Review of Goldfinger (1964) by Ben L — 16 Jun 2013

Legendary movie moments continue in this 3rd chapter of the James Bond franchise. In particular there are 2 still frames that would become as famous as anything that had come before: a girl painted gold, and a giant laser threatening to slice Bond in half. There isn't a ton of new character development for the leads in this film, they stick with the well-known characterizations from the first 2. The big difference here is that everything is cranked up to be bigger and bolder. In fact I heard that this film had a budget larger than Dr. No and From Russia with Love combined. I'm not sure whether that's a good thing, because bigger isn't always better.

Connery is still great, although he seems to be too tightly embracing the humor here. There are so many moments should be serious and intense, yet Connery almost seems to be chuckling under his breath at the absurdity of it all. Mercifully they opted for English-speaking Bond girls here, so they avoided the annoyance of rough dubbing. Or did they? No, now they decide to cast a German as their villain, so he must be dubbed and my annoyance continues. Thankfully Oddjob remains silent so there is no concern about dubbing there. The cast is good, aside from that minor quibble. It helps that the person providing the voice for Goldfinger is so emotive. Despite my upcoming complaint about the laser scene, Goldfinger's delivery of the line "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!" is one of the best by any Bond villain in history.

My beef with this chapter of Bond is the fact that it is here they begin to succumb to the unrealistic. In the first 2 films some unlikely yet plausible things happen, but in Goldfinger we are basically asked to enter the realm of the fantastical. Car ejector seats, lasers to kill instead of a simple shot to the head, a razor-sharp hat that can slice marble, it all just extends my suspension of disbelief to its breaking point. The villains are seemingly morons now, "Hey, he ducked his head down, I better go in that cell to see where he went." Bond seems to have a magical power in his *ahem* lips to reform women and turn them to his side. I like my heroes doing the improbable to win the day, but not the impossible. While Goldfinger is indeed a fun film, it falls short for me because it pushed the boundaries too far.