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Comments
Nah. You've all lost it.
Care to explain why?
Thunderball is my favorite of his and while it has lots and lots of action, the dragging of the underwater scenes keeps my finger near the fast forward button.
Goldfinger absolutely oozes class and quality. It sheds the teething problems of DN, adds a fuel injection system to the FRWL template and is so much tighter than TB it's like a brand new Michelin next to a puncture.
It's got a bombastic Barry score, Connery at his absolute finest and features one of the greatest villains in any film, ever. It establishes the worlds most famous car, defines the very notion of a 'title song', it brought Ken Adam to the attention of the world and stands alongside Raiders as a blueprint for perfect Hollywood cinema.
It's a unique film that captured the Zeitgeist and deserves the adulation it's afforded. It's cinematic Gold.
That's not what bothers me about it. I can understand why Goldfinger kept Bond alive, if only because of his hubris. A mistake yes, but an understandable one given his characters: he'd rather humiliate Bond than kill him, at this point of the story at least.
The flaws of the movie reside in other places I think: the weakest introduction of the villain until maybe DAF, it is certainly the weakest of the first six Bond, Bond not doing much once he gets captured and being borderline impotent witness during the whole Fort Knox sequence, heavier use of gadgetry, lighter tone, a far more peripheral Bond girl (compare Pussy Galore to Domino, who is literally in the middle of a struggle between Bond and Largo), etc.
And I agree with @Master_Dahark: all of Connery's outings have pacing problems, save FRWL. They're great movies but they have some pacing problems here and there.
As people have mentioned, pacing is a big issue. IMO, Dr No is the biggest perpetrator when it comes to pacing issues, and is the least entertaining in the series.
FRWL is one of two, however, where my opinion has somewhat soared. Same with Thunderball.
And the biggest fall is, you guessed it, Goldfinger. I used to be one of its defenders, it used to be no.3, but I'm afraid I cannot say that now. For the first time, I found Thunderball and FRWL to be the better films. I wouldn't be surprised to see it drop to eleventh place in my updated ranking.
YOLT has remained static. Average Bond outing, probably sat at around 17th place. I cannot stomach "Bond goes Japanese" more than I can stomach "Jaws gets a girlfriend".
And I suppose DAF has remained static, too. Perhaps I didn't find as entertaining as I did on previous viewings, but it is still good fun.
Overall, I find the Connery films to be pretty much average. I'd happily take a Moore or Dalton film over a Connery any day.
OHMSS will always be my ultimate Bond film.
I know this is old and my reply is late but THANK YOU! Goldfinger is still awesome.
I'll add on to it - Guy Hamilton is able to (alongside Connery's swaggering performance) inject SO MUCH class. It is, in my opinion, the classiest Bond film (saying something in a series that prides itself on having class) and it's one of the classiest films ever made.
Nothing controversial about the truth.
TB is the first drop in quality. DAF is the first huge drop in quality. But they are both a drop in the ocean compared to GE.
I consider TB far superior to GF (and this is my bit of controversial opinion). TB has a far more involved Bond girl, a more proactive Bond (in GF he almost turns into an impotent witness to the plot), a much darker tone, a better antagonism with the villain too.
Woooawwww. Can't tolerate that. DAF doesn't deserve to clean GE's shoes. Not saying GE doesn't have its problems but at the very least it has a believable Bond girl rather than an annoying piece of comic relief as well a Bond who's in semi-decent physical shape and who doesn't look like he's going to drop to the floor after running a few feet. The iconography in the statue park is better than anything in DAF too.
Those that deny GF do not know and or recognize the movie and what important place it takes in the history of cinema and the franchise. They might not like the movie, which I can understand, but GF is a very important movie, a game-changer in cinema.
I think no one here denies Goldfingers importance and iconic status in the history of cinema. Whether it's really "the very best bond film" on the other hand, is still a valid question, both from a subjective and objective view point...
I am not even sure what the best movie of the bunch is, I know I find the first four Sean Connery's 007 in a class of their own. Then OHMSS & FYEO are Flemingesque and rather brilliant.
The modern 007 is far more a bellybutton gazing kind of fellow that needs to wake up and deliver some toprate thriller/actionmovie because Mission Impossible is just doing that much better than the EON franchise has delivered in recent years.
Big THIS! (Even though I don't consider MI 4 anything to write home about)
I think, if anything, Craig's Bond is too "working class" to reflect Fleming's character, who was a loner but who could blend into the elite social circles when necessary.
No, please, before you continue, let me save you the work by writing your post for you...
Skyfall is a terrible movie which has ruined the Bond franchise forever. Daniel Craig is an emotionless robot puppeteered by Sam Mendes to bring about the death of the Bond series. Despite it making over a billion dollars, there should be no Bond films after Skyfall so that Mendes can't butcher the character anymore.
Did I get you close enough?
IF my post had been concerned with SF you would indeed have gotten the first five words right. FOR YOU this would be an intellectual achievement, for everyone else ....hmmm.
I don't care about Quantum or Mr White and I couldn't care less if they're never even referenced in the future. I'd much rather see SPECTRE come back with Blofeld.
No you're not alone there.
I'm not so enthused about SPECTRE and Blofeld returning but I believe its inevitable so I'm happy to embrace it when it happens (as long as it's done right).
*hides*
Yes, exactly. I was going to write just those words in fact. Many fans seem to overlook this fact yet it is there for all to see in the original Fleming Bond novels!
I don't think Blofeld in the books went quite as far into pantomime as Charles Grey did.
By that logic Colonel Moon turning into Toby Stephens is Fleming-esque too.