Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13460 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-10-20
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Formats: Box set, PAL
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 105 minutes

Synopsis
In the third James Bond adventure, the dangerously suave spy's objective is to terminate criminal capitalist Auric Goldfinger--and his assistants Pussy Galore and Oddjob--and foil his plan to contaminate Fort Knox's gold with atomic radiation, a strategy that would dramatically increase the value of Goldfinger's own hoard. With the help of the usual bevy of beautiful women and ingenious gadgets, 007 spoils Goldfinger's fun. Based on Ian Fleming's 1959 novel, GOLDFINGER marks the appearance of a more carefree, wisecracking Bond and is widely considered to be one of the best films in the series. In fact, with stylized elements such as the gold-painted girl, the wince-inducing laser beam, Oddjob's razor-sharp bowler hat, and Bond's modified Aston Martin car, the film is quite possibly the most memorable Bond outing, and would be famously parodied decades later in the AUSTIN POWERS series, particularly GOLDMEMBER. Digitally restored.

Customer Reviews

The names Bond , James Bond !
This 2 disc ultimate edition is simply chock packed with extras that every Bond fan will savour and come back craving for more . Sean
Connery is without a doubt the best Bond ever as he thwarts the evil Goldfinger who is out for world domination by way of obliterating the world economy simply by destroying all the gold in Fort Knox . Agent 007 has his hands full as he fights off babes and bad guys in his quest to bring down the ruthless Goldfinger at all cost and save the world as only he can .

Classic Bond
What to say about Goldfinger? Some people say its the beginning of the end for the Bond films as the gadgets and special effects start to take over. Well I don't agree as was shown with 2006's Casino Royale its quite possible to reinvent Bond after some frankly very dull years.

Goldfinger has a classic opening and memorable scenes galore (sorry for Pun). Sean Connery has never been beaten as Bond, his screen presence and charisma, not to mention underrated acting ability keep him at no. 1. Harold Sakata as Oddjob was the best henchman, even beating the enormous Jaws. Sakata was an Olympic weightlifter and at the time of making Goldfinger weighed a little over 20 stone, a large proportion of which was muscle!

If that isn't enough the Bond girls are as lovely as ever. The stunts and gadgets in this film did raise the bar. The sets are spectacular, especially the recreation of Fort Knox at the end. Nobody knew (at that time anyway) what the inside of Fort Knox looked like. Apparently after seeing the film a senior person from Fort Knox wrote to the designer of the set to contratulate him on his imagination.

Which leads me nicely onto the disc of extras. Pretty good would be my summary. There are a couple of short documentaries which are worth watching. Some interviews and commentary tracks, which I've not had a chance to listen to yet as well numerous small trailers and the like.

So this 2 disc re-issue of Goldfinger is well worth getting. Sad thing is the bluray is going to look so good I think I may have to replace this!

"No, Mr Bond, I expect you to die!"
Appropriately enough the first of the series to have a really imaginative use of colour, Goldfinger is in many ways the most visually sensual of the films, the unforgettable image of Shirley Eaton's golden girl reflected in a golden glow to much of Ted Moore's cinematography. It's oozing with striking and surreal imagery, from Oddjob's menacing shadow on the hotel room wall, to the little old lady with machine gun or Bond making his entry by unzipping his wetsuit to reveal an evening one underneath. Ken Adam's production design is his possibly his finest hour, genuine architecture of the imagination that is at once both fantastic and strangely credible, maintaining a sense of scale and verisimilitude by his use of ceilings on the smaller sets.

It's also the one that set the Bond formula in stone, something that would later become more a hindrance than a help to the series before something more radical was attempted with Casino Royale. Aside from establishing the trend for irrelevant but enjoyable pretitle sequences, it is from here on that the gadgets begin to assume a more prominent role. However, unlike most of the Roger Moore efforts, they are no match for Bond's own wits - even the famed Aston Martin DB5 does not save him. After putting it through its paces, he is left to his own initiative.

There is no getting away from the overtly sexist approach here ("Dink, say goodbye to Felix - man talk."). Even Blackman's villainy seems inextricably linked to her lesbianism ("You can turn off the charm, I'm immune") but one good one from Bond and she's on the side of the angels.

As with all Bond films, many of the cast are dubbed - in this case, Frobe was dubbed by actor Michael Collins. Regardless, his Auric Goldfinger is easily the best of the Bond super-villains, and comes equipped with the best line in the series as Bond, strapped down in front of the laser beam (in the novel it was a chainsaw), asks if he expects him to talk: "No Mr Bond, I expect you to die." And for possibly the only time in the series, you think that maybe Bond really has had it. Incredibly enjoyable and one of the best-paced entries in the series, it's not hard to see why this is many people's favorite Bond film. It may be formulaic, but then the formula still worked wonders.

While all the extras from the original single-disc release have been carried over, there are not as many new features as you might expect on this repackaged two-disc Ultimate Edition. Most interesting are Theodore Bikel and Tito Vandis' screen tests as Goldfinger, but there are also somewhat awkwardly presented archive interviews with Connery and Honor Blackman as well as a featurette about the Aston Martin DB5, though perhaps the most enjoyable remain the radio spots from the original release.