But it is such a perfect place to start, My Love

Each Day, A Film
January 14th, 2012 (Retrospective)

Then again, following on from the previous post, I do kind of hope that future historians get a kick out of the Pierce Brosnan Bond films, because over the course of four films the same thing happens that it took the entire Connery / Moore / Lazenby / Dalton cycle to achieve.



I have kind of a theory; the Bond films operate in a cyclical way, whereby you start out with what's basically hardboiled detective fiction (i.e. Dr No), then slowly but surely camp, excess and gadgetry start to creep in, changing the films as they do, until you end up with Christopher Lee poncing around with a golden gun or Christopher Walken trying to blow up Silicon Valley.

Goldeneye, then, represents the cycle being renewed. Bond is no longer exactly The Man, but he's fairly close. You have a fair plot - EMP weapons being used to crash global financial systems based in London by a betrayed ex-MI6 agent.

At the same time you have the music of Eric Serra, which, while an amazing composer in his own right, does for James Bond what Batman and Robin did for superhero films. But let's move on.

For me, Goldeneye also has a sentimental place in my tiny, stoney filmgoers' heart, because it was the first Bond film I got to see at the cinema. Surely, yes, I'd seen them on TV - on Bank Holidays, most likely - before then, but actually seeing a Bond film in the cinema was just, that, cool.

And so was Bond, because the mixture wasn't quite toxic yet; yes, there were gadgets, but they were halfway believable, and yes, there was Xenia Onatopp as a concession to very slight campness. But the excess, by contrast, was channelled in the right direction; the set-pieces, like tank chases through St Petersburg, were handled with aplomb and grace. In years and films to come yes, there would be invisible cars, Terence Stamp putting together newspaper editions with a single, tiny wireless keyboard, and let's not forget Christmas Jones - but for now, Goldeneye was the formula writ large and confident.

That's the thing, see; when the formula is right, it works amazingly well, but tinker with it and you end up with Die Another Day. Then again...