Movie Review- The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)

Originally written 4/8/16

The Roger Moore Bond films are often maligned as campy dreck. Those detractors would be right, but that is the appeal of the Moore films. They are Bond at his goofiest, and it sure is fun to watch. The Man with the Golden Gun is no exception. It makes little sense and is over-the-top, but it sure is entertaining.

The Bond movies have always unabashedly cashed in on what was popular at the time. Live and Let Die has elements of Blaxploitation, Moonraker is James Bond in space, Die Another Day is the x-treme early 00's Bond, and so on. The Man with the Golden Gun was made when kung-fu movies were popular, so of course Bond fights a karate dojo and sumo wrestlers. It must be seen to be believed. The creative team seemingly dumped any idea they had into the film, and it is a wonderful mess. A midget henchman? Okay. MI6 has a secret base inside a partially sunken ship, so that all the rooms are tilted? That would be cool to see, throw that in. That racist Smokey and the Bandit reject sheriff from Live and Let Die? Nobody liked him, sure we can bring him back. A slide whistle sound effect during a car stunt? Hell yeah, go for it! This movie is gloriously silly and bizarre. It is hard not to be won over by its discombobulated strangeness.

The plot is loopy and nonsensical. Some junk about the energy crisis. Christopher Lee is a villain named Scaramanga whose defining traits are "Has a golden gun and a third nipple". Bond disguises himself as Scaramanga at one point by wearing a fake third nipple. (Which he later peels off and throws onto the side of the road. Because this movie is really whacked.) Scaramanga has a secret island base with a shooting gallery in the basement so he can practice Golden Gunning people. Why his basement setup has a full array of animatronics and neon German expressionist decor is never addressed. He uses a solar-powered laser to blow up a plane. Truly this is an amazingly dumb film.

In the few "serious" moments of the film, the point is brought up that Scaramanga is essentially the evil version of James Bond. He is a hitman and kills for money, whereas Bond does the same thing but because he works for the government. The few scenes in which they address this point are well done, and I would have liked to see this point developed further. However, that would have required a complete overhaul of the film. A spy movie with a flying car is not the place to discuss moral gray areas.

The Man with the Golden Gun is a fun mess of a film. It has all the dumb campy junk you would expect from a Roger Moore Bond movie, but for once it actually clicks. Most of the Moore movies are amusingly campy on occasion. This one is just balls-to-the-wall weird. It is by no means a good film, but it is one of the most fun James Bond films in the series.