Re: Universal Exports - The James Bond Thread

[Patrick]

I'll be away so my response will not be immediate. I'm sure you're gutted!

Somehow, I'll find a way to contain my disappointment and bravely carry on.

i can't believe this madness- Live and let Die is fantastic!

not just one of the best bond films but one of i've never really noticed the "plot holes" but it's a bond film....bit like dr who the plotting isn't the most important part...

it's meant to entertain and does. and roger moore nails the part- smoking a cigar while handgliding, running over crocodiles or shagging loads of birds.

the only problem i have is that it's massively racist- but that's sadly true of most bond films...

That it's visually stunning, with all kinds of odd imagery, is obvious. But it's the same problem I noted with Diamonds Are Forever: pretty to look at, but not to examine in any depth. It's a matter of personal taste, but as I've said before, I prefer my spy movies to be just as well crafted as any other movie.

[The Co=Ordinator]

Somehow, I'll find a way to contain my disappointment and bravely carry on.

That's something we should do - a film by film look at the Carry On's: all 30 of 'em!

[stanmore]

Somehow, I'll find a way to contain my disappointment and bravely carry on.

That's something we should do - a film by film look at the Carry On's: all 30 of 'em!

There are people that watch two 70s Carry On films back-to-back without vomiting blood?

[The Co=Ordinator]

I could quite easily.

[Patrick]

The first time I review a Carry On movie, I can predict, with certainty, that I would be immediately defending myself against readers claims that I just don't get it: "Infamy! Infamy! You've all got it in fa' me!"

Besides, the Carry On franchise hasn't quite successfully penetrated this side of the Atlantic. I've only seen 2 of the 30, and I had to go looking quite hard to find them.

I think another round of Bond trivia might be called for. Zoltar could defend his title, and Rich could attempt to move out of the cellar in points. Any takers?

[Zoltar]

I think another round of Bond trivia might be called for. Zoltar could defend his title, and Rich could attempt to move out of the cellar in points. Any takers?

I'm not terribly competitive. If folks wanted another round of trivia and I saw some things I knew the answers for, I might join in again.

But I don't think of myself as having a title to defend.

[Johnstone McGuckian]

The first time I've properly disagreed with you Patrick. I can't really argue with any of the points that you've made but I'd give this one a solid 4/5. In regards to the comedic tone, this film didn't go away from what Bond was meant to be, it changed it. So therefore it shouldn't be compared to what's been established in the past, but looked at as establishing what we're going to see in the future (and indeed, this is the tone we have up until For Your Eyes Only).

The plot holes are there, but they are in every Bond film, none of them have had a perfect script. And the plot holes in this are nowhere near as bad as the ones in YOLT and DAF.

LALD is a fun, well acted, well directed but perhaps not so well written and that definitely has to be what dragged it down.

I wonder what it would have been like if Dalton had come in at this point?

[Patrick]

I wonder what it would have been like if Dalton had come in at this point?

An interesting question, Johnstone. Timothy Dalton was, in fact, offered the part for On Her Majesty's Secret Service. He was 25 at the time, and turned it down on the grounds he felt he was too young to play the role. He would have been 29 at the time of filming LALD, so presumably, he would have had the same reservations about taking on the role.

In regards to the comedic tone, this film didn't go away from what Bond was meant to be, it changed it. So therefore it shouldn't be compared to what's been established in the past, but looked at as establishing what we're going to see in the future (and indeed, this is the tone we have up until For Your Eyes Only).

It's hard for me to agree with that, when I've listened to the audio commentary from Tom Mankiewicz commenting that they deliberately introduced comedic elements, and deliberately portrayed Bond as an easily fooled buffoon. ("buffoon" was the word he used.) And as for having the same tone for next three films, I've been re-watching TMWTGG for my upcoming review, and it seems clear to me that with the return of Richard Maibaum to script-writing duties, the production reversed course on the deliberate, Fawlty Towers injection of comedy.

Friday is going to be a travel day for me, so I'll be posting my review of TMWTGG on Thursday.

[Patrick]

A day early, but I have a travel itinerary to uphold. So, read on...

[Patrick]

However bad a movie Live And Let Die was, it’s opening credit theme song and odd visuals made enough of an impact into the Second Age of Bond to assure the franchise could adapt and evolve in the new era of the 1970s. This presented the production team with the same sort of challenge they faced going into making From Russia With Love: could that sort of lightning strike twice? And could they (hopefully) deliver a better story for audiences?

You’ll recall from my review of LALD that one of the popular genres at the time was martial arts films, featuring actors like Bruce Lee. After tackling the “Blaxtoiplation Bond” genre, the 007 production office was keen to sink its teeth this other popular film trope, so much so that they dropped huge parts of the original Ian Fleming novel (the last full Bond novel he wrote before his death) and made the creative decision to take the franchise back to Asia, a location not visited for seven years. But would it work on the big screen? To quote the title theme song, we shall see…

The Man With The Golden Gun
UK Release: December 19, 1974
US Release: December 20, 1974



“You’re that secret agent! That English Secret Agent! From England!”
We start, as we always do, with James Bond himself. And we have good news this time around: with the return of Richard Maibaum to script-writing duties, the producers decided reverse direction from the previous film in presenting Bond as a twit. (It should be noted that Richard Maibaum wrote the scripts for all the Bond movies through Timothy Dalton’s years, except for three: You Only Live Twice, Live And Let Die and Moonraker, and those rank as three of the worst Bond films made.) In The Man With The Golden Gun, Bond returns to form as being a lot more on the ball, less easy to fool, and willing to become a bit nasty, smacking Maud Adams around a bit to get some information. In short, he’s a bit more like the Bond we saw in Goldfinger. He even gets to use his seductive powers- in this case to get the bullet out from Saida’s belly-button.

Roger Moore’s mainstay in his portrayal of Bond was always going to be characterized by this truism: he could turn charm and sophistication on like a light switch, perhaps even more than Sean Connery. And he can use his reputation to open doors for him, as well. He gets the drop on gun-maker Lazar by being, well, world-famous spy James Bond. He even threatens to shoot Lazar if he doesn’t surrender the information on how he delivers his special golden bullets to Scaramanga. I’ve already mentioned that he gets to smack Ms. Anders around, but he also gets to seduce her in service to the plot. Bond plays a tense game of cat and mouse on Scaramanga’s island, drive around the streets of Bangkok like a mad-man, pilots a plane at very low altitude, and gets to engage in some martial arts fisticuffs. On balance, he’s more the masculine figure we’re accustomed to seeing, rather than the idiot playboy we got last time around.



Now, having said all that, I also have to draw this line of distinction between Mr. Moore and Mr. Connery: as great as it is to see Bond treated seriously as a character again, and as well suited to the franchise as it is to see Bond’s more masculine aspects on display again, the main problem with Mr. Moore is that he never came off quite as credible as Mr. Connery at seeming to be dangerous or menacing. That’s a matter of taste, of course, but I miss the Bond who put icing on the cake by shooting Professor Dent in the back, or use the woman he was seducing as a shield against his attacker’s baton in the pre-credit sequence of Goldfinger.



“Fascinating anatomical tidbit. But probably the most useless piece of information I've ever heard. Unless, of course, the Bottoms Up is a strip club and Scaramanga is performing."

Francisco Scaramanga is villain who embodies character traits that harkens back to both Auric Goldfinger and Dr. No. Goldfinger, you will recall, was a petty, unsophisticated and insecure cheat who craved Bond’s approval. Dr. No was a scientist and a man of a certain level of refinement who saw Bond as an equal, so much so that he contemplated recruiting Bond to join SPECTRE. In understanding how Scaramanga shares traits of both these previous villains, we start with this acknowledgement: Christopher Lee’s marvelous portrayal has, at its core, the fact that Francisco Scaramanga is a circus freak who happens to be a pretty good shot. He is a man with a third nipple- nipples are body features more associated with women than men, which probably made this particular abnormality somewhat humiliating. His only friend as a child was an elephant in his father’s circus, from which we can deduce that his self-esteem is entirely wrapped up in his skill as a marksman. And, like Dr. No, he was largely unappreciated for his skills (in this case, by his employers at the KGB), but with no SPECTRE around anymore, he simply went freelance.



Ah, but the layering of character elements doesn’t stop there. Here is a reasonable question to ask at this point: once the Solex device was in Hai Fat’s possession, did Scaramanga always intend to kill Hai Fat and steal it? Hai Fat rather bombastically reminds Scaramanga that he is merely an employee, albeit a rather expensive one. This makes me wonder if Scaramanga really even cared about the Solex at all. Yes, we see it fitted into place powering the big laser gun on Scaramanga’s island, and he mentions selling it to the highest bidder. But to what end? What can even more money do for him? He already has a rather fashionable home on his own private island, his own Chinese junk, a car that can become a plane, a midget personal valet who trained at the Cordon Bleu, and an inference that after Ms. Anders met her demise, he can get any other woman he wants. I believe that Scaramanga’s motive in killing Hai Fat and stealing the Solex was set up at the start of the film: a duel with James Bond, the only man in the world worth taking on, mano-a-mano. Indeed, I think Scaramanga measures himself against Bond.



My evidence for this is the fact that we learn the golden bullet sent to MI-6, with “007” etched on it and containing Scaramanga’s fingerprint was not, in fact, sent by Scaramanga. Miss Anders sent it, as a desperate call for help. That makes Bond’s introduction into Scaramanga’s life a random happenstance, and one which Scaramanga decides to take full advantage of by luring Bond to his island- that’s why he bothered to steal the Solex at all. So what does he do when he finally gets his “pistols at dawn” moment? He cheats, in his own specially set up funhouse. Apparently, he thinks he can’t actually beat Bond in a straight-up duel, which makes him as petty as Goldfinger. That’s a complex character, and it has to be said that Christopher Lee played him brilliantly.




“This one was the best, n’est-ce pas?”
In my review of Live And Let Die, I made the point that Whisper, as a henchman, was utterly bizarre. Grossly overweight and unable to speak at any reasonable decibel level, his usefulness struck me as below woeful. This time around, we are presented with Nick Nack, a midget. And my reaction to that creative choice is this: it fits perfectly. Remember, Scaramanga is essentially a circus freak, and circus folks tend to feel most comfortable with their own kind. Nick Nack’s evident refinement, skills at haute cuisine, and loyalty play directly into Scaramanga’s need for stature. And, given that he’s a dwarf, that stature is reinforced with the fact that Scaramanaga is at least twice Nick Nack’s height.

Hervé Villechaize, as Nick Nack, plays a significant role in this film, too, as its resident trickster (see my discussion of theme, below). But here’s an interesting question in the character of Nick Nack: he tells the mobster who arrives on the island in the pre-credit sequence, and later, Bond, that if they kill Scaramanga, all of what his boss owns becomes his. So why hasn’t Nick Nack already killed Scaramanga? He could have, at any time, substituted the fake guns wielded by the mannequins in Scaramanga’s funhouse with real ones. Or, for that matter, he could have easily poisoned his dinner. I think the answer is that Nick Nack really is loyal to Scaramanga. My evidence for this is how distraught and determined he was to attack Bond and Goodnight in the film’s climax scene.



“Standard uniform for southeast Asia. The buttons are all down the back.”
As Miss Mary Goodnight, Britt Ekland provided an attractive diversion as the primary Bond girl in this movie. From clues gleaned in the dialogue between them, and some understated acting from Ms. Ekland and Mr. Moore, there’s evidence of a prior romantic relationship between the two of them from a couple of years ago, and that there may actually be some genuine feeling between them. Yes, Bond plays the obvious playboy attempting to get her dress off, but there’s at least a subtext of Bond being genuinely fond of her, or at least enjoying her company.

For my money, however, I don’t rate Mary Goodnight as an effective Bond girl. Her main reason for being in the story, besides creating some tension when Bond finally gets the chance to seduce Miss Anders, is to be klutz who manages to get herself and the Solex captured by Scaramanga, so that Bond has a legitimate reason to go to the island himself. Indeed, for my money, I wouldn’t even call her the best Bond girl in this movie.


“Ow! You’re hurting my arm!”
“I’ll break it unless you tell me what I want.”
Maud Adams, as Miss Anders, wins my vote for the best Bond girl in TMWTGG. First of all, she is, in my humble opinion, more classically beautiful than Britt Ekland. I mean, in terms of sheer impact, that seen where she emerges from the shower in a bathrobe, with that wet hair, and those eyes… very nice! But more than on a mere aesthetic level, she plays a beautifully tragic role in this film. It was her plea for rescue- the gold bullet sent to MI-6- that set in motion the whole chain of events that sealed her fate. And the reasons for her need to be rescued are revealed quite clearly when Scaramanga all but forces her to commit a sexual act on his gun. This is a woman trapped with a cruel, sadistic man, a man she herself admitted she can’t simply leave.



When she sheds her mortal coil, it serves two purposes: first, it again reinforces what a brilliant marksman Scaramanga is. Second, played out against the back drop of a kick-boxing contest, it serves as a counterpoint to the first person to person encounter Bond has with Scaramanga. And that encounter reveals just how many steps ahead of Bond the villain is, and would remain for much of the rest of the movie.


“How do you like my island, Mr. Bond?”

Let’s do a little assessment of plot and theme. And let’s start with this acknowledgement: The Man With The Golden Gun routinely places rather low on the voting for favorite Bond movies. I find this bewildering. This is a totally engaging film, with a solid script, only let down by one clumsy plot hole- specifically, the scene where Hai Fat prevents Nick Nack and the two sumo wrestlers from killing Bond. No, no, he says, don’t do it here and mess up my garden, take him to my dojo so my students can have a go at him. Oh, please. If you’re a bad guy, do bad things. The ensuing, post-dojo escape chase through the canals of Bangkok, as a result, feels a bit forced, as if the producers were saying, “this is Bond movie! We need action scenes!” Besides, the real reason for that action sequence was to re-introduce Sheriff J.W. Pepper.



Now, criticisms of that plot hole aside, the film starts with a great pre-credit sequence: Scaramanga, Nick Nack and Miss Anders on the private island. Along comes a mobster, presumably the same mobster Marc Lawrence played in Diamonds Are Forever, and then we’re onto the funhouse gun fight. We’re led to believe from this scene that Scaramanga is targeting Bond, a theory given credence in the scene immediately following the opening titles, when a gold bullet with Bond’s number arrives at MI-6 headquarters. It’s during this scene that the energy expert, Gibson, and the Solex, is mentioned, just to establish both. From there, the movie transitions from attempting to find a similar bullet (one known to have been fired by Scaramanga), to finding the maker of the bullets, to finding the Solex. It’s pretty well structured.



The next big action sequence, after the boat duel in the canals, is the car chase through Bangkok. And this actually a pretty good chase- you have to wonder why they bother to paint lanes on the roads in Thailand, since no one seems to pay any attention to them. But setting that observation aside, that car chase actually feels real, and that reality is heightened by the fact that for much of it, there is no musical score played over it. (I should mention that the reason I object to music being played over action sequences like fights or car chases is that music can only serve one purpose in a movie: to set the mood. When you have an action sequence, let the actors get on with it. We don’t need mood to be established, we already know what the mood is.) That car chase, of course, climaxes with the marvelous astro spiral car jump- a jump accomplished in only one take, by the way. Given what a great stunt it was, and what I’ve just said about musical cues, I have to scratch my head at why Guy Hamilton found it necessary to insert a silly slide whistle onto the soundtrack. He’s a better director than that.



But that 360-degree car flip serves as nice place to begin a discussion of TMWTGG’s theme. In the case of this movie, it’s things circus-related. Stuff like funhouses, carnival rides, mirrors, tricks being played, and the tricksters who play them. Think of that car jump as a carnival roller coaster, and you get my meaning.

Mirrors play a big part in funhouse attractions, distorting objects as the viewer walks by. In this movie, mirrors play a significant role on several occasions: Hai Fat’s safe is located behind a mirror. Bond’s first glimpse of Ms. Anders is in reflection through a circular mirror in her bathroom. Nick Nack, waiting for his last, desperate attempt to kill Bond, is hiding behind a ceiling mirror on Scaramanga’s junk.



That Scaramanga has his own personal funhouse is obvious, but variations on the theme of “funhouse” run throughout this movie. MI-6’s Hong Kong headquarters is set up on the partially sunken Queen Elizabeth cruise ship out in the harbor. With its off-kilter slant and distorted angles, it resembles Scaramanga’s funhouse in effect, almost as if it were a mirror image of the one on the island. We get to visit two “adult” clubs (the one where Saida is performing in Beruit, and the Bottom’s Up Club), and these are funhouses of a different sort. Bond enters Hai Fat’s garden at night, even calling it “Grisly Land,” and the creep factor of this particular funhouse gets ratcheted up when three of the statues come to life and try to kill him. The dojo Bond is taken to turns into a type of funhouse, as Bond goes from being pampered VIP to potential punching bag. Even the house to which Scaramanga drives becomes a type of funhouse, as his car converts into a plane, and the house partially disassembles to become the launching point of a runway.



Nick Nack is our Trickster-In-Chief throughout this movie. He is used for misdirection repeatedly. First, he hires a mobster to assassinate Scaramanga, only to lure him to his doom into Scaramanga’s funhouse. He appears to Bond first on a television screen in a shop window, before showing himself in person, and manages during this to steal the Solex. Aware that he’s being followed, he lures Ms. Goodnight to Scaramanga’s car, where she’s trapped in the trunk. He’s a devious one, that Nick Nack.




And as for tricks, the movie is replete with them. Ms. Anders appears to be watching the kick-boxing match, when in fact, she’s already dead. The gold bullet was not an announcement of Scaramanga’s intention to target Bond, but rather a desperate plea for help. Inspector Loo tricks Bond into thinking he’s with the Hong Kong police, when in fact, he’s also an MI-6 agent. And Loo’s two nieces turn out to be martial arts experts who rescue Bond. Bond attempts to fool Hai Fat into thinking he’s Scaramanga, but Hai Fat is already wise that trick, and sets a trick for Bond by inviting him to dinner, where he’ll have to walk through Hai Fat’s garden. We have one car flipping a loop, and another purpose built to become a plane. Even Scaramanga’s golden gun disassembles to become two apparently harmless objects.

It has to be said that the funhouse quality of Scaramanga’s gun fighting testing grounds is heightened by the use of abstract space, a first for the Bond franchise. Within that funhouse, we never really get a sense of the geography of the space- how is it laid out? Which rooms connect to which? Even when Bond finds a way to “get off the grid,” and starts rooting around in the infrastructure of the space, we have no actual dimension to the space, and from the camera angles, it’s literally difficult to tell which way is up.



“Who’d want to put a contract on me?”
“Jealous husbands! Outraged chefs! Humiliated tailors! The list is endless!”
After spending a fair amount of time in previous reviews about Sir Ken Adams brilliant set designs, the moment we saw the interior of Scaramanga’s place, with that circular ceiling, I was surprised to learn this was not another Ken Adams design. Mr. Adams was apparently not available this time around, so the design duties went to Peter Murton, previously an assistant who had worked under Mr. Adams. He clearly learned some impressive lessons.

One other thing The Man With The Golden Gun did was establish into the “Bond formula” true globe-hopping destinations with visually stunning exotic locales. And it should be noted that the island where Scaramanga’s home was set is actually now referred to as “James Bond Island,” and is protected as part of the national park system of Thailand.



So, on balance, The Man With The Golden Gun was a thoroughly enjoyable ninth effort for the franchise, buoyed by solid story, a tight script, great characters well played by the actors, and a decent spy yarn into the bargain. Indeed, I’m as fond of this film as I am Goldfinger and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, which is why I’m giving it five sunken Queen Elizabeth cruise ships out of a possible five.

We now come to a three year hiatus before the next Bond film arrived in theaters, and the story of that delay will set the background as part of my next review.

James Bond will return in “The Spy Who Love Me.”

[The Co=Ordinator]

Fascinating review as ever Patrick.

Although I think you ultimately over-rate the film, for me, especially after the disappointement of LALD, is the start of a rapid upward curve.

Britt Ekland is miles ahead of Jane Seymour and the set pieces are excellent. We also have the start of a run brilliant endings, in this case the "Goodnight, Goodnight" out which leads superbly into Lulu's lyrics.

So overall I'll give The Man with the Golden Gun 4/5.

[Rich Flair]

1/5 - start of a rapid decline, and was so boring I can't even remember it.

[Patrick]

1/5 - start of a rapid decline, and was so boring I can't even remember it.

How long has it been since you've watched it, Rich? I think you'd be pleasantly surprised if you viewed it again with the insight of the "things circus related" theme in mind.

[Rich Flair]

Perhaps. I'll give it a go next time it's on TV. I read the book a few years ago and that was even more dull. I liked Nick Nack!

[Johnstone McGuckian]

Have to agree with Patrick yet again. This film is considerably better than its predecessor and establishes a formula that serves even today.

Unfortunately the next film isn't half as good as this one. It's a shame that the army officer from Monty Python didn't turn up on set and tell them that it was all getting a bit too silly.

[barnaby morbius]

i think you gloss over a lot of the bad points of the film- the racist stereotypes, violence towards women and unfunny comedy(admittedly not unique to this one!) plus the worst ever theme song(at least until madonna shows up)
however lee is pretty cool, some good set pieces and rog continues to be pretty cool.

3/5 not a patch on live and let die.

[Patrick]

Unfortunately the next film isn't half as good as this one. It's a shame that the army officer from Monty Python didn't turn up on set and tell them that it was all getting a bit too silly.

I don't want to get ahead of myself, reviews-wise, but I think there's a reason TSWLM doesn't resonate as well as this movie. I'll expand on that idea more when I post my next review (around Sept. 30th).

i think you gloss over a lot of the bad points of the film- the racist stereotypes, violence towards women and unfunny comedy(admittedly not unique to this one!) plus the worst ever theme song(at least until madonna shows up)
however lee is pretty cool, some good set pieces and rog continues to be pretty cool.

3/5 not a patch on live and let die.

What racist stereotypes are you referring to? Yes, you get Sheriff JW Pepper yelling a few crude things about Asians, but that's consistent with his character.

Violence towards women. Well, that's a fair point, but consider that rough treatment of women is hardly something new to Bond. Connery's Bond shoved Ms. Taro into a police car in Dr. No, slaped Tatiana around several times in From Russia With Love, judo-flips Pussy Galore in Goldfinger, bites Domino's foot in Thunderball, and delivers a hard smack to Tiffany Case in Diamonds Are Forever. Lazenby's Bond almost breaks Traci's arm in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. In Bond's world, women who have information Bond needs presents him him with a choice: he can either seduce them (which you might argue is a form of mistreatment of women) or he can get a bit rough.

You'll have to elaborate on what you mean by "unfunny comedy." The only interjection of an overt comedic point that I observed was the dumb slide whistle during the astro spiral car jump.

Now, I agree with you about Lulu's theme song. It's definately not high on my list of Bond theme songs, but I wouldn't go so far as to call it the worst. I'll give that award to Rita Coolidge's "All Time High."

[barnaby morbius]

well...there's a character called hai-fat(who originally had a partner called lo fat, in the script), but i was thinking mainly of.the redneck sheriff...

the attitude to women is pretty dodgy though- as i remember bond threatens to break a woman's arm, and locks goodnight in a cupboard while he boffs another woman.

comedy wise i guess i was thinking of the fight with the midget, and the teenage girl ninjas. i dont dislike the film by any means- it just seems one where the balance between light and serious seem at it's most uncomfortable. plus it looks pretty cheap in places.

[Patrick]

well...there's a character called hai-fat(who originally had a partner called lo fat, in the script), but i was thinking mainly of.the redneck sheriff...

Character, Barnaby! If you're going to re-introduce Sheriff Pepper into a Bond film, you have to expect he's going to utter, er, shall we say politically incorrect things. That's who the character is. Indeed, contemporary audiences would have been disappointed if he hadn't been the racist redneck they first met in LALD.

the attitude to women is pretty dodgy though- as i remember bond threatens to break a woman's arm, and locks goodnight in a cupboard while he boffs another woman.

Situational specifics are critical here. Ms. Goodnight had apparently rebuffed Bond's advances over a bottle of Phuyuck, so Bond heads back to his hotel room. There, Ms. Goodnight enters, and admits her "hard to get" act didn't last long, so Bond gets started on the seduction... only to have a surprise visit by Ms. Anders. Now, remember, Bond and Goodnight are both MI-6 agents, and both know the importance of getting the Solex back in their hands, so both understand that the only reason Ms. Anders would be visiting Bond would be to provide information and/or cooperation. Bond is expected, under that understanding, to invite her to bed. Which means both Bond and Goodnight understand that Goodnight has become a spare part, and would need to be concealed until Bond has sealed the deal with Ms. Anders. Given the limited time they had while Ms. Anders was in the bathroom, the closet was the most convenient place for her to wait, and both characters understood that.

I've spoken in my review about Bond twisting Ms. Ander's arm, and even smacking her around. Go back and read what I said. This is completely consistent with the character of James Bond, given his over-riding desire to find Scaramanga.

comedy wise i guess i was thinking of the fight with the midget, and the teenage girl ninjas. i dont dislike the film by any means- it just seems one where the balance between light and serious seem at it's most uncomfortable. plus it looks pretty cheap in places.

And yet, I don't see either Loo's neices (the "teenage girl ninjas") or Nick Nack, as comedic elements. All three characters were perfectly in sync with the theme of 'things circus related.' The fact that the girls were martial arts professionals came as a complete surprise to Bond (and the audience), and they rescued him from Hai Fat's dojo. And Nick Nack was the most important character for the theme of this movie, given the role of trickster he played throughout it. I don't get from any of this a sense of unfunny comedy. I get pretty decent drama/action by playing with audience expectation of what these characters, on the surface, ought to have been limited to.

[barnaby morbius]

well...there's a character called hai-fat(who originally had a partner called lo fat, in the script), but i was thinking mainly of.the redneck sheriff...

Character, Barnaby! If you're going to re-introduce Sheriff Pepper into a Bond film, you have to expect he's going to utter, er, shall we say politically incorrect things. That's who the character is. Indeed, contemporary audiences would have been disappointed if he hadn't been the racist redneck they first met in LALD.

true. but it's a misjudgement bringing the character back just to make some racist gags. he doesn't really add anything to the story, he's quite annoying and he wan't that good a character in the first place.

the attitude to women is pretty dodgy though- as i remember bond threatens to break a woman's arm, and locks goodnight in a cupboard while he boffs another woman.

Situational specifics are critical here. Ms. Goodnight had apparently rebuffed Bond's advances over a bottle of Phuyuck, so Bond heads back to his hotel room. There, Ms. Goodnight enters, and admits her "hard to get" act didn't last long, so Bond gets started on the seduction... only to have a surprise visit by Ms. Anders. Now, remember, Bond and Goodnight are both MI-6 agents, and both know the importance of getting the Solex back in their hands, so both understand that the only reason Ms. Anders would be visiting Bond would be to provide information and/or cooperation. Bond is expected, under that understanding, to invite her to bed. Which means both Bond and Goodnight understand that Goodnight has become a spare part, and would need to be concealed until Bond has sealed the deal with Ms. Anders. Given the limited time they had while Ms. Anders was in the bathroom, the closet was the most convenient place for her to wait, and both characters understood that.

I've spoken in my review about Bond twisting Ms. Ander's arm, and even smacking her around. Go back and read what I said. This is completely consistent with the character of James Bond, given his over-riding desire to find Scaramanga.

goodnight comes across as a complete moron and spends large parts of the film locked in a cupboard or a car boot.
and i know that bond has been violent towards women before- i just don't especially want to watch it. thankfully we don't see much more of this sort of stuff

comedy wise i guess i was thinking of the fight with the midget, and the teenage girl ninjas. i dont dislike the film by any means- it just seems one where the balance between light and serious seem at it's most uncomfortable. plus it lo it.oks pretty cheap in places.

And yet, I don't see either Loo's neices (the "teenage girl ninjas") or Nick Nack, as comedic elements. All three characters were perfectly in sync with the theme of 'things circus related.' The fact that the girls were martial arts professionals came as a complete surprise to Bond (and the audience), and they rescued him from Hai Fat's dojo. And Nick Nack was the most important character for the theme of this movie, given the role of trickster he played throughout it. I don't get from any of this a sense of unfunny comedy. I get pretty decent drama/action by playing with audience expectation of what these characters, on the surface, ought to have been limited to.

but these scenes are definitely played for laughs. nick nack gets stuck in a suitcase by bond at the end!
the music doesn't help either-especially the "oriental" stuff.
the car stunt has a stupid sound effect, the characters of nick nack, pepper and goodnight are just there for some lame jokes, extra nipples...
this one was clearly made as a cheesy comedy- with the occasional bit of brutality...

[stanmore]

I agree, largely, with Barnaby. MWTGG is a decent effort, but a stodgy one, that can't decide whether it wants to be a cheesy Moore-era comedy or a film that harkens back to Bond's darker roots. Add to that the joyless carping between M and Q and the action sequences that seem parachuted in from a completely different film, I don't know how you could give it more than 3/5. I also think Britt Ekkland is bloody useless, and a far worse actress that anyone that has been a Bond Girl before (though she does have the good grace to look a little more interested than Diana Rigg).

[Patrick]

Clearly, I'm a bigger fan of this film than most of my fellow Wrinklies. Barnaby, I agree with you about having Sherrif JW Pepper shoved into this movie- that only happened because of how popular the character was with audiences in the last movie. You and I may find him annoying, watching this film in 2011. But for audiences in 1974, the character worked.

As for my rating of the film, after the disappointment of LALD, I found Man With The Golden Gun to be an artistic entry cut from the same mold as Goldfinger. The cinematic look of the film felt epic, it had a great theme*, it had a well structured plot, and the most engaging villain we've had since Telly Savalas' Blofeld. Add in the fact that when it was finally revealed who had sent the gold bullet to MI-6, it caused you re-think every assumption you'd made about the movie to that point- I love it when a movie surprises you like that.


*And I don't mean Lulu's theme song. I'm talking about the consistent theme of circus related stuff throughout the story.

[Patrick]

I make no claims as to the veracity of THIS ARTICLE, I am merely passing this information along.

The article (if you click the link) indicates that a BAFTA screenwriter's conference, John Logan (the scribe for Bond 23) hinted that the villain in the next Bond movie will be...

...wait for it....

Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

Save for a pre-credits cameo at the start of For Your Eyes Only, the last time Blofeld appeared in a Danjac/EON production of a Bond film was 40 years ago, in Diamonds Are Forever. The last time seen in screen was in the remake of Thunderball, Never Say Never Again, when Max Von Sydow played him, and that was 28 years ago.

So, what are your thoughts? If true, would this be a good move for the franchise?

[The Co=Ordinator]

I think it would be brilliant. He is The Doctor's Master, Holmes' Moriarty.

[Dave Webb]

I think it would be brilliant. He is The Doctor's Master, Holmes' Moriarty.

I think the current Bond supports an alternative view- that Blofeld is M's nemesis and Bond M's weapon of choice. She certainly seems to treat that way.

The Daniel Craig Bond is no idiot, certainly, but he's not really on Blofeld's intellectual level. I like the idea of M and Blofeld being chess masters.

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