One guy is leading a bunch of weird guys. They are hunting monsters. The leader says:
I'd be surprised if either one of them could dream up gold-plated
Commandos.
The leader is talking about James Whale and Tod Browning.
I know that gold-plated means covered with a thin layer of gold, but I do not know exactly he means by saying gold-plated Commandos.
If the definition of commando is
a member of a military assault unit or team trained to
operate quickly and aggressively in especially urgent, threatening
situations, as against terrorists holding hostages.
then I think gold-plated commandos do not have a pejorative meaning. Am I right?
Best Answer
I think we kinda need better context to be more sane (as in, I'd like to see the panel/text where the quote comes from), but gold-plating and gold-plated I've seen used mainly as pejorative terms when applied to anything that's not supposed to be gold plated. Like a commando. Gold plating such an object would be an addition/augmentation that has pretty much nothing to do with what that object is for, but that would increase cost noticeably and therefore be kind of absurd (or wasteful, depending on your perspective).
Here's where context kicks in, and can lead me in a few directions:
If there are actual gold plated commandos (or say, commandos with an excess of guns to the point of absurdity, being led by a five-headed goldfish) being hunted and it's a bit unexpected?
Alternatively, if they're on a march and just talking, comparing their real-life jobs to a monster movie
This is a bit more of a stretch, but without seeing what's wrapped around the line, it's a bit hard to do much than guess.
Neither of those however, is positive, so as a roundabout way of getting back to it - I'd bet that yes, the term 'gold plated commandos' would be intended as a pejorative in some fashion. As to exactly what fashion, that's a bit harder...