While some can never get over Sean Connery not being Bond, and while 'Live and Let Die" may be more fun, "The Man With the Golden Gun" may be one the of the best made of all Bond Films.
No, this movie did not have many of the tell-tale eye-candy and explosive action of other Bond films, it had a thorough story, instead. it also lacked the megalomaniacal world-conquering super-villain, replacing such tomes for a true and realistic espionage story. We often forget that Bond is a "spy," not a superhero. Some get so caught up in the formulaic Bonds (the last couple of Connery's, the majority of Moore's and Brosnan's), that good spy adventure movies get lost or ignored.
In this movie, Bond must track down a hard-to-find killer who has apparently marked Bond for death. In the midst, a new energy technology (the "Solex")has been stolen and is being put up for auction to world powers who may exploit it for weapon technology. These two plots intersect in the person of Francisco Scaramanga, the "man with the golden gun," a hot-shot assassin who is the perfect foil to Bond's personality. Scaramanga is played aptly by Christipher Lee and has all the genteel education and affectations as Bond, but with a 180-degree moral view.
The movie is quieter and much subtler that the explosive "Live and Let Die" which preceded it and the return to the more-formulaic cheesy-super-villain Bond films which followed ("The Spy Who Loved Me" and "Moonraker.") The lone weakness of this film is the one formulaic character of the clumsy and scattered-brained female agent. Ms. Goodnight (Bond's secretary in the novels), who is obviously in the film for eye-candy and sex. The movie is often listed as a "bomb at the box-office" which is not true, it made several times its cost, but did not do as well as "Live and Let Die" (which was a fun movie and did well- probably from the action and the curiosity of audiences to see the new Bond), and later Bond epics. But remember, this came out in 1974 when the world was in the midst of a economic crunch and most movies did not do well in theaters in 1974. The three years taken between this movie and the next ("Spy Who Loved Me") saw a major change in America and led to the Bond movies' financial successes again, even with poor scripts and lame stories ("Moonraker" "View to a Kill").
In my opinion, "Golden Gun" is the smoothest of the Moore era and ranks up there with "From Russia With Love," "Goldeneye," and "Casino Royale (06)" as the best-made Bond stories. It may not have all the expected formulaic parts of the more popular films, but the plot is stronger, more realistic, and the storyline much less chaotic than most other Bond films. This is Bond being what the Bond of the novels was- a spy and hit-man. If you are after good stories and not easily distracted by the usual allotment of Bond bimbos and unbelievable super-villains, this is a must see.
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