Life at the Monsoon Palace
darenhat
The Old PuebloPosts: 2,029Quartermasters
So I'm watching Octopussy last night, and I noticed a couple of things for the first time...small things that have nothing to do with the plot, really, but add some insight into Kamal Kahn and Gobinda.
First, we all know the scene in which Bond is stealthily spying on Kahn and Orlov as they discuss their 'jewel caper' and Bond hides in a meat locker only to find two bodies hanging in there waiting to be disposed of. If you were to take a second look, you'll notice that these are the two men that were used to put the cache of jewels onto Orlov's waiting helicopter. Apparently, after toting the jewels onto the chopper, Gobinda decided they weren't good for anything else and 'retired' them.
Second, as Kahn and Gobinda make their escape from Monsoon Palace at the end of the film, Kahn orders to have 'the horses readied' or something like that. We see them mount their horses with the Octopussy-in-Distress. As Gobinda mounts, he decides to bash the innocent livery boy in the chest with his boot! Poor guy! One minute he's standing their holding the reins like he's told, the next thing he knows he suffering severe damage to his solar plexus.
This is problably indicative of the caste system under which Kahn and Gobinda operate. Maybe these things were glaringly obvious to others, but like I said my mind never processed them before. I think it would have been an interesting aspect if we were to see that side of Kahn and his henchmen more clearly...as two people who really saw themselves as better than others...and their willingness to destroy the American airbase in Germany as an manifestation of their disdain for 'the lower class.'
First, we all know the scene in which Bond is stealthily spying on Kahn and Orlov as they discuss their 'jewel caper' and Bond hides in a meat locker only to find two bodies hanging in there waiting to be disposed of. If you were to take a second look, you'll notice that these are the two men that were used to put the cache of jewels onto Orlov's waiting helicopter. Apparently, after toting the jewels onto the chopper, Gobinda decided they weren't good for anything else and 'retired' them.
Second, as Kahn and Gobinda make their escape from Monsoon Palace at the end of the film, Kahn orders to have 'the horses readied' or something like that. We see them mount their horses with the Octopussy-in-Distress. As Gobinda mounts, he decides to bash the innocent livery boy in the chest with his boot! Poor guy! One minute he's standing their holding the reins like he's told, the next thing he knows he suffering severe damage to his solar plexus.
This is problably indicative of the caste system under which Kahn and Gobinda operate. Maybe these things were glaringly obvious to others, but like I said my mind never processed them before. I think it would have been an interesting aspect if we were to see that side of Kahn and his henchmen more clearly...as two people who really saw themselves as better than others...and their willingness to destroy the American airbase in Germany as an manifestation of their disdain for 'the lower class.'
Comments
Regarding the two jewel-loaders, Gobinda definitely gives them the evil eye after they load the helicopter, and I think he and Kamal are simply trying to eliminate any potential leaks.
As to the livery boy, I always took Gobinda's action as him simply being a violent guy who was in a hurry to get moving. The kick does seem somewhat unnecessary, though, so maybe you have a point.
Near the end of the film when the two are making good their escape, Gobinda explains that the sounds they are hearing are - "Women selling themselves." That's his definiton of every person outside his own sphere.
How true! We see Gobinda throwing people around pretty liberally. He obviously has a strong lack of social skills!
We all saw the kind of things that Kamal liked for dinner. He's a pretty evil guy. Now we know he's killed his own staff and had them hanged in his meat locker. You figure the rest out.