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Eon to John Altman apparently:
http://jamesbondradio.com/composer-john-altman-explains-what-went-wrong-with-goldeneyes-score-exclusive-by-matthew-chernov/
Only recently heard Serra's take on the tank chase, and it would've put a big damper on the on-screen footage if they had kept it.
It would have been atrocious. If no replacement had been possible, they'd have been better off leaving the sequence without music—and I mean that sincerely.
That said, I do enjoy the music of GoldenEye overall. There are some great individual tracks and like others I appreciate that GoldenEye has its own very unique musical identity. I've come to appreciate Newman's Skyfall in a similar way, though his microwave-reheated follow-up has cast a serious shadow over his time with the series.
It's unnecessary. Dame Judi Dench most certainly wasn't a small time actress before GE, and they had no issues with dialing back her appearances in that film. They should be on screen minimally - when they start getting injected into the main plot of the film/helping Bond out directly like that, it gets to be too much.
I get what you're saying—believe me I'm no fan of the Scooby Gang action—but I think things can be handled better moving forward with the same cast. As with Judi Dench, casting Fiennes as M was a masterstroke, and while he disappointed in Spectre, he really shined in Skyfall, so for now I'm willing to chalk that up to a troubled production (ever-changing script, Fiennes having to put his foot down to rescue his own character, director-actor miscommunication as seen by Waltz's own comments).
Similarly, I don't think Harris and Whishaw necessarily are too big for their parts. Yes, Harris recently received Oscars attention (and Moneypenny in general certainly can do with a much lesser known actress), but that couldn't have been foreseen when she was cast.
The important thing is how the actors are used in their scenes, not necessarily their total amount of screen-tme. Despite Mendes' comments about what a shame it was that they had this fantastic actress in the part (Dench) and she wasn't being used to her full potential, M actually did feature a fair amount throughout Brosnan's four films, however this is really only felt in the welcome story anomaly of The World Is Not Enough because her character became central to the villain's plot. But in GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, and Die Another Day, she featured more frequently as well, but she always kept her role as Bond's boss back at HQ or wherever MI6 needed to be stationed. Captured M in TWINE aside, throughout the Brosnan era "action" and "reporting for duty" were always kept separate for the MI6 cast.
Skip ahead to Craig's era and we have Bond on a tether (CR, QOS, SF, and SP) with M nagging him over the phone, calling out instructions over earpiece (or Q or Moneypenny or Villiers or whomever), personally tracking him down in the field, and most recently now in Spectre the whole gang (M, Moneypenny, Q, and Tanner) involved in a third-act car chase culminating with hand-to-hand combat between M and the secondary villain. We've come some ways from Bernard Lee loading his pipe, haven't we? I'm not saying Q can't occasionally make a well-used excursion into the field (LTK) or that Fiennes' M should never engage in combat (SF) or even that Moneypenny can't have a one-off where she fires a rifle and joins Bond in a casino before being sat officially behind a desk (same, SF), but when this becomes overused it becomes rote, it turns from a special and exciting event into a tiresome trope, and the only exciting thing left to look forward to from the MI6 staff anymore is a rare good old-fashioned traditional office scene with M handing Bond a file and saying, "Get on with it, 007. You're on your own out there."
So the MI6 staff can be featured more heavily than they were in the 60s or the 70s, but they must be used well, and that's what we haven't been getting.
And for crying out loud, Tanner needs to be Bond's friend, not some stooge. Just have the two of them golfing or getting drinks or exchanging some pleasantries at the shooting range and give Tanner's present-day role as M's secretary over to Moneypenny, his actual secretary, and without the stoogery thank you.
I agree @Some_Kind_Of_Hero - I don't think it is any coincidence that with the introduction of Q, Moneypenny and the new M - both Skyfall and Spectre have whole acts set in Britain. I think they're tying themselves in knots - and Spectre is a perfect case in point. 'How do we get the plot and all the characters to be doing something all at the same time'. SF at least did it well - and the climax was devoid of everyone bar Bond and M - but SP did it artlessly. And on a side note - they don't need Tanner. I like Kinnear a lot but his character is the definition of superfluous.
I never claimed she was low-level. She was a conscious casting choice to make M female - choose a respected theatre actor opposite Bond. I think we're in agreement here. My point is exactly what you just said - she is more famous because of being in Bond. Particularly outside the UK. Previously she was a respected actor and known face - but being in Bond obviously increased her visibility.
It's one of my favorites as well, although to be perfectly honest, I kind of like the end song...
I figure there are several people on these forums who would rank it dead last. It's not one of my favorites, sadly, but it does have its moments.
I need to get my ears checked by an eye doctor then :-)
(Doctor No perhaps?)
I love the Doctor No soundtrack.
hahahahahahahahahahahahaha awesome, i dont love dr no's soundtrack but I guess any thing is better than the goldeneye soundtrack
Agreed - The Bond Theme, Jump Up, Twisting With James, Under the Mango Tree, Dr No's Fantasy are all great and I even like Kingston Calypso (Three Blind Mice). It is one of the only 007 soundtracks that reflects the atmosphere of the setting. And totally subjectively speaking I associate it with a film that I love so much. It's a fun soundtrack to put on the record player on a lazy, sunny Sunday while me and the fiancée have drinks on the deck.
Wish they had released it with the rearrangements of the Tarantula Scene and Dr No's Death - I enjoy that call back in FRWL too!
I'm with you on that one.