The Man with the Golden Gun First Impression

            My first impression of this movie is that it was horribly corny. The scene where Bond is at Fat’s dojo and basically is just slapping people around or karate chopping them was so difficult for me to take seriously. It was like he was making a mockery of everything those student were legitimately learning, especially when he fought the first man in the blue uniform. He not only didn’t follow the rules by bowing to his competitor, but he then ran away and refused to finish the fight with the man in the black uniform. I think it shows that when Bond is outmatched, he chooses to run away instead of facing the thought of failure. It reminded me of the Bennett and Wollacott article that talked about how if Bond cannot reform a girl, she is killed off because she doesn’t fit into Bond’s equation of success.

            It also bothered me how completely incompetent Goodnight was. It seemed like she was a spy or somehow involved in the British government with Bond, so she at least had to have some sort of skills set in order to get that job. The problem was that she had no common sense. She was completely joked about and belittled by Bond. One example is when she found herself locked in the trunk of Scaramanga’s car. You would think that because she is carrying the solar plexus and asked to guard it, she would stay as far away from the villain as possible. Instead, she tries to help but does it in a completely obvious “I’m going to get caught” kind of way. Bond jokes about her and how dumb of a move that was when he discovers that she still has the keys to the car. Then apparently she can’t hear the overpowering motor of the car-airplane and opens the trunk while Scaramanga is mid-flight. It seriously bothered me that even though she was a spy for the British government, the film had to take away from her character by making her virtually incompetent.