Everyone has their own least favourite Bond film but I don't think anyone would get too much flak if they named this one. Still, I was surprised that it wasn't as bad as I'd remembered... even if I'd remembered it as really, really bad.
The frustrating thing is like Diamonds Are Forever there is a good movie inside here, wanting to get out, and we get glimpses of it. The relationship between government assassin Bond and assassin-for-hire Scaramanga was a strong one - men with much in common - and strong basis for drama. The filmmakers helped things by casting Christopher Lee in the role of Scaramanga - good looking, charismatic, believably ruthless... and also a clear contemporary of Roger Moore's. Indeed the characterisation of Scaramanga is better in the film in the novel, where he was more a two bit gangster; here he has more humanity and ambition.
It was a shame though they lost the section in the novel where Bond went undercover as Scaramanga's helper - this could have seen some interesting scenes between the two along the lines of Bond and Robert Davi in Licence to Kill. However they went with the assassin knowing Bond's identity from the get-go (I think to set up the use of the Bond mannequin which is how he ultimately beats Scaramanga.. still, it's a shame since it could have given their relationship more progression).
Some other positive things about the movie: Herve Villechaize's Nick Nack is one of the best villain henchman's ever. (Scaramanga also has a third - some random black guy who hangs around the island and sexually harasses Britt Ekland.) Maud Adams is beautiful, and one of the best in the surprisingly long list of doomed-Bond-beauties; her death packs a surprising emotional wallop and Britt Ekland never seems like a good enough substitute (killing a love interest too late in a Bond film is always fraught with danger eg You Only Live Twice). We get extra Bernard Miles in this one (his eyes seem bloodshot in one scene) and some intriguing Moneypenny-Bond banter when she snaps at him at the beginning.
There is also much pleasing location work - Macau, Thailand, Hong Kong. Scaramanga's island lair is very beautiful (I didn't mind it being underpopulated), there are several good looking girls, an impressive car jump stunt (though hampered by a silly slide whistle sound effect that accompanies it), some interesting gimmick bits (a car that turns into a plane, a cigarette lighter that turns into a gun), and a couple of scenes I found genuinely compelling: visiting the gun manufacturer in Macau, the death of Maud Adams, Bond and Scaramanga at lunch and on the beach.
Now for the bad stuff: I think it was a mistake to bring in Marc Lawrence so soon after him being in Diamonds Are Forever; Guy Hamilton's handling feels lethargic and tired most of the time; the film is needlessly overlong; the stuff about the Solex feels tacked on and not thought out; the final shoot out between Bond and Scaramanga has some good moments but feels undercooked and too indebted to Lady from Shanghai (this needed to be a classic encounter along the lines of the train fight with Red Grant); Clifton James' unfunny redneck sheriff is agonisingly awful and should never have been brought back; I loathed the poorly integrated kung fu sequence and the two fighting expert girls (every Bond film has villains delay killing him but bundling him off to a kung fu school...?); the title song is crap (loud and stupid); and Britt Ekland's heroine, while very hot, is too ditzy and stupid... it's like a retread of Jill St John's Tiffany Case, having her walk around in a bikini and knock things over.
The case of Ekland is typical of the film. They could have done something really interesting with the character she plays - Mary Goodnight, James Bond's secretary... I mean, what would a person like that be like? What history does she have with him? But they muff it. It's also annoying they dropped the best bit about the novel: the opening sequence where a brainwashed Bond tries to kill M. (NB This was used in a later Bond film.) Still, watching it again after many years absence, I was surprised how often I got into it.
No comments:
Post a Comment