"M" in "The Man With the Golden Gun"
L Jones
Posts: 131MI6 Agent
Did "M" have a burr up his ass in "The Man With the Golden Gun"? After a recent viewing of the film, I'm beginning to think he did. I'm a little puzzled by why he was so hostile toward Bond, following the assassination of that scientist named Gibson in Hong Kong. The assassination wasn't Bond's fault. Bond had followed M's order to discover who had sent him a golden bullet with his OO number carved into it. Bond had traced the bullet to Scaramanga in Hong Kong. He was simply at the wrong place and at the wrong time, when Scaramanga killed Gibson. So, why was "M" so hostile to Bond, acting as if the incident was the latter's fault?
Comments
1 - Moore, 2 - Dalton, 3 - Craig, 4 - Connery, 5 - Brosnan, 6 - Lazenby
Well, it was a good thing that Man With The Golden Gun was Guy Hamilton's swan song, because Guy was obviously just one of those Bond directors who had a one-hit wonder and the rest of his Bond motion pictures were mediocre at best and God-awful at worst.
And Guy was dragging the Bond series down by the time we got to Man With The Golden Gun so it was time for a change of pace, otherwise the Bond series would've died in the 70's.
-Casino Royale, Ian Fleming
I think he was good when it came to the car and boat chases in DAF and LALD, though he probably left the actual direction of those to the second unit director. But if they were his conception, then I rate him highly.
I think I could answer this case of increased anger from M (and other characters) from a production standpoint and through a fan-theory explanation:
Production Standpoint - I heard that the production for TMWTGG was rushed mainly because the script was still being written as key scenes were being filmed. The cast and crew were also told that they would have to work on possible days off ( I am sure this is highlighted in one documentary). I believe the director Guy Hamilton instructed the actors to vent their frustrations through their performances which explains why a lot of the characters seem irate in the film.
Fan Theory Explanation - In the film it is mentioned that 002, Bill Fairbanks, was believed to be killed by Scaramanga back in 1969, during the year of OHMSS. I theorise that this event is what caused Bond to be removed from Operation Bedlam. M wanted Bond to go after Scaramanga that year but Bond got shirty over the whole Bedlam case and threatened to resign. In OHMSS, he spends the film hunting down Blofeld instead. As the whole Scaramanga case is left unresolved, M probably doesn't deem it worthy for Bond to go after him with no concrete leads and considering the fact that Scaramanga was not confirmed as the killer of 002.
When the bullet turns up in TMWTGG, M is probably annoyed over the fact that Bond had the chance to go after Scaramanga in 1969 and now the missed opportunity has come back to haunt him. M is annoyed with Bond because Bond refused to let Operation Bedlam go so M lets his frustration out in TMWTGG. What annoys M further, is the fact that Scaramanga ends up killing Gibson, the man who was meant to be the source of the solex agitator. Bond wasn't able to find Scaramanga in time to stop him from killing Gibson.
You clearly put a lot of thought into your theories, sinium.
About a thousand years ago I wrote a post called "Cranky, Oh So Cranky" about the general snarkiness all over TMWTGG... it has apparently vanished into the ether....
It is the crankiest Bond film isn't it!
Only perhaps outdone by that scene in Moonraker where M actually seems to have thought that Bond was lying about the bio lab he'd seen in Drax's property in Venice- as if he's a schoolboy making up tall stories rather than a trusted agent with a licence to kill! 😄
I know it's all just for the gags, but they maybe slightly overdid M's exasperation with every single thing Bond does and says around this time! I kind of wonder if they were taking a bit of a lead from Dreyfus in the Pink Panther films...
M's crankiness is also stupid on the writer's part, since it works against viewer involvement. If we're meant to be alarmed at the idea of Scaramanga supposedly gunning for Bond, it would help if M showed some genuine concern that Bond's life was in danger from an unbeatable assassin. This would augment the tension and our sense of the threat posed by Scaramanga. But in the film nothing is important enough to break through M's crankiness. When one considers how perfect Bernard Lee was as M, it's a shame how often the films shortchanged his character.
That's a really good point, treating it as a triviality (jealous husbands, outraged chefs etc.) does reduce the threat.
I guess though at least the film has shown us how deadly Scaramanga is and that he's previously killed a 00 at least.