Customer Reviews

Goldfinger (Bloomsbury Movie Guides, No. 2)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Having used the Bond films, especially Goldfinger, in the classroom and written articles about 007 I was sadly let down by this book. While it begins with a very clever parody of a James Bond type story and contains many interesting interviews, there are many glaring errors. Sean Connery does not dislike having done this work, at least not as much as is implied, and some of his closest friends are associated with the Bond films he starred in. The information on Ian Fleming relied too much on John Pearson while seeming to ignore other biographers. There were some errors that made you suspect that the author has never seen the movies he talked about. For example, in covering the two Flint movies Lee J. Cobb is identified as the arch villain rather than the equivalent of M to Derek Flint. (It is a shame that master novelist John Gardner, who penned many Bond books, was not consulted as I have had this wonderful opportunity and learned more from him in ten minutes than from this book.) I have also met and talked with a couple of the stars of this film in the past so I do know something about it. New facts were brought out through the interviews so I am glad that I read the book. I do wish that the author had a better understanding of American culture and fandom as that may have eliminated some of the elitism that this reader senses. The book was a great idea, it will be a part of my Bond library, but not one that I will refer to very often. I really wish that it could have been better as I consider Goldfinger one of the great films of the 20th century.

This book has been exhaustively researched and it shows. This must have been a real labor of love for the author, Adrian Turner. This is the one film that really spawned the world of James Bond to the general public. It left an endearing quality on many of us and this book is a tribute to that whole unforgettable era.