8 replies to this topic

[ChandlerBing]

After reading one of the other posts comparing The Man With The Golden Gun with other Bonds, and seeing how people's hackles are raised if you like it, I saw this article on the HMSS site. What follows is an excerpt from the article pointing out the similarities between Golden Gun and From Russia With Love.


FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE (1963) / THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN (1974)

It sounds blasphemous to compare the best story of the series with the least successful one. But again, I can draw a distinction where EON attempted to give Roger Moore a rehash of Connery's second attempt. One large difference, though, is that Connery settled into the character and Moore goes through scene after scene with no personality at all. But he is given similar direction.

The wax dummy likeness seen losing its fingers to Scaramanga's bullets in the teaser sequence is reminiscent of the SPECTRE member dressed as Bond who is killed by Red Grant. After all his personal struggles, Bond ends up looking for an inanimate object (the Spektor decoder/the Solex Agitator) and has to drag a woman with him for a climactic battle on a boat.In both cases he is lucky to remain alive, as both main villains, Red Grant and Francisco Scaramanga, have their weapons on him at point blank range while he is defenseless. The downfall of the assassins is a character flaw: in one case greed, and the other ego. Both films manage to have Bond insult the culinary habits of the villain over dinner as well.And neither killer is the original force behind the plot either. In both stories, the person who planned the caper (Kronsteen and Hi Fat) are eliminated. Both films also feature women who use a clever tactic (a golden bullet and a decoding machine) to lure Bond into what M thinks is a trap. M also phones Bond in strange places considering the time of the movie, though looking up the Bentley's number was easier than finding the connection to Scaramanga's junk.

More things in common: Bond encounters a gypsy; the enemy has a training facility (the SPECTRE camp and Hi Fat's karate school); both films have the main killer outlived by a physically less imposing figure, Rosa Klebb and Nick-Nack.

That's the article. Anyone want to comment?

[ray t]

very interesting article.

i would have thought FYEO would have been the obvious attempt at a FRWL recycle....but there you are....

i'm afraid there are going to very few totally original 007 movies being made in future...

given that almost all action-adventure movies beg borrow and steal from the Eon catalogue, i guess who can blame the producers from (semi)plagarising their own work

[ChandlerBing]

It goes to show you how they plan these things in cycles. Sometimes they get it exactly right....sometimes they don't. Anyone care to put Pierce's movies into perspective with this cycle?

[Se]

I don't mind that the films look so much like each other, just simply becauwe I almost never notice it .
Every time they give us other actors and other settings.
And maybe we should look at it as 'plagarising' their work but just bringing a hommage to the briliant work that's been done before.

[kevrichardson]

I once read a article in a Bond website which compared both Connery's and Moore's second films . The theis was how similar both were in terms of small scale drama . I will try and find it.

[Scottlee]

As much as this thread has been something of an eye-opener, It's never bothered me too much when elements of Bond films have been recycled. Remember.. "Originality is a myth", and part of the big attraction to the Bond series in the first pace is the way a lot of the films are the same in many ways.

[TheSaint]

Don't forget that, in both Sean & Roger's second Bond film, they both smacked a woman, Tatiana & Miss Anders.

[kevrichardson]

Originally posted by TheSaint
Don't forget that, in both Sean & Roger's second Bond film, they both smacked a woman, Tatiana & Miss Anders.

I believe what's dicussed here is not the fact that both Connery and Moore . Smacks some Broad !! It has too do with the overrall quaility of the two (2) films since both were second efforts after each man had assumed the role after a promising first effort(Dr. No-Connery, LALD-Moore) . Both films are similar in that they is no "Count Down to Doomday" theme that latter took over for both men . Here we are dealing with small scale , real life villians . Rosa Klebb , Red Grant in "FRWL" and Scaramanga in "TMWTGG" are similar in the ordinariness . Deadly with in the world of Bond , but not no the level of a Blofeld or Stromberg .

[TheSaint]

Easy there, Kev. I just pointed out a similarity between the 2 films. If I misunderstood the point of the discussion, no big deal.