Goldfinger (1964)

Budget: $3 million. Opening dates: UK September 17, 1964; US December 22, 1964

Worldwide Box Office: $124.9 million

Originally Written

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Once again the best Bond of all-time, Sean Connery, has yet to disappoint in the third installment of the Bond saga which without out a doubt stands out as the best film of the first three. Many claim Goldfinger to be the best Bond film of all-time, in fact Goldfinger made it into the Guinness Book of World Records on its release in 1964 as the fastest grossing film in history.

Sean Connery reprises his role as James Bond 007 and is sent on a mission to follow Auric Goldfinger, the modern day King Midas. Along the way he runs into one of the most infamous villain sidekicks, Oddjob, a short, bulky Korean man who can withstand gold bars being thrown at his chest, crush golf balls with his bare hands and sever the head of a statue with the brim of his hat.

While Oddjob is definitely an interesting and unique character there were a few things that confused me, he cuts the head off a statue with his hat yet when he throws it at someone in a later scene, it seems to only kill them not dismember them. This probably has something to do with the fact that they didn't like showing blood back then. Also what was his hat made of? The brim had to have been some form of metal, yet be quite light to wear around and throw. Ultimately a classic character yet very Oddjob seems to be more unbelievable than believable to me.

Bond is soon captured by Goldfinger and begins to discover his plot; he plans to break into the largest and most secure bank in the United States, Fort Knox. Although he does not plan to steal anything, Goldfinger plans to set off a bomb that will render the entire supply of US gold radioactive for 58 years, this in turn will raise the price of his gold by 10 times!

To accomplish this feat he has to disable over forty thousand troops that guard Fort Knox (that many soldiers is another rather unbelievable part of the film). To do so Goldfinger plans to release a knockout gas into the atmosphere which will put the entire army to sleep for 24 hours and provide him with enough time to successfully pull off this plan. In doing so Goldfinger enlists the services of Pussy Galore (see Secret File for more info) and her fleet of planes who will distribute the gas into the atmosphere. Bond must stop Goldfinger from sending the US economy into a downward spiral, and in turn save himself from likely death.

Goldfinger is a very entertaining film and does not do what the previous two installments seemed to suffer from... dragging on. All the characters are very well developed and the villains actually appear more evil than corny. Sean Connery is of course flawless in his portrayal of the secret agent. The villains were superbly cast, and the Bond Girl is without a doubt the best so far. The story was very well written and entertaining even though the evil scheme to contaminate the United States supply of gold is quite an outlandish and corny plot. Overall, great Bond film, and could quite possibly end up being my favorite, stay tuned for the Secret File which is sure to be packed full with a lot of interesting facts and information.

9/10