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Comments
That's what I dig about the Connery era is that it was all groundbreaking. Nobody was deciding "we need a Bondian moment" because such a term never existed until it became a tradition. In fact there's only three films where Connery delivers "Bond. James Bond" (DN, GF, DAF).
I love Goldfinger. Its got everything. Overly familiar maybe but it is 56 years old.
Yes I agree with this. I watched FRWL again last night and boy does it look dated. Yes it is a very down-to-earth, straight forward, no nonsense spy thriller, yes the acting is great, yes it follows Fleming's book closely.
But it feels like a 1950's movie. The scene at the end when Bond and Tatiana are on the gondola in Venice is very bad. The back projection just looks awful. I know this is how films were done back then, but surely they could have filmed that one scene actually on a gondola, seeing as they were actually filming there already.
I get the budgets back then were still tight, but it really shows in the first 2 movies. By GF, the film looks like it had been made 10 years later.
Yes, my feelings too. If anything, DN feels the more modern movie, especially the second half when they’re on Crab Key.
Both DN and FRWL were very successful but they were also very different films, and offered up two different paths for Eon to take. It’s interesting to speculate how things could have turned out if Eon had decided to go down the more Hitchcockian, less fantastical, cat-and-mouse spy thriller route, ie more FRWL.
Instead they decided to follow the DN template, with Ken Adam sets, secret bases, comic book style villains with dastardly evil plans etc. Then they wrapped this template with some features of FRWL (like a theme song, a PTS, a threatening henchman and so on) and from this union of disparate elements GF was born.
I understand what you mean, though. It's far from my favourite, but the impact it had on pop culture and the place it has in Bond fandom isn't to be underestimated.
What about the bad projection in the GF pool scenes???
The blink-and-you'll-miss-it scenes in the beginning?
Yes.
I blinked and I missed it. Shows you how noticeable it was. ;)
Goldfinger is such a great villain. He's a bit brutish and not very charming but he doesn't have to be. He thinks nothing of slicing Bond in 2 and walking away. He pays a girl to be seen with him but nothing more. This man is focussed on his gold and wealth.
Bond is just so damn cool in this film. Connery plays him with aplomb and sets the template that others will follow and be compared to even to this day. Bond is captured and a prisoner of Goldfinger for most of the movie but you never feel like he's in jeopardy. I think this is a great thing, Bond is so cool and calm.
I think GF is the first with BIG style and BIG touches throughout. Barry's soundtrack is let loose with lots of brass. You could listen to the soundtrack without ear muffs. Adams' sets are just so on point. I will always think Fort Knox vault looks like it was portrayed in the movie. I don't even question it. Goldfinger's room where the hood convention takes place has so many nice touches and allows the actors of the scene to interact and play around.
I'm not crazy about the Leiter character in this film. He doesn't get much to do and seems to be working for Mi6 more then CIA. I always think if he's (Goldfinger) clean as far as CIA is concerned why is Felix following Bond around and providing support. I also think this is the first time the producers cast someone completely opposite in type to Bond. Not sure why Connery could have held his own against other good looking men.
A great film and I enjoy to this day!
There is a reason why its famous, in that it hit the right notes and connected with many people.
It is also widely seen as the favourite too, even if its not yours.
1. The dialogue and acting during the "hoods convention" is among the very worst of the series. It derails the building tension and sends it into self-parody.
2. Soooo Much Driving.
3. The scene with Bond and Galore in the barn is too rapey...even for pre PC Bond.
4. Every Connery film has a stretch or two where not much happens. GF may have a little more of that than most.
But...the score is great, the villains are great, the climax is great, the PTS is great, and everything from Bond meeting Tillie to Bond spying under the model is some of the series' best work.
It has Sean Connery, of course, and the best theme song, incorporating Shirley Bassey and lashings of John Barry brass....it’s also a very faithful Fleming adaption and is the blue print for the franchise.
If one doesn’t like Goldfinger....one doesn’t really like Bond.
Lol. So Goldfinger is iconic for basically copying what's good in FRWL? You have to sell it better than that, man... ;))
I like Goldfinger, but FRWL is the better film, hands down!
Indeed GF owes some debt to FRWL as without a successful FRWL I doubt Broccoli and Salzman get to produce GF without it.
The only other films to have that similar "iconic" and recognizable status from a non-fan, global standpoint seem to be The Spy Who Loved Me, GoldenEye, Casino Royale and Skyfall.