A complex plot of intrigue and subterfuge wrapped together with the goal of world domination, in short and average day in the office for James Bond.
Many would argue that the classic James Bond film is itself a parody of the spy genre. Whereas traditional spy films are slower paced rather than the fast, gripping action of James Bond. Original spy films reflect real life and are gritty and more realistic. Bond films stretch reality and give a more extreme view, the one that a ten year old would see when he tells his parents he wants to be a spy.He would have in his mind a world of farfetched gadgets, invisible cars, submarines and lasers amongst others.
If Bond films satisfy this view of the spy at work, Austin Power's takes it to the extreme. Bond has knack of tempting fate, surviving fatal situations, which would take all nine lives from a cat. Once he's survived the impossible he pops up looking like he's just come out of the tailors at Saville Row. Tie perfect, bloodless, shirt crisp and white and hair gelled to Hollywood perfection. This cannot be said about Austin Powers, the hapless hero of Goldmember.He gets beaten up by his foes and comes out of each traumatic experience looking as if he's just hit the town on a Saturday night.
His clothes, unlike Bond's, are dishevelled and there is always something dangling off his glasses, or caught onto a part of one of his multicoloured suits. To add to Bond's God like attributes is his seeming immortality. The evil villain will leave Bond in a sticky situation expecting him to die, whilst laughing in an evil manner, stroking the obligatory fluffy white cat and drinking a bottle of his favourite vintage champagne he explains 'I don't expect you to talk Mr Bond, I expect you to die. ..
. But of course it is never too sticky for the immortal Mr Bond.Whilst Austin Powers is able to escape from his evil nemesis, namely Dr Evil, he never does it the glamorous way Bond manages to. Whenever he escapes from one of Dr Evil's lairs, for there always has to be a lair in any self-respecting spy film, Power's always seems to blow it up in a spectacular manner, along with the plan for world domination attached to it. 'Martini, shaken not stirred' is a sophisticated and refined saying frequently uttered by Bond, this just adds to his suave and charming ways, which he uses to win over all the glamorous girls.
Even in the face of danger, he never lets his charm slip, making him totally irresistible to all the ladies. This is much more impressive than 'oh behave', the supposedly suave but actually corny saying of Austin Powers. However in true spy film tradition this corniness never seems to hinder the distinctly original style of Mr Power's to also get the girl. Accompanying Bond's suave attitude is an equally impressive list of his achievements. He speaks as many languages as free translate. com and he has as many talents as a Swiss army knife does tools.
He's a well-rounded sportsman, he skis, fences, surfs... ell there are so many talents that you would have to cut down a rainforest to get enough paper to mention them all. Bond also has an exquisite taste for the finer things in life, 'I prefer Dom Perignon 65 myself'.
Spending thousands of pounds on wine and champagne is as common for him as crashing the latest Aston Martin. Bond's spending and lavish accessories are tasteful within the world of the rich and famous. Austin Powers' accessories are anything but subtle. His choice of car is no less patriotic than Mr Bond's Aston Martin but the Jaguar painted with a Union Jack on it, and it's number plate of 'shaguar' is distinctly less subtle.
These are far from subtle, but very 'austin-tatious'. As poised and polished as Bond is to the slightly bumbling and dishevelled style of Austin Powers, so the films production style plays on this contrast between the films. Bond films are as smooth as a knife through butter, with seamless special effects and computer-generated images, to go alongside top-notch production qualities.To top it all off, the explosions, crashes and bangs within Bond films are so realistic you feel you are really in the thick of the action. Goldmember like the other Austin Powers movies pride themselves on low budget effects. Hence exposing the behind the scene view of 'Fat Bastards wire fighting manoeuvre'.
Firstly you can see all the wires attached to Fat Bastards not insubstantial body and in addition all the people holding the wires are in silhouette behind a screen. Once more the values of the Bond movies are the opposite to those of Austin Powers, increasing the sense of satire.It is not just in production values that Austin Powers seeks to mimic the Bond approach. Austin Powers, throughout all three films has mocked James Bond's productions.
This can range from cars to cats and from body features to strange suit styles. One of the main connections can be made between Dr Evil and Ernst Stavre Blofeld, the two main evil protagonists who feature in many Bond and Powers movies. They are both bald, have a bulging vein sticking out of the side of their heads and are often both accompanied by fiendish feline friends.In Bond, Blofeld's cat is a fluffy Persian; we can see in contrast however, that Dr Evil's cat Mr Bigglesworth is a hairless sphinx, which unfortunately lost his hair whilst being defrosted. This satirises Bond films in two ways, one that the main villains are almost identical in the way they look and their plans for world domination, but secondly that Dr Evil's cat is a mockery of Blofeld's cat.
Even the way that they both stroke them is a parody itself along with the obvious difference between the two cats this simply adds to the comical humour of the whole situation.But it doesn't stop at cats, there is also a very strange style link between Dr Evil and the person who he adopted his name from, Dr No. They both wear Nehru jackets. Finally an evil villain is not complete without a strange physical impairment. Bond's nemesis Scaramanga has three nipples; Dr Evil has three testicles! The above two examples show that the producers of Austin Powers have even included minute details in their film to maximise the over all effect of the parody on James Bond.The final link with Dr Evil is that one his greatest desires in life is to have 'frickin' sharks, with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads'.
This was clearly an aspiration for other Bond villain's because in 'The Man With The Golden Gun' and 'Goldfinger' the villains also use sharks to get rid of their unwanted foes. If every Spy hero needs an evil villain then every evil villain must have a loyal henchman. So Dr Evil's henchman, Mini-Me is an exact replica of Scaramanga's henchmen, Nick Knack, except that Mini-Me actually looks like Dr Evil.Frau Farbissima, Dr Evil's henchwoman is identical to Rosa Klebb, Blofeld's henchwoman, in every respect, from their dress sense, to the way they laugh. Dr Evil's henchman in the first film, Random Task was a copy of Oddjob, Goldfinger's henchman.
Being a Korean ex-wrestler, he is identical to Oddjob; apart from he throws his shoes instead of a bowler hat with a steel rim. The final parody between the films is the fact that Goldfinger kills his victims by painting them head to foot with gold paint.Goldmember doesn't do that but he paints his victims 'meat and two veg' gold. As mentioned before James Bond is a parody itself of traditional spy films, without them Bond films would not be so enjoyable.
Goldmember works as a film in its own right but because it satirises James Bond films the comic effect is increased. Many of the jokes would not be funny if the viewers where not familiar with James Bond. Does this make Goldmember a satire of the whole spy genre, probably not. Does it make it a satire of the James Bond genre, yes it does.
