Review of The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) by Filipeneto — 17 Feb 2018

Directed by Guy Hamilton and with a script by Tom Mankiewicz and Richard Maibaum, this is the ninth film in the 007 franchise and keeps Harry Saltzman and Albert Broccoli as co-producers for the last time. In this film, the second where Roger Moore embodies 007, the main subject will be the energy crisis and the advent of so- called green energies, issues that were very present at that time, due to the oil crisis and the beginning of ecological concerns in society.

In this film, the British agent is threatened by an assassin called Scaramanga, famous for using a pistol and bullets made in gold. Discretely, Bond decides to set off in pursuit of his new enemy, with the permission of M. The clues lead him to Beirut, to the Portuguese colony of Macau and finally to Hong Kong, where Scaramanga kills Gibson under Bond's nose. Gibson was a scientist who invented a way to harness solar energy and alleviate the world's dependency on oil. Bond must now recover the stolen technology and goes to Thailand where, after many adventures, will join forces with his colleague Mary Goodnight, an English spy who is both beautiful as stupid. Finally he meets Scaramanga. The chase takes Bond to the island's villain, which takes the final confrontation, full of surprises.

In this film, Roger Moore will continues the formula started in "Live and Let Die": sarcastic and calm in any situation, his Bond is also a natural seducer, kind and gentle, contrasting to the rudest posture of Sean Connery, while not giving any value to women who seduces and which quickly drops when it suits his mission. A curious note: the mechanism created by Scaramanga in his island for the use of solar energy, despite the science fiction touch, is very similar to solar panels we have today but I don't know if this was a "jules- vernian" stylish prediction or if, even then, we could logically predict the course of technology in this field. One of the most famous scenes of this film is the gold-covered woman, in a probable homage to "Goldfinger", an earlier franchise film where this scene first emerged. Another memorable scene is the car chase where Bond, to cross a water channel, makes a dangerous 360° rotation with the car, similar to Evel Knievel shows, a popular icon from these time.

In addition to James Bond and Mary Goodnight (Bond-girl played by the Swedish Britt Ekland), the film brings again J. W. Pepper, which was a big hit in the previous film and works here just as comic element. The villain, Scaramanga, was played by the immortal Christopher Lee, whom the seventies ran particularly well thanks to vampire movies. His helper, the francophone dwarf Nick-Nack, was taken by the talented and funny Hervé Villechaize. The also Swedish Maud Adams embodied Andrea the second bond-girl of this movie, the only 007 movie (I think) with two bond-girls interpreted by actresses from the same country.