Choose your next witticism carefully… (Goldfinger: Special Edition (DVD))

Name: Brett Bligh

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Product:	Goldfinger: Special Edition (DVD)
Date:	07/09/01 (143 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lovingly remastered anamorphic print, excellent array of extras, aesthetically very well designed interactive menus.

Disadvantages: Mono soundtrack, both commentaries are actually compilation efforts, occasionally irritating menus.

After the success of the first three releases in MGM’s James Bond ‘Special 007 Edition’ series of DVDs buyer expectations were obviously raised higher for future James Bond purchases than for virtually any other standard DVD on the market. The first three releases were possessed of excellent quality prints and an excellent array of extras, although ‘Dr. No’ and ‘From Russia With Love’ perhaps disappointed with their mono sound and lack of true director’s commentaries (this second omission perhaps being rather understandable, given that the director responsible for both of these films, Terence Young, passed away many years ago). Hence, given what has gone before, how does the ‘Goldfinger’ release measure up?


THE FILM
Goldfinger the film is an early example of precisely what has made James Bond such a long-lasting success. It is gifted with one of the series’ most memorable villains, Auric Goldfinger, one of its most memorable sidekicks, Oddjob, and has a world-shattering plot which Bond must foil in the nick of time.

Essentially, the plot revolves around a plan by Goldfinger to penetrate the security at Fort Knox and detonate a nuclear device inside, hence irradiating the gold supply of the United States, creating economic upheaval in the West (which will please Goldfinger’s Chinese allies) and coincidentally increasing the value of Goldfinger’s personal gold supply by several times. Bond, who has been sent to investigate Goldfinger because the Secret Service suspect him of gold smuggling which is harming the British economy, is soon captured and imprisoned by his arch-nemesis, and must use all of his wit and charm, particularly on Goldfinger’s female hench-person, Pussy Galore, if he is to stop Goldfinger in his tracks.

On the surface it is easy to see those factors which made Goldfinger a success. With a budget far larger than the previous two Bon
d films, Goldfinger was able to indulge in larger and more extravagant sets, in particular the Fort Knox set with its 40-foot high piles of gold bars and Goldfinger’s automated presentation theatre with the model of Fort Knox at its centre, and gadgets, specifically the Astin Martin DB5 with its many modifications which has since been dubbed the “most famous car in the world”.

Goldfinger himself is a very interesting megalomaniac villain with a penchant for the one-liner which outdoes Bond’s own. “Do you expect me to talk?” – “No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die” is probably my favourite verbal exchange of any Bond film and one of my favourites of *any* film (a variation on this would have formed the title to this opinion if someone had not beat me to it!), and “choose your next witticism carefully, Mr. Bond, it may be your last”, from the same scene, is nearly as good. Many other aspects of the film are also tremendous fun, particularly the rather unbelievable relationship between Bond and the brilliantly named Pussy Galore, and the film includes its share of genuinely serious moments, particularly the killing of first Jill Masterson and then her vengeful sister at the hands of the villain’s henchmen.

Personally, however, I enjoyed this film rather less than the first two Bond outings. Generally, I thought that the plot in general was a great deal less tight than with those films, with everything appearing far too contrived and unconvincing for even a casual viewing of the film to proceed without causing some sighs of disbelief from the viewer. Of course, Bond films are not supposed to be realist, but when a villain expends considerable time and money in creating a set-piece presentation to explain his plot for world chaos to an audience which he simply intends to kill anyway, and when James Bond, despite his wonderful car, is defeated after a lengthy and rather enjoyable chase
through some warehouse scenery by a REFLECTION IN A MIRROR (!?!), it is obvious that something has gone wrong somewhere, and that the entire plot is held together with little more than hope and spit.

There are also plot cul-de-sacs which turn out to go nowhere, a case in point being the introduction of Jill Masterson’s vengeful sister, who is thrown into the mix, killed in a perfunctory manner and then never mentioned directly again … as the woman lies dead and Bond is about to be escorted away, there is a look of vengeful fury on Bond’s face, the same vengeful attitude displayed that M rebuffed Bond for taking towards the case in an earlier scene after the death of Jill herself. But this trend is not continued, the way in which Goldfinger is despatched is essentially business as usual for Bond and the whole thing seems to have been introduced in order to make up some running time early on in the plot. It is this sense of treading water that actually made me rather restless whilst watching the film, and despite its often excellent directing and fast-paced action, Goldfinger actually managed to be occasionally boring.

Perhaps, however, I was simply expecting too much from a film which was developed and intended for a family audience, a film in front of which people were expected to relax, laugh and enjoy themselves rather than scrutinise and pick faults. To be fair, as action movies go, Goldfinger is a pretty good example and has held up remarkably well to the test of time in terms of its visual effectiveness. Admittedly, it seems to have held up less well in a political light, with the Chinese shown herein to be little more than slanty-eyed stock villains out to destroy the West simply because it will “suit their purposes” and, although I admit I was not alive at the time, I find it difficult to believe that even a 1960s audience jaded by the Cold War would have found such propaganda convincing. In general, however, I
think it worth remembering that a 1960s film is exactly what Goldfinger is. And while Goldfinger may not be my favourite of the early Bonds, there is little doubt that this is the film largely responsible for starting off the Bond craze which has seen the franchise survive to this day, this is the film which contains some of the most memorable imagery and one-liners in any Bond film (and, indeed, any action film of the 1960s), and this is the film which millions of movie-goers and television-watchers have enjoyed for decades as little more than disposable pulp entertainment.

As pulp entertainment goes, this is not bad. Enjoy it.


THE DISC

· Distributor: MGM DVD [16178DVD Z1].
MGM DVD seem to have made the James Bond collection their flagship series DVD release, and the result is a series of excellent quality discs featuring beautiful prints and a startling array of extras. Thankfully, Goldfinger is no different and is a thoroughly impressive disc all round.

· Rating: PG.
If one actually concentrates on what happens in the film on will notice that several plot strands and actions which occur within are actually rather heartless and grim, and as I mentioned above, I found it relatively disappointing that the producers opted for the Chinese as stock Cold War villains in such a slapdash way, but one must remember that this film is a product of the 1960s — it should be reasonably easy to opt for a wry smile at those plot aspects, as I did, rather than taking offence.. For the most part, however, Goldfinger is a typical family-friendly action film, and should be easily suitable for a family audience.

· Region: 2 (PAL encoding).
Region 2 is intended for Europe (including the UK) and Japan, whilst PAL is a system used by the UK and Australia, among others. Essentially, this disc will play on any region 2, multi-region or region-free player which is compatible with PAL playback — if you bought your play
er in the UK there should be no worries whatsoever.

· Type and case: DVD9 with black Amaray keepcase.
A DVD9 is a 12cm, single-sided but dual data-layered disc. No flipping of the disc will be required. The black Amaray keepcase is a DVD standard case, the inlay card in this case seeming to have been specifically designed for this DVD release rather than simply ripped from some old poster artwork for the film. The spine of the disc is intended to fit together with all other James Bond Special 007 Edition DVDs in MGM’s range to form the 007 gun logo symbol. Altogether, this is an attractive package, and included inside the case is a 8-page booklet briefly outlining the making of and story behind the film.

· Running time: feature 1 hr 45 minutes approx.
The print contained herein is that of the theatrical release. No cuts have been made, although this is of course, in this case, to be expected.

· Picture format: 16:9 anamorphic widescreen.
As with the previous film in the Bond series, ‘From Russia With Love’, Goldfinger was originally filmed on a 1.37:1 negative so that it could later be framed differently according to the standard formats of the different markets at the time (1.85:1 for the US and 1.66:1 for Europe). Hence, the disc producers have once again opted for the most sensible option of cropping the film to fit the modern widescreen TV exactly at 16:9 (which is 1.78:1, although the sleeve reverse says ‘1.77:1’).

Given the film’s age the print is stunningly presented, the colours vibrant, lively and realistic and the contrast spot on. Blacks are black and fleshtones excellent throughout. The film is presented anamorphically, hence increasing the screen resolution by a third over a non-anamorphic print on a widescreen TV and completing the package wonderfully.

· Audio: mono.
As with the DVD releases of the two earlier James Bond films, I must express some reservati
ons about the lack of a stereo or even surround sound track on this disc, however it must be acknowledged that the soundtrack itself is actually very well presented with no crackles or background hiss noticeable.

· Subtitles: English and English HOH.

· Extras: ‘The Making of Goldfinger’ documentary, ‘The Goldfinger Phenomenon’ documentary, Audio Commentary featuring director Guy Hamilton, Audio Commentary by Cast and Crew, Theatrical Trailer, Original Publicity Featurette, TV Spots, Radio Spots, Radio Interviews, The Goldfinger Gallery.

The Making of Goldfinger is of a very similar format to the ‘Inside …’ series of documentaries which appear on most of the discs in the James Bond collection; as well as their style, it has in common with those documentaries the narrator, Patrick Macnee. Unlike the Inside series, however, whose running times vary seemingly according to how much interesting relevant material the documentary-makers had available to them, The Making of Goldfinger appears to have been fitted strictly into the 23-minute format of a TV documentary. The programme features interview snippets with many of the major people involved in the making of the film both behind and in front of the camera, including director Guy Hamilton, production designer Ken Adam and even star Sean Connery, although these clips have obviously been culled from rather aged archive material rather than filmed specifically for the documentary. Covering many aspects of the film, including the well-known Astin Martin car whose gadgets included an ejector seat, the directing and the acting, as well as the visit to the set by Ian Fleming (who was to die soon afterwards), this is an interesting and worthwhile piece, an interesting bit of viewing and a laudable addition to the disc.

The Goldfinger Phenomenon is a 28-minute documentary, also narrated by Patrick Macnee and also centring around the Goldfinger film. Unl
ike The Making of Goldfinger, however, The Goldfinger Phenomenon centres around the marketing of the film and the effects that the popularity of the film had at the time (and afterwards), and is not about the actual creation of the film itself. The documentary, which is presented in 4:3 format once again, covers such areas as film merchandise, the premiere and the rise to superstar status of Bond star Sean Connery (as well as others involved with the film), as well as featuring numerous clips from radio interviews and TV spots used at the time for publicity purposes. Albeit on a very specialist subject, this is another well executed documentary, with perhaps the major niggle being the obvious aiming of the documentary at an American audience (every time the phrase “across the country” is used, for example, we are talking about the US, and all prices are quoted in dollars … for a documentary about a British-centred series of films, narrated by a British actor and on a British DVD, this is somewhat displeasing, and I would suggest that, even if these documentaries were originally created for the Region 1 DVD releases of the Bond films, it would not have been difficult to record alternate narrations for the British editions).

When I first read the sleeve reverse of this DVD release I was rather pleased to discover that, as well as the compilation audio commentary traditionally featured on MGM’s James Bond DVD releases, there was also an “Audio Commentary Featuring Director Guy Hamilton”. Although the compilation audio commentaries are undoubtedly of interest to the die-hard Bond fan for their tendency to dig up obscure material and feature even more obscure facts, personally I prefer a commentary to be a simple guide through a film by the director and perhaps a couple of other people closely involved with the film in question’s production, from start to finish. This enables the film fan to see how the original visions
and intentions of the director were transferred to the screen, and also gives an insight into how the director himself (or herself) views the finished product, as well as providing ample opportunity for anecdotes and the like.

Unfortunately, however, when one actually listens to this audio commentary, this is NOT what we have here, since this is yet *another* compilation commentary, introduced by Lee Feiffer of TWINE Entertainment, co-author, apparently, of a book entitled ‘The Incredible World of 007’. Although a large number of the comments are indeed by director Guy Hamilton, audio clips of other people are used as well, and one is left once again of an impersonal feeling, of being force-fed information in a cheesy way which would have been far better presented in a traditional documentary. The disc also features the traditional compilation audio commentary, with clips drawn from a very wide variety of sources, introduced by John Cork of the Ian Fleming Foundation. Let me state for the record that these commentaries will probably contain much to interest the James Bond fan, and indeed the film fan in general, and that no DVD release which contains not one but two audio commentaries can possibly be sniffed at for lack of effort. Nonetheless, this type of commentary is not the preferred style by me, for the reasons stated above.

The original theatrical trailer is a 3-minute affair presented in 16:9 anamorphic widescreen. It is essentially an action-packed clip show presenting the film’s best-known set-pieces and introducing the major characters of the film, accompanied by a very earnest audio narration and the film’s memorable (although not well liked, at least by me) theme tune sung by Shirley Bassey. Given the age of the film and the lack of consideration traditionally given to theatrical trailers the quality of the print here is outstanding, and the DVD production team are to be congratulated once again for their sterlin
g work in the remastering department.

The Original Publicity Featurette is a rather scratched black and white print in 4:3 aspect ratio. It starts off with a look at Harold Sakata, who plays Oddjob in the film, and follows this with a look at the filming of the scene in which Bond and Pussy Galore frolic in the hay with their various Judo throws. Rounding up with a black and white, cropped version of the theatrical trailer to a running time of 3 minutes approximately, this is a nice addition to the disc if only for curiosity value.

The TV spots are essentially slightly truncated versions of the theatrical trailers, presented in 4:3 aspect ratio approximately, and in colour. The first TV spot is for Goldfinger alone, whilst numbers 2 and 3 are for the Dr. No / Goldfinger double bill. The quality is rather poor in these spots, but this is to be expected given the age and nature of the footage.

The radio spots are presented in a rather lengthy sequence lasting for more than 20 minutes. It does not seem easy to navigate this material, and I assume that one is simply expected to sit back and listen to all of it, in order. The quality is remarkably clear, considering, and the sound is accompanied by a gold-tinged still image of James Bond (i.e. Sean Connery) onscreen for the duration.

In 1964 a series of tapes were provided to radio stations so that the DJs on those stations could appear to be presenting an exclusive interview with Sean Connery. The original Sean Connery radio interviews section contains these tapes, introduced by a narrator who explains their relevance. The format is the same as for the radio advertisements above, with the entire proceedings lasting a little over 11 minutes.

The Goldfinger Gallery consists of over 20 images collected into 22 sections: ‘The Filmmakers’, ‘Portraits’, ‘Pre-Credits’, ‘The Fontainebleau’, ‘Bond and Jill’, ‘M’s
Office’, ‘Dinner With Colonel Smithers’, ‘Stoke Poges’, ‘Andermatt’, ‘The Laser Table’, ‘Honoured With Honor’, ‘The Flying Circus’, ‘Auric Stud’, ‘A Roll in the Hay’, ‘Fort Knox’, ‘No Time to be Rescued’, ‘The Aston Martin DB5’, ‘Gilding Jill’, ‘Ken Adam’, ‘Bond Meets His Maker’, ‘Goldfinger Around The Globe’ and ‘Merchandising’. The images are presented as framed pieces on a common background and are navigated through the use of forward and back buttons. Although I have expressed reservations about photo galleries on DVDs in the past, there are some genuinely interesting and curious items here and one is well advised to take a look. To be honest, I don’t think that a photo gallery more exhaustive than this could possibly be expected!

· Menus: in common with the rest of the James Bond releases, Goldfinger has menus which are exceptionally well designed aesthetically. As the disc loads we are invited to ‘activate’ the menus, and then the main menu loads, a gold design with the main option located in the four corners, all centred around a spinning gold globe, to the left and right of which appear film clips and still images of James Bond in gold and black, all in a 30-second cycle. Transitions between menus are also well achieved, and the other menus, although static, are also well designed and functional. Perhaps my one complaint would be regarding the menus’ tendency to ‘time out’ and go somewhere else after a set amount of time — personally, I prefer my menus to stay exactly where I last left them, thank you very much!


CONCLUSION
Although I have slight reservations about Goldfinger the film, the fact remains that it is a well-loved and very well executed action film which will doubtless remain popular f
or many years to come, and my reservations are only small criticisms of a largely competent whole. Similarly with the disc: although I may have reservations about the format of the audio commentaries, although the menus may occasionally irritate and the sound is only mono, the fact remains that a better DVD release of this film could hardly dare be hoped for. The disc combines a stunning print of the film with a huge and largely very interesting array of extras and some very good presentation, and as such deserves full marks.

Summary: