MovieChat Forums > Goldfinger (1965) Discussion > Is this really the best Bond movie of al...

Is this really the best Bond movie of all time?

posted 7 years ago by dodonpachisdoj
29 replies | jump to latest

I hear that this movie is often considered to the best of the series, for both Sean Connery and the Bond series in general. Now granted, the movie did had its moments, like the awesome opening theme, the dialogue (No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die) or the action scenes. But what about From Russia with Love or Thunderball? Or other movies that come close to rivaling Goldfinger, like The Spy Who Loved Me, For Your Eyes Only, The Living Daylights, GoldenEye, Casino Royale, or Skyfall?

[–] 7 years ago

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[–] dodonpachisdoj 7 years ago

And is that why Goldfinger is so good?

[–] dodonpachisdoj 7 years ago

By the way, I usually don't like the kind of Bond movie where Bond has a showdown with the henchman after the final battle with the main antagonist had already ended. That's why Tomorrow Never Dies was my least favorite of the Pierce Brosnan movies. And I'm glad that it didn't happen in the latest installment Spectre, even though it looked like it was going to with C looking like he would be the final boss. But Blofeld easily survived the explosion of his headquarters, and he ended up being the final boss.

[–] 7 years ago

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[–] dodonpachisdoj 7 years ago

Yeah. But anyway, what about my other comment about me not liking the other Bond movies that have Bond fighting the henchman right after the final battle with the main villain? I don't like that because it just drags the movie too long. I'd rather have the final battle with the main antagonist, which is why I liked Spectre.

[–] pking-2 7 years ago

If your question is whether this movie is often considered to the best of the series...that is true. It is often considered so. It is probably the single Bond film that would be called that by the largest number of viewers, though now that plenty of GF audience is literally dying I would expect its support to dissipate in relation to newer stuff. But that doesn't mean that GF wasn't called that by the largest number of fans, overall...its like asking if Gone with the Wind had more fans than <whatever> lets say The Avengers. Even if GWTW loses polls today the answer would be "yes" it was substantially more popular, overall. Just, maybe not so much today.

Significant numbers of folks prefer any of those others you list, that is true too.

Quite a few assertions can be true at once. No need for inappropriate mutual exclusivity.

But I would wager that none of those has ever held as much positive sway as GF at GF's peak, even if I'd bet you would find Skyfall on top of today's list.

As for which one you find to be best, that's up to you. I like From Russia with Love best.

Now, this is a signature gun, and that is an optical palm reader.

[–] dodonpachisdoj 7 years ago

Not only is Goldfinger considered the best of the entire James Bond series, it's often the most parodied.

[–] mariakelly-04164 7 years ago

Goldfinger was good, but From Russia With Love was better.

Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night.

[–] earl237 (1106) 7 years ago

Definitely close to the top, there is a lot of debate. Many believe From Russia With Love is actually the best. My favorites are Casino Royale, Skyfall, The Living Daylights, For Your Eyes Only and The Spy Who Loved Me.

[–] db20db (16206) 7 years ago

One of my favorite Bond films.
Read the books when I was younger.
Had the pleasure of watching the professional wrestler who portrayed OddJob perform in Hawaii during that era while I lived there.

[–] earl237 (1106) 7 years ago

Really cool, Harold Sakata won a silver medal in weightlifting at the 1948 Olympics.

[–] moxey (141) 7 years ago

One of the best.

[–] kwestmo (4114) 5 years ago

Yes Goldfinger is the best Bond movie, but it is a mediocre movie at best

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

I prefer "From Russia With Love." Goldfinger started to get into pop-art silliness.

[–] Ace_Spade (9347) 5 years ago

For my money, the best ever is From Russia with Love. Goldfinger has always been a little overrated for me, although a lot of that has to do with how much hype it gets.

[–] ecarle (14979) 5 years ago

I think that there are at least two takes on why "Goldfinger" is the best Bond movie of all time.

One is that the first two, "Dr. No" and "From Russia With Love," didn't fully realize what the Bond movie as we know it would become.

"Dr. No" had some of the formula -- Dr. No with his major island compound and its destruction at the end -- but at heart, the budget was too low on that movie, Connery was too unknown(and not looking his best yet), it didn't open with a "James Bond" type power-chords song (rather it opened with a tinny calypso number) and...well the destruction OF that compound at the end, was rather cheapjack.

"From Russia With Love" was felt at the time to be almost at the level of a Hitchcock-type thriller, what with all the intrigue on the train and the MacGuffin of the Lektor or whatever it was. It had that great, savage fight to the death between Connery and Robert Jaws Shaw. But there was no ultravillain with a compound to destroy --the finale among boats was rather small and weak -- and the film's "man versus helicopter" sequence was a very sloppy copy of the crop duster sequence in Hitchcock's North by Northwest.

Indeed, North by Northwest was important here, because in some ways, it was the template for the entire Bond series(if one also added in Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief for the gambling in dinner jacket stuff), and North by Northwest was a much more plush and expensive looking movie than Dr. No(especially) and From Russia With Love.

[–] ecarle (14979) 5 years ago

By Goldfinger, the Bond folks had the budget to match North by Northwest and, in some ways, to best it. And all the "classic" Bond movie components fell into place. An opening action sequence. A power chords BIG theme song(that was all over the radio in late 1964 and 1965 as a hit song.) Several hotties for Bond to bed...one of whom famously ends up dead, all gold and nude(and on the cover of Life magazine), and the other named "Pussy Galore," back when the movies could get away with that and print that name without controversy IN Life magazine.

Bond gadgets, Bond "girls" -- all Goldfinger needed was an ultravillain, and it got one: Auric Goldfinger himself. And all that ultravillain needed was a great henchman, and it got one: Oddjob. Now Goldfinger didn't have a major compound to destroy. It would take until You Only Live Twice and On Her Majesty's Secret Service to "lock that in" from the Dr. No days...but Goldfinger DID have a compound disguised as a Kentucky horse farm.

The vast majority of Bond movies since Goldfinger have used the Goldfinger formula, and perhaps that's why its the "best" one. Its the formative one.

I akin Goldfinger rather to Hitchcock's big hit, Psycho. Seen today, Psycho looks rather small scale and the bloody murders aren't that bad and aren't that many. But everything STARTED with that movie, all the bigger shockers like The Exorcist and Jaws and Alien and Halloween all came from it.

True, too, with Goldfinger. Bond movies got bigger and more explosive and more expensive, but...you have to start somewhere.

Goldfinger is where Bond really begins...

PS. Another thing. Whereas the first two Bond films were smallish hits, there was something about the coming of Goldfinger that turned it into a phenomenon -- lines around the blocks, 24 hour performances, magazine cover stories, all the promotion and box office of later films like Titanic. This had happened to Psycho, too. You could say that these "flashy thriller blockbusters" were paving the way for modern blockbusters much more than prestige hits like "West Side Story" and "The Sound of Music." But eventually, Bond movies weren't like "Titanic," anymore. They made money , but not blockbuster level until the Daniel Craig era.

[–] Ace_Spade (9347) 5 years ago

Goldfinger is certainly a great Bond film, but I still prefer others. It did cement the formula, and for that it deserves credit, but it's got a couple points that stick for me. The biggest thing that stops Goldfinger from being the best, for me, is that Bond doesn't actually accomplish terribly much. There's a large chunk of the movie where he's pretty much just a prisoner. There are a few things like that, and, although they are all small, they mean that I don't like Goldfinger as much as most people, and it isn't my favourite Bond. It would still be a top 10 for sure. I've also never really been that into Pussy Galore as a Bond girl. I know why people like her, she just isn't "it" for me.

My favourite, From Russia with Love, I like because it is very much deep spying stuff. It's spies vs. spies, and has a great Cold War vibe to it which I really love. I feel like it showcases Bond as an agent more than other Bond films (which have him as an action hero as much as a spy). I also can't get over the train sequence, which is solid gold. Klebb and Grant are great villains, as is the unseen Boss. I think you're right in comparing it with a Hitchcock thriller, but I'd do so in a positive way.

Again: I really do love Goldfinger, and there's a lot to love there. I'm just saying my personal preference is for From Russia with Love, and that, because of the sheer amount of hype, I find Goldfinger a bit oversold. I'm not saying it's bad or anything.

[–] LordBAElish (2015) 5 years ago

FRWL is more of a spy thriller, but Goldfinger is remember so fondly because it is the movie where James Bond movies took off, where James Bond movies became so wildly popular. This is the first movie where gadgets are featured a lot (The Aston Martin) and the Fort Knox plot was great. Maybe because the film took place in America for a chunk of the movie help earnings too.