Well, 2020 is almost at an end (thank God alot of us will be saying no doubt!) but I've decided to keep the posts going a bit more just before it does and I will continue with this one, which will be a revisit (yes sorry another lol) of an James Bond film, The Man with the Golden Gun from Roger Moore's days as 007.
So, after 46 years how does this film stand up??? Well, let's take another look and find out...
And here is the usual...
PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
STORY
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, Saida (Carmen du Sautoy) with a golden bullet 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...
THOUGHTS
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.
PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES (Warning: this section may contain spoilers!)
Performance wise TMWTGG (quite an abbreviation!) is largely pretty good even if the cast aren't all quite perfect.
Starting with Roger Moore who does a find job as James Bond and this was only his second film but even by then 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, Saida, 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!" before he leaves and hails a taxi outside and says to the driver "Take me to the nearest pharmacy!".
Then there is the scene where Bond threatens the
bullet manufacturer, Lazar by aiming a rifle at his groin. And in the scene, Lazar tells Bond how he just makes bullets but doesn't kill anyone much to the protest of Bond who accuses him of supplying bullets to killers such as Scaramanga. So, Lazar says to him "Mr Bond, bullets do not kill. Its the trigger that pulls them" and Bond says "Exactly" and he trains the rifle he stands behind at Lazar and says coldly "I
am now aiming precisely at your groin. So speak now or forever hold
your piece!".
Another is the scene where Bond pressures Andrea to tell him where Scaramanga is and what he looks like he asks her "How can I recognise him?" and she says "Tall, slim and dark" and Bond quips "So is my aunt! Anything disctinctive about him?". So, Andrea 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!".
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 the first he knocks unconscious with a single kick before fighting the dojo's top student, Chula. And after a tough fight, Bond manages to escape by diving out the dojo and before leaving he bows
his head!
This is then followed by the moment where Bond tries to escape Fat's men in a small motored boat but it runs out of steam and stutters, so Bond tries to look for a way to fit and a young boy selling a statue jumps onboard to pitch to him. So, the boy says to him "You are very handsome, Mister. 30 baht. For your 20 baht!" and Bond looks at him and says "Tell you what, sonny, I'll give you 20,000 baht if you can make this thing go any faster!". And the boy suddenly turns a small switch, which powers the boat and it speeds up and the boy grins and says "20,000 baht!" but Bond sees the Fat's men coming on the canal, so he pushes the boy into the water and says "I'm afraid I'll have to owe you!" and the young boy shouts "Bloody tourists!".
And there is of course the car chase scene between Bond and Scaramanga where Bond just so happens to steal a car from a dealership, which Pepper is sitting in is testing out. So, as Bond get's in the car, Pepper without looking at him and asks "How about a demonstration, boy?" and Bond says to him "Certainly, sir!" and starts up the engine and drives it out through the dealership window. However, as Pepper looks at Bond he says "Now, I KNOW you!" and Bond recognises him and says "Oh, no!" and Pepper says "You're the secret agent! That english secret agent from England!".
And later on as Bond loses sight of Scaramanga, he soon finds him again but across a river and he eyes an incomplete spiral shaped wooden bridge that would lead other side and Bond suddenly turns the car around levels it up to make the jump. So, in the scene Pepper nervously says "You're not gonna..." and Bond says to him "I sure am, boy!" and he revs up the car and drives toward the incomplete bridge and says "You ever heard of Evel Kinevel?!" and the car makes the looped jump over to the other side. Pepper then shouts in celebration as they make and in amazement he says "I ain't never done THAT before!" and Bond says calmly "No, neither have I actually".
Then there is the scene where Bond travels to Scaramanga's remote island and has dinner with him and he listens to Scaramanga's waffle. So, Scaramanga concludes by saying to Bond that they are no different from each other and that surely he must enjoy killing as much as he does but Bond says to him "There is an interesting four letter word, and you're full of it! When I kill its on orders of her majesty's government and those I kill are themselves killers!" but Scaramanga says to him "Oh, come come, Mr Bond. You get as much fulfilment out of killing as I do, so why don't you admit it?" and Bond says "I admit killing you would be a pleasure". Scaramanga then tries to taunt Bond by saying "Then you should have done that when you first saw me but the English don't consider it sporting to kill in cold blood, do they?" and Bond irritated says "Don't count on it!" and tries to pull his gun but Scaramanga pulls his first.
WARNING: BIG SPOILER AHEAD!
And last of all is the scene where just after Bond kills Scaramanga having disguised himself as S's waxwork of Bond, he finds Goodnight and they make their exit from the island.
So, in the scene, Goodnight asks Bond "Where is Scaramanga?" and Bond tells her "Flat on his coup de grace! I'll have to take care of the maintenance man" and Goodnight tells him "I already did. I laid him out cold" and Bond looks surprised and says "There's more to you than meets the eye, Goodnight". However, as they enter the plantworks area, Bond notices the warning signs and the helium containers are starting to bubble up violently. So, Bond asks her "Goodnight, I hate to ask a stupid question but where exactly did you knock him out cold?" and Goodnight points and says "He fell into that one other there". So, Bond annoyed says to her "Don't you believe in signs?! We've got 5 minutes before his body temperature raises that helium and then this place will go sky high!".
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!
Then there is the scene where Scaramanga kills Hai-Fat and just before he does, Hai-Fat tells him that he most take the solex and return to the power plant and Scaramanga secretly assembles his gun for the kill.
So, in the scene, Scaramanga teases Hai-Fat about his karate dojo student failing to capture Bond "What do they teach at that school? Ballet dancing?!" and Hai-Fat says to him "I find nothing amusing in Mr. Bond's escape. May I remind you that you work for me. I took you on to be an occasional consultant, nothing more. I now regret having even considered employing your services, but that is beside the point. Bond doesn't know you; he's never seen you. But he knows me. That's the problem". Scaramanga by now having fully assmebled his gun says to Hai-Fat "That's no problem" and he aims his gun and shoots Hai-Fat, who collapses. So, one of Hai-Fat's aides runs in and asks what happened and Scaramanga tells him "Mr Fat has just resigned. I'm the new chairman of the board" and he leaves and says on his way out "Fat always did like that masoleum. Put him in it!".
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". Scaramanga then says to Bond before he goes "I will bid you farewell now, Mr Bond. Please don't try to follow us" and Bond says of Nick-Nack who sits behind Bond with a gun "Your peanut gun-toting friend back there wouldn't like it" and Scaramanga smiles and says "No, he wouldn't" and leaves.
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!".
Maude Adams as
Scaramanga's mistress, Andrea Anders is also very good and Adams herself would later return in another Bond film, Octopussy as a different girl.
And I will mention just one of Adams's scenes, which is the one where Bond interrogates Andrea at her hotel room. So, In the scene Bond asks her "Do you work for him?" and Andrea awkwardly says to Bond "I don't work for him. I'm his... eh...his..." and Bond susses it out "So, he's a lover too" and Andrea says "Only before he kills" and Bond says "Bullfighters do the same thing. They claim it improves the eye. His eyes are on me. Where can I find him?". Andrea then says "I don't know" and Bond grabs her roughly and slaps her and shouts "I said where?!" and Andrea says "I know he has a date at the Bottoms' up club tonight!".
Bond then asks her "How will I recognise him?" and Andrea says "Tall, slim and dark" and Bond quips "So is my aunt. Anything distinctive about him?" and Andrea says "He's not like other men he has three..." and indicates the nipple area and Bond says "Fascinating anatomical titbid but probably the most useless piece of information I've ever heard unless Bottom's up is a strip and Scaramanga is performing there!". So, Bond threatens Andrea and says "You'll have to do better!" and Andrea says "He usually wears a white linen suit, black tie, and jewellery all gold" and Bond says "You're improving" and Andrea rolls her wrist and says "I don't want you to twist my arm again!" and Bond says "I don't want to either".
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 Britt 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 (i.e. Andrea, Scaramanga's mistress) 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!".
Another good scene from Britt is when Bond and Goodnight share a late night drink together outside and she is wearing a fetching blue dress, which Bond compliments her on as he drinks some sub-par wine. So, Bond drinks the wine and says "I approve" and Goodnight asks "You do?" and Bond says "Oh, not the wine, of your frock. Tight in all the right places, not too many buttons" and Goodnight smiles and says "Its South East Asia standard, the buttons are down the back". So, Bond then flirts with Goodnight a bit more heavily and says "If Hip doesn't come up with a lead, there really isn't much for us to do tonight". However, for once, Bond is given the cold shoulder and Goodnight says well goodnight to him! So, Goodnight says "Oh, darling, I'm tempted. But, killing a few hours as one of your passing fancies, isn't quite my scene" and she walks off.
And lastly there is the scene near the end where Goodnight knocks out Scaramanga's plant worker and he lands in a container of liquid helium (I think!) and his body temperature raises the plant's temps to an unstable rate much to Bond's horror. So, Bond says to Goodnight "We'll need to take care of the maintenance man" and Goodnight says to him "I already did. I laid him out cold " and Bond looks at her surprised and says "There's more to you than meets the eye, Goodnight!". So, as they enter the plant area, Bond asks her "Goodnight, I hate to ask a stupid question but where did you knock him out cold?" and Goodnight says "I knocked him out in that one over there" and we see the man's body lie in the container. Bond however says to her "Don't you believe in signs?! We've five minutes before his body temperature raises that helium and this whole place will go sky high!" and Goodnight says "I'm sorry, I didn't know!".
And last of all is Britt's last scene where Bond and Goodnight make out onboard Scaramanga's private junk but unbeknownst to them, Nick-Nack has also smuggled himself onboard. So, just as Bond and Goodnight embrace, Goodnight smiles and says to Bond "I always wanted to take a slow boat from China!" and they kiss but its not long before Nick-Nack appears from above with a knive and Goodnight looks up and screams just before Nick-Nack drops down and he and Bond fight.
Clifton James also 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 (with his wife) 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 but nevertheless he still provides some amusing moments.
And in the scene Pepper suddenly realises who Bond is and says "Now I know you!" and Bond looks at him and realises how he is and wearily says "Oh, no!". And Pepper says excitedly to Bond "You're that secret agent, ain't you?! That English secret agent from England!". Pepper then grins and sees that Bond is chasing after someone and says "You're chasin someone, aren't you?! Who are you after, boy?! Commies?! I'm with you all the way!".
Then there is of course the scene where Bond is about to make the film's spectacular looped car jump over an incomplete bridge and just before Bond does it, Pepper looks at Bond and says "You're not gonna..." and Bond says in a feeble American accent "I sure am, boy!". So, after Bond makes the jump, Pepper excitedly yells "WAHHHOOOO!" and he gathers himself and sits up and says "I ain't never done that before!" and Bond confesses "No, neither have I actually".
And
later on when Bond chases Scaramanga to a hanger and then Pepper is
hand-cuffed by one of the local police officers and he protests loudly as you would expect! However, as Pepper protests, the local police officers are too busy looking up at the skies as Scaramanga's car with added wings, flies off. So, Pepper yells at the office who has cuffed him "You can't do this to me! And I want my wallet back. Take these god damn bracelets off! I'm gonna sue you for false arrest. Police brutality! I've got connections, you brown pony heads! I'm gonna get the FBI on you! And the CIA! God Damn it! I'm gonna get Henry Kissenger! Now, look at me when I'm talkin' to you, boy!". And Pepper finally looks up but thinks its just a plane and asks the officer "What's the matter?! Ain't any of you pointy-heads seen a plane before?!".
And last of all is Herve Villechaize as Nick Nack, Scaramanga's dwarf henchman, who has a fine line in some cheeky one liners and generally being more mischievious than anything else.
Herve
has some amusing moments in the film such as the scene at the start where Scaramanga faces a challenger at his island and he manages to kill him. So, Nick Nack, monitors the challenge until Scaramanga has succeeded and after, Nick Nack appears and says "This was the best one yet, n'est-ce pas?" and Scaramanga says "Not bad. But you're going to have to do better if you want to come into my money" and Nick Nack grins and says "I'll get you yet. And I'll enjoy everything you leave me!" and Scaramanga smiles and says "You'll be the death of me yet, Nick Nack!".
Then there is of course the scene where Bond and
Scaramanga face off one another on the island and Nick-Nack counts to twenty as they walk 20 paces apart before they are to turn and fire at each other but Scaramanga disappears when Bond turns around and fires. So, 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 Bond threatens him and says "I've never killed a midget before but there's always a first time" and Nick Nack says "Oh, Monsieur!".
And lastly there is the scecne at the end of the film where Nick Nack confronts Bond onboard
Scaramanga's junket and angrily shouts at him "I'll kill you!" and Bond looks at him and says "Why, you...". And as they play a game of cat and mouse (guess which is which?!) Bond captures Nick Nack by putting him in a
suitcase and tying him to the boat's mast and Nick Nack is heard yelling
"Oww! Let me out, you big bully! I maybe small but I never forget!" and Bond yells "Shut up!".
DIRECTOR
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 keeps the film's pace
fairly taut and allows for some typical moments of cheesy Bond-esque
humour. This in fact would be Hamilton's final film that he worked on in the Bond series and would later go on to direct films such as Force 10 From Navarone and Evil Under the Sun before his retirement. Hamilton later died in 2016.
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. Unfortunately the film's theme song sung by Lulu is not as good and stands as one of the weakest Bond themes in the series.
FLAWS (Warning: this section may also contain spoilers!)
So, flaws??? Yes, The Man With The Golden Gun has some worth of note.
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 and gimmicky 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 chase scenes in it, which often are the dullest moments of any Bond film although the chase scene with Sherrif JW Pepper next to Bond blaring in his ear does add something a bit different! However, if there is one thing I hate about that car chase scene is the annoying penny whistle that is played when Bond makes the car jump. Its just cheesy as hell and not necessary.
As for the plot niggle, just how was Andrea planted next to Bond at the kickboxing fight when she was dead? I mean did Scaramanga shoot her before Bond arrived and propped her up in the seat or maybe Nick-Nack shot her??? Who knows? I just could never figure out how she just happened to be sitting there as a corpse at that moment as I can hardly imagine them being able to discreetly drag her corpse into the arena, so I can only guess that Scaramanga might have shot her at point blank range in the seat but again tha'ts just a guess. Bottom line is though, if Andrea was dead before then, it would have been impossible for them to carry her in without someone noticing surely?! Ahh well, its just a film after all.
And last of all, I have to ask just how the hell did Bond manage to climb down the scaffolding just in time before Scaramanga would find him and get dressed in the Bond waxwork suit??? Not only that but with Nick-Nack keeping an eye on the camera monitors for Bond, surely there would have been one nearby the waxwork area that could have shown Bond changing clothes maybe??? Yeah, its another convenient plot moment that doesn't quite add up.
So, that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
So, to sum up, The Man With The Golden Gun, while its not one of the best Bond films by any stretch, it is still quite an enjoyable one and has enough action set pieces, amusing one-liners and decent performances from its main cast to make it very watchable. In fact, its safe to say that Scaramanga definitely remains as one of the most memorable villains in the series and Christopher Lee definitely steals the show here with his performance.
However, the film of course isn't perfect and has its share of problems that prevent it from being a classic with some daft plot issues, some blatant sexism and Moore to a certain extent here even being forced to imitate Connery's Bond when it comes to roughing up women, which doesn't feel right for Moore's interpretation of the role.
Despite this though, I still enjoy the film to this day and always like to revisit it and I will give it a rating of:
7 out of 10
Right, so that's it for now and I will try and maybe squeeze just one or two more posts before 2020 is over.
So, until then its bye for now!
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