‘GoldenEye’ is still golden

Marcus Falcão / THE GATEPOST

By Jesse Burchill Staff Writer This year marks the 30th anniversary of “GoldenEye,” the 17th movie in the James Bond franchise. It’s the first Bond film since 1989’s “License To Kill,” marks the first appearance of Pierce Brosnan as 007, and is considered to be one of the franchise’s best installments. “GoldenEye” is to some extent considered as having revitalized the James Bond franchise, reviving public interest and bringing a new face to the character. The story sees James Bond face off against the Russia-based Janus syndicate, which is planning to wield the GoldenEye satellite system to perform a terrorist attack on the city of London. Along the way, Bond discovers that the syndicate has a far more personal connection than he first thought. The movie begins in 1986 and sees Bond and fellow agent and close friend Alec Trevalyen sneaking into a Soviet chemical facility, only to be cornered by its leader Colonel Ourumov, who executes Alec. Only Bond manages to escape, with an epic motorcycle jump that leads into a flying airplane. The movie’s main plot begins in the present. Ourumov is now a general in post-Soviet Russia and MI6 suspects him as involved with the Janus crime syndicate. Bond is assigned to investigate, but the new M (Judi Dench) warns him to keep things strictly professional, and to not let Trevalyan’s death cloud his judgment. The following investigation leads Bond to discover Janus’s secret GoldenEye project, which involves the titular pair of satellites, and an electromagnetic attack on the Bank of London. Along the way, Bond discovers that Janus and its GoldenEye plot are run not by Ouromov, but by Alec Trevelyan, who survived the ’80s mission with facial scarring and is currently plotting a potentially devastating revenge mission against both MI6 and Bond himself. Trevelyan reveals to Bond that he’s held a long-simmering grudge against the British government for their treatment of the Lienz Cossacks, traitors to the Soviet Union, after they surrendered to Britain after the end of WWII. Britain sent them back to the Soviets, where many were executed. Trevelyan’s parents were among them, and he still remembers when his father murdered his mother and then killed himself in front of Alec to escape Stalin’s death squads - both a sympathetic backstory and a history lesson. To achieve his revenge on the Brits, Trevelyan is planning to empty out the Bank of London and fire the GoldenEye satellites’ EMP weapons upon England’s capital to cause global financial upheaval. Pierce Brosnan stars as an effortlessly cool 007, while also portraying his driven and aggressive side. Brosnan’s take on Bond retains the character’s status as a well-known flirt and womanizer, who is utterly loyal to his country and comrades and always maintains his professional edge and physical talent. Furthermore, it’s clear that Bond does indeed feel guilt for his mistakes whilst both on the job and off. When Trevelyan mocks a captive Bond in the third act for his numerous failures as both an agent and as a hopeless romantic, Brosnan succeeds in communicating how his former friend’s words sting without a single word, while jabbing back at the pettiness of Trevelyan’s plan for the Bank of London. Dame Judy Dench makes her debut as Bond’s boss M, a role she’ll play for the rest of Brosnan’s movies and into the Daniel Craig era. Dench has much less screen time in this movie than in her later appearances, but makes the most of her appearance with her quick wit and her authoritative presence. She isn’t afraid to call Bond out on his famous womanizing behavior, calling him “a sexist misogynistic dinosaur, a relic of the Cold War,” while also emphasizing that she still won’t send her agents out to die on a whim. Izabella Scorupco stars as resident “Bond Girl” Natalya Simonova. A computer programmer, Natalya is sympathetic, intelligent, and used to work for the GoldenEye project before Janus tries to cover its tracks by destroying the research station she works at. Surviving thanks to pure luck, Natalya knows much more than MI6 on the GoldenEye project, provides Bond with invaluable information on it, and aids in its defeat and rescues Bond in the end from the destruction of Trevelyan’s base. While there are still some awkward moments between them as seen by a modern-day lens, Bond and Natalya’s relationship is actually one of the healthier ones that 007 has had over the course of his eight-decades-long career on screen, especially when compared to “The Man With the Golden Gun,” “A View To A Kill,” and much of Sean Connnery’s era in the 1960s. Sean Bean features as main villain Alec Trevelyan, the true mastermind behind the Janus syndicate and the titular satellite plot. Bean perfectly encapsulates his character’s hate for Bond and MI6, and is eerily convincing as a criminal mastermind. It might be fairly obvious that Trevelyan turns out to be the big bad, even to first-time viewers. Regardless, Sean Bean leaves his mark as one of the franchise’s most recognizable villains - and easily the most famous from Brosnan’s era. Famke Janssen appears as Xenia Onatopp, a spectacular “femme fatale” character working for Janus, with a sadistic streak a mile wide and no remorse for the slew of terrible acts she commits. Onatopp gleefully takes part in the slaughter of Natalya’s coworkers, and has a reputation for murdering men she sleeps with via slow suffocation, even attempting to pull this act on Bond at one point. For those who know Janssen as Jean Grey from the “X-Men” movies, the role of Onatopp is a stark contrast in a way that makes Onatopp one of the scariest characters in the movie. Gottfried John appears as General Ouromov, a chilling military presence who’s willing to betray his own country for personal gain. He works as a good foil to Onatopp, given his more serious nature and apparent dislike of how much Onatopp enjoys committing murder. John’s performance is rooted in a sense of stoicism and a false sense of duty to Russia, and the ambiguity of Ouromov’s true motivations for working with Trevelyan grants the character a very interesting position in the film’s story. Alan Cumming appears as Boris Grilshenko, a Janus agent and computer programmer. Hilarious and full of himself, Grilshenko proves to be a truly unsettling character in a performance that’s far removed from Cumming’s more famous comedic roles. It’s hard to see the same actor who’d go on to play Nightcrawler in the second “X-Men” movie come 2004. “GoldenEye” is certainly a departure from the seriousness of Timothy Dalton’s duology and the humor of Roger Moore’s era, but still delivers on the action and adventure one would normally expect from a James Bond movie. For example, along his journey, Bond drives an actual, fully operational tank through the streets of Saint Petersburg to pursue General Ouromov and rescue Natalya, with hilarious collateral damage along the way. Toward the end, Bond and Trevelyan have one of the most acrophobia-inducing fights in the whole franchise. In the end, “GoldenEye” proves to be a highly entertaining spy movie. Pierce Brosnan truly delivers as 007, and his multilayered performance tells us why he’s remained as a fan favorite for the face of Bond.