Man with the Golden Gun, The (1974)

User Comments:

Christopher Mulrooney
Los Angeles

Date: 18 March 2002
Summary: An indisputable masterpiece.

This ought to be seen on a double bill with Dreams That Money Can Buy, so that the simplicity of Richter's work and the complexity of this may be seen to mutual advantage, for this is a work of true surrealism and (as Scaramanga says) "an indisputable masterpiece."

Hamilton deals this very slowly with cards from The Wild Wild West and I Spy and Hawaii Five-0, and goes on down to their predecessors, the Hollywood serials, all in a technique refined almost out of existence.

Refined but still present. After the most soaring flights of fancy, the film stops to pay homage to The Big Sleep with an interpolated résumé. The very final image is borrowed from Orson Welles' Othello.

Another way of measuring this film's greatness and Hamilton's modesty would be to note its relationship to Buñuel and even to Dreyer at one point.

The Man With The Golden Gun surpasses every criticism, and that is one approach to surrealist cinema, which might be considered the highest form of that art whose essence is the perception of obscure reality with the clarity of dreams. The Dalinian analysis of the title character is the real motus of the film; the subtle dispersion and collection of its scattered elements is caught by Hamilton in an editing scheme to match.

I have seen this movie and would like to comment on it

Message Boards

Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for Man with the Golden Gun, The (1974)

Recommendations

If you like this title, we also recommend...

Live and Let Die (1973)

Show more recommendations

Add a recommendation

Email this page to a friend

Update Information

Errors and omissions on this page may be reported to the IMDb database managers by pressing the button below where they will be examined and, if accepted, included in a future update.