The Man With the Golden Gun (1974)

     I'll be honest I've been getting a bit fatigued with Bond. The last two movies I watched for this blog were barely coherent vehicals for increasingly silly and problematic setpieces. It seems to me that Diamonds are Forever was the peak of that style of Bond film. The type that forgets that movies typically have a narrative and just wants to show us fun action setpiece after fun action setpiece. That this was all I could expect from The Man with the Golden Gun was the attitude I entered the film with. 

    Imagine, then, my surprise when it turned out that The Man with the Golden Gun was not merely coherent but pretty damn engaging. It started out in a typical surreal bordering incoherent Bond movie way with an action scene taking place in a funhouse that has NO reason for existing beyond being a really cool place to have a shootout and to clue us in a bit to the villain's backstory. Our Bond villain, Christopher Lee with an extra nipple and a really shiny handgun, fights and kills an assassin that was sent by his manservant Nick Nack. This sequence, dispite the typical of the era dislike of logic and coherency, does a ton of narrative heavy lifting. We are introduced to the titular man with the golden gun, his gimmick, that he has some interest in carnival trick shooting, his main henchman, AND that there's a casual but very real silent war between them as his main henchman is trying to kill him. It's a fun dynamic that I wish was explored a little more throughout the film. Since this was just sowing the seeds for future narrative events I was still expecting a stupid incoherent film with only some spikes of interest when Bond does somthing ludacris like get involved in a car chase through a movie studio crashing through a bunch of sets, including another James Bond movie. 

    What I didn't expect was Bond's briefing to consist entirely of M telling Bond not to go on a mission to assassinate Christopher Lee with an extra nipple. Instead he tells Bond to stop working on his current assignment, and to go on leave cause he's too much of a libility now that Christopher Lee with an extra nipple has sent MI6 a golden bullet with 007 engraved on its surface. His current assignment is off handedly mentioned to be related to a scientist, Gibson, who has created a really advanced solar cell that could solve the energy crisis. So now Bond has only one thing to do: hunt down and assassinate the assassin that wants to assassinate him. What follows for the rest of the film is a well paced, logical, if overlong, investigation/battle of wits between Bond: the infinitely competant power fantasy made flesh, and the million dollar assassin who, I will remind you, is played by Christopher Lee. 

    Early on intreague is introduced when we learn that Christopher Lee with an extra nipple seems to be more interested in Gibson, as he chooses to shoot the scientest over Bond. What initially just seemed to be a throw away line to give M somthing to take away to motivate Bond was actually seeding plotpoints for later. You know, like a competantly written story. Like good spy thriller complex allegences shift and change. The problematically named Thai entrepenuer, Hai Fat hired Christopher Lee with an extra nipple to kill Gibson for the advanced solar cell, but Christopher Lee with an extra nipple has his own plans for the cell and kills Hai Fat. However, Christopher Lee with an extra nipple isn't immune to betrayals, his lover, Andrea Anders, wants to be free of him and arranged for the bullet message to be sent to MI6 herself so as to set Bond against Christopher Lee with an extra nipple. All of these twists, turns and complications are well spaced throughout the film and logically flow from one to the next as plot points are introduced reinforced and payed off in a pleasing fashion. This is truly the spy thriller that bond should be.

    It's really not perfect though. I mentioned it was overlong, and that's because we really have two bond villains: Christopher Lee with an extra nipple, and Hai Fat. They really should have spent less time on Hai Fat. The middle of the movie is dominated by Bond's attempts to get the solar cell from Hai Fat after Christopher Lee with an extra nipple assassinates Gibson for it. It's a whole section of the film where very little evolves narratively until Christopher Lee with an extra nipple assassinates Hai Fat. Even then the only thing that changes is Christopher Lee with an extra nipple now has the solar cell... which he had anyway since he got it from Gibson. Even the setpieces aren't that interesting. There's a few chase sequences that, due to the inclusion of Live and Let Die's southern cop steriotype J.W. Pepper, feels very dirivitive of that film's big chase sequence, but there is an admittedly fun moment when Christopher Lee with an extra nipple attaches his car to a jet engine with wings and flies off back to his standard issue Bond Villain Island Hideout. The length got to be such a problem that as the movie approached its climax with Bond heading off to confront Christopher Lee with an extra nipple on his Island, I was checking the time and seriously losing interest. The film wraps up in a very typical Bond fashion after that. Christopher Lee with an extra nipple shows of his solar powered death ray, he and bond have a shoot out in the funhouse from the beginning, Bond gets some help from Nick Nack as Nick Nack still wants his boss dead (cause he'll get control of everything), and Bond blows everything off and escapes with a lovely lady. Nick Nack appears one last time to try and kill Bond for a last minute "it's not over yet" sequence, and Bond and the lovely lady have sex, roll credits.

    In hindsight the movie seems far less enjoyable now than I remember. Especially since most of it is focused on the ultimately pointless plot of Bond getting to Hai Fat, but Christopher Lee (with or without an extra nipple) elevates EVERY role he plays and fits the Bond villain role like a glove. It's also very refreshing that I can actually follow the plot of this one.