Reporting For Duty
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Categories
Inside Saida's dressing room
I've watched TMWTGG only about four times in the past 25 years, but I viewed it again recently and thought that the fight inside Saida's dressing room is probably Moore's finest moment of hand to hand combat, mainly because he's actually IN the scene and doesn't rely on twelve different stuntmen (compare this scene, for instance, to the fight in Stacey Sutton's house). But can someone shed any light on WHO THE HELL these men are that attack Bond and force him to swallow the bullet in Saida's navel? Just curious. As always, I apologize if this has been discussed before.
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
Just to add, they don't force Bond to swallow anything, Moore was trying to get it from the belly dancers navel, and the heavies arrived at a most intrusive time. I'm sure at least one of them returned again in '77 for The Spy Who Loved Me ?
Why they turned up in Beirut looking for Bond we never really discovered
I think maybe, Moore was a new Bond, (at the time) capable, and they thought "Let's throw in some heavies and have Bond punch and kick about and put on a fight scene"
Other than that, not entirely sure ?
The thugs are part of the nightclub, presumably employed by the overweight chap.
They attack Bond after they notice his interest in her, and her flirtatious looks towards him during her routine.
After Bond follows Saida, they too follow, ready to show their muscle. It is indeed one of the better fights of the Moore era.
Although I think @benny is pretty close.
Bond was fish-out-of-water in this environment. He was on their turf and acting maybe a little too sure of himself. The local muscle maybe felt compelled to knock him down a peg.
It's a good tough fight. Maybe Moore's best. The fight moves kind of slowly which helps the lumbering Moore, but its a natural slowness due to the close quarters. Rog/Bond doesn't need to be too quick or nimble to fight in such circumstances.
Yes, I agree that @Benny is spot on - that's always the way that I've read the scene too. I suppose though that it is quite an odd scene for a James Bond film as they are not part of the main villain's team - although the chefs on the wedding boat in AVTAK were of a similar nature I suppose.
Yes, there's a connotation of jealousy to the scene, especially from the fat bald guy that I assume is the club owner. I think that what happened was that the scriptwriters decided that it would be much too easy for Moore Bond to retrieve the bullet by conventional means of seducing Saida so they had to add in a fight scene with the club owner and his two heavies. That way they could toughen up Moore Bond to something more like Connery and in so doing have a fight scene reminiscent of The Saint.
Never mind the fact that Saida isn't exactly a gorgeous woman in my opinion and her voice has the effect of fingernails on a chalkboard. The fighting is just poor. Several dudes come in, yet they all patiently await their turn while Bond gets it on with one at a time. Why not pile themselves up on top of Bond? He's not Neo from The Matrix, he won't escape that position.
This scene, like so many other scenes, stinks of the time pressure into which everyone got suckered when the producers decided to finish this flick in less than a year since LALD's release.
One more question: why now? Why get the bullet now? Sure, Bond receives a threat, it seems important enough. But Scaramanga had killed an MI6 agent. You're telling me that for all these years they were okay with that? Oh darn, Bill got shot. It's probably the man with the golden gun, one of the most dangerous assassins in the world. And this saida chick might provide us with a clue as to where the missing bullet went BUT... ah well, the football season starts tomorrow so there's no rush. Let the whole world know that MI6 in defenseless against spy killers, even if certain clues are still left uninspected.
I know that most Bond films want us to turn away from solid logic, but TMWTGG simply wants it too often. The entire film is a bloody joke, and not even a funny one.
This is a James Bond release (as with Moonraker) that people find easy to castigate but I find it an enjoyable ride that never lets down, and I never get bored during a watch. If any Bond release can capture the attention and keep you enthralled throughout, then in my eyes it's a success - and The Man with the Golden Gun does just that. I'm not usually one for humor in Bond, but on this occasion it works. Sure it's not a flawless release, there are many things that people will take issue with, from the return of JW Pepper, the Britt Ekland character, slide whistle somersault incident etc, but for the most part, it's one of my favorite of all the James Bond titles and as for the fight in Beirut itself (as first mentioned) it gives Moore an opportunity to actually fight for himself and one of the rare occasions in the franchise, where Moore in a battling situation, actually appears plausible. I don't think the follically challenged character mentioned in the above was in any way supposed to resemble Ernst Stavro Blofeld, in the same sense that the German car owner from Casino Royale was supposed to represent Goldfinger
I see it as a decent brawl and Moore does a decent job of things, before age got the better of him in subsequent scenarios, that culminates in the memorable "I've lost my charm" line from the Saida character. Can't really find issue with it
As for the reason of their presence, staff of bars and ahem, gentlemen clubs don't like when clients get too friendly with the female staff. Since Bond was already in her lodge, that was reason enough to intervene and as other posters said take Bond down a few notches.
Yeah Moore seemed to be enjoying himself a little too much in that scene. Either that or he's a more devoted actor than he gets credit for.
I didn't realized that! Please don't expel me from the forum, though I deserve it...
Yes, the henchemen are pretty obvious, but I never thought how the German guy was so similar to Auric!
I did say before that the woman in the sub in SF looks at Bond with some resemblance to Mrs Bell in LALD but that could be just a coincidence.
Speaking of taking on multiple assailants, Craig could do with a few more decent scenes. The Macau fight in SF was a bit of a joke, beating up three or so heavies with a bloody briefcase. We need to see Bond bust out some brutal Krav Maga or something similar, but take a bit of a hiding too, naturally. If Craig can drop three or four agents in a lift with his hands tied behind his back, then let's see him go whole hog against multiple henchmen.
How do you think the inclusion of stuntmen is decided?
The rubbish fights in AVTAK for example, was it just decided that "Rog is past it so will throw in a load of doubles"?
Surely if the scenes had been filmed in a different way they could have been more plausible and actually featured Rog?
I see little to no resemblance. And I consider Severine superior to Vesper, although I wish the former had more screen time and the latter was not bad at all.