Before and After the Re-Watch: The Bond Films

[sharpshooter]

I’m not going to pretend TMWTGG is perfect because to be underrated to this degree there must be underlying issues. I understand it’s always going to be hard to rehabilitate its reputation and opinions seem set. The 1974 reviews were mixed and those from the current day aren’t much better. TMWTGG has a particular vibe that most of the other films don’t and there’s much more I like than dislike.

Here’s what I said about five years ago:

@sharpshooter

I watched TMWTGG this morning and jotted down some notes along the way.

• The PTS establishes the film appropriately given the title of the film and song we segue in to.

• The briefing with M maintains a sense of urgency and focus on Scaramanga, which continues onwards to the meeting with Lazar and the tailing of Anders.

• Anyone who says Moore couldn’t be cold needs to see how he behaves when he fears for his life against a foe he can’t physically identify. You feel his stern attitude come across during his conversations with Q and Anders.

• His facial expression when he points the champagne bottle at Anders and says “because if he doesn’t get them” is savage.

• Moore smoking cigars is fantastic and I wish it continued across his other films.

• The sequence of Hip arresting Bond has a nice sense of tension.

• Hai Fat’s garden at night is wonderfully atmospheric, and Bond’s white tuxedo looks great.

• “Heaven, definitely heaven” evoking Connery’s “I must be dreaming” remark in GF.

• The Chula sequence isn’t necessarily bad but I feel the film loses its drive here, and with the boat chase that follows. Could’ve been tightened up.

• Scaramanga’s murder of Hai Fat is one of the best killings in the series.

• Bond being watched by Nick Nack during his meeting with Goodnight is cool in the way it presents the villains as omnipresent. Various times Bond is being monitored without knowing.

• Goodnight hiding in the closet, similar to the sequence from LALD, is funny, tense and cold. “You can come out now”, after two hours. One of his most underrated scenes.

• And pretty much everything that happens once Bond arrives at the island is solid gold, which has already been well documented.

Very underrated film and worth revisiting if you haven’t seen it in a while.

Scaramanga’s island is just about as good as it gets in terms of a James Bond location. Remote exoticism is always the best, and the visual of Bond and Scaramanga doing their ‘pistols at dawn’ duel is borderline iconic to me.

The similarities TMWTGG provides to LALD are interesting to observe. Two openings that don’t feature Bond. Using wardrobes to hide women. Boat chases. JW Pepper. The film ending with a surviving henchman facing the camera, and I’m sure there are other examples. The first two Moore films are very much companion pieces to each other before TSWLM’s template took over, which I think is pretty cool.

The Queen Elizabeth base is excellent and the interior gives off an Alice in Wonderland vibe.

Lulu’s lyrics are juvenile but I can’t help but find the song catchy, and Barry’s renditions of the theme are all great - be it styled in an action or romantic setting. I’m eager to dig in to the expanded score which I eventually ordered after MR.

I’ve got a soft spot for this film and find myself appreciating the low key ambience of it all. There’s grumpy tension, rivalry and a Fleming flair if you can give it a chance through the elements you dislike.