“To this moment, and the moment yet to come.” —James Bond
Today’s quick review: The Man with the Golden Gun. British secret agent James Bond (Roger Moore) becomes embroiled in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse when Francisco Scaramanga (Christopher Lee), one of the world’s top assassins, threatens to kill him. Bond travels to Macau in search of the elusive assassin, locks horns with Scaramanga’s lover (Maud Adams), and teams up with a fellow agent (Britt Ekland) to unravel an even larger mystery.
The Man with the Golden Gun is a spy adventure and the ninth film in the James Bond franchise. Roger Moore’s second outing as Bond varies the formula yet again, this time by pitting Bond against a near-equal. The staples of the series are still there: exotic locales, larger-than-life villains, and plenty of peril. But The Man with the Golden Gun takes a more deliberate approach than usual, starting small and building into something larger.
The central antagonist of the movie is Francisco Scaramanga, a genteel assassin whose calling card is a golden gun that fires custom golden bullets. Scaramanga fills dual roles in the story: a rival to Bond with similar skills, and a classic supervillain, complete with gadgets, a tropical island, and an iconic henchman (Herve Villechaize). Scaramanga’s ranking among Bond villains is a matter of taste, but he holds the story together quite nicely.
Beyond a villain who’s more accessible and can tangle with Bond on an even footing, The Man with the Golden Gun is a typical Bond adventure. The plot is a winding investigation that takes 007 halfway around the world. The mystery is not a deep one, but it does succeed in pulling Bond farther in and putting him in a variety of tight situations. Roger Moore comfortably fits into the role of Bond, an unflappable spy who’s rarely out of options.
The Man with the Golden Gun is another solid entry into the series, likely to please Bond fans and anyone looking for light action adventure. Its use of Scaramanga as a plot hook changes up the formula just enough to keep things fresh without sacrificing the series’ hallmarks. Even so, The Man with the Golden Gun is neither the most innovative nor the most memorable entry into the series, making it a fun watch but not a groundbreaking one.
For a Bond film with a similar flavor, try You Only Live Twice. For a different type of Bond villain who has an even larger impact, try Goldfinger.
6.8 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 7.0 for a safe but enjoyable entry into the series.