The Man With The Golden Gun in Review...

I think we're at "what you might call a Mexican screw-off".

TMWTGG was my third Bond ever after LALD and AVTAK at the rental store and the first I ever owned officially on tape (Probably the best childhood Xmas gift ever: You mean there's Moore than the two films I broke the rental store record for most rentals of the same movie?" You're a Bond fan when you literally wear a tape out and it dies before your eyes.)

It gets a bad rap for many reasons but mostly because it is a product of 1974 which was a bit of a lower one for the film industry as there were many economic hardships and the youth culture movements of the late 60's had mostly died out and left an uncertain future for the New Hollywood generation of films. Films were darker, grittier and lower budgeted so did 007 still matter?

Yes. The film may not be perfect, it may have some inherent blandness that needed rejuvenation, Goodnight is a horrible buffoon of a character...but it all adds up to a sophisticated yet at times silly cocktail that is still Bond and a perfect fit for the kung-fu mad world of 1974.

It has some great photography of the locales, you get the sense of being in the Far East in 1974 in spectacular and honest urban locales, Roger is at his darkest and Bond is undeniably pissed off for being the subject of an apparent manhunt, there's real tension and danger, there's an actual mystery component, Barry's rushed score is still achingly and supremely beautiful also with some great action and dramatic cues that I still hum on a daily basis, the Funhouse island set is iconic, Lee gives arguably his best dramatic performance that is so good you cry out for more scenes with him clearly relishing being fang-less-and the trademark Mankiewicz lines/wit is in full force with many not hitting home until years later.
"Speak now or forever hold your piece." GREAT scene. Bond threatens a custom gunsmith with his own triggerless rifle by aiming at his groin. People say Roger couldn't get dark. DEAD WRONG. There are innumerable great moments in the film that aren't outweighed by the silly or stupid. The fake third nipple is wacky-BUT it works in a whimsical way and is used for plot purpose! The ride to the sunken QE is extremely atmospheric and the tilted set is a marvel, Bond smoking waiting outside the club with TMWTGG overhead, the funhouse opening, Binder's titles through water ripples, the somber and atmospheric island score cues, the rough and low scale car chase, the meeting of titans in the kickboxing arena where Lee gets to recount Fleming onscreen amazingly, the incredible silent sequence where Scaramanga returns to the junk and confronts Andrea with the barrel of the gun as if the inquisitive lover as Barry's heart stoppingly beautiful instrumental unfurls, and the majestic-incredible-amazing-hysterical-charming Nick Nack.

"Unless the Bottoms Up is a strip club and Scaramanga is performing there."

Admittedly I love the film in spite of the flaws and will defend any of the original films to the death. Heck I love the title song and even the karate school girls. The way the scene is staged with the funny cue, Bond being flummoxed in bemusement, and the adorable: "FORGOT TO TELL YOU!" cracks me up every time.

If I come home late after a rough day and am not ordering green figs/yogurt/coffee from room service there is only one utterance of disgust/tiredness that comes out of my mouth:

"Phuyuck."
"'74 sir!"

Makes me want to watch TMWTGG, and it's in the bottom half of my rankings. Great celebratory review, sir!

Just watched it again the other day, in a double-feature with DAF - and for all those reasons HGTB listed above.

Thanks. I think if more general viewers looked past the dated qualities of the films always labelled as "lesser" that they'd be quite surprised how enjoyable they are. When I was a kid it was always TMWTGG I had to defend, then it became Moonraker and sometimes AVTAK simply because the former had space lasers and goofiness in some parts and the latter had ageing Roger. I don't even think Internet culture has seen any of them.

...and when they do, the call them the 'forgotten' or 'overlooked' entries (like OHMSS).
There's a difference between 'overlooked' and 'under-rated'.

I don't think TMWTGG is considered lesser because its dated. It's because the narrative doesn't flow.

Between the geometrically-crazed funhouse bookends, the canted QE lodged in Kowloon Harbor, the amazing scenery of the Thai islands and James Bond's leisure suits, I don't think there's a more aesthetically interesting Bond film than Gun. Heck, even Barry's score is quite good and certainly underrated. And who couldn't love one of the most bizarre opening lines in all of cinema: "Nic Nac! Tobasco!"

It is a feast for the eyes and ears. As for the plot I would say bizarre and whimsical is the plot and I doubt we will ever see another movie like this again. I really like GE and CR but anyone can make a film like those and they are very by the numbers. TMWTGG has a certain magic to it that you don't see in modern films.

I think what it needed most of all was simply time. Time to do another draft and better sand off the rough edges. Time for everyone to get a breather. Time for the floundering partnership to perhaps get a slight bit of stability. Time for Guy Hamilton to recharge a bit.

But due to the breaking up of EON if it hadn't been done at that time it might never have been done and the series could have ended there.
There's fantastic stuff throughout the film and strokes of genius but there are several issues that cause the narrative to get a bit hung up here and there and a bit of staleness in some of the visual staging in a few scenes that cause most to react against the film and the inherent 70's dating without ever giving it a chance.

Most of all it needed another script draft to better marry the Mankiewicz original and Maibaum rewrite.

I do think this film shows once again how Cubby was focused on the grandeur and locales whereas Harry focused more on nitty gritty details like tighter narratives. It's really strange to think that it was Cubby behind YOLT, DAF, TMWTGG and Harry behind OHMSS and LALD but that's the way the chips fell. It was this fracture that was the reason why the series could not exist the way it did in the early magic years where these two sides filled in each other's gaps.

Gun starts becoming rather silly once J Dubya enters the picture--and I like J Dubya, BTW--and the plot becomes rather fuzzy. It's certainly one of those Bond films whose first half is superior to its second. TND is another example.

The perceived errors and loose writing can be viewed as part of the charm and style. It seems like it takes 2,3, to 5 plus years to put out a movie these days and it just turns out to be generic garbage.

As Boot mentions, if more time had been taken and Gun had been a '75 release instead who knows how it might've turned out? But the race was on to establish Moore, and that's why LALD and Gun were the first 2 Bond movies in consecutive calendar years since Goldfinger and Thunderball.

It just all works for me and I wouldn't change anything about it. I find too the movies I like best in the series aren't necessarily the best James Bond movies. There is just something so weird about this whole film I love all of it which could be due to drug use or being bumped on my head I'm not sure.

So the Bonds are considerably enhanced viewing experiences with either a head injury, a few joints or both?

I thought we were all high here!

Perilagu Khan wrote:

Gun starts becoming rather silly once J Dubya enters the picture--and I like J Dubya, BTW--and the plot becomes rather fuzzy. It's certainly one of those Bond films whose first half is superior to its second. TND is another example.

I think Pepper adds an energy to an otherwise lacklustre second half (sans island scenes).

If the Saigon half of TND didn't have such a fantastic score, good degree of local colour, the sinister undercurrent of its geopolitical commentary, excellently choreographed action, Brosnan, that brilliant high rise exchange with Carver--- heck, Carver in general-- then you might be right.

Pepper adds nothing but buffoonery, and unlike the buffoonery in LALD, it's not particularly funny.

There is nothing fantastic about any score Arnold wrote. But the chief problem with TND, which I otherwise rate highly, is that a promising story is established in the first half, only to be followed by a narrative void in the second, which is filled almost exclusively by machine gun play and pretty explosions. Perverse and Weird simply didn't have enough narrative material to sustain a full-length film. The same can be said for SP.

Wai Lin's theme, Helicopter Ride and Kowloon Bay are some of the best pieces of music to come out of the last 25 years in Bond. Then there's A Tricky Spot for 007 and Bike Chase to top it off. And Surrender.

P&W didn't work on TND... And the issues present in SP are structural - their job was to make it feel more Bondian, which to a degree they succeeded.

Actually, Arnold's most respectable Bond cues are to be found in CR and QoS, but I don't think he's written an entire Bond score that rises to the level of average. That said, "average" in the Bondoverse is at a pretty high level because of Barry.

QOS does have a number of great tracks, but it doesn't quite match his work in TND and TWINE. Maybe on par with DAD's score. CR is perhaps the most clinical soundtrack in the series. The antithesis of what Bond music should be.

I think Arnold's heyday Bondwise was the Brosnan films. Something was lacking, personally in CR and QOS -not the Bond theme only, just an edge. The two don't thrill too much.

Bizarre moment Russian stuntman recreates James Bond’s ‘corkscrew’ bridge jump from The Man With The Golden Gun in an old Lada

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7849425/Russian-stuntman-recreates-James-Bonds-corkscrew-bridge-jump.html

Pretty impressive considering the car wasn't altered as the TMWTGG Hornet was. Not as seamless as a result but perhaps more realistic.

"Mum, can we go see TMWTGG?"

"No, we have TMWTGG at home."

TMWTGG at home: