene in Quantum of Solace here too, I'd imagine. See my thread on that one here on AJB. James Bond is not a very nice person sometimes, best we get used to that fact. The Roger Moore era kind of skewed that view somewhat, but the Connery, Dalton and Craig films are all of this nature, even Lazenby in a way, too. I think the Krest death scene also shows the brutal nature of Sanchez when he's crossed. -{
I don't really feel sorry for Krest because, after all, he's been a key player in a heroin distribution racket. Within the codes and conventions of hard-nosed 80s crime films, any villain who handles heroin has crossed a moral line and basically deserves everything coming to him, regardless of his status within the drug cartel. If Bond seems callous, let's not forget he's taking down the guys who got to Della and Leiter. (It was on Krest's premises that Leiter was mutilated.) And by setting up Krest, Bond is getting one over on Sanchez, his ultimate target: the act of duping the principal villain is at least as gratifying to Bond, I'd say, as sealing Krest's doom.
Yes, you're right, he's no Sunday School teacher, as O.F. Snelling said when comparing (the literary) Milton Krest to Le Chiffre no less. Perhaps, as a drug peddlar he deserves all that he gets. And for the latest in a short line of ineffectual henchmen in James Bond films see the character of the much-maligned Elvis in Quantum of Solace, the modern-day version of Licence to Kill.
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Yes, but he hasn't changed his posts in 40 years.
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You beat me to that one, chrisisall.
Our member here boundlessrogue has kind of beaten it to you in the form of a henchman novel, though:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cannon-Fodder-Secret-Lives-Henchmen/dp/0988669803/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1361569964&sr=8-2&tag=10xxx10070-21
1. GoldenEye 2. Goldfinger 3. Skyfall 4. OHMSS 5. TWINE
mention the lives he'd of help destroy with Drugs. So NO I don't feel
bad for Him. Bond did the world a favour.
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Probably not, but in the end, I really don't think it mattered. All that mattered was A. Setting himself up to look good in Sanchez' eyes and getting Sanchez to trust him by showing his "Tip" was accurate, and B. Making yet another one of the people who wronged Felix and Della get a comeuppance. When Sanchez says Bond has disappointed him at the set-up, I really think he means it. He wanted Bond's story to be legit. Even when Bond is quasi-exposed, he still can't help listening and believing Bond's information about Heller and Truman-Lodge.
In fact, one of the things I love about Dalton, especially in that scene, is the shot of him leaning around the probe to get a better look at Krest's comeuppance. Bond is definitely a ruthless bastard when he needs to be.
It's interesting though, that the OP brings this up. In one of the supplemental LTK books, Zerbe talks about the character, and says basically from the moment we see him, one thing after another keeps going wrong for the guy. He says he played the role as a man who is never seen at the top of his game, because he's constantly on the defensive, first shielding Sanchez, then dealing with the aftereffects of Bond.
Yes, just look at how Krest scews up his face in horror as the shark removes Leiter's leg.
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One of my favourite Bond film lines comes from a drunken Krest:
"You b.bbetter watch yourself, girlie. I'm known him a long time. I've seen a lot of girls like you come...and go."
His delivery of this line is most excellent IMHO.
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Blown apart in a pressure container in Licence to Kill
Beheaded by a guillotine in Columbo Goes to the Guillotine
Face stretched and killed in Star Trek: Insurrection
Anyway, one other reason for Bond to have no problem manipulating Sanchez into killing Krest is because he saw Sharkey killed by Krest's goons, and there is actually a bit of jocular dialogue between Krest and said goons while Bond is looking out the window in disgust.
I think the big difference between Krest and Sanchez (besides the latter being far more successful in his line of work) is that Sanchez comes across as a sadist: whipping women for disobeying him, having his goons rape and kill a newlywed while feeding her husband's leg to a shark in order to mentally and physically scar him for life. Dario has the same sadistic streak (which is presumably why he got kicked out of the Contras.) Krest and Killifer are both taken aback by the shark-biting scene (I guess also because Killifer was a friend of Felix, but still.)
Krest by comparison just has a generic "shoot anyone who threatens me" approach. He's not interested in torturing people, but he has no qualms about killing them either. I didn't feel bad for him. I don't think Bond expected Krest to die the way he did though, it's just another example of Sanchez's sadistic streak that instead of shooting him on the spot he put him into the chamber. The camera does show Bond's face during the scene, making it obvious he didn't expect Krest's end to be that grisly.
Redland, if you are ever to write "I Got A Wife And Kids, Mr. Bond: A Study of Henchman Pathos" I will be one of the first to buy
I do feel bad for Whisper who was eternally trapped in that couch
I feel bad for him, especially when he explains his story about the stolen money and when Sanchez finds the money and right off the bat accuses Krest of plotting to kill him.
I pity him
" I don't listen to hip hop!"
Krest just doesn’t seem to be a “villain” per se in that he just seems an outsider who Sanchez doesn’t trust/like enough to have him around much other than to use his warehouse at the start which I guess generates a bit more sympathy from me for him than say Heller who is more a villain in that hangs around with Sanchez all the time, and is pretty dull so I don’t mind him dying.
Then again I don’t feel as sorry for him as say Tee Hee, who could easily have been spared because he was stuck on that rail so wasn’t going anywhere fast and Bond had already completed his mission by blowing up the poppy fields so killing him served less of a purpose. Killing Krest served a purpose integral to the plot and he was a bit of a slimeball and a creep so deserved to die more than poor Tee Hee who was just an awesome, cartoon book kind of character than could have been utilised in the future.
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Have changed, letting love fill his big old heart ! Sadly we'll
Never know.
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