Goldfinger (1964) Review

After the immense success of the first two films, James Bond was getting increasingly popular and the series producers Harry Saltzman and Albert Broccoli were determined to make the third cinematic bond adventure the biggest yet. With a $3 million budget and a fairly unheard of director Guy Hamilton the film went into production, and came out to huge success earning just under double what Dr. No and From Russia with Love made combined, $124.9 million. Some call Goldfinger the best in the entire franchise, but does the film earn its praise?

Personally Goldfinger was always one of my favourite Bond films, even as a huge Bond fan I can admit that the older films haven’t really aged all too well, they can be tedious and slow to a modern viewer but I still find Goldfinger to be incredibly entertaining. The film opens with a great pre-titles sequence which, while having pretty much nothing to do with the rest of the film, is still a great introduction to the film. Action packed and fun, a basic summary of the film to come really!

A common flaw I do have with these early Bond film’s though are the editing, there are many annoyingly obvious uses of sped up footage and jump cuts throughout the film and the films to come but here it was probably the least obvious.

Anyway, after fantastic opening titles with a great song we are transported back into the classic world of espionage. Unfortunately the spy atmosphere isn’t as present as it was in From Russia with Love but it was still there and just added to the film’s depth.

One of the best things about this film is the characters and their interactions, with a combination of fantastic performances, brilliant dialogue and fleshed out characters made for some great scenes with both humour and tension. One of my favourites being the golf course scene which is just so much fun to watch due to the chemistry between everyone on screen.

The action, while a little dated, is still a lot of fun to watch and there is no denying the excitement gained from it. How they use the great sets to their advantage to make some brilliant action pieces, there are plenty moments of present danger that will put you on the edge of your seat. Especially since Sean Connery does such a great performance here you can see the fear on his face and his likeability makes moments like these even tenser.

Overall this is an absolute Bond classic, while a little dated at times it’s still a fun ride with Bond written all over it. If you haven’t seen a single 007 film I suggest starting with this one as it is pretty much a crash course in cinematic Bond.

8.5/10