Goldfinger

Red = Spoilers 

Goldfinger is one of my favorite Bond films. There’s just so much going on here. They go from one position to the next with Goldfinger. Is he a gangster? Is he a smuggler? Is he a small-time crook? Is he a super villain? Gasp! Not to mention the character that is Odd Job. A short, Korean butler who uses his hat as a weapon? Where do you even get an idea like that? 

What’s it about? So, we start in Miami Beach where Bond is in a hotel when the CIA comes up to him to tell him that Goldfinger is staying in the same hotel and that’s his target. Bond gets Goldfinger and predictably sleeps with his female assistant. In the morning, Goldfinger sends his henchman, Oddjob, to knock out Bond, and kill his ex-assistant, sending a message to Bond. James gets sent to play a round of golf with Goldfinger, which Goldfinger promptly cheats at, and James uses it as a way to track it back to his smelting plant, which is how they’re smuggling the gold out of the country. After a chase scene, they capture Bond and take him back to Goldfinger’s airplane where he meets Pussy Galore, Goldfinger’s pilot. She takes him down to Goldfinger’s Kentucky farm where James is then thrown in a cell and locked up. Goldfinger plans to break into Fort Knox and blow up all the gold so that all of his gold is worth 10 times more. After breaking into the Fort and locking James to a nuclear device, Goldfinger leaves him in the vault and the US Army starts to rush in to attack Goldfinger’s forces. Bond has to detach himself from the nuclear device, stop it from going off, and stop Goldfinger, all before the nuclear device’s timer reaches zero.  

What’s good? Goldfinger has a great script and a great plot. There’s a lot of good lines in Goldfinger that are good, even by today’s standards. It’s a good movie, all around.  

What’s bad? There’s not a whole lot that’s wrong with Goldfinger. It’s one of the better Bond films. One of the best, I’d say.  

The acting? Top notch, I think. Sean Connery is always going to be the best James Bond, so that’s kind of biased, I guess. That doesn’t make it any less true, though. 

The effects? There’s not really any special effects aside from practical special effects and just your basic green screen kind of thing.  

The duck hat. When he came swimming up to the side of the tank with the duck on his head and the scuba suit on in the beginning of the movie I was like “What is this, Ace Ventura?” 

The girl as a human shield. He saw that guy coming with the club and he just straight turned that girl right into it. He let her get hit right in the back of the head. Didn’t even think twice about it. He was just like “Well, I guess we’re not having sex then…” 

Positively shocking. He had several one-liners in the movie. The typical, witty, James Bond-type remark that he makes after he kills somebody in a stylish fashion. This one happened after he used a lamp to kill an attempted assassin that fell into a bathtub. He quipped “Shocking… Positively shocking…” Classic Bond…  

Odd Job using his hat as a weapon. Who uses a hat as a weapon? I mean, seriously? How ineffective would that seriously be? Let’s not be silly… 

Where can I get a spy car? I mean, I want a spy car. One that shoots oil slicks and has mounted machine guns and is bullet proof. Where can I get a spy car? 

The sweet old lady with the machine gun. That old lady went from being real sweet and kind to being real mean with a machine gun in a hurry. Like, where’d she get that machine gun all of the sudden? It didn’t look like she had it on her beforehand. 

Pussy Galore. When it comes to Bond girls, Pussy Galore is one of the best names ever. It just is. There’s a twinkle in his eye when he says it. “Pussy… What are you doing here?” 

So, yeah. Go see Goldfinger. Not only is it a James Bond film, but it’s one of the better James Bond films. And as always, keep on watching, with a smile on your face…