THE EXPLOSIVE REVIEW

Starring: Sean Connery, Shirley Eaton, Gert Frobe, Honor Blackman, Harold Sakata, Tania Mallet, Bernard Lee, Cec Linder, Lois Maxwell, and Desmond Llewelyn.

Directed by Guy Hamilton.

“Goldfinger”, the third film in the James Bond franchise (following “Dr. No” and “From Russia With Love”), also starring Sean Connery as Bond for the third time, depicts the character in pursuit of Auric Goldfinger, a gold smuggler who is planning a nuclear detonation inside the Fort Knox gold depository. The film also includes the iconic scene featuring Bond girl Jill Masterson (played by Shirley Eaton) in her memorable death where she is covered in gold paint, dying at the hands of epidermal suffocation for betraying her boss (Auric Goldfinger) in an opening scene.

Newcomer director to the series, Guy Hamilton, does a good job of portraying Bond as less of a superhuman by making his enemies all more powerful than himself. The humor, gimmicks, and action are top notch, featuring many of Goldfinger’s amusing attempts to cheat Bond during a card game and golf, fascinating fights to the death between Bond and Oddjob (Goldfinger’s sidekick), and an exciting main plot.

There’s many memorable scenes to pull from “Goldfinger”, including Jill Masterson’s death at the beginning, Bond’s escape attempts in his modified Aston Martin DB5 car, Oddjob’s deadly hat, Goldfinger attempting to slice Bond in half with a laser, the anti-climatic showdown, and Goldfinger’s gruesome death (which adds to the film’s high body count of 62).

As the first official blockbuster in the Bond series, “Goldfinger” had made history in cinema when it made back its production costs very quickly, despite having a bigger budget than the previous two films. It also uses a pop star to sing the theme song during the opening titles, carving a niche for every Bond sequel afterward to follow. 

RATING: *****

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