The James Bond Rewatch: Current Movie - SPECTRE

[Doc755]

I’ve long maintained that Pierce Brosnan was the best Bond after Connery and that GoldenEye was easily his best film and one of the best of the franchise. This may be due in no small part to the fact that GoldenEye was the first Bond film I saw in the theatre. I was 11 years old and had been watching the older Bond films for a few years. But GoldenEye was my first true Bond experience and Brosnan was MY Bond in that regard. However I will admit right at the start that I was a little underwhelmed by GoldenEye for this rewatch. Looking back at Moore’s For Your Eyes Only and Dalton’s The Living Daylights (what I consider to be their respective best films) I was genuinely happy and even excited rewatching them. I never really got that feeling with GoldenEye.

I spent a good portion of the first half of the film questioning the plot. Outside of maybe Thunderball, I don’t know if Bond have ever been more convenienced into a villain’s scheme. He happens to run into Xenia on the road, who happens to steal the helicopter and then the GoldenEye. It doesn’t kill the film but much like on the Thunderball rewatch it takes you out of the film when the narrative doesn’t flow more naturally. I also thought they made Brosnan’s Bond a little too quippy. There’s a one liner every couple of minutes almost like he’s parodying himself. I did laugh when the film pokes fun at this facet when he starts to say he’s a little tied up but quickly cuts himself off with “never mind”.

I still thoroughly enjoy Brosnan as Bond. Whereas with Dalton you could feel the emotions under the surface, Brosnan feels like a rogue with a sophisticated polish. More apt to engage in a brawl then reason out of a situation. He engages in a few hand to hand combats that were sadly lacking in the Moore and Dalton eras. I particularly enjoyed the scuffle with the deckhand utilizing a towel as a weapon. He lets little emotion out either intentionally or unwillingly. I felt more could have been mined from 006’s betrayal but for Brosnan’s 007, it comes off little more than a mild annoyance rather than grappling with the treachery of such a close friend.

Not to say that 006 is not a great villain to kick off the Brosnan era. Sadly I don’t think he’ll get another of such high caliber. But it was genius to have a darker version of 007 be the main antagonist. Even if his plan seems a little convoluted, the fact that he knows Bond’s methods and tactics lets him stay one step ahead of the hero without having Bond make foolish mistakes just to make the villain seem powerful. The film picks up considerably when Bean makes his reappearance and he and Brosnan play very well off one another.

The film also does a fine job of populating the supporting cast of MI6 for the first time since the Connery era. Judi Dench is fantastic as the new M, mining conflict with Bond as a bureaucrat who thinks he’s a relic of the Cold War while still being smart enough to know when Bond is a necessary tool to be used. They have grudging respect for one another but there is realistic tension between them. Samantha Bond as the new Moneypenny is also a great addition. Sadly I think they devolve her character as the films go on and she never is as strong or as witty as here. And of course, Desmond Llewelyn stays on as Q providing a crucial link to the classic era and just generally being beloved by all.

I’m going to give GoldenEye a 7/10 which is still strong for the series however I’ll probably rank it below some of the other 7s I used to put above it. Coming off a six year hiatus, Bond makes a welcome return to the silver screen, but the issues that were becoming more emblematic in the 80s really hit their peak in the 90s. Bond is little more than a gun toting action hero rather than a secret agent. He massacres countless Russian soldiers and drives a tank through St. Petersburg. Admittedly I probably enjoyed those bits as a kid but they seem out of place in the franchise when viewed as a whole. It’s not done to excess here but you can almost see how the Brosnan era ends up as it does as they start to sacrifice believability for spectacle more and more.

Current Rankings:
1) On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
2) From Russia with Love
3) Goldfinger
4) For Your Eyes Only
5) The Living Daylights
6) The Spy Who Loved Me
7) GoldenEye
8) Thunderball
9) Dr. No
10) Licence to Kill
11) Octopussy
12) Live and Let Die
13) You Only Live Twice
14) The Man with the Golden Gun
15) A View to a Kill
16) Moonraker
17) Diamonds are Forever