30 Films That Made Me Who I Am - #13

Goldeneye

     When I was in my formative years, which I count as between 5 and 10; you know, the years where you can have logical thought, but still can't really follow a non-kid film plot...  There were no Bond films.  I didn't know of James Bond, I hadn't seen one, my parents never brought the series up.  The last Bond film had come out in 1989 and had not done well with American audiences.  It was clearly a Bond version of Miami Vice, and it wasn't what Americans were looking for at the time.  Well, after that Eon Productions, who make the Bond films, ended up having legal problems regarding the rights to the Bond character when MGM/UA was sold, which would not be ironed out until 1994, by which time Timothy Dalton would leave as James Bond.  A lot of people cheered this, which I don't get, as Dalton is actually really, really good as Bond.  In comes Pierce Brosnan, hot off Remington Steele, which had prevented him from taking the roll back in 1986.

     In fact, the movie Goldeneye, which came out in 1995, starts in 1986.  In the prologue, which is a tradition in Bond films, 007 and 006 (Sean Bean, so you can guess how this turns out) are in northern Russia at a secret chemical plant set to blow it up.  Well, things don't go so well when 006 gets caught and 007 resets the timers for 3 minutes instead of 5.  006 is shot by General Ourumov and Bond has to make a creative escape.  Fast forward 9 years to the present, and of course the the world is a different place and Bond must try to keep the status quo.

     This film was the first Bond movie filmed after the fall of the USSR and of the Berlin Wall.  The world had really changed since the last Bond film, and some changes needed to be made to the formula.  Almost all of the 1970s and 1980s Bond films had dealt with the Cold War in some way, which was of course over by now.  There was no space race to exploit as they had in the 1960s, and somehow I don't think a blaxploitation or Kung Fu film would do as well as those did in the early 70s, the world being more politically correct. (Remember, this was during Clinton's first term where that stuff came to a head.)  In fact, a lot of people thought of this film as a big gamble.  The world was at relative peace, after all... or at least the first world countries were.  How would such things be able to be worked out?  Well, first we make M a woman.  Not just any woman though.  A stern older woman who does not hide her dislike of Bond.  She even calls him a sexist, misogynist dinosaur, which the feminist critics loved, as they too hated Bond.  Even after Bond was rebooted in 2006, they still kept Judi Dench as M, which was a fantastic choice in '95, and in '06 as well.  The plot doesn't really have a Cold War mentality to it, although Russian dissidents are involved.  In fact, in the end Russia ends up being a red herring.

     I was 10 when this movie came out in November of 1995.  I did not see the movie in theaters, but I did see it as soon as it came out on VHS.  I remember the first time I saw the trailer was in the West Tower Cinemas on the west end of Richmond.  I don't know what movie I was there to see, but this was back when they first started showing trailers in the lobbies of theaters.  I thought the trailer looked cool, and my dad knew what the trailer was for before they finished the intro due to the music. 

 I had heard the music before, but didn't know where.  Of course I remembered later that I used to watch the cartoon James Bond Jr. when I was younger, and that's where I'd heard the music.  The movie was my favorite action movie for a while, especially when I first got my Nintendo 64 in 1997.  That was when Goldeneye came out on that system.  It's considered one of the best video games ever created, and I can definitely agree with that.  I spent countless hours playing that game, and many more playing it in multi-player with friends, sometimes starting one morning and playing through to the next.  I think that besides Pokemon Blue, Mass Effect, and Zelda: Ocarina of Time that I've never played a game it's equal since it came out.  In fact, it's better than the movie.  (Even though I still purposefully kill Natalia when I have to escort her out of the Defense building!)  Mostly what came out of the film was my love for Bond films, though.

     I'm not a huge action movie fan, but I love Bond films and never pass up seeing the new ones when they come out in theaters.  Sometimes I see them more than once.  I didn't see Tomorrow Never Dies when it came out, mostly due to my dad not wanting to see it, and being as I was 12 at the time, I'd have needed to be driven there.  Still, by time I was 13 I'd rented all of the Bond films and loved most of them.  I don't know what it is that makes me love Bond but not really going for other action series.  Maybe the Britishness or the lack of the working-class hero...  It's not the continuing storyline, because until the reboot, there wasn't much of one.  I was all about these films until I was probably around 16.  I would watch at least one a week, having bought them all on VHS by then.  Somewhere along the line I somewhat grew out of the series; I think it was when the horrible Die Another Day came out in 2002.  That killed the series for a lot of people...  Actually it did kill the series, as a new film wouldn't come out for another four years, and when it did, it'd be a reboot.  The Brosnan films that I grew up on are not the best Bond films.  The first one is very good, Tomorrow Never Dies is good, The World Is Not Enough I'd even say is good...  Die Another Day is utter trash, with few redeeming qualities.  (And sadly I saw it in theaters twice just to make sure.)  

      If you are new to Bond, I'd suggest the following, one from each version of Bond:  From Russia With Love, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, The Spy Who Loved Me, The Living Daylights, Goldeneye, and... well all 3 of the Daniel Craig ones, as they form a full story... Don't expect much from Quantum of Solace, though.

     I'm so glad James Bond has been around so long, and I hope he continues to be around.  Hell, even Godzilla's making a comeback next year!  The Bond series has been an inspiration for many directors including George Lucas, Steven Spielberg (who approached Eon about directing one and was told no, which is why we have Indiana Jones), and Christopher Nolan.  What would the world be like without the nude silhouettes that adorn the beginnings of Bond films?  The jazzy opening numbers?  The satisfying action sequences?  I wouldn't want to live in a world without those!