Goldeneye - 1995
Directed by Martin Campbell
Written Jeffrey Caine & Bruce Feirstein
Starring Pierce Brosnan, Sean Bean, Izabella Scorupco, Famke Janssen, Joe Don Baker, Robbie Coltrane, Tchéky Karyo, Gottfried John, Alan Cumming, Judi Dench & Minnie Driver
In the long and storied history of the James Bond film franchise,
Goldeneye happens to have been an important and really crucial entry. For me personally, it's a touchstone to look back on and measure what went before and what came after. I really started to get into the whole phenomenon around about 1987, when Timothy Dalton had taken over the role and the series was celebrating it's 25th Anniversary (
Dr. No having been released in 1962.) I still have a book I bought at the time - "The Official James Bond 007 Movie Book - Special 25th Anniversary Edition". To me, back then, 25 years was a mountain of time comparable to Everest and the likes of
Dr. No and
From Russia With Love very old cinematic relics from the far past. The series was well established, had gone through many permutations, and was just entering a new era with a new leading man in the starring role. Two years later, when
Licence to Kill came out, you could tell Albert R. Broccoli and co were desperately toying with the formula - giving it a harder edge, with more emphasis on violence, action and gritty present-day themes. The press, though, were starting to question if the series had any more life left in it - and there were talks of the financial, artistic and popular viability of a character who seemed to have outlived the era he was created for. The popular buzz that had existed just a couple of years previously seemed so muted, and what followed on the heels of Bond's 16th adventure were years of nothing...the kind of time that had never elapsed between Bond films before.
It has been 30 years since
Goldeneye was released - more time than had passed between
Dr. No and
The Living Daylights, and that's an unusual fact for me to ponder.
Goldeneye doesn't seem like a relic from the far past to me. Perhaps it does to kids these days. What stands out when you appreciate it is the
effort that went into bringing a fresh perspective, general tone and some artistic inspiration as far as could be managed for a character and series that still had various parameters no one would dare alter or change. Of course, we again had the benefit of enjoying that sense of discovery we have whenever another new actor takes on the role of James Bond. Every new Bond actor has a honeymoon period, and with Pierce Brosnan, many fans had been wondering what his take on the character would be ever since word went around that he would have got the gig in 1987 if he hadn't of been contractually obligated to stick to his
Remington Steele series. Brosnan seemed to have been doing the same, because he hit the ground running and really impressed by managing to perfectly balance suave sophistication with machismo and masculine energy. He looked the part, and even managed to do more with the role than it's one-dimensionality sometimes allows. He was a huge part of
Goldeneye's success.
What gave the film some serious gravitas was the direct acknowledgement that the Soviet era had ended and that the cold war was over. The opening titles, which were designed by Daniel Kleinman (another newcomer to the series - Maurice Binder had died in 1991), show typical "Bond women" destroying classical Soviet statues and monuments, with various Soviet flags blown away by the winds of time. Instead of it being a drawback, the mysteries and unknowns regarding the new Russia and world situation are taken advantage of. Bad actors take advantage of old Soviet technology, Russian gangsters come out of the shadows, old foes become comrades and others take on more self-oriented master plans in
Goldeneye, while M (now played by Judi Dench - inspired casting) longs for the "old days" when the cold war was in full swing. Bond has to prove to us his relevance, and is described as a misogynistic dinosaur - once again directly acknowledging and taking control of a critical narrative aimed towards the series and character. All of this was refreshing in 1995 - it meant that this was more than a cinematic facelift, and that perhaps the impetus of the character and series might change a little and offer us something different.
What better to bridge the old era with the new than having a prologue set in Soviet times, where Bond and Agent 006, Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean) are on a mission to blow up a Russian chemical weapons factory. Spectacular for it's day, this pre-credits action sequence feels a little quaint now in a world so obsessed with spectacle. There's a stunt where a rider jumps off a cliff on a bike (on his way to piloting a plane) and the famous one at the start where Bond bungee jumps off the precipice of a dam (the Contra Dam, in Switzerland). Audiences were wowed, and were similarly impressed by Bono and the Edge's song "Goldeneye", sung by Tina Turner. I'm a fan of most of the opening credits songs when it comes to the James Bond series, so me calling it good really doesn't mean much - but anyway, it's good. The Rolling Stones turned down an offer to perform it, and at one stage an Ace of Base song was in the offing as an alternative (a few lyrics changed and that song became "The Juvenile" - for those who want to listen to what could have been.) I personally feel that both song and performer were a perfect fit for this film, and that the music and singing are a savvy mix of old and new - appropriate for the film.
The plot devices and macguffins are in some ways classical Bond. Stolen military hardware, weaponized satellites, countdowns, lairs, exploding pens and laser watches. Bond's trip through Saint Petersburg in a tank however was original, and also new was the location work that was now possible with actual filming taking place in Saint Petersburg - the perfect place to have a T-55 crash and bash it's way through during a prolonged action sequence. There were some who felt a little let down by Éric Serra's score, which takes no cues from the title song and makes little use of the James Bond theme. In fact, during the aforementioned tank chase producers found it necessary to replace Serra's musical accompaniment with music provided by John Altman - such was the lack of thrill and excitement they felt it provided (and you can tell that there's a change of pace music-wise when you hear it.) I think it all depends on your point of view, because Serra's work is unobtrusive and supports what we're seeing while on the other hand it could be argued that the score for a Bond movie should announce itself and be at the forefront - remembered by those with even just a casual interest in such matters. It seems a replacement for John Barry had not yet found it's proper target. The end credits song "The Experience of Love" is also Éric Serra's work.
The most memorable character as far as I'm concerned was Xenia Onatopp - and that's chiefly down to Famke Janssen's marvellously evil, orgasmic performance. I've never seen a Bond villain who delighted with such a sadistic passion when it came to killing people - even if they were completely innocent. When it came to Tchéky Karyo - well, I didn't recognize him with a beard and Russian accent, so shame on me. Alan Cumming is a hoot (though he nearly overdoes it) as Russian computer programmer/hacker Boris Grishenko, and deserving of special praise is of course Robbie Coltrane, who was so fantastic as Valentin Dmitrovich Zukovsky that his character would become a recurring one - appearing again in
The World is Not Enough. Most successful from the point of view of carrying her role over was Judi Dench, who absolutely made the role of "M' her own despite not having as big a role here as she would in future Bond movies. A great collaboration when it comes to screenwriter and actress. Although appearing only very briefly, Minnie Driver is also a lot of fun as Zukovsky mistress and cabaret "singer" Irina.
Visually, the film impresses for the most part. Phil Méheux's cinematography and especially the work of special effects supervisor Derek Meddings (who would pass away shortly before the film was released) deserve praise, with the extensive amount of work done with miniatures proving that sometimes such work does more to trick the human eye than any amount of CGI can (that said, the first ever use of CGI in a Bond film was in
Goldeneye - mostly for the gun barrel sequence, which received a long-overdue updating.) The climax of the film made use of the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico (which has since collapsed) and looks fantastic, especially if you're afraid of heights like me. The Monte Carlo parts of the movie were shot on location in Monte Carlo, and as mentioned before the story also took film crews to Switzerland to film the dam sequence and Saint Petersburg. Everything else was filmed at "Leavesden Studios" (a refurbished Rolls Royce factory) in Hertfordshire, including shots used for the Saint Petersburg tank chase which I imagine would make life difficult for editor Terry Rawlings, although of course there are plenty of continuity errors that stick out once pointed out. For our viewing pleasure, they're probably best not sought out.
There's enough good (and inspired) work done on
Goldeneye to make it an enjoyable James Bond film to watch, even 30 years since it's release after it has sailed into the distant past. I never, ever mind watching it and I once again enjoyed sitting back and experiencing that easy fun and entertainment - in fact, once it was on my schedule I looked forward to it. I look back on it as a Bond film that really saved the franchise - giving it enough life to stride on through to the mid-2000s and the extraordinary reboot the series underwent, achieving more success with Daniel Craig taking over as 007. It all came down to this one movie (Brosnan's next three dipped in quality as each came along) as Bond stepped into the post-Cold War period and an era where the character would face changing attitudes, popular culture mores, competing action/adventure movies, changes in the way we watch movies and the way we regard this British colonial icon who has somehow survived all of that. From jumping off a cliff on a helicopter into a plane and stopping it from crashing into a mountain up to fighting the mysterious leader of the Janus crime syndicate from the very last rung of a ladder above the Arecibo Observatory it's thrilling, but there's a deeper layer of narrative and performance-driven storytelling that lifts this into the upper tier of Bond films. It still left the series in a formulaic holding pattern (and didn't have the best score), but it breathed new life into the franchise and introduced yet another generation to that most everlasting of characters : 007.
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