51. Halo of Flies &...

Lyrics

I've got the answers
To all of your questions
If you've got the money
To pay me in gold

I will be living
In old Monte Carlo
And you will be reading
The secrets I sold

Daggers and contacts
And bright shiny limos
I've got a watch
That turns into a lifeboat

Glimmering nightgowns
And poisonous cobras
Silencer under the heel of my shoe

The elegance of China
They sent her to lie here on her back
But as she deeply moves me
She'd rather shoot me in my tracks

She was a Malaysian lady
She really came as no surprise
But I still did destroy her
And I will smash
Halo of flies

I crossed the ocean
Where no one could see
And I put a time-bomb
In your submarine
Goodbye to old friends
The secret's in hand
With phony note papers
And counterfeit plans
You never will understand


What an awesome song! I don't know much about Alice Cooper and though I must have heard this song before I couldn't remember it. But it feels as if Cooper wanted to put everything he thought was musically interesting in one song. The song is completely incoherent, but also utterly surprising and unique. The lyrics don't make much sense either, but they do bring Bond movies/villains to mind. So I linked this song to a James Bond film set mostly in Asia and involving gold.

The Movie: The Man With the Golden Gun (Guy Hamilton, 1974)

I have always liked Bond movies, though it's not like I am a huge fan of them. I am a fan of all four major actors (Roger Moore, Sean Connery, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig) who played Bond, but I do prefer Moore and Connery.  While Skyfall and especially Casino Royale are splendid movies, I did miss the silliness and the extravaganza of the early Bonds. It is quite unfortunate that even Bond movies have adapted to two unfortunate tendencies of modern blockbusters. First of all they have become rather dark movies with a gloomy atmosphere and secondly they insist on being 'realistic.' Which just makes the Bond movies unnecessarily problematic. It is undeniable that Bond movies are rather Orientalist and sexist. I don't think that this is such a big problem when the movies are so tongue-in-cheek. It does become a problem when they insist that they (and their worldview) should be taken seriously, because they make some grand statement about the world. I may someday write more about how Skyfall, which is actually a very good movie and one I like a lot, suffers from this. For now it's sufficient to say that I hope to never see a Bond movie ever again include a scene in which we seriously watch a meeting of a realistic parliamentary commission having a serious discussion about British national security. Leave that to other movies. Which brings me to The Man With the Golden Gun. I hope they will continue to make better Bond movies than this one (though it's certainly not bad). But I also hope they will return to making the Bond movies in the style of this one. That unfortunately won't happen any time soon. Daniel Craig is just not suited for comedy and silliness and the current style of blockbuster filmmaking does seem to still be very popular.

You know from the start what kind of (Bond) movie The Man With the Golden Gun is going to be. We open with a shot of a dwarf and sexy woman on an exotic island. It turns out they work for the main villain of this picture, Scaramanga, played by Christopher Lee. The opening sequence is a very fun one full of odd lighting, odd camera positions and booby traps. We see Scaramanga exercising for a potential duel with James Bond on his island. It is probably the best sequence in the movie, followed by what may be the most lackluster Bond opening credits ever. The title song is also pretty forgettable. After this sequence we finally meet Bond being briefed about the potential danger of Scaramanga. And so the plot kicks in. For the first half or so, this is a superior Bond movie. During the first half this is more an old-fashioned detective movie with Bond following clues about Scaramanga's whereabouts and his plans. And the movie really invites us to think with him. In the second half the movie becomes a rather boring, overlong and not very inspired action movie. It is also overlong. Though there is a great car chase across the streets of Hong Kong that culminates with one of the best movie stunts I've ever seen.

Never does the movie cease being interesting though. And the main reason for that are the wonderful characters and actors. Roger Moore is perfectly suited to play a more laid back, humorous Bond. He clearly enjoys delivering the many fun quips Bond has to say here. Therefore it is even more odd that the filmmakers decided to make Bond, at occasions, a much meaner character than ever. He mercilessly hurts women physically and he rather nastily throws a child of a boat during a boat chase in Hong Kong channels. His relationship with Bond girls Ms. Goodnight on the other hand is much more charmingly depicted than usually. Ms. Goodnight plays a sort of assistant of James Bond and is oddly presented as a recurring character, though this is the only Bond movie she appears in. In any case, Roger Moore and Britt Ekland act with much chemistry around each other. They make very well clear that there is a history of flirtation between their two characters and that Bond and Ms. Goodnight genuinely like each other. It is quite unfortunate that Ms. Goodnight only appeared in this movie. The last great character is of course Scaramanga. Christopher Lee clearly enjoys his role a lot, but he plays Scaramanga with great seriousness.