GoldenEye

A post-Cold War James Bond might have seemed unthinkable to some. "Bondmania" was a by-product of the tense political and military stalemate that endured between the Soviet Bloc and the West for nearly four decades. Against all predictions, the Cold War ended (thankfully) with more of a whimper than a bang. As a country, we found ourselves shout cries of joy and heave a few sighs of relief, but if it seemed to some to be "the end of history," it also must have seemed like the end of a perfectly good storyline for filmmakers and pulp fiction writers throughout the Western World.

It took a few years, but by the mid-90s, there were new cultural anxieties to be addressed and a new James Bond to meet the challenge. GOLDENEYE's relatively complex plot reflects those emerging anxieties, ones that we should have seen coming in '89 and '90, but were too euphoric to see. A new Russia, in social and economic turmoil, and still in possession of thousands of WMD was never exactly a comforting thought. GOLDENEYE capitalizes on the great uncertainties of the post-Soviet reality and comes up with a complex, murky plot alluding to warring Russian factions, its Eastern Bloc version of a "Wild West" mentality, and the political and moral chaos in which the nation found itself. Throw in a British traitor (who, we learn, has his own axe to grind against Britain and the West) and you've got as nightmarish a political and military backdrop as the 60s era Bond flicks ever played against.

Pierce Brosnan waited almost a decade to play Bond. The famous REMINGTON STEELE imbroglio that kept him from accepting the role in the 80s may well have been the proverbial blessing in disguise. He himself has stated that, at age 33, he would likely have been still too boyish and callow for the role. He may have been being overly modest, since he pulled off his TV role pretty well. But he is correct that a good James Bond probably needs to be a bit older, wiser, more worldly and sophisticated--although still fit enough to not seem ridiculous in the stunt shots (whether he does his own or not).

In a post-Cold War World where political realities were both shaken and stirred, the new James Bond needed to possess a new kind of sophistication. He had to at least be aware of the changing status of women, and his scenes with the new "M" (Dame Judi Dench) play on this changing reality. Yes, by some standards, James Bond, once the coolest guy in ANY room, could be viewed as a dinosaur, and a SEXIST one at that. That he really comes to genuinely care for his "Bond girl"--no, make that Bond WOMAN, the beautiful Russian computer whiz Natalya Simonova (Izabella Scorupco)--helps with the obligatory make-over. Does he transcend chauvinism? Hard to say, but with as savvy and capable a female counterpart (to say nothing of the savvy, capable and exceptionally vicious female VILLAIN played by Famke Janssen) on hand to counter his every sexist instinct, it almost doesn't matter if Bond is fully converted or not. He's headed in the right direction, at least.

And at least, he doesn't make any "Auntie M" jokes in Dame Judi's presence.

I've read that, despite their box office success, the Pierce Brosnan Bond films were the least profitable of the series. That probably gets into the kind of beancounting that M mocks herself for in the film. However, it does suggest that, worldwide in the '90s, not as many people were interested in a "new James Bond" or ANY James Bond. It's scarcely Brosnan's fault that the franchise was losing steam. In the new Millennium, well, there's hope that the Daniel Craig version will re-invigorate the enterprise.

But timing is everything. We were sorting out post-Cold War realities in the '90s, and it was difficult to see just what kind of hero we really wanted. Now, things are getting plenty scary again, and the time is once more ripe for a steely, urbane and invincible James Bond figure to emerge. If it can't be Sean Connery, well, Daniel Craig will certainly do. But, in his day, Pierce Brosnan was no slouch.

Goldeneye returned James Bond to film theaters after a six-year hiatus, and Pierce Brosnan takes over the role of the world's most famous secret agent. Brosnan successfully combines the suaveness of Sean Connery with the hard-nosed cynicism of Timothy Dalton. Officially this is the first post-Cold War Bond film (and the first to be shot in Russia itself), but in reality it is the second, with Dalton's License To Kill being the true first such. Though the Cold War is over, the risks from it are still in existence, as the Russian mafia jockeys for position to control as much as it can. Bond must tail an ex-Red Air Force jet jockey, Xenia Onatopp, who is having a torrid affair with the test pilot of a new high-technology gunship - an affair that proves deadly and which leads to an even bigger threat to the West. The new head of Her Majesty's Secret Service is an obtuse bean-counter, and neither she nor the ticked-off HMSS bureaucrats she commands get along well, but at least she is willing to send Bond to correct a mistake she has made, the mistake in underestimating the importance of the chopper theft. It leads to James' encounter with an old friend, and one of the few instances in the entire Bond series of a truly gripping encounter with what turns out to be an adversary. That it is so effective can be put to the strength of Sean Bean's performance as well as that of Brosnan. The inevitable fireworks erupt, beginning with the destruction of the gunship and a terrific firefight in a Red Army base, before James tracks down his power-mad adversary and learns the full extent of his plan for vengeance.

Until Casino Royale came out, this is the best of the "modern" Bond films. Good chracters, good pace, just a fun and exciting movie to watch. And it has the best Bond fight scene... other than Casino Royale. Sean Bean is terrific as the bad guy, though Joe Don Baker is a waste of space here.

Golden Eye DVD



Pierce Brosman is introduced as James Bond in a movie that has 007 trying to stop Russian Rebels from destroying the economy of London.
Recommended for fans of James Bond and Pierce Brosman. Personally I don't think anyone has done better than Sean Connery.

Gunner April, 2008

1995's "Goldeneye" was the first of four forays by Pierce Brosnan as James Bond; it can fairly be said to have revived the 007 franchise. From its heartstopping opening sequence in a Russian Weapons Lab to its thrilling action finale at a satellite groundstation complex in Cuba, the action never stops coming.

The movie opens with the standard pre-credits action sequence. Bond and fellow agent 006 (played with blunt style by Sean Bean) break into a secret Russian Bio-Lab in the Urals. Their mission is to destroy the plant. They are discovered and 006 is captured. Bond escapes, in an astonishing sequence featuring a motorcycle, a freefall from a cliff, and a small airplane, that would have been worth the movie all by itself.

Bond's mission is to find and stop a renegade Russian General from using the Goldeneye, a satellite-based laser. His search takes him from Monte Carlo to London to Russia and eventually to a satellite earth station in Cuba. Along the way, he will tangle repeatedly with Xenia Onatopp, a Russian hit-woman (played with sexy verve by Framke Janssen); race a tank through the streets of St. Petersburg; and rescue a former Russian satellite technician (played with a nice mixture of vulnerability and toughness by Izabella Scorupco). The final confrontation in Cuba brings him face-to-face with his long-missing fellow agent, 006.

"Goldeneye" reshuffles the deck on the franchise's main characters, to good effect. Pierce Brosnan is a highly effective Bond, believable as a steely-eyed assassin, but with that special panache so lacking since Sean Connery retired from the role. At the same time, he clearly carries a burden from so many deaths, friend and foe. Judi Dench takes up duties as the new "M", a tough-minded Secret Service bureaucrat who criticizes Bond as a social dinosaur but still wants him to make it home alive. Samantha Bond is a sexy but updated and confident Moneypenny. Joe Don Baker makes the first of several appearences as Bond's rather homespun CIA point of contact Felix Leiter. Robbie Coltrane cameos as a spot-on Russian Mafia hood who has an unusual reciprocal relationship with Bond.

"Goldeneye" is superb entertainment in the best tradition of the 007 franchise, a nice mixture of action, romance-on-the-run, and understated British humor. One wonders only why it took so long to get Pierce Brosnan into the tuxedo. This movie is very highly recommended to fans of the James Bond movies.