Customer Reviews

The Man With The Golden Gun (1974 Film): Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

After reading some other reviews, I felt I should relay my opinion(s). This is my personal favorite of all of Mr. Barry's wonderful work. While not a fan of the title track, the body of the album is full of lush string arrangements accented beautifully with trademark brass passages as only the incomparable Barry can master. The "Goodnight, Goodnight" track is a wonderfull example of this. The imminent peril and downright bizzareness of Scaramanga and his "fun house" are captured brilliantly with tracks 2 & 11. "Let's go get em'" is extremely energetic and excitng-a nice variation on the main theme. As is the case with anything artistic, it's all a matter of taste. In my humble opinion, this is a splendid example of John Barry and his mastery of the Bond mystique.

THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN is a very underrated soundtrack. This is a very good CD. John Barry finally put an album together based mostly on the background score. Barry did not put an album out like this since his excellent YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE. The main theme is quite a catchy tune and is very recognizable to anyone who has seen the film. THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN has started to gather a small cult following. It's a Bond film with a comic slant that has all the elements of any good Bond film. Somehow the film looks like a very minor entry compared to the rest of the series. Yet that very fact gives it a unique and curious appeal. It is actually a very likable and entertaining film. One of the film's strengths is John Barry's score, which gives Bond a whole new slant. If you like the film you should like this CD because it covers most of the film's sequences from start to finish. This CD covers the creative music from Scaramanga's fun house, embodies several passages of the James Bond Theme and contains a great oriental flavor throughout. Highly recommended.

This is a powerful score, as much as Diamonds are Forever, but some guys tend to despise it thanks to the flavour of the movie. Well, I think the movie ROCKED! It has a good pace plus the best villain since Telly Savalas.
John Barry gives us a kind of Oriental touch and in rock 70's way.
Well, I must say that I skipped Live and Let Die because I thought the music in that CD was a bit forgettable (altough I loved Paul McCartney's tune).

Some guys tend to despise Lulu's theme for "The Man With The Golden Gun", calling it too explosive, offensive or having bad lyrics. Well I thought it wasn't so bad, but of course there are nicer Bond main themes. Its 70's style works better in the soundtrack in a instrumental way, in cues like the much-adored "Let's Go Get'em" (exciting in the car chase with Bond theme really cool), "Kung Fu Fight" (what a funny beginning!) and the more sentimental "Goodnight Goodnight" (it covers a sad dialogue in the movie about Bond's duty).

"Scaramanga's Fun House" is the pre-title sequence, and one of the best tracks with real dark notes for a cat-and-mouse thrill. It occurs again in "Return To Scaramanga's Fun House", even darker.
Other tracks- "Chew Me In Crisly Land" (the most oriental music), "Getting the Bullet" (sexy first notes!) "Hip's Trip" (mysterious), "In Search of Scaramanga's Island" (beautiful beginning then it creates darker tones for the villain).
There's also a new thing in this soundtrack, the last theme adds the main title rearraged, thing that would be used in the next Bond scores.

The CD includes a variation of the main theme in track 4, in a loud jazzy style. This one doesn't appear in the movie, thing that some buyers will dislike.
Well, I liked this CD a lot and it includes almost every music from the mov.

P.S: Again I'm not hoping for some complete rerelease. I know there's Bond Back in Action, but those themes don't sound like in the movie.

This is an interesting album for several reasons. John Barry's music in general seemed to be going through a state of transition around 1974 and this album is a good example of that. Also, THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN was the first James Bond score that Barry composed for Roger Moore as Bond. Moore at this point was trying to define his own interpretation of the character. Moore actually tried to reverse his performance from LIVE AND LET DIE, this time delivering his version of James Bond as a more stoic 007 within a script full of comedic trappings. Added to this director Guy Hamilton wanted an even lighter score than he had previously pressed John Barry into delivering in DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER. Considering all these factors, what we get is probably the most unique score from the James Bond series. Some people were pleased, some were not and some were indifferent. I happen to enjoy this CD quite a bit. It sounds great, having the same technical qualities the DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER album has, and it really contains quite a bit of the background score which you can never get enough of from any James Bond album. I really enjoy the main title that Barry composed for THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN. Lulu's vocal renditions are strong but the really power of this composition is demonstrated in the many instrumental variations that Barry composes using this theme. "Goodnight Goodnight" and "In Search of Scaramanga's Island" are very beautiful sounding tracks. Also, if you like the James Bond theme, Barry composed whole new variations utilizing the power of the orchestra giving the theme a whole new dimension and sound. You can hear these on "Chew Me in Grisly Land" and "Let's Go Get `Em." All in all I think this is a great sounding album. It is well presented and balanced and is a good representation of the music heard in the film. I like it.

All in all, this is a great cd. I loved the tracks "Scaramanga's Fun House", "Chew Me In Crisly Land", "Let's Go Get 'Em", and "Hip's Trip". Although, I was disappointed at the fact that there was some great music from the movie missing, like the music during the boat chase in Thailand, and the music from the scene with Lazare in Macau.

An excellent soundtrack for a not so good bond film, John Barrys rendition of the 'James Bond theme' is simply superb, the best of all the films but the opening title song from Lulu is only very average and as in previous films can be heard throughout the remainder of the album.

The score is ominous and it's also the only cd you can get the end track on

If you're a James Bond fanatic and love to listen to music, you should consider adding this to your collection. I'm a big fan of the older Bond films and this soundtrack brings back good memories of movie watching in the late 80's when Bond films were rerun like crazy. The older orchestral compositions include the works of very talented musicians in the classic Bond style. I wont consider my music collection complete until I've added all of the old Bond soundtracks.

The 9th James Bond movie. A very contraversial soundtrack indeed.
Lulu performs the hip-hop and fun title song, which is also used at the end of the movie in a slightly slower version. Many of the tracks are crazy and exciting such as Let's Go Get 'em, Scaramanga's Funhouse and Biting the Bullet. There is also the very odd instrumental version of the title song. One of the best tracks on this soundtrack is In Search of Scaramanga's Funhouse. Very mysterious and suspensful, as 007 flies to try and find Scaramanga's hidden island. A fun title tune. Exciting additional music and the return of John Barry. A real winner!

This 1974 Bond movie was far from great, and the return of John Barry as composer couldn't really pull this film out of the mire, but the soundtrack was not that bad. The lyrics to the main song are not Bacharach, and Lulu is no Shirley Bassey, but it's not totally dreadful. (Arguably, Lulu is not for the squeamish.) The overall feel of the album is that it captures a dangerous adventurous atmosphere, unlike most of the predecessors which had atmosphere AND personality. But if you want to sip cognac in a smoking jacket and pretend you're a retired field agent, this is good background listening music. (Oops, pardon the slide whistle in the middle of "Let's Go Get 'Em." Bet that bit let's you know not to take this pretending too seriously!)