As you (should) know, Bond 22, Quantum of Solace, is coming out this November 14th. In honor of this momentous occasion, I have decided to spend a little time each week digging into my Bond DVD collection and talking about the best and worst of the series up until now. I also like to compare the movies to the source material, when it exists. I find all of this very entertaining, but if you don’t, the scroll button is still right over there. >>>>>
Dr. No and From Russia With Love were both smash hits, but it was Goldfinger that really but James Bond on the cultural map. Everybody saw it. More than its predecessors, Goldfinger turned Bond from “quaint series of airplane novels” to “MASSIVE WORLDWIDE SENSATION.”
Once again, Goldfinger is based on an Ian Fleming novel with some of the sharper edges filed down. In the book, two out of three “Bond Girls” are blatant lesbians, with one of them turning to men after Bond teaches her what a “real man” is like. It sounds pretty Neanderthal until you find out that Pussy Galore (ha!) was raped by her uncle, and is therefore more sexually confused than anything. Ian Fleming knew his troubled women, even if he couldn’t diagnose them.
The plot is essentially the same, with a slight twist – Goldfinger, rather than planning to steal Fort Knox’s gold, wants to irradiate it. This will make his gold supply the biggest in the world (a plot that was later recycled with another valuable commodity, oil, in The World is Not Enough).
Everything about Goldfinger is spot-on, right down to his name. He loves gold. He loves everything about gold. His henchman, Oddjob, is one of the most memorable screen villains in history – his razor-brimmed hat is sort of funny and terrifying at the same time.
Basically, the film Goldfinger is just the book with its venom removed. There is nothing terribly offensive about it, but nothing terribly exciting, either. With the exception of a bit of rah-rah American patriotism towards the end, there is nothing to make you sit up and cheer.
But it deserves its place in the Bond canon. The legendary laser scene, the gold-painted girl, and the most suspenseful game of golf in the history of…well, golf, are all featured. A Bond fan can’t afford to miss it, and it’s a decent introduction to ’60s-70s Bond for newcomers.
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