Why Man With the Golden Gun is cack!
roger moores swept 8
Posts: 8MI6 Agent
Here are my reasons that MWTGG is dire:
1. Scaramanga has a wax work model of Roger Moore in his house (Bond).
2. Hip goes to rescue Bond from the Karate School and then drives off and leaves Bond to fend for himself!
3. In the film, no one knows where Scaramanga is, what he looks like and is very mysterious and generally very hard to track down. How the hell does M have the telephone number for Scaramangas private Junk?
4. There is a massive power station that operates the electricity etc on Scaramangas island. Why does it only take one person (Kra) to operate it?
5. J W Pepper.
Please don't be offended Bond fans, I am a massive fan myself and Moore is my favourite Bond. I just thought it would be funny to highlight some of the errors in this film for a laugh! (I still like the film and bought it the other day on DVD!)
1. Scaramanga has a wax work model of Roger Moore in his house (Bond).
2. Hip goes to rescue Bond from the Karate School and then drives off and leaves Bond to fend for himself!
3. In the film, no one knows where Scaramanga is, what he looks like and is very mysterious and generally very hard to track down. How the hell does M have the telephone number for Scaramangas private Junk?
4. There is a massive power station that operates the electricity etc on Scaramangas island. Why does it only take one person (Kra) to operate it?
5. J W Pepper.
Please don't be offended Bond fans, I am a massive fan myself and Moore is my favourite Bond. I just thought it would be funny to highlight some of the errors in this film for a laugh! (I still like the film and bought it the other day on DVD!)
Comments
Nicely put.
Personally I quite like TMWTGG, but it certainly is not without faults ...
I laugh at Bond's incompetence with a fairly standard internal combustion engine (fuel James, FUEL!!)
Why bring Bond to the School? What were they trying to do?
Absolute zero is just that, absolute zero ... you can't have something rise up to absolute zero.
Why did the House of Fun need all of that scaffolding for Bond to climb down?
Why didn't Hip just pinch the Solex from Gibson?
He is one of the funniest characters in the series!
And the way they meet is stupid as well. Why would J W Pepper be looking to purchase an American car (at least I think it is American) whilst on holiday in the far east? The mind boggles!
Quality stunt with the car nonetheless
You didn't offend me. The film was a major low point for fans like me in 1974. When you look at it with the other 20 films today - it doesn't look that bad now.
to Alexi Sayle? ("cack, cack, bloody CACK!")
The reason I bring this up is that, during the summer holidays, my parents took me up to a remote village in Scotland - I met my school dinner-lady as soon as we got there. A bizarre coincidence. I was scared of saying hello unless I was totally wrong and made a fool of myself - but me and sister had a conference and decided that was indeed her (which it was!).
Although Sheriff Pepper`s inclusion in The Man With The Golden Gun is certainly "regrettable" (alongside the infamous swanee-whistle) - strange coincidences do happen. [Just last month, I found out my Landlord was once a friend of the guy I play music with every week - unbelievable].
OK, OK I agree coincidences happen! But was your dinner lady looking at purchasing a car on holiday?
Good to hear you used to live in Wimborne. I frequent there quite a bit, I like the pubs around there. The folk festival is quality as well
It's a film that, in its wonderful absurdity, makes for great entertainment. It ranks high on my personal top ten Bond list.
For example, I love the complete absurdity of the whole karate school set-up:
(a) When Bond goes to Hai Fat's palace at night, Nick Nack decides to attack him by dressing up as an Asian demon (?).
(b) To assist Nick Nack/Asian Demon, Nick Nack has as his help two sumo wrestlers.
(c) While Bond is out cold, he is at the complete mercy of Hai Fat (who obviously wants Bond dead). So, because Hai Fat wants Bond dead, he decides not to have Bond killed when Bond is out cold but to transport him to a nearby karate school (?).
(d) To add a sense of eeriness, the karate disciples passionlessly chant "Chula, Chula, Chula".
(e) Hip drives off, despite the fact that his nieces are (I assume) telling Hip to stop the car.
(f) Bond makes a quip about a "Mexican screwup" that seems out of place being that he is neither in Mexico nor talking to people who seem to be associated with Mexico.
(g) Bond coldheartedly pushes a boy into the river after the boy helps him escape. What makes the scene even more bizarre is that the boy is obviously impoverished, and only wants to sell his wooden elephant. (It would be interesting to see how Daniel Craig, would have played this scene. Probably would have screamed "Bloody idiot", and kicked the boy, causing him to bleed internally or something.) In general, Moore Bond is oddly mean to Asians throughout this film; recall the other scene when Bond confronts Lazar's Hong Kong family. It was probably because of all those bottles of Phu Yuck he had to drink.
The poor boy with the elephant, incidentally, looks a lot like a young version of Kamal Khan. So, perhaps, this boy IS Kamal Khan and grew up hating humanity and wanting to become rich. So, perhaps, Bond had a hand in creating the evil Khan, who he would later face in Octopussy. And, remember what Kamal rode in that film when trying to kill Bond at the Monsoon Palace? Why, an ELEPHANT of course. It's all beginning to make sense now.
(h) J.W. Pepper, who apparantly is in Asia to buy a new car. Incidentally, during the famous corkscrew car stunt, I never could understand why JW (whose hat miraculously stays on his head) screams "YAUUU-WWWWWEEEEEEE!" AFTER the car has safely landed on the other side.
(i) It's hard to make out, but Pepper seems to be calling all the Asian people "pointy heads". It sounds like an insult/racial slur, but what makes it weird is that "pointy head" is slang for a smart person/intellectual (albeit a disparaging term). So, in fact, in trying to insult the Asian race, Pepper is unknowingly complimenting it (?).
(j) Mrs. Pepper calls out "J.W., Where AAREE YEWWW?" not realizing that J.W. is standing in the bank right in front of her.
(k) Finally, when Scaramanga shoots Hai Fat, Hai Fat leans on his desk in a pose makes it look like Hai Fat is thinking "Now, if only I can remain standing, I might fight off the effects of the bullet that has entered my body". Then, he is dead.
And, that is why Tim-Wig is one of my favorite Bond films.
1. Christpher Lee not allowed to be menacing enough.
2. Britt Eckland totally miscast as Mary Goodnight.
3. Mary Goodnight badly written as a character. Instead of being a compotent secret service officer she is a blond bimbo with the IQ of a stuffed toy.
4. Return of J W Pepper. He just about worked in Louisiana - but totally wrong in Thailland.
Well, what he actually says is "Mexican screw-off", a pun on "Mexican stand-off". It's not the best joke there's ever been in a Bond film, but not the worst either!
(I watched TMWTGG the other day and enjoyed it thoroughly...)
American cars in general were so dire in the 1970's I guess that if American tourists didn't buy them, nobody at all would!
Funny in a Burt Reynold's movie(and just barely), not funny in a Bond.
What is cack?
To Barbel,
Thank you! That makes more sense!
My pleasure. Once again, great choice of name, Mister Biswas!
Alas, no house yet, but I shall own one even if it takes my whole life. Apparently I was born under a bad sign.
I am not a native speaker and not an expert in southern US slangs, but it sounded more like "Ponyheads" to me.
I don't know the term, it may be an insult as well
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
She says "Keep your guard up and retain your balance", I think. Must take a look at that one (though I have TB to watch first; ah, the tragedy...:) ).
Nick Nack is an outstanding character... I regard TMWTGG as a great film entertaining , cool , funny , brilliant performances, a fun entertaining adventure...
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This was very well put, scaramangasgoldengun. Especially your comment about the gun: "truly a work of art. . . what a gadget and artifact."
When Bond and Scaramanga are together eating dinner on the island, all we get is a shot of Scaramanga putting his lighter on the table. That alone is suspenseful!!!
And I totally agree: the world needs its share of dumb bimbos too. Although it is nothing against Britt, who is not only beautiful and sexy as all hell but who can act but who has shown to be a very good actress when given the chance.
One of my favorite scenes in the film, though, has to be when Scaramanga is recounting the tale of the elephant. For a moment, we as the audience are hooked and almost feel sorry for this man. BUt then, he delivers the chilling line "I discovered i liked killing even more" (or something to that effect, I am TERRIBLE at remembering dialogue, help BARBEL!!
But, he is also a gentleman, and he is not without a code of honor.
Thank you again, BARBEL. As always, you prove to know your stuff. B-)
I hope you enjoy Thunberball! Incidentally, true story, this past summer, I went to Nassau for a vacation. Got sick one night from a bad batch of conch chowder (Domino was right about it lacking in its aphrodisiac effects)
Close enough, Mr B. It's perhaps the highpoint of the film* for me simply because Christopher Lee is speaking almost pure Fleming here (Britt Eklund gets a line or two from the book, too, though to lesser effect) and effortlessly dominating the movie, somewhat overshadowing ol'Rog in the process- not a knock at Moore; Lee often does that to his co-stars if he gets the right material.
* Admittedly, there isn't much competition.
In YOLT, when Helga gets fed to the fishes, what is it that she screams? It's something like: "OSATO, AIM!!!!!"