Review for The Man With the Golden Gun

Introduction

On this journey through the James Bond movies, I’m down to my last seven, eight if you count No Time To Die, nine if you throw in the original Casino Royale as well (ten with Never Say Never Again). I won’t, but you might think, given that I’ve been watching them out of order, as and when I purchase them, that I’ve gotten to the dregs of the franchise by now. That isn’t actually the case, as I now take a look at The Man With the Golden Gun, which has been my second favourite Roger Moore Bond movie after Live and Let Die. You can take them as a pair, in the same way as The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker, although this time I discovered that my appreciation for Moonraker has waned. Hopefully the same thing won’t happen with the ‘sequel’ to Live and Let Die.


James Bond has been pulled off his current assignment, investigating a man named Gibson, and some missing solar cell data. Given the nature of the energy crisis, it seems a poor decision, but the arrival of a golden bullet with Bond’s number on signifies a threat that turns the secret agent from an asset into a liability. For the bullet signifies that he has been targeted by one Francisco Scaramanga for assassination. Scaramanga charges a million for a kill, his signature weapon is a golden gun, loaded with golden bullets, and the ace marksman never misses. M tells Bond that his choice is between retirement and a sabbatical, although he hints that if Scaramanga is dealt with, that situation would naturally change. But going after Scaramanga pulls Bond back into the solar cell case.

Picture

Just as with Live and Let Die, IMDB lists The Man With the Golden Gun’s OAR as 1.66:1, but what we get on disc is a 1.85:1 widescreen 1080p transfer. I certainly never felt as if the frame was cramped or cropped. You have the choice between DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround English, DTS 5.1 Surround French and German, and DD 5.1 Czech, with subtitles in these languages and Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish. The image is clear and sharp, detail levels are good, and colours are consistent, although like some other vintage Bond movies in the collection, it seems a slight sepia colour timing has been applied for the restoration. Skin tones feel a little pushed towards red and orange, and grain has been managed. The audio is adequate; the surround is put to good use for ambience and action, while the dialogue is clear throughout.

Extras

You get one disc in a BD Amaray case with a UV code within. The disc boots to an animated menu.

You get the usual MI6 Commentaries, one with Sir Roger Moore, and one with director Guy Hamilton plus members of the cast and crew. The latter is one of those moderated patchwork commentaries.


In Declassified: MI6 Vault you’ll find the following.

The Russell Harty Show (sans Russell Harty) (3:00)
On Location with The Man With the Golden Gun (1:31)
Girls Fighting (3:32)
American Thrill Show Stunt Film with optional commentary (5:17)
The Road to Bond: Stunt Coordinator W.J Mulligan (audio only) (8:01)
Guy Hamilton: The Director Speaks (5:22)


007 Mission Control is the usual film glossary of chapter links with an Exotic Locations featurette (5:07) tagged on.

Mission Dossier contains the meat of the extras.

Inside The Man With the Golden Gun (31:00)
Double-O Stuntmen (28:39)


Ministry of Propaganda offers 2 Theatrical Trailers, 2 TV Spots, and 3 Radio Spots.

Finally there is an Image Database divided into 11 categories of image.

Conclusion

This could so easily be a Bond movie for our time. The parallels between the energy crisis of the seventies (motivated by a shortage of oil), and the climate crisis of our time are obvious. The maguffin of a revolutionary solar power technology certainly makes this film feel relevant. But I have to say that not much else does, and with regret I find that The Man With the Golden Gun is not the Bond movie I remember, even if Christopher Lee was born to play a Bond villain.


It is an obvious sequel to Live and Let Die, mirroring it in many ways, which should have made for a decent experience, but as I realised with The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker, things don’t always turn out that way. Obviously, this time I didn’t appreciate the return of Sheriff J. W. Pepper, even though I loved the character as a child. The comic relief sticks out like a sore thumb, is actually a little offensive in this film, and doesn’t have a redeeming final line the way he did with his first showing. And that dopey sound effect kills the best stunt in the film.


Just as Live and Let Die cashed in on the blaxploitation scene of the seventies, The Man With the Golden Gun cashes in on the martial arts movie scene, setting the action in the far east, and throwing in kung fu and karate, as well as sumo, taekwondo, and kickboxing as well. Unfortunately, this is no Bruce Lee movie. Far from it, with its action choreographed by people unfamiliar with the genre. They look the same way that we did at age ten when we were ‘playing’ kung-fu in the school playground.


A big sticking point for me is miscasting. It’s Britt Ekland as Goodnight, the agent in the Far East who’s supposed to liaise with Bond. She plays it as if it’s a comedy role, clumsy and scatterbrained, and more interested in being jealous of Bond’s other women instead of doing her work. It stands in stark contrast to Maud Adams, who plays Scaramanga’s woman, and brings a tragic vulnerability to the role.


This sense of contradiction also pervades the story, which feels large and small at the same time. We never get a sense of urgency or the importance of the Solex Agitator, the maguffin in the film. It’s just a gizmo that gets passed around, and there’s no sense of triumph or loss over it. Scaramanga’s million per kill has somehow earned him enough to afford his own private island, and a hi-tech secret lair, with a fricken laser (although no sharks). Even in 1974, he must have amassed a serious kill count to afford all that. Yet the story really just boils down to a confrontation, the duel between Bond and Scaramanga, really quite small scale and personal when it comes down to it. This wouldn’t normally be a bad thing, far from it, but for me the characters aren’t strong enough, developed well enough to make it feel real. Scaramanga actually vocalises how he is the mirror image of Bond. The film needs to show, not tell.


It feels like nitpicking to point out that Q’s performance doesn’t pass muster on this mission. His sole contribution is a fake nipple. Meanwhile Scaramanga gets all the cool gadgets, the Solex and the power station, the cool lair, the golden gun in kit form, and even the flying car. In the final analysis, this film has one more thing in common with Live and Let Die, but which when it tops off the litany of complaints I now have about the film really sums up how I feel about The Man With The Golden Gun. That is the anticlimactic way with which the villain exits the film. The mind-warping house of horrors in which he stalks his prey turns out not to predate spaghetti western Bond clone The Return of Sabata which I recently reviewed, yet it still doesn’t have the same impact.


There are aspects of The Man With the Golden Gun that I do still appreciate; in terms of stunts, action, and the globe-trotting adventures it is very much a Bond film, but I don’t feel that it works as a movie anymore.