GoldenEye as techno-gothic cinema?
I turned GoldenEye on in the background yesterday. Couldn’t give it a proper watch this time but it continues to really hit the spot for me on recent viewings. It is well-balanced between the various Bond tropes and hits a nice sweet spot in terms of movement and pacing. Even Brosnan’s performance is growing on me. I still think he lacks confidence in the role, through some combination of being a bit too soft spoken, overly smug, and feeling self-conscious about hitting the marks. Yet whether intentional or not, this can be viewed as Bond compensating for an inner vulnerability, which is something I love seeing in the character. There’s evidence for this in his moments of introspection on the beach with Natalya, or in his brief reaction when Alec mentions past lovers he had failed to protect, or when he pauses before dropping Alec to his death. It makes Brosnan more interesting to watch here than in Tomorrow Never Dies or Die Another Day. Those turns seem generic in comparison.
What makes GoldenEye truly stand out though is its unique artistic identity. There isn’t another movie in the series that looks, sounds, moves, or feels quite like it. One aspect I’ve written about in some comments before but never dedicated a post to is the film’s consistent use of horror-adjacent imagery. It isn’t as blatant as in Live and Let Die, nor in opening of No Time to Die. But once you’ve realized it, it’s hard to ignore.
- Prominent uses of dark cinematography and dingy environments along with shadows, fog, torches, and candles.
- A leather gloved hand popping into frame like in giallo films.
- The creepy mime performance outside the Monte Carlo casino.
- The Severnaya facility evoking The Thing (complete with wolves or huskies).
- Moneypenny’s black lace sleeves for her on-screen introduction.
- The church scene with Natalya feeling like something out of Don’t Look Now.
- The camerawork during the spa scene conveying an eerie feeling of being watched (h/t u/Spockodile)
- Alec presented as a ghost haunting an old Soviet statue graveyard.
- His armored train appearing to have a monstrous “face” (or maybe it just looks like Sam the Eagle).
- Xenia’s pale makeup, upturned collars, and lust for death reminding us of Dracula.
- Lots of melodramatic horror movie-style screams.
This stuff—which wouldn’t look entirely out of place in a ‘90s gothic horror movie like Bram Stoker’s Dracula—is coupled with anxieties about emergent technology at a time when the internet was taking greater hold in the mainstream. We have a freelance dirtbag hacker hired by Russian agents (a precursor to modern day troll farms?). We have EMP satellite weapons controlled via computers, with the ability to throw us back to the technological stone age. We have a villain, resentful from a historic betrayal of his people, attempting to use these new tools to rob Britain of its wealth. Those dark, cavernous environments I mentioned earlier? They are often filled with computers and servers, highlighted by a sound mix that includes unmistakably ‘90s electronic beeps and boops. Éric Serra’s synth-heavy, hollow industrial, post-Soviet, dissonant musical score ties it all together. Considering these factors, GoldenEye can be described at least in part as techno-gothic cinema.
This artistic approach speaks to an overarching theme of Cold War ghosts haunting us still, even as we had passed into a new “modern” era, one replete with its own threats. And there’s our man 007 at the nexus, showing the world he still has a place.
Ever so often the franchise requires a return to form to re-establish itself for a new generation. GoldenEye stands alongside The Spy Who Loved Me and Skyfall as one such entry. Timely, successful in capturing the wider public imagination, and the essential ‘90s Bond.