The Man With The Golden Gun (1974)
#18 – The Man With The Golden Gun
Fantasy Island meets a Young Saurumon with 3 Nipples
Plot Synopsis
James Bond is mailed a letter with a golden bullet from Francisco Scaramanga to intimidate him and pull him off an assignment involving cheap solar energy.
Bond in an effort to rejoin the mission, tries to hunt down Scaramanga himself only to basically be pulled into the wicked plot knot of who really planned this all or is it just coincidence? Ultimately, whoever was pulling the strings, it is revealed that Scarmanga not only wants to duel Bond to the death, but has also orchestrated a plan to corner the cheap and efficient solar power using the item Bond was after prior to the mailed bullet.
Sheriff J.W. Pepper makes an absurdly unnecessary and flagrantly racist cameo to insult the Thai people in a redneck fashion.
Why it’s 18 & not 19?
It’s better than Octopussy because of Christopher Lee and his creepy assassin character Francisco Scaramanga and the little guy from Fantasy Island helps out a little, too.
That said, there is plenty non-James Bond moments in this film. The classic spiral car jump is made terrible by a slow motion Dukes of Hazzard moment complete with out of place in a James Bond film sound effect. The AMC car turned jet is kinda cool, the golden gun is cool, but it’s really kind of an awkward movie in a lot of spots. Much like the rest of the Roger Moore movies, it dances far too often with camp rather than with conspiracy of it all. The whole plan is either a masterful case of a spider weaving a brilliant web only to be stung to death by a hornet or it’s just too convoluted and should have dropped the solar power sub-plot and just let the two master assassins fight it out.
Plus, Sheriff J.W. Pepper is just unbearable as he is intolerant. It’s a train-wreck in the middle of what would be an otherwise fantastic boat and car chase in the middle of Bangkok.
