Day 22: The Man with the Golden Gun

As far as sophomore performances go for Bond actors, the franchise is 2-for-2. What separates The Man with the Golden Gun from other Bond films is that Scaramanga is somewhat the opposite of Bond, a doppelganger if you will. Christopher Lee is so delightfully evil that he is, in fact, one of my favorite villains in the Bond franchise. He kills because he can and he’s damn good at it too. So good that he requires only one bullet to kill his target. It might also be because gold bullets are horribly expensive and even a one million dollar payout per kill might not cover ammunition expenses. He lures others to his island to engage them in a game of cat-and-mouse in a funhouse Scaramanga has designed underneath his luxurious island. He also has a wax statue of Bond himself in a room, most likely there to keep Scaramanga looking toward the future when he can finally kill his Bond.

Scaramanga has been labeled the evil side of Bond, being able to slither and slink through big cities without being noticed, killing for pleasure and money, not for queen and country. Not only that, but he is like other Bond villains, using his power to obtain an object that will help with their journey to world domination. Though this film was made with an environmental theme, the film does not date itself, but instead uses it as a plot device for another Bond mission.

MI6 is sent a golden bullet with Bond’s number engraved on it and they are misled to believe that Scaramanga has sent it to intimidate Bond. The person truly behind the message is actually Andrea Anders, Scaramanga’s woman, who is tired of the restricted, yet lavish life she has. She wants Bond to defeat Scaramanga and free her from her life. What sets the film apart from others in the usual Bond formula is that Andrea could be considered the true Bond girl instead of Mary Goodnight, a young agent who has no reason to be in the film other than to guide Bond to Scaramanga’s island from the back seat of his trunk. Andrea’s actions throughout the film are important to the story rather than Goodnight running around Scaramanga’s island in a bikini (Diamonds Are Forever all over again!)

Golden Gun also tried to build on Moore’s success by including extra characters from previous films. As Bond is escaping Hai Fat’s henchmen on a motorboat through the waterways of Thailand, we are reunited with Sheriff JW Pepper from Live and Let Die. I’m not sure why a Louisiana sheriff is vacationing in Thailand, but he is still as irritating as ever and Bond knows it. Pepper is sitting in a vehicle in a car dealership (thinking about buying a car while on vacation?) when Bond jumps in aiming to follow Scaramanga to his hideout. On their pursuit, Bond attempts a stunt in order to make up for lost time. The stunt, if you’re not familiar with it, is one of more well-known in the series. It has Bond doing a 360˚ horizontal spin across a canal assisted by ramps built to get the car over the water. It’s a hilarious stunt, but it’s real. One that has since been unequaled in cinema to my knowledge.

Because Golden Gun hadn’t yet fully fallen to the tongue-in-cheek humor later Bond films would possess, it makes this mission an enjoyable one. B