Goldmember seems to replicate the great moments of Goldfinger, but manages to turn them into hilarious and well thought out jokes. If you’ve seen Goldfinger it’ll make Goldmember ten times more enjoyable as you can see where they have take bits from the original and turned them into moments of comic genius.
Perhaps one of the most obvious bits of the film that make a mockery of Goldfinger is Powers himself; a complete opposite to Bond. Bond is the cool, charming gentleman with sharp wit and an even sharper power of seduction. He blends in with the crowd and never makes it obvious what he’s doing. Always seen in a suit, Bond never seems to reveal what his plans are, and his sleek yet stealthy DB5 finishes this disguise.
Powers is the loud, ostentatious and joking spy. Dressed in his purple velvet he’s always more interested in the ladies than in his job. He stands out in the crowd and with his Union Jack adorned Jaguar, affectionately called the Shaguar, makes himself known wherever he is. His relaxed attitude is completely the opposite of Bond’s serious attitude. This is the most obvious part of Goldmember which clearly satirises the Spy genre.
However they are both spies from the 1960s and both share similar attitudes to women; as sexual objects. You can tell because they both use women to get to the antagonist; Austin seduces Foxy while James seduces Pussy.
In Goldfinger the plot is packed with small puns, but they never seem cheesy or obvious and it takes some detailed watching of the film to catch these out. Goldmember is packed with puns such as when Austin says that, ‘He doesn’t use gadgets…outside the bedroom’. They are always made obvious by a ‘Ah thank you’ by Austin. Goldmember takes the underlying wit of Goldfinger and makes it obvious and funny. Most spy films revolve around the discreet jokes but Goldmember does the opposite.
Goldmember is instantly recognisable as a film that isn’t supposed to be taken serious when the obese Fat Bastard asks if his, ‘Wire team is ready.’ This exposes the special effects which would usually try and be hidden in any other film. This is very obvious and very funny, and yet it trivialises the spy genre very well as usually in a top class spy film you wouldn’t usually see the wire behind the set.
Goldmember is full of mockeries of Bond moments. An example is of Goldfinger’s slick demonstration of his plan to his cronies, which involves a revolving pool table and sliding floor. The demonstration of the plan in Goldmember involves a descending globe and a swinging meteor, which doesn’t go to plan. Another side-splitting moment is the car chase; an always spectacular scene is reduced to a small procession of electric powered one-seater three-wheeled vehicles. It’s these slick notions to Goldfinger that makes Goldmember a quality work. Although Goldfinger is probably better as a film you can’t surpass Goldmember on laughs.
Moments of hilarity occur frequently in Goldmember; such as when Nigel Powers is strapped to a machine with molten gold heading towards him – this is clearly a spoof of the scene when 007 is strapped to the table with a laser coming towards him. In Goldmember Nigel Powers still has time to flirt with Foxy Cleopatra before he is rescued, therefore trivialising what otherwise would be a serious scene.
There are countless more ways in which Goldmember satirises Goldfinger, such as the role of mini – me as a henchman for Dr. Evil compared to the hulking figure of Oddjob; and the mockery of Goldfinger’s lush private plane is hilarious as Dr. Evil gets about in his exclusive Submarine, powered by little kicking feet and there are no prizes for guessing where the tractor beam comes out.
On the submarine it also highlights the seemingly invincible protagonist when Nigel Powers – instead of beating up the ‘anonymous henchmen’- explains how he would defeat them and what the henchmen should do to avoid this. This is very clearly a joke on the invincible Bond and his always victorious skirmishes over the henchmen. It would take to long to name all the comparisons between the two films but rest assured, all of them are excellently planned with side-splitting consequences.
Countless references to popular media pop up in Goldmember making it more relevant to today than Goldfinger, which of course it would seeing as Goldmember is much more modern. There are references to Pepsi, Silence of the Lambs, and Convoy all of which seem to fit in well with the Austin Power’s genre and don’t seem forced or out of place.
What really takes the cake for me and what really proves that Goldmember does satirise the Spy genre is the sharks with ‘frickin’ laser beams on their frickin’ heads’ as Dr. Evil says; which is of course compared to the laser beam in Goldfinger that is used for an altogether more serious use. The sharks satirise the ever present way of disposing of the enemies of Bond villains. This really proves what Goldmember set out to be and proves how successful it can be.
What makes Goldmember an excellent spoof of Goldfinger is the mockery of iconic moments in Goldfinger, such as the car chase, which is very obvious but very funny. What I also find funny is the numerous puns that seem to fit in well with the Goldmember story, such as the spoof on the subtitles using a clever set to make it seem as though the host is being rather rude. This would never happen in a serious film but yet it just adds to the drama by playing on something you usually just accept is there and never take a second glance at it.
In my opinion Goldfinger and Goldmember can’t really be ranked in the same way as they both aim to do different things. Goldmember isn’t designed to be a really serious sequel to Goldfinger but a tongue-in cheek poke at the spy genre. However Goldmember has achieved what it set out to do; make a mockery of the classic spy films. The best thing about Goldmember is you can draw many comparisons of things that happened in Goldfinger as well as in Goldmember; and although Goldmember covers it in a hilarious way it still has some parallels. They are very different films but both films achieve their aims.
GCSE Media Coursework
“Write a magazine article comparing Goldmember to Goldfinger and how it satirises the film genre”
1,442 words