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ANALYSIS OF GOLDENEYE AND THE FUTURE OF BOND PAGE 3 of 3 |
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IV. THE SOUNDTRACK 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" 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 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 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 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!
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