AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Bergorks If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Leofwine_draca Made the year following Roger Moore's incredible success with his first appearance as James Bond in LIVE AND LET DIE, GOLD is in many respects a wannabe Bond film. From the cheesy (and, incredibly, Oscar-nominated at the time) and utterly dated score by Elmer Bernstein, to the stylised titles by Bond veteran Maurice Binder and the behind-the-camera direction from ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE Peter Hunt you can feel the influence of the Bond films throughout. Even Roger Moore plays a Bond-style hero, completely courageous and with a stiff upper lip of course, who spends much of the film's time bedding his boss's wife – who is played by Susannah York.The film opens and closes with two riveting scenes set inside a gold mine, where cave-ins, explosions, floods, and amputated limbs are commonplace. Although the mine locations are clearly sets, they're altogether realistic and have a really claustrophobic atmosphere. Throw in some racist South African workers abusing the blacks and you have a very volatile and gritty atmosphere. In particular the climax, a race against time in a flooding mine, is edge-of-the-seat stuff, and Hunt doesn't hold back on the horrifying accidents that were commonplace in mines: one poor worker has his face torn off while Roger Moore suffers the most painful injury of his screen career.Unfortunately, the rest of the film – all of the scenes set above ground, in fact – is unbelievably dull. Things slow down to a snail's pace as Moore engages in a long-winded romance with the singularly unappealing Susannah York. There's some conspiracy involving the world's stock markets and increasing the price of gold, but it's all very mundane and aside from a decent battle between man and car at the film's climax, there isn't a shred of action to enjoy. Indeed the filmmakers come very close to making Moore's hero repulsive, as he ends up cavorting in a lake with York while the men under his command are being killed in the flooded mine.GOLD is based on a novel by Wilbur Smith, who also co-wrote the screenplay. As you'd expect from this master author, the locations and technicalities are all authentic, although I could have done without the padded travelogue footage of the South African locations. Ultimately the whole film just feels like a lacklustre Bond flick with nothing happening in the middle – and with a two hour running time, you'll really feel the boredom. The film just concentrates on having stars in throwaway parts, like John Gielgud's corrupt financier who has about five minutes of screen time. Bradford Dillman just stands around as the villain, leaving it to Tony Beckley to be imposing, while at least Ray Milland has fun as the gruff, shouty mine owner. Simon Sabela particularly shines as King, a courageous worker who wins a solid gold helmet for his heroism! Aside from the mine sequences, GOLD is a real bore; perhaps FOOL'S GOLD would have been a better title.

drystyx When I saw this film was 2 hours long, I thought "well, obviously going to be plodding and in need of edits".An action film about a mine disaster due to corporate greed? No way you can make two hours of excitement out of that, without weighing down the story with too much political gibberish that no one understands.However, this film flowed very well, and I'm attention deficit, so that is quite amazing.There's a lot to this film. Mostly, it is cleverly directed. Even when there is no action, we get a sense of animation, or of wit, or suspense.Each actor probably thought it was "his" film. You could tell that most of them had a blast, especially the bad guys.Beckley had to believe it was his film. The bad guys are all deliciously evil, and Beckley gets to play the most deliciously evil of them. We know what he's going to be like, and he gives a great show.In that, the bad guys aren't what you would call the multi-dimensional types, but more the "James Bond" types, played to the hilt.Which brings up the next matter. Is Moore playing James Bond here? There are obvious similarities, the womanizing, the wit, the independence, the charisma, the good heart under a tough skin.But there are also differences. As "Slater", Moore isn't a Superman like Bond. He doesn't kill people. He only beats one guy up, not the usual three at a time that Bond would.There's a more realistic human in "Slater", not that Bond is unreal in character, but he is in his godlike abilities. Slater has the multiple dimensions of Bond, but also is more like a regular guy, although he is as wealthy as James Bond, with thousands of dollars meaning nothing to him.Then there's the girl. Susanah York is cleverly done. Either by acting talent or by make up, she achieves the "change" described in her character. When we first see her, she is plain and insignificant. However, as her father, played by Ray Milland, notices, she becomes a newer, prettier creature after meeting "Slater".That's important to the story. We now believe the whirlwind romance, as she has been married to a cold calculating Bradford Dillman, usually an "Everyman", and here his "Everyman" look is geared towards a sinister side.There is great drama, great theatrics, and great scenery to help us along the way. This is one of the quickest two hours you will ever see. Bravo.

bkoganbing With a plot partially lifted from The Towering Inferno, Gold is a man made disaster of a film in every sense of the word.Ray Milland is the hard as nails South African gold mine magnate, Harry Hirschfeld. He's done something to get the gold traders mad at him because they're planning to do him dirt. John Gielgud is head a gold buying syndicate and he's planning with the connivance of Bradford Dillman who is Milland's grandson-in-law, to blow a hole in the Sonderditch mine that Milland owns, letting in the ocean and flooding the mine. The price of gold will go up because of the sudden shortage. The fact that a thousand men might be killed is of little importance to Gielgud and company.Nor is it to Dillman who's found out that his wife Susannah York has been cheating on him with Roger Moore the new mine general manager.The film is a sanctioned glimpse at the former Union of South Africa as the old apartheid government would like to show you. The mining sequences are quite well done and I wish that they had stuck to a simple disaster film instead throwing in the romance.In fact Roger Moore, intrepid hero that he is, looks ridiculous because when the ocean flood starts, he's out having a romp with Susannah York. Instead of applauding him for his eventual heroism, Milland should have had him canned and banned from the industry. Unless you like Roger Moore, I'd give iron pyrites a pass.

nrobertb This is not a great film, but it has its moments. In 1974 probably not too many people knew much about South Africa and the gold mining process, so for that reason it was educational. The mine sequences are interesting although undoubtedly filmed on a studio set. For me the most interesting action sequence though is when the hero is trying to land a plane on a tailings pile at a speed low enough to almost stall out. Most interesting of all, thirty years ago it was almost unheard of to see frontal nudity in a major film. When Susannah York's breast appeared out of the suds in the bathtub scene, my jaw dropped open. I couldn't believe I was really seeing it. For sheer surprise it ranks right up there with Charlton Heston kissing a black woman in that science fiction film that I think was called The Omega Man. Today of course such things are commonplace.