ANALYSIS OF GOLDENEYE AND THE FUTURE OF BOND PAGE 3 of 3
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Previous page IV. THE SOUNDTRACK Auuggh! The most frustrating part of the film! What did Eric Serra think he was doing? He has created a disaster! The Bond theme has been so convoluted and screwed up in this film that it's painful to listen to almost all of his instrumentations Track 10, "A Pleasant Drive in St. Petersburg", was to have been used during the tank scene in St. Petersburg – thank god it wasn't! The worst piece is Track 3, "Ladies First", which was used during the car chase scene right after the opening credits. His work is absolutely unappealing on this film! And I believe that any composer hired to score a major motion picture loses a lot of credibility when he writes and performs the final song himself. Who allowed him to do this? "GoldenEye" When I first heard Tina Turner sing the title song, it was on a lousy CD player that had no bass to speak of. After I heard it on a friend's Dolby Pro Logic system I fell in love with it! The more I listen to the song, the more I grow to love it! It is too bad that the song is not doing well on the charts; it deserves more acclaim than it is getting. The nice balance of strings emphazied with the trumpet blasts is a wonderful composition! Tina's voice is perfect for the piece and the song plays very well with the opening credits in the film. Bono and The Edge did a great job. This is the best title song since "A View to a Kill". See his reflection on the water... See him move through smoke and mirrors... Feel his presence in the crowd... ...with a GoldenEye! Sound The sound throughout film was not satisfying. It may have been that the theatre I was in did not have good sound. In the opening sequence, after Bond knocks out the Russian sitting on the can, he bursts through a door and swivels in several directions, looking for danger. The sound at this point was very low and weak when it should have been at least twice as loud and stronger. From this point on I knew that I was not going to enjoy the film completely. For me, a large part of the film-going process is the sound involved. The right music/sound at the right time can make a scene more memorable and pleasurable. John Williams has the perfect nack for this; Eric Serra does not. V. THE FUTURE OF BOND Throughout the film I got the impression that Bond has just walked out of the 80s, with his views and mannerisms the same. Everywhere he turns and with everyone he meets, he seems to confront the 90s head on. M, Q, Miss Moneypenny, the Russian mobster played by Robbie Coltrane, and Trevelyan all ask Bond if he is ready to move into the 90s. The answer? Yes, with reservations. Bond is still relevant in the 90s. He can still be used by the British government to stop the dangerous schemes of megalomaniacs. The world has been and always will be full of danger. We need a better script than GoldenEye, something that fans can sink their teeth into, that will have us talking for weeks after seeing the film. I don't think all of the creative ideas in film-making have been used up yet; there are a lot of very creative writers out there (Robert Ludlum?). We need to see more growth of both Bond and Brosnan. I expect Brosnan to grasp Bond in his own way. The question is when. Connery and Moore both got comfortable in their ways in their third film (and I believe that if Dalton had done one more in '91, things may not have gone bad for him). If the producers follow the usual two-year pace, we may have to wait until 1999 till we are satisfied. Can you wait that long? JAMES BOND shall return! If you have any questions or comments about my anaylsis, or this site in general, please don't hesistate to email me at shrine06@nuvs.com or use the Comments Form. Thanks! RETURN TO THE GOLDENEYE PAGE CONTINUE TO COMMENTS PAGE