I love LALD and TMWTGG. That said, LALD has a LOT of parts where the villains have Bond and want to kill him so badly, and yet provide ridiculous set ups.
For example, LALD:
- Bond, I have you captured and I will have your finger chopped off. I want to kill you, but instead, I will take you to the alligator farm!
- Bond, I have put you in the middle of the alligator pit. You will die! Ha ha. Now, me and my men will go inside and assume that you will die momentarily.
In TMWTGG, there is perhaps one moment like this, where Hai Fat orders Bond to be taken to the karate school. However, that was HAI FAT, and not Scaramanga. Scaramanga's plans were more, shall we say, believable and plausible. At the climax, I love Scaramanga's line when he says: "I could have shot you when you were in your plane, but that would have been ridicuously easy". Again, we buy that Scaramanga has a code of honor, albeit very twisted and psychotic. And, we buy the duel between them and that it must happen. There is no unnecessary set up of a plan to kill Bond followed by a forced set up to provide Bond with a way out of that initially ridiculous set up.
LALD and TMWTGG, two great films. But, TMWTGG just edges out LALD in my book.
And, I am NOT suggesting for a moment that TMWTGG is a "realistic" Bond film. I AM saying that Scaramanga as a villain and his machinations against Bond are well set up and well presented, and no matter how badly the rest of the film is perceived, nothing can take away the fact that Scaramanaga is truly the Man.
Comments
As always, Barbel, many thanks.
Not to my knowledge. Never heard "ponyheads" once even.
For example, LALD:
- Bond, I have you captured and I will have your finger chopped off. I want to kill you, but instead, I will take you to the alligator farm!
- Bond, I have put you in the middle of the alligator pit. You will die! Ha ha. Now, me and my men will go inside and assume that you will die momentarily.
In TMWTGG, there is perhaps one moment like this, where Hai Fat orders Bond to be taken to the karate school. However, that was HAI FAT, and not Scaramanga. Scaramanga's plans were more, shall we say, believable and plausible. At the climax, I love Scaramanga's line when he says: "I could have shot you when you were in your plane, but that would have been ridicuously easy". Again, we buy that Scaramanga has a code of honor, albeit very twisted and psychotic. And, we buy the duel between them and that it must happen. There is no unnecessary set up of a plan to kill Bond followed by a forced set up to provide Bond with a way out of that initially ridiculous set up.
LALD and TMWTGG, two great films. But, TMWTGG just edges out LALD in my book.
And, I am NOT suggesting for a moment that TMWTGG is a "realistic" Bond film. I AM saying that Scaramanga as a villain and his machinations against Bond are well set up and well presented, and no matter how badly the rest of the film is perceived, nothing can take away the fact that Scaramanaga is truly the Man.
I always took the term to be "poorly heads" as in their heads were poorly (ill) and wrapped in bandages (turbans).