I'm happy to have a guest reviewer on Ninja Dixon...and it's my friend and fellow Bond-fan Alex Carriére who's doing the scribbling! Enjoy!
I’ll start by saying that Goldfinger isn’t my
favorite James Bond film, as it seems to be for many people. Though I do love
Goldfinger, I enjoy other Connery Bond films more, and other Moore Bond films
even greater still. I was looking at Rotten Tomatoes while Goldfinger was on,
and I noticed that Dr. No had the highest approval rating of any Bond film
(98%). I haven’t seen Dr. No in MANY years, and this is partly because the last
time I watched it I thought it was super boring (though I do want to revisit it
soon, and perhaps I will for this event Fred is holding). I think that it all
comes down to what you as a viewer would like to get out of a Bond flick. If
you want a more serious style of 60s espionage, you definitely want to watch
the early Connery Bond films. Goldfinger marks the start of a change in the
Bond series, from a more conventional spy story to a more playful and
entertaining action movie. After Goldfinger, Bond didn’t take itself very
seriously, and personally I’m glad that happened. Part of what makes the James
Bond series so fabulous is the formula they began to develop, really starting
with Goldfinger.
Goldfinger starts with a pre-credit action
sequence, one that is much more in depth than the previous two Bond films in
the series, and is really just something to get the audience pulled in right
away. This is followed by a beautiful credit sequence that was designed by
Robert Brownjohn, featuring gilded women and the classic Goldfinger theme sung
by Shirley Bassey. The pre-credit sequence allows for James to end up in Miami
Beach, Florida, which introduces him to Goldfinger. In Miami Beach, Bond is
making progress with the ladies, as always. For me, Connery always brought a
real sense of a sex god to the Bond character; women seem unable to control
themselves around him. Though this movie’s “Bond Girl,” Pussy Galore (Honor
Blackman), puts up a fight against Bond’s sexual presence, she eventually gets
her very own rape kiss. This sexual prowess is something that continues with
Roger Moore, and even though I think he is more suave (looking and acting) than
Connery, it still just doesn’t seem to be as convincing, maybe it’s just
because Connery was in the habit of forcing himself onto women.
We get to see Bond visit the Q branch under its
new title, which is always a special treat, especially for fans of the series.
Q is played by Desmond Llewelyn, who has become famously known for playing Q in
the Bond films. The Q gadgets become a huge part of the series after
Goldfinger, and you can tell that the gadgets are new to this film because they
aren’t extremely extravagant at this point. The Q branch and gadgets would
eventually become a point of comic relief and connivence in the Bond series.
Bond and Q have a great relationship with Q always telling Bond to, “Pay
attention” when he is fooling around with the experimental gadgets, or even Q’s
sandwich as he does in Goldeneye.
Goldfinger has a solid story that is fun to get
engaged in. Goldfinger himself is a great character, he has a great screen
presence (which became a standard for Bond villains), and such a fun
personality. Like most Bond villains though, he is too confident in his plans.
One of my biggest issues with this movie though is that I never once felt like
Bond wasn’t going to make it, the stakes seemed incredibly low the entire time,
especially compared to Bond’s future endeavors. There were times where Bond
would just give up when being chased, which is more realistic I suppose, but
not what I want from a Bond movie. I want to see James Bond driving the front
half of a car around, then jumping into a cake. The car chase through the
woods, where the Aston Martin shows off it’s Q tricks was pretty lacking, but
the chase directly following that around the warehouse buildings was a lot
better.
There is a scene on the plane when Bond is
changing clothes and the stewardess is trying to keep an eye on him and Bond
keeps blocking the peep holes. This is a lot closer to the kind of lighthearted
nature of the Bond series that I enjoy a lot. I always enjoy James Bond movies
a lot more when they have the playful attitude that they grew to embrace later
on in the series, really starting with Goldfinger in a lot of ways. Though
Goldfinger is a great movie, and a great addition to the Bond series, I feel
that the series was still coming out of its shell at this point, and had a
little more work to do before it became the amazing series it was. I should
emphasize “was,” because I find that the Brosnan (except Goldeneye) and
particularly the Craig Bond films lack that playful attitude, though not
completely devoid of their moments. If you are interested in seeing a James
Bond flick, there are few that you can do better with as far as status than
Goldfinger, and it’s a damn good movie too! It isn’t my personal best, but it’s
up there for sure.
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