Right time for a review as I have been off this blog for ages due to committing time to my tennis blog (commiserations to Andy Murray for losing his 4th Australian open final) so now I'm back I thought would do one on a James Bond movie. And this may be a slightly pecular choice as it may not always be regarded as a fan favourite but I've chosen it anyway and it will The man with the golden gun, which was Roger Moore's second Bond film released back in 1974. So let's give this a real look....
OK so a bit about the story as it begins with a golden bullet received by MI6 which has "007" etched on it and it was believed to be sent by a famous and mysterious assassin named Francisco Scaramanga (Christopher Lee) as a taunt to James Bond (Roger Moore). Bond then decides to go off and locate Scaramanga, without the permission of his superiors and he starts his travels and in a nightclub he spots a dancer, with a golden bullett in her belly button. Bond goes backstage afterward and allows himself to be seduced by the dancer but is suddenly attacked by thugs just as he kisses the dancer's stomach he swallows the bullet. Bond then fights off the men and leaves and afterward tracks the manufacturer of the bullet with the help of Q (Desmond Llewellyn) and he goes to Macau. Bond then follows Sacaramanga's mistress, Andrea Anders (Maude Adams) who is seen collecting bullets from a casino. Bond then follows Andrea to Hong Kong and to her hotel where he forces her to tell him about Scaramanga's plans and what he looks like (as he has never been seen) and Andrea tells Bond that his next hit will be at the Bottoms-up club. At the club Bond discovers that Scaramanga's next hit is Gibson, a scientist who holds valuable piece of technology called the "solar agitator". Scaramanga kills Gibson with one shot from his golden gun and his dwarf henchman, Nick Nack (Herve Villechaize) steal the solar agitator. Bond arrives on the scene but is suddenly arrested by Lt Hip (Soon-Tek Oh) who takes him to meet up with M (Bernard Lee) and Q onboard the wreck of the RMS Queen Elizabeth, where they have a secret office. At their meeting M orders Bond to retrieve the solex device and assassinate Scaramanga and from here Bond starts his dangerous journey to stop megalomaniacal Scaramanga.....
Whilst it isn't one of the strongest Bond films in the franchise, The man with the golden gun is still a very entertaining, albeit cheesy Bond film which features plenty of action, cheap laughs, adventure and fun to keep the viewer interested. Based on the original novel by Ian Fleming it was originally set to be filmed after You only live twice and to use Cambodia as the location for filming, however it was cancelled due to an uprising at that time over there. The film's script also mirrored the real life energy oil crisis of 1973 which greatly affected the UK and also the USA, which was covered with the theme of the solex agitator and how Scaramanga wished to steal the device so he could capture the power of solar energy for his own uses. The film also poked fun at martial arts films, especially given the success of Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon, which we see during the scene where Bond has to fight within a karate dojo.
Performance wise TMWTGG is a bit of a mixed bag it has to be said and whilst Roger Moore isn't the best actor in the world he does a fine job once again as James Bond as this was only his second film, he had already eased into the part of playing the suave, smooth yet deadly secret agent. Moore however felt at the time he wasn't entirely happy with the direction of where the character was going as in the film Moore is directed to play Bond a bit more like Sean Connery, as rough and tumble 007 who will slap women around if necessary to get information. And we see Moore do this in the scene where 007 pressues Andrea to tell him information about Scaramanga, which Moore was not comfortable filming.
Moore however does have quite a few highlights in the film and he get's plenty of a glib one-liners and double entendres. Some examples include the scene where Bond seduces (or allows himself to be seduced) by the belly dancer and he ends up accidentally swallowing her golden bullet just as the thugs attack him. And after the fight the dancer looks down at her belly button and screams "I've lost my charm!" and Bond says "Not from where I'm standing!". Another is the scene where Bond pressures Andrea to tell him where Scaramanga is and what he looks like and she tells him "he's not like other men he has three..." pointing to the area of the chest to indicate three nipples. And Bond says "funny anatomical titbit, but perhaps the most useless piece of information I've ever heard unless the Bottoms-up is a strip club and Scaramanga is performing there!". Then there is the scene where Bond threatens the bullet manufacturer, Lazar by aiming a rifle at his groin and he says "I am now aiming precisely at your groin. So speak now or forever hold your piece!". Another scene is where Bond meets with Hai Fat (Richard Loo) a wealthy Thai entrepeneur who is in cahoots with Scaramanga and he takes off his shirt as he prepares to go in for a dip with some girls in a pool within Fat's estate and he sees that Bond has a fake third nipple. And Bond after the meeting with Fat, leaves and say to Hip "He invited me to dinner. He must have found me quite titillating!" and he removes the fake nipple and throws it away. Then there is the scene where Bond is taken to a dojo in Fat's estate and he is forced to fight some of the dojo's students before he escapes and before leaving he bows his head and diving out of the window! And lastly there is the scene where Bond travels to Scaramanga's remote island and has dinner with him and he listens to Scaramanga's waffle and says "There is an interesting four letter word, and you're full of it!".
And then there is Christopher Lee who steals the film as Scaramanga, the ruthless assassin, who apparently is paid a million dollars a hit as he considered to be that good. Lee has some good fun with his character and he has several highlights in the film, such as the opening scene where a man comes to his island, where he challenges him and ends up killing the man and he says to Nick Nack "You'll be the death of me yet, Nick Nack!" and he then turns to a dummy of Bond and shoots its fingers off! And one of Lee's best and most cheesy moments is the scene where Scaramanga finally meets with Bond during a Thai kick-boxing match, as Bond sits next to Andrea (who is now dead at this point). And in the scene Scaramanga tells Bond a little backstory about himself "When I was a boy I was brought up in a circus. My only real friend was a huge, magnificent African bull." and he continues to say "You see, Mr Bond, I always thought I loved animals. Then I discovered that I enjoy killing people even more!". Then there is the scene Scaramanga and Bond taunt each other while Bond is at Scaramanga's island and Scaramanga pulls out his gun and says "I could have shot you down when you arrived, but that would have been ridiculously easy! You see, Mr Bond, like every great artist I would like to create an indisputable masterpiece once in my lifetime. The death of 007 mano en meno, will be mine!". And when Bond arrives on the island he sees his British assistant, Goodnight (Britt Eckland) who Scaramanga has kidnapped and he says to Bond "I like a girl in a bikini - no concealed weapons!".
The supporting cast are not too bad which includes Maud Adams as Scaramanga's mistress, Andrea Anders, Richard Loo as Hai Fat, as well as Soon-Tek Oh as Lieutenant Hip, which I won't bother quoting any dialogue for as such. Then there is Britt Eckland as Bond's later love interest, Goodnight, whom is somewhat clumsy and hapless in the film but ends up helping Bond at the end (and yes she does look good in a bikini). And she has one of the film's cheesiest but still fun lines, where Bond first meets up with her and he says to her that he has official business and Goodnight having spotted Andrea earlier says "Yes I saw your official business" and Bond says "Goodnight after two years would I do that to you?" and she shouts "Yes you bloody well would!". Bernard Lee and Desmond Llewellyn also reprise their roles well as M and Q respectively as well and Lee has some good lines aswell such as the scene where Bond says at the start of the film to M "If I found Scaramanga first wouldn't that change the situation, sir?" and M replies "dramatically, you might say!".
And last of all we have Clifton James who reprises his role from Live and Let Die as Sherrif J.W. Pepper who turns up in the film and just happens to be on holiday in Bangkok and testing out a car in a showroom when Bond suddenly races into the car and takes off with Pepper. Pepper it has to be said is actually one of the more annoying characters in the Bond series and these days its probably harder to find him amusing given his rather blinkered and racist outlook. And in the scene Pepper suddenly realises who Bond is and says "Now I know you! You're that secret agent, ain't you? That English secret agent from England!". And later on when Bond chases Scaramanga to a hanger and then Pepper is hand-cuffed by one of the local police officers, Bond and the other police men look up and see Scaramanga's car take off into the sky (which of course in fact is just a radio controlled model car with wings!). And Pepper keeps ranting and raving at the officer who's eyes are fixed at the sky and he yells "Look at me when I'm talking to you, boy!" and he looks himself and says "What's the matter? Haven't any of you pointy-heads ever seen an airplane before???!".
And last last of all I can't forget to mention Herve Villechaize as Nick Nack, Scaramanga's dwarf henchman, who has a fine line in some cheeky one liners and generally more mischievious than anything else. Herve has some amusing moments in the film such as the scene where Bond and Scaramanga face off one another on the island and as Bond searches the island for Scaramanga he stumbles on Nick Nack who says to him quietly "If you kill him, all this becomes mine!". And at the end of the film Herve has a fun moment where Nick Nack confronts Bond onboard Scaramanga's junket and Bond captures Nick Nack by putting him in a suitcase and tying him to the boat's mast and Nick Nack is heard yelling "Let me out, you big bully!" and Bond yells "Oh, shut up!".
As for the director, Guy Hamilton, who was a real veteran of the Bond film's by then does a very good job here with the film and he knows how to handle the action scenes very well and he keeps the film's pace fairly taut and allows for some typical moments of cheesy Bond-esque humour. The film also features a fine music score by John Barry, which stands out as one of the film's better aspects and there are plenty of good tracks in the film, particularly during the sequence where Bond tries to track Scaramanga's whereabouts on the island during their duel. The film however does have one of the weakest Bond title songs and this one was sung by Lulu and is nothing great in itself.
So as for the film's flaws??? Well yes its not a perfect film and there are some problems, for starters the film is naturally quite dated looking given its 70s setting and it also has some rather uncomfortable sexist attitudes in it. Bond is naturally a typical male chauvanist and in the film but he also is potrayed a bit more roughly as seen in the scene where Bond forces Andrea to tell him about Scaramanga and in the scene he slaps her and twists her arm behind her back, which was the sort of thing we saw Sean Connery do in Diamonds are forever when he takes off a girl's bra and nearly strangles her with it. The film also displays a rather sexist attitude by showing inept and clumsy female characters such as Goodnight, who get's herself too easily into trouble and in the scene near the end she activates the solar powered dish control button by leaning back on it with her bum and activating it! And I guess this is something they wanted to try and remedy in The spy who loved me, where Major Amasova is a far more capable, disciplined and well trained agent than Goodnight ever was. It also has to be said that the inclusion of Nick Nack as Scaramanga's henchman is also pretty silly as he doesn't actually even kill anyone in the film and instead just serves more as Scaramanga's lackey and dogsbody and as such he is a far comical character than anything else.
The film's dialogue whilst has some good lines it also is pretty cliched and features some ridiculous lines such as the scene where Bond meets with the bullet manufacturer, Lazar who as soon as he meets Bond says "Ah Mr Bond, your reputation proceeds you!" which again re-iterates that James Bond is supposed to be a secret spy but he is hardly secret if everyone knows who he is! This is also noted in the scene at the start where Scaramanga shoots the fingers off the waxwork dummy of Bond and in that moment its more like Bond is a celebrity figure than a secret agent and unlike Scaramanga everyone knows what he looks like and its a pretty daft moment in the film anyway! The film is also guilty of having some rather boring car chase scenes in it, which often are the dullest moments of any Bond film and this one is no exception with Bond chasing Scaramanga and having Sherrif JW Pepper next him blaring in his ear! Even though it does allow for the impressive stunt scene where Bond revs his car up and over an incomplete wooden bridge from one side to the other as the car performs an aerial twist in the air. Also while I'm at it, the inclusion of the penny whistle in that scene is really annoying and uneccessary.
Anyway despite that The man with the golden gun is still a very enjoyable Bond film, which is of course pretty cheesy and dated and to this day isn't regarded as one of the best films in the series but its still worth a watch all the same and if you are in the right mood you might just like it.
And on that note I shall leave you right there.
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