Movie Review—
GoldenEye (1995): Bond Film #17
Pierce Brosnan makes his first walk
before the gun barrel here as James Bond, 007, and grows the character
exactly where needed.
The basic plot involves stolen
control of a Russian satellite code-named "GoldenEye," the second of
two. It's threat is an electromagnetic pulse ("EMP"), an energy burst
capable of immobilizing anything that relies upon an electronic circuit.
Computer-based banking records to quartz wristwatches.
James Bond has some experience with
both satellites and EMP, as we saw in Diamonds Are Forever and
A View to A Kill. Further, the GoldenEye theft is an inside job, not
unlike Octopussy, albeit with less ostensibly altruistic motives.
I'm okay with all that; there are only so many things out there for a
bad guy to steel, and limits on how big they can go with it.
What distinguishes GoldenEye
is the intimate twist involving a former MI6 operative, Alec Trevelyan
(Agent 006) as mastermind behind this caper.
The GoldenEye pre-title
sequence is set some nine years before the main action of this film.
Agents 006 and 007 are teamed to infiltrate and presumably destroy a
Russian chemical weapons facility in Siberia. Hooking up onsite, the two
engage in the sort of classic cliché dialogue we take as a given from
James Bond in particular.
Bond: "I'm alone," answering a
shadowed Trevelyan's inquiry, spoken in Russian.
Trevelyan: "Aren't we all?"
Then, as the two head out to set
their explosive charges, there is one final inquiry (for the record), to
clarify meaning and purpose.
Trevelyan: "For England, James?"
Bond: "For England, Alec."
I've never been convinced that 007 is
doing much more than parroting 006 here. In fact, I feel it's almost an
insincerity within an insincerity. Later scenes, such as Bond's
Manticore incursion, show a cold, almost machine-like character. He
wipes the sweat from his face with a towel after throwing an attacking
deckhand down a stairwell, sans quip, sans snack (remember Bond pausing
to grab a bite of caviar after one particular fight in On Her
Majesty's Secret Service?).
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