For England, James

Goldeneye came at a unique moment in the history of the Bond franchise. Six years had gone by since Timothy Dalton's last film, Licence to Kill, and the intervening time had been taken up with rights disputes and studio troubles. Timothy Dalton's contract expired. He decided against extending it, and once again the part was open. In the wider world, geopolitics had changed. The Soviet Union was no more, and the question on everyone's lips was, "What would James Bond do in the new world order?" (Never mind that the Soviet Union had only been the antagonist in a few of the James Bond pictures.) And also, after five of John Glen's grittier films, there was more of an appetite for fast cars, luxurious settings, and gadgets.

Enter Pierce Brosnan.

Brosnan's 007 differed from Dalton's in that Brosnan's Bond was more obviously a sensualist. When Xenia Onatopp (quite the sensualist herself, in a psychopathic sort of way) says "Enjoy it while it lasts." Bond replies, "The very words I live by." Brosnan's Bond doesn't expect to have a long life, so he aims to have a fun one. He in is his job mostly for the thrill of it, and though he's got good instincts and can think on his feet, planning isn't always his strong suit (though he is, like all Bonds, a gifted detective). It's no wonder that when Brosnan started in the role, both Qs took to saying "Grow up, 007."

Brosnan also played Bond with a self-awareness that his fellow actors didn't foreground. Sean Connery Bond wore a nearly impenetrable mask. During Roger Moore's tenure, we saw flashes of his grief for the dead Tracy Bond in The Spy Who Loved Me and For Your Eyes Only, but he quickly hid those away without inviting further discussion. Dalton exposed a little more, but it was left to Brosnan to respond to the question "How can you be so cold?" with "It's what keeps me alive." It's hard to imagine any other Bond responding that way. The others would have either ignored the question or deflected it.

The film boasts one of the strongest supporting casts assembled for a Bond film. Famke Janssen plays Xenia Onatopp as a kind of dark shadow of James Bond. She also loves fast cars, baccarat, and hot, steamy lovemaking. Of course, she also likes to kill her lovers during the act. Her character, and her confrontations with 007, fulfill a promise that Grace Jones failed to deliver on with her character in A View to A Kill. This is also Dame Judi Dench's first time out as "M", and though her character's personality is very different from that of Bernard Lee's "M", it's no less effective. Sean Bean--who was, like fellow villains Julian Glover and Michael Billington, nearly Bond himself--turns in a great performance as the traitorous 006, Alec Trevelyan. Bean, like Sam Neill, has a gift for appearing feral and cultured at the same time, and it serves him well here. Izabella Scorupco does well as Bond's love interest and willing assistant, while the always excellent Robbie Coltrane and Alan Cumming do their always excellent jobs. How can you lose when you have lines like "Walther PPK. Only three men I know have used this kind of gun. I believe I've killed two of them"?

The cast isn't wasted in a film that has just about everything a human being could ask for in a Bond picture--secret lairs, Tina Turner's performing the theme song, conspicuous consumption, Russian mobsters, missile trains, a scene where Bond chases the bad guys through the St. Petersburg traffic in a Russian tank, a nightime confrontation in a graveyard for Communist-era statuary, and a battle on a giant radio antenna that rises out of a lake. The cinematography is gorgeous, reminding me of both Guy Hamilton's and Lewis Gilbert's Bond adventures. The look of the film is lush, sensuous, as if to match Brosnan's take on the character.

It also should be noted, with all the talk of a Casino Royale relaunch of the franchise, that Goldeneye was also a relaunch. The opening sequence of the film is set nine years before the rest of the action, indicating that we're getting an early look at Bond's career in the service (and also, perhaps uncomfortably for Timothy Dalton, wiping out his tenure). We have a new "M", a new Moneypenny, and a new Bill Tanner (of course, we only saw the old one once, subbing for "M" in For Your Eyes Only). Only Q remains. (How I wish he were still here). Unlike previous transitions, there was no attempt to place Brosnan's character within the timeline of the earlier films. This was necessary. Lazenby, Connery, and Moore were close enough in age to maintain a rough timeline, but starting with Dalton it became a pointless exercise to try.

Doubters of Bond's relevance to the post-cold war world notwithstanding, Goldeneye pulled in $350 million in box office in 1995, making it the most successful Bond film since Moonraker and, before inflation adjustment, very likely the series' biggest moneymaker to that time. (Brosnan's other films matched the figure, and Die Another Day bested it in 2002 by $100 million).

Well, it's been quite a tour, over 40 years of Bond history. I guess if there's an overriding theme here, it is just how hard it is to manage these transitions from one 007 to another. The audience's expectations of the character and the franchise are a harsh mistress. (If it's any comfort to Daniel Craig, Ian Fleming probably would have started seanconneryisnotbond.com had there been an internet in 1961. It was only after Fleming saw Connery playing the role that he changed his mind.) Everyone has a favorite Bond, and in a sense there's no way for a new actor to measure up. Success comes when the actor makes the character his, letting the audience know that the tux isn't rented, it's owned, and tailor made.