The third James Bond movie, Goldfinger, is in many ways also the first.
ImagineJames Bondwithout a car.
The stakes and set pieces in the movie versions ofDr.
NoandFrom Russia With Lovewere impressive, but withGoldfinger, the scope was widened in the extreme.
InGoldfinger, everything is turned up to eleven.
However, unlike the novel, Bond essentially ignores his orders outright from the very beginning of the movie.
This strategy leads to a lot of collateral damage.
And inGoldfinger, his mistakes, arguably, are what make the movie happen.
One of Hamiltons biggest contributions was to ensure the movie wasoutsideas much as possible.
(Goldfingers car is also loaded onto a plane to transport it.)
(No Marvel connection at all.)
Connery smiles a lot more inGoldfingerthan he does inDr.
Bond is dangerous inGoldfinger, unquestionably.
But inFrom Russia With Love,hes smacking around allies and enemies without batting an eye.
InGoldfinger,hes batting his eyes atus.
InGoldfinger, hes wearing a white tuxedo underneath his wetsuit.
Filmmakers and audience conspire together in laughing at the film.
But Bond isnt the only one who gets all the laughs.
The trick, of course, is that the movie is kind of joking at this moment.
But the movies balancing of these tones; deadly seriousness with raucous hyperbole is almost like a magic trick.
Even 60 years later, its hard to really see how its done
