Introduction
1989’s License to Kill was not a bad movie. Like all Bond movies, it did well at the box office, grossing $160 million on a $30 million budget. Still, it sagged domestically. Further, it came out at a time when the franchise seemed creatively bankrupt, while at the same time, having to deal with a changing world, i.e. the end of the Cold War.
Pre-production on Timothy Dalton’s third outing as Commander Bond was moving forward in 1990. However, there were rumblings and dissatisfaction within the Bond universe. Many people on the inside felt that the franchise was becoming irrelevant, and even worse – boring.
Then-current writer Richard Maibaum retired, and Bond producer Albert R. Broccoli also parted ways with longtime director John Glen. Soon after this, legal issues between Broccoli’s Danjaq, LLC (the holding company that held the rights for copyrighting and trademarking the James Bond name) and MGM ensued.
Lawsuits were filed by both sides that had to do with licensing and distribution rights. It was during this tumultuous time in the early 90s that the franchise ground to a halt. In May 1993, all legal matters and suits were resolved. A seventeenth Bond movie was back on track.
A New Direction
Contrary to what some people may think, Dalton WAS approached to return as James Bond. Broccoli was confident that a new writer and director could inject some fresh life into the fading franchise. Dalton went on to say:
“When (the next movie) did come about, it was probably four or five years later. (Producer Albert Broccoli) asked if I would come back, and I said, ‘Well, I’ve actually changed my mind a little bit. I think that I’d love to do one. Try and take the best of the two that I have done, and consolidate them into a third.”
Broccoli was none too pleased about this because, after a long layoff, he needed his star to stick around for more than just one more film. Broccoli wanted Dalton to commit to four more features. Dalton, however, had no desire to do this, and would later state:
“And I thought, ‘Oh, no, that would be the rest of my life. Too much. Too long.’ So I respectfully declined.”
With Albert Broccoli’s health starting to fail, daughter Barbara Broccoli and her half-brother Michael J. Wilson took over the day-to-day duties of getting the production of the film back on track and finding a new star to carry the franchise successfully into the future.
A New King
Director Martin Campbell was brought in to take over directing duties, and Pierce Brosnan was finally crowned King after failing to take over the mantle of Bond when Roger Moore retired from the franchise in 1985.
Brosnan’s star was rising in the mid-80s, co-starring on the successful show Remington Steele, on NBC. The actor had been on the inside of the James Bond universe as early as 1981 when his first wife Cassandra Harris was cast in the film. Brosnan and Broccoli hit it off on set, and the role was deemed his (according to Broccoli), if and when Moore retired.
In 1986, with Moore’s departure after A View To A Kill, it seemed that the stars had aligned when NBC canceled Remington Steele, and Brosnan was offered the role. This wound up backfiring for all parties involved, as his casting made people flock to the NBC show, which drove up ratings.
Remington Steele was renewed, and Brosnan would not be let out (or loaned out) of his NBC contract. With Brosnan “stuck” at NBC and locked into fulfilling his obligations, the role was offered to his friend, Timothy Dalton. Dalton subsequently made The Living Daylights (1986) and License To Kill (1989).
Legal battles ensued after Dalton’s second outing, sending the franchise into chaos and uncertainty. In the early ’90s, Bond movies were being stripped off of cable channels because of the ongoing licensing and distribution legal battles. That’s what made what happened on November 17, 1995, in North America, all the more incredible.
New Faces
The above trailer meant a lot for movie lovers and Bond nuts over 25 years ago. It’s a well-made trailer. Also, it pushed the novel idea that the world was changing but that we could still count on James Bond. It had been over six long years since the last James Bond film. People were excited.
With a budget that was set at $60 million and a franchise that had been dormant for more than half a decade, the studio needed to hit a home run, or else it faced the possibility that James Bond just may go away forever.
As a sign of the changing times, the formidable Dame Judi Dench was cast as M – the head of MI6. She was replacing a string of men who had previously portrayed the character; most recently Robert Brown, who had played M in the previous five films.
Both Alan Rickman and Anthony Hopkins were considered for the role of Augustus Trevelyan. The character was later changed to “Alec” or “006” and portrayed by Sean Bean. Bean is chewing up the dialogue throughout GoldenEye. Alec is Bond’s comrade-in-arms during a mission to blow up a chemical weapons facility in the Soviet Union. It’s here where things go wrong.
Further Analysis
While many will say that GoldenEye is a top-five Bond movie, what’s even more important is what the movie meant to the franchise. Brosnan, back in 1986, was still too young, baby-faced, and skinny. The extra 6-7 years were crucial to his portrayal. He’s grizzled just enough that he plays this version of Bond as a bit edgier and more masculine than Roger Moore.
Brosnan is still incredibly pretty, and can easily pull off the tongue-in-cheek routine. It helps that it looks like he gained about 20 pounds for the role and was in solid physical shape. Famke Janssen’s portrayal of “Xenia Onatopp,” the customary baddie with a funny name, is fantastic. She’s stunning in this movie, and like Bean, is dialing it up to eleven.
The rest of the solid cast is rounded out by love interest Isabella Scorupco, Alan Cumming, and the legendary Desmond Llewelyn as “Q.” Joe Don Baker also chews up the scenery as CIA buddy “Jack Wade.” Samantha Bond, Robbie Coltrane, and Minnie Driver, among others, co-star.
Michael France (Cliffhanger), Jeffrey Caine (The Constant Gardener), and Kevin Wade, all worked on perfecting a script. One that would be the first James Bond film to take place after the fall of the Soviet Union, the collapse of the Berlin Wall, and the end of the Cold War.
Filming
Principal photography on Goldeneye would commence in January 1995 in England, Monte Carlo, and the Contra Dam in Switzerland for the iconic pre-credit bungee jump). Additional filming also took place in St. Petersburg and Puerto Rico. Also returning was the Aston Martin DB5; the classic Bond car that first appeared in Dr. No and had not been seen since 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
Brosnan, a veteran stage actor who had studied at the Drama Centre London has stated repeatedly of portraying Bond, that he wanted to:
“…peel back the layers…find a chink in Bond’s armor.”
The actor partially achieves that in GoldenEye. The humanization of Bond certainly takes a huge step forward in this film, as we find out for the first time that James Bond is an orphan. There is also constant wordplay throughout the movie as to what makes Bond tick.
What was so refreshing about GoldenEye was that the writing confronted Bond’s irrelevancy head-on. Further, it used it to its advantage. Bond’s old-school behavior is used to drive the plot forward throughout the film, and it’s brilliant. At one point, Dench’s M refers to Bond as a relic. Further stating:
“You don’t like me, Bond. You don’t like my methods. You think I’m an accountant, a bean counter more interested in my numbers than your instincts…Good, because I think you’re a sexist, misogynist dinosaur.”
More Human
While the film humanizes James Bond a bit and creates a more PC female lead in Scorupco’s “Natalya Simonova,” GoldenEye never takes itself too seriously. That can be easily evidenced by Famke Janssen’s character, whose evil superpower is crushing men to their deaths between her thighs. Also, the stunt work in this movie is phenomenal.
Brosnan’s performance as the iconic super spy is solid. It’s somewhere between the ruggedness of Sean Connery and the suaveness of Roger Moore, and that’s a good place to be. Audiences immediately loved this latest iteration of James Bond and flocked to the theaters in droves.
GoldenEye was a smash hit at the box office. The film grossed almost $360,000,000 worldwide and cemented Pierce Brosnan as the new and improved James Bond for the 1990s. He would stay in that role for an additional three movies. In early 2004, Broccoli and Wilson told Brosnan, via a phone conference, that his services were no longer required. Pierce Brosnan, in a 2004 interview with the Toronto Star would reflect on his ousting as the famed superspy:
“They (the producers) invited me back right before I went to present that film (Die Another Day), before I went on the road with Halle Berry to sell the movie. They said: ‘We’re so happy with the success. We want you to come back!’ I went on the road a happy man, you know? I thought we’d get a fifth and no more. That would be it, really…And then one day the phone rang— I was here in the Bahamas —and my agents told me that the goalposts had moved and that they had changed their minds.”
Conclusion
GoldenEye would also be the first Bond film that wasn’t produced by Albert Broccoli, who was in failing health. However, Broccoli would get to see the finished film. He also would be able to briefly enjoy the renaissance of the Bond franchise that he had started back in 1962. Broccoli would pass away in June 1996.
GoldenEye was a success in so many different ways. On top of the box office that it grossed (the highest-earning Bond film since Moonraker), it put the franchise back on track for the next twenty-five years. Almost every Bond film following GoldenEye has equaled or outperformed the one before it financially. That’s astonishing.
It’s not a coincidence that when Brosnan stepped down, and James Bond was rebooted with Daniel Craig, GoldenEye director Martin Campbell was the man that Eon Productions called on to take the helm. GoldenEye brilliantly reintroduced James Bond to a new world, and over 25 years later, it still holds up. The future was looking bright for 007.
