Pierce Brosnan’s debut as Bond goes well in Goldeneye but the real star is Tina Turner’s iconic theme song
“I think you’re a sexist, misogynist dinosaur. A relic of the Cold War…”
Goldeneye heralds a lot of firsts for the James Bond franchise, as well as being Pierce Brosnan’s first appearance in the lead role. The first to use CGI, the first not to use any Ian Fleming story elements, the first in the post-Cold War era too. And coming after a six-year hiatus, director Martin Campbell had a lot on the line to reintroduce the idea of Bond movies as something more than mindless bank holiday rerun territory. Safe to say, I think he achieved that.
Adopting a more serious tone to address its plot of international terrorist networks and rogue agents, Brosnan’s slightly reserved interpretation works well to reset the playboy nature which preceded (and which is soon to return…) and against Sean Bean’s excellent Trevelyan, has a real tussle with real stakes on his hands. For all the talk of Phoebe Waller-Bridge coming into to retool scripts for No Time To Die, there’s work here that scratches intriguingly at Bond’s psychology, even if only briefly from both M and 006. Continue reading “Film Review: Goldeneye (1995)”