Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Goldfinger (1964) -- Bond 3

They really got on a roll with the early Bond films, announcing the next feature at the end of the current one. Dr. No told us to stay tuned for From Russia With Love, and that in turn told us to stay in our seats for Goldfinger, who didn't want to be left out, so it mentioned Thunderball.

Finally a break from the evil of SPECTRE, Auric Goldfinger is a criminal mastermind obsessed with gold (imagine that). Although he's British, he has a plan to break into Fort Knox and irradiate the gold stored there. In this task, he is assisted by the Chinese, who give him a low-yield nuclear device, and by a number of unwitting American mofiasos (whom are all killed by Goldfinger as part of his plan). The idea is to create economic chaos in the West (which China would dearly love) and to multiply Goldfinger's stockpiles of element Au.

To help in this scheme, Goldfinger has recruited Oddjob, a mute Korean the size of a mountain and twice as strong, with a lethal hat which he throws at his enemies. There is also an army of Asian workers in Goldfinger's factory in Switzerland, and I am uncertain if these are supposed to be Koreans (like Oddjob) or Chinese (like Mr. Ling, the atomic expert sent to help Goldfinger with "Operation Grand Slam"--the atomic bomb in Fort Knox). He also has Pussy Galore (WTF?) and her flying circus of hardbodied femmes.

This movie has it all: the introduction of the Aston Martin (replacing Bond's Bentley from the books) filled with spy gadgets like oil slicks and machine guns, the homing device and GPS tracker, and a laser "that can put a dot on the moon" or cut through metal plating and Bond. There is even a monologue/elaborate death trap for Bond when he is captured by Goldfinger (involving said laser), and the first true moments of the one-liner (which occured in From Russia With Love, but not as a standard device).

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