I'll
start off by saying that I am biased; The Man With The
Golden Gun is the very first Bond film I saw (at the
cinema, before they had even showed Dr No on television)
and so it will always have a special place in my heart.
Conventional wisdom has it that The Man With The Golden
Gun is one of the weakest in the series, but it is surely
time for this view to be revised. It is not perfect by a
long way, but it has almost the right balance of
action to humour and with few gadgets it is head and shoulders
above the silliness of Moonraker, Octopussy
and A View to a Kill and a much better film than
the mess of Live And Let Die.
Where I do agree with conventional wisdom is that Britt
Ekland as Mary Goodnight is terrible - or more to the point
the character is terrible, a repeat of Rosy Carver in Live
And Let Die. And that film continues to haunt us with
the unwelcome reappearance of Sherriff J.W. Pepper, a character
who serves no purpose at all except act as a prototype for
the redneck sheriff in The Dukes of Hazard. At least
the speedboat chase is better than the car chases in both
Diamonds Are Forever and Live And Let Die
, although the car chase here could have done without jump
with a 360 degree twist and especially without that whistle
noise.
However, Scaramanga's surreal funfair has that otherworldly
feeling you get from any film by David Lynch (and the film
even has a midget, ŕ la Twin Peaks). The villain
isn't too over the top and well acted. And Roger Moore's
jokes and innuendo are just about right.
All in all, the Man With The Golden Gun is way above
average compared with the other Moore films and a good,
fun film.
|
Roger
Moore
|
James
Bond
|
|
Christopher
Lee
|
Francisco
Scaramanga
|
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Britt
Ekland
|
Mary Goodnight
|
|
Maud
Adams
|
Andrea
Anders
|
|
Hervé
Villechaize
|
Nick
Nack
|
|
Clifton
James
|
Sheriff
J.W. Pepper
|
|
Richard
Loo
|
Hai Fat
|
|
Bernard
Lee
|
M
|
|
Lois
Maxwell
|
Miss
Moneypenny
|
|
Desmond
Llewelyn
|
Q
|
|
|
|
Director
|
Guy
Hamilton
|
|
Screenplay
|
Richard
Maibaum
|
Buy The Man With The Golden Gun online
DVD
Amazon UK
Blu-Ray
Amazon US
