Whilst we might not have an official James Bond right now we do still have plenty of other official James Bond films to look back on and either love or hate. With the film that i'm going to be talking to you all about today being one of if not my own personal favorite James Bond film even beating out Skyfall as this is the film that set the bar for how good James Bond films really can be and it's a bar that hasn't been reached since then and so then join me as I review the film that really introduced Sir Sean Connery to his favorite pass time of golf with the film in question being called simply just "Goldfinger" enjoy.
The plot of this film is James Bond is tasked with stopping gold magnate Auric Goldfinger from using a radioactive bomb to cause all of the worlds supply of gold from being radioactive. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. This films plot is to be frank here nothing short of genius as while the idea of having Bond be held prisoner by the villain for alot of the film is something that could be seen as holding back the plot of the film and stop it from being as good as it could be. This is something that does work to the films advantage as it now allows for there to be alot of tension in the plot due to the fact that now Bond has to get creative and find creative ways to stop Auric Goldfinger's plan as this would have been a very easy plan to stop if Bond wasn't caught by the villain as he could just work with the CIA to stop him in pretty much the same way they do here in this film but due to the fact that he is now held prisoner that's something that can't happen with the film putting alot of focus on it's plot and it's something that does help to make what might have been seen as being a very dull plot now feel vert much alive and well as there is alot of detail hidden in the films plot that do make it worth going back to even if it's being done in the films action scenes with the plot of this film also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Of course starring in this film is Sir Sean Connery as James Bond and Bernard Lee as M. Also starring in this film is Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny and Desmond Llewelyn as Q. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. With the acting from all of the MI6 regulars being just as good as you'd want it to be with Sean in particular being really comfortable in the role of James Bond and just having alot of fun in playing the character with the same thing also being true for all of the MI6 regulars with all of them looking really comfortable in there roles and having alot more fun in playing there characters something which does help there performances be even better then what they usually are. With the best actor in this film being Sir Sean Connery as James Bond with Sean starting the tradition that every single James Bond actors best performance in this franchise is in there third film as he is just so cool in this film the man oozing charm and charisma with his performance even being alot of fun to watch as we get to see him be kind of funny and cheeky with Desmond Llewelyn for the first time in the films and we get to see hm be more of the action hero which is something that does make his performance be all the more better as in other Bond films we've only seen him be the action hero and having one or two funny lines but where as here in this film we get to see that he can pull of being both funny and dramatic not always at the same time but in the same film.
Also starring in this film is Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore , Cec Linder as Felix Leiter and Gert Fröbe as Auric Goldfinger. Also starring in this film is Shirley Eaton as Jill Masterson , Tania Mallet as Tilly Masterson , Michael Collins as the voice of Auric Goldfinger , Margaret Nolan as Dink , Burt Kwouk as Ling and Harold Sakata as Oddjob. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. With all of the guest actors in this film doing a really good and more then holding there own when it comes to acting with the franchises more established actors. With perhaps the best actor in this whole film being Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore as she is just so good in this film with her perfectly capturing the characters ferocious energy and being the first actor that can truly claim to be Bonds equal both interms of the actor and the character she's playing as she is so good in this film that all she has to do alot of the time is just give you a look and you know right what her character is thinking with her own natural charm and charisma really coming through in this film. With the acting that's in this film really being helped by the fact that this films script is just so good that all this films actors have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.
This films Bond Girl is the greatly named Pussy Galore whom as was just mentioned was played by the seriously stunning Honor Blackman. Whilst yes there are other and quite frankly better Bond Girls out there Wei Lin springs to mind but all of them only ran because Pussy Galore walked as she is very much Bond's equal or as equal as she could be in a sixties James Bond film as she is more then capable of holding her own in a fight something which we do see when she flips Bond a few times getting the best of him with her only being defeated by Bond in the barn when she lets her guard down for a few seconds to help him up and that's it she is also shown to be a very compassionate character who is willing to do the right thing at the expense of her own personal safety. Yet at the same time there really isn't much more to her character then that which is something that is also true for alot of the early Bond Girls and while she does suffer the least from this as the things that that the character has going for her far outweigh what is working against her there is still no denying the fact that there's nothing to who her character with there not really being a sense of danger when she's with Bond and while this is more due the films plot then the character a Bond Girl is always more interesting when there is that added element of they could be killed at any minuet just for being seen with Bond and that's something that we get with this character again this is more due to the films plot then the character herself but it does make her be alot less interesting as a character because and here the film doesn't even focus that much on her as it devotes more time to Goldfinger with her sadly being treated more like and afterthought granted a well done afterthought but at afterthought nonetheless.
The production design for this film was done by the great Sir Ken Adam who just does such a good job in this film. This is something that does go without saying but the set he built for the Fort Knox interior is perhaps the best if not one of the best sets created not just for a James Bond film but for a film in general with it being so true to how it might have looked in real life that the people at Fort Knox had to get into touch with the makers of this film to ask how they managed to make it look like the real Fort Knox with it being that kind of dedication that does help to make this set truly stand out as not only is it a massive set which for a James Bond film is always going to be a plus but it's also the fact that he went out of his way to make look like the real Fort Knox. Granted that is a small thing but it's something that helps to ground what could be seen as being fantasy films based in reality now being more reality based and heck alot of the sets that he creates for this film are no only really big but also feel like that they could exist in the real world as while we do have the franchises standing main MI6 set which is something that might not be a real life thing but the inside of Goldfingers house or even the Q branch set are things that we could see in reality and it's that added bit of realism that makes them truly stand out as while yes the more fantasy like sets like the MI6 set still does work and still works for the reality of this franchise that is a set that it is hard to picture being a thing in real life and while this does allow for Sir Ken Adam to go a little bit more wild with his designs it also does make it harder for us the audience to buy it as something that we could see in the real world, yet this is something that should always be the case with these James Bond film as they are meant to be heighten reality films and therefor the only world that these sets should feel real in is the world of the films and not really our real world.
This film is very definition of the word iconic as there are so many iconic moments in this film be it the fact that Jill dies due to being painted in gold paint to even what Goldfinger himself says to Bond when Bond asks him if Goldfinger wants him tot talk. Heck even Goldfinger himself is one that could be seen as an iconic villain granted he's not as iconic as Blofeld is but that's due to the fact that Blofeld has appeared in more James Bond films but just speaking of this film Goldfinger is still an iconic villain who does push bond to his limits and then some with this being something that all good villains should do as it then forces the hero to be better because of it and heck Goldfinger even has an iconic henchmen in Oddjob who uses his steel rimmed hat as a weapon. However tho that is wear the positives end for the Goldfinger character as there's nothing abut him as a character that makes him a scary villain as while he does have a really good plan that is perfect for him he's also a villain that isn't that scary and therefor you don't feel any danger when he's in the room whereas anytime Blofeld is in the room be it with the rest of SPECTRE or just with Bond you always get the feeling that someone could get killed if they say the wrong thing to him whereas with Goldfinger you never get that impression rather you get the impression that he'll just ask you nicely to leave the room, heck Oddjob is more of a threat then Goldfinger is and Oddjob is meant to be his henchmen this is not to say that Goldfinger is a bad villain as he's not as he does have a really good plan which he is close to completing when Bond is captured by him and we do see him act it out in the third act but if the character as a whole was more better then it would go along way in making the rest of the film be more better as well.
Doing the opening titles for this film is Robert Brownjohn with him essentially improving upon the idea that he had for the previous films opening titles. As he has images from both this film and later on earlier James Bond films be projected onto the body of a woman altho it is done better here in this film then it was in From Russia With Love as in that film he had text being projected and he had the woman moving which did make it hard to read some of the names in the credits of that film here tho the woman sits and lays still with the name being added to the ide of her which is a vast improvement and it is something that does make for a really unique looking opening title sequence as does the fact that the woman is painted in gold thus matching the films central theme. Helping the films titles out alot and doing alot of the heavy lifting is the films opening title song which is called "Goldfinger" and is sung by Dame Shirley Bassey and while this is a truly iconic James Bond theme song for a reason it's hard to call this song great as there are other better James Bond theme songs out there yes this song is good no one is very going to deny it that but it is also a bit loud when it doesn't need to be and while the song is well written with the song being about how evil Goldfinger is and how we shouldn't trust him that is something that should have been in the main body of the film and not in the opening few minuets of the film as it does come across as the makers of this film are telling us how to feel about this character instead of letting us form are own opinions on him but in all fairness the song is phenomenally well sung with Dame Shirley Bassey well and truly knocking it out of park in fact out of all the three James Bond theme songs she did this one is easily her best one.
Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and fifty minuets and one second. Which in all fairness to this film s pretty much the bogstanderd running time for the James Bond films at this point in time as alot of the early James Bond film do have a similar running time to them and yet with this film you oddly don't feel that running time as alot of the films scenes last just as long as they need to to get the point across and then they move and this is something that does help this film feel like a breeze to get through as this is a film that very easily could have been bogged down by it's plot or the fact that Bond spends a good deal of it captured and yet it doesn't as the film still moves really well despite both of those things with this film even having the right amount of plot there to really cover that amount of running time in the first place. Yet despite this tho this film really doesn't use its running time all that wisely as the film doesn't take the time to fully develop its plot as the film while it does focus alot on its plot it doesn't add alot of things to the plot that make it feel well thought out preferring instead to let us the audience do alot of the heavy lifting in assuming what's going to happen next plot wise with the makers of this film film putting alot of thought and effort into putting the Goldfinger theme song in alot of places then they did in giving us a well thought out plot. The same thing it could be argued is also true for the films character development as while Pussy Galore does grow as a character as it's she that switches the gas's that Goldfinger was going to use to knock people out for one that only puts them to sleep for a few minuets none of the films other characters get any kind of character development which is fine for James Bond as he really is meant to be a male power fantasy character someone who all the men can imagine themselves as being but that's not really something that works for the rest of the films characters with the makers of this film putting more thought and effort into giving us a bad version of Felix Leiter then they did in giving the characters some character development but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is an action film that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in is very film was in all honesty really good. This films action is we're being honest here was alot of fun to watch as it does give you all of the action that we've come to expect in a James Bond film with it all being well done and despite the fact that there really isn't that many action scenes in the film not really being something that holds the film back rather it makes the few that it has be all the more important as that's when we get alot of the big plot points in the film. With the best action scene in the whole entire film by far being the attack on Fort Knox as we not only get to see Goldfinger turning on his own men when the American army start shooting at him but we also get a really tense fight with Bond and Oddjob with Oddjob just taking every single hit that Bond throws his way but we also have the added the time bomb with the fact that Bond is stuck in the room with a nuclear bomb that's about to go off at any second which is something that does add an extra element of danger to the whole thing as even if Bond does defeat Oddjob there's a good chance that he might noy be able to stop the bomb from going off, the fact that the death of Oddjob is so smartly worked into the fight being something that does take it up a notch as we see the wire that kills hm being dislodged early on in the fight with it only being used when Oddjob gets cocky and goes yo retrieve his hat from the bars after Bond had thrown it there with the rest of this films action being just as good as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall whilst others might say that Skyfall is the best James Bond film ever made for me nothing has and nothing will ever top this one as this is the film that gave us everything that we love about the James Bond films in the first place and it did them all in a well good film in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly an 8 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from Tenor , Blogger , IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personal favorite website to use to get the images that I used in this very review being Google Images just simply due to the fact that pretty much all of the images that are featured / presented to us and are currently up and also on Google Images are all fairly high quality and as well as being fairly high definition and well then boys and girls just freaking like James Bond I will return.
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