Thursday, December 24, 2009

BD impressions: Goldfinger

11:45 PM / BD Impressions / Comments8 Comments

BD Impressions
Blu-ray

I suspect I have a slight preference for From Russia with Love, but it's easy to see why Goldfinger is so popular and considered, by some, to be the quintessential Bond. It has it all: witty one-liners, absurd gadgets, intricate stunts, cool villains, a sassy Bond girl, and of course Bond at his most chauvinistic ("Run along - man talk"). The series is definitely finding its niche at this stage, and what it lacks in terms of From Russia with Love's brooding menace, it certainly makes up for in terms of its audaciousness.

Watching this one, I rather get the impression it was written in a deliberate attempt to appeal specifically to a US audience, given that, early sequences in England and Switzerland aside, much of the action takes place there (contrasting with the more unusual and exotic locales in the first two films), not to mention the prominent roles played by Felix Leiter and the US military. Not a criticism, just an observation.

At this stage, making my way through the Bond canon, I rate From Russia with Love highest and Dr. No lowest (bearing in mind that I'm currently excluding the likes of Licence to Kill, Goldeneye and so on, which I haven't seen in quite some time). It's hard to say where I would put the two Daniel Craig movies in relation to these vintage Bonds, as they seem to belong to a completely different world in terms of tone and aesthetics. Certainly I like all three of them better than Quantum of Solace, but Casino Royale is an incredibly tough act to measure up to, and for better or for worse I suspect it will remain the defining Bond for me, since it's the one that really got me into the series.

Up next: Thunderball!

Image quality: Transfer-wise, Goldfinger is much the same story as the previous two Bonds on BD. Detail is good - very good in places - but the overall filmic effect is sullied somewhat by overzealous grain reduction, which gives the image a somewhat static appearance, with the continued issue of moving elements in any shot seeming to have been "cut out". There are more effects shots in this than in the previous two films, so the transfer falls back to a poorer quality source more frequently. Laser beam shots are the ones most noticeably affected, and in these instances the image quality becomes quite significantly degraded (see Example 12). On the whole, though, a nice enough presentation, and clearly the best the film has ever looked on home video. 8/10

Goldfinger
studio: 20th Century Fox/MGM; country: UK; region code: ABC; codec: AVC;
file size: 28.5 GB; average bit rate (including audio): 37.19 Mbit/sec

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8 Comments

1. Marcus said:

I am willing to bet On Her Majesty's Secret Service will your close call to Casino Royale (though don't think it will beat it, but I would love to be wrong). We seem to view the films the same way, I agree 100% on FRWL being superior due to the stronger menace.

You are also 100% right on the American setting being meant to attract American audiences. Actually it paid off: Goldfinger was the first American success for James Bond (the last two movies were quick moderate drive-in releases in America despite their success in England). Curiously Pussy Galore was an American in the book, changed to a British character in the movie after the casting of Honor Blackman (BTW, the first bondgirl to use her real voice, making up for a dubbed Gert Frobe as the villain perhaps?).

Sadly this became a HUGE problem in the series: After the box-office "failure" of the super exotic You Only Live Twice and On Her Majesty's Secret Service (both failing to outgross Thunderball) Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman came to the "brilliant" conclusion that Goldfinger was mainly successful because it took place in America(!!!). So naturally came Diamonds Are Forever, a deliberate attempt to recreate Goldfinger. American setting (Las Vegas), American bondgirl, same director (Guy Hamilton), and the original script that had Gert Frobe as the villain playing Goldfinger's twin brother (Thank God it was dropped).

Also, Broccoli actually hired an American actor to play Bond (John Gavin) in case they were not able to get Connery again. The movie has Bond impersonating an American diamonds smuggler, which meant John Gavin would not require a British accent for most of the time. Box office gold I tell you. And worse of all they were right, the film made lots of money leading to another "American" Bond film right after.

Sadly all of the other Bond movies taking place in America after Goldfinger (DAF, Live and Let Die, and last but not least the downright unofficial remake of Goldfinger... A View to a Kill) suffered because of that.

(Posted on Friday, December 25, 2009 at 5:29 AM)

2. Marcus said:

Another note on your remark of how Bond is "chauvinistic"... he also pretty much rapes Pussy Galore for today's standards and it also happens to be his only successful accomplishment in the entire movie since Pussy pretty much saved the day. :D

It's far worse in the book where Pussy was clearly a lesbian (the movie hints it and casually). In some of the most politically incorrect writing ever, Bond blames it on her being raped by a close family member (a normal factor in American women from the countryside according to the book as far as I remember). Other interesting theories from our hero is that "lesbians are mostly women confused by their new voting rights." At the end Pussy claims she was a lesbian because she had never met a real man before. Aaaaaw...

As you might remember this goes back to Fleming's original rejected title for the novel: Bond is So Macho He Even Turns the Lezzies On.

(Posted on Friday, December 25, 2009 at 5:41 AM)

3. FoxyMulder said:

I hope On Her Majesty's Secret Service is released this year but it's looking like they are holding films back for the release of the next Bond movie which i think is due out in 2011.

I personally think the music score for OHMSS is the best of the entire series. A great music score can really help get you involved in even the poorest of films ( i think ) Not that this is a poor film and i consider it the second best Bond film after From Russia With Love.

(Posted on Friday, December 25, 2009 at 2:54 PM)

4. FoxyMulder said:

P.S. For this year read 2010. I'm jumping the gun a little.

Also regarding the grain structure i'm still convinced the first three films had artificial grain added by Lowry because the original prints were in very bad shape. Thus it's not a case of removing too much grain it's a case of maybe the tools which added the grain perhaps not being entirely perfect.

Might be wrong about that but i still seem to recall reading it.

(Posted on Friday, December 25, 2009 at 2:57 PM)

5. Marcus said:

Yes, OHMSS has the very best score of the whole series. A close second is the fantastic music score for You Only Live Twice, making what should have been simply an "OK" Bond film so much better. Nancy Sinatra had the best theme song as well.

(Posted on Friday, December 25, 2009 at 4:54 PM)

6. MCP said:

Well, this is the one where JB really made it HUGE, both at box office and as a pop culture icon.

Without the girl painted in gold, Oddjob and his deadly hat, Pussy Galore, the Aston Martin, the laser beam and of course Auric Goldfinger, we probably wouldn't even have a "Bond" name written in golden letters (pun intended) in our Big Book of XX Century Cultural Phenomenons.

For me, it's a case where the sum of every part is superior to the overall product: I like to watch single scenes, I like the characters, I like to see the gadgets in action, I like to hear the one-liners; but I find the pace and plot are not to my taste. But again, I suppose this happens to me with most of Bond movies: it is a kind of flicks where the good is in the details.

(Posted on Saturday, December 26, 2009 at 3:28 PM)

7. Marcus said:

If you listen to the commentary track, director Guy Hamilton agrees that the film's weakest portion is the middle act with Bond stuck in Kentucky. Had that been sightly rewritten, I would rate the film higher.

Thunderball IMO is a superior film despite not being as iconic. It might not have Goldfinger, Pussy, Oddjob, the golden girl, etc... but IMO Terence Young is a much better director when it comes to Bond than Mr. Hamilton.

(Posted on Saturday, December 26, 2009 at 6:10 PM)

8. MCP said:

I agree on Thunderball, for sure it works better as a whole. And it has its fair share of "bondness", although a little less than Goldfinger, but it helped a lot in cementing JB status and fame. People in 1965 were *eager* to see this movie and they were not let down by it.

Ups: the underwater scenes (a big wow-factor back then); the motorbike; the jet pack; and Adolfo Celi was not a bad villain, probably more convincing than various subsequent Blofelds.

Downs: some sequences played on fast forward to give the impression of speed

(Posted on Sunday, December 27, 2009 at 11:28 AM)

 
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