James Bond is as iconic a character as he is a franchise. The bond films have been part of one of the longest running film franchises in its history, clocking in over 25 films with the next installment, No Time to Die, being due for the end of 2020. With this massive line-up, the earlier Bond films will feel like a certain time capsule for the time period they were made in with the one in question, Goldfinger, being a strong example. Famous agent James Bond (played by Sean Connery) is assigned to watch over and apprehend the gold magnate Auric Goldfinger (played by Gert Frobe) who has mapped out a plan to infiltrate Fort Knox and reduce all its gold to meaningless wealth through the use of an atomic bomb, leaving his supply the only viable and quality mineral. Stuck in a situation where both he and Goldfinger are aware of each other’s strengths and cunning, Bond has to find a way to stop this plan from taking place and from Fort Knox as well as a large portion of the area being turned into an pile of ash and dust. As the third Bond film overall and being based on the seventh novel in the series written by Ian Fleming, the movie has some good things going for it; seeing the beginning of several famous Bond tropes, a decently engaging narrative that will keep audiences invested, and some good actors holding the story together. However, much like most movies from eras long past, it features some noticeable flaws that come with being one of the first in its series and coming out in a heavily different time period.

The story itself is straightforward and keeps itself very closely to the original novel’s storyline, only with a few added changes that help the film out rather than retract any good will. The James Bond franchise as a whole comes across as a semi-spoof on a typical spy film and this layout allows for many movie elements to be given the benefit of the doubt in terms of realism and allows the movie to not be restricted by authenticity as a more serious spy film would be. The introduction of many famous Bond elements are brought to light here; including the heavy use of technology, the various foreign locales, and the tongue-and-cheek humor which would later help develop a famous style that is still being recreated and moulded to this day. Even the direction they take with the Bond girls in the film are not the traditional route for the women for the most part, with the first half of the film featuring one of the most famous scenes in Bond film history with what they do to this character. The film is thankfully very direct and clear with the motivations of every character in the film, meaning that despite the heavier focus on dialogue and limited action, the audience will keep being engaged by the product because the end goal is always in the back of their minds. Bond’s mission is easy to follow, never featuring too much complicated scenes or streams of needless dialogue and the villain’s plan is actually makes sense within the realm’s of the film, actually rectifying a problem with the novel’s writing in which the plan was in every way impossible. However, despite these elements holding up pretty well, the film is unfortunately incredibly dated and has this very unfortunate blandness that comes with one of their first attempts; the lack of flair, the simplistic often boring action, their use of stereotypes and women and the heavier focus on speaking the story in rooms rather than experiencing it through the film.

The characters in the film are cartoonishly simplistic but in some ways that can be far more endearing and fun than a stereotypical good guy and bad guy. James Bond overall has a great set-up for a character; this care-free playboy woman-chasing attitude mixed with his incredible wit and fast smarts allows the character to be both nonchalant and crazy at the same time. While this would become more prominent later, this one is mostly played straight. He has the attributes and quips but there’s very little personality within anything he says, it mostly comes from the film’s overall blandness even though Connery himself is a good choice for the character. The villain is pretty fun to watch; despite being pretty basic evil bad guy, getting a great actor to play him and enough of a charming awareness towards his handling allows the audience to accept it and go with the flow. His interactions with Bond are some of the best parts of the movie; watching these two minds who are both smart and dangerous trying to verbally overpower the other without outright destroying them is great fun and the two actors share great chemistry with each other whenever their on-screen. Oddjob played by Harold Sakata is also a great character; his quiet short disposition matched with his buzz-saw hat and immovable presence is a great contrast and leaves a very memorable impression. The main woman of the film, Pussy Galore played by Honor Blackman is an incredibly confused character overall; while the name and sudden swerve from villain henchman to Bond’s women is acceptable for the time period, the choice of having PUSSY GALORE be the fighting hardcore workforce female of the film is just ironically strange. Other characters like M and Q are acceptably acted but barely leave any impression overall.

Because it was made in 1964, the direction the film could take to make itself look more interesting visually were not as variable as they are now, leaving the movie as a whole to look pretty simplistic. While the locations were shot pretty well when getting establishing shots and actually getting to see Fort Knox is actually pretty cool, most of the set design is big and impressive for the time but pretty forgettable and not as visually striking. The effects for the movie would have to be more so then the previous films as the usage of a giant laser beam and a multi-faceted car that Bond would drive around in. Some of the car stunts and explosions look impressive enough for the time and while some of the green screening can look pretty obvious, its not harmful enough to be a distracting element. The music for the film is still composed by John Barry, who helped write the music for the previous films and is responsible for the incredibly memorable theme music for Bond himself. The opening visuals for the film are pretty standard by today’s expectations but work pretty nice for the time and the song accompanying it is pretty good as well.

Goldfinger holds its place quite comfortably as one of the first Bond movies to introduce the franchise’s traditional elements, leaving it as a film that many still remember to this day. As a starting point, the film has a lot to be proud of; it has some good starting points for tropes of the franchise, it has a simple yet engaging story, the actors are pretty good and the good guy – bad guy chemistry is exceptionally done well here. As a whole though, many people would probably come into this movie not only expecting more but not being overall impressed with what it has to offer overall; its dated and bland atmosphere is something that couldn’t be avoided but unfortunately sticks to it nonetheless. For one of the greater Bond films, this is still a good film but just one that needs a few disclaimers when going into. Maybe not one of the best James Bond films ever made but if you’re a Bond junky or just someone who gets into anything 1960s, then you’re golden.