MovieChat Forums > The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) Discussion > If you could get rid of JW Pepper and th...

If you could get rid of JW Pepper and the Kung Fu Kids how much of an improvment would it be?


This is actually quite a good Bond film but there clunky moments are VERY clunky it they leave a very bad taste in the mouth.

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Would Bond still be allowed to do the corkscrew jump only without Pepper? How about the sound effect - remove that as well?

Would Nick Nack still be ok? Maybe get rid of him as well...

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I personally would have NOT had JW Pepper or the Kung Fu cousins. The rest of it doesn't damage the film that much in my opinion. In fact, most of the rest of it is rather good.

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Funny, most people criticising this film go for the corkscrew sound effect rather than JW.

I find him an interesting enigma - a southern, borderline racist (?) democrat no less. A man who'd have sent shivers down Trump's spine...

Actually introducing JW into the Craig efforts may have helped them somewhat - Maybe he could have assisted him in QoS. I could see David Harbour do a good modern rendition of the character.

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Well, OF COURSE the sound effect is pretty dumb. That goes without saying. BUT it only lasts for three seconds. Furthermore, if it really bothers you it can easily be rectified by turning the sound off or making a fan edit. By contrast, there is no possible fix for the presence of Pepper and it seriously mars the impact of the chase scene in a way that the corkscrew sound doesn't (or more accurately, not to the same degree). Actually, just having JW Pepper show up on the tour boat is kind of funny... but then you realize it's not just a quick cameo and it stops being funny and starts being stupid and distracting. His scenes from the elephant onward are disgraceful and embarrassing. Put simply, it was a bit of humor that outlived its welcome. The corkscrew sound, by contrast, is a momentarily lapse of reason (comparatively speaking). The stunt itself is spectacular and an amazing visual, which the sound effect (however stupid) can't completely destroy. The annoying and extremely unlikely presence of Pepper can, however, destroy the pace and kill the exciting mood of an entire chase scene. That's why it is so unforgiveable.

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I hate the JW Pepper character but I kind of like the idea of bringing the character back 90% different. Make him way less stupid/zany and more of a normal sheriff guy caught up in the intrigue but willing to help. Like a brief scene in which Bond conscripts him into watching his back for a minute or something.

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I'd get rid of the Pepper scenes including the ridiculous corkscrew jump. Lose the AMC police cars. Could probably do without Nick Nack as well.

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Nothing wrong with the chase, the jump, or Knick Knack, in my opinion. The sound effect MUST go.

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The answer is zero improvement, and stop trying to edit history.

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There's really no way it even could be edited, so it's a moot point. A better version of this film can only ever exist in the imagination. Looked at fairly, this is a very good Bond film with only a few things holding it back, but they simply can't be removed in a "fan edit" without utterly gutting the film. Sadly this will be dismissed as one of the worst Bond films of the Cubby Broccoli era, when it could have been one of the best if not the best of the Moore's tenure.

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It will only be dismissed by Barbara Brocolli era fans too weak to watch Cubby era Bond movies.

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I'm not a fan of Phase II of the Bond franchise either. However, the things I'm talking about were considered out of place by many back in 1974 when this came out.

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No. Editing out the Kung fu kids entirely, editing/dubbing down JW's idiocy to a minimum and removing the slide whistle would be fantastic things to do to this film in a fan edit.

In fact, many of Moore's 007 films could be spiffed up with some edits. Most are weighed down with dumb. Sadly you'd have less than 15 minutes of film left in Octopussy, Moonraker, and LaLD.

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I wish I could agree with that, but I don't. The film would look to weird and chopped up, and you would make chop suey of John Barry's background score. If you had access to the original source materials, maybe, but you don't . I don't think mutilating a film makes it a better film... just a mutilated one. Some things are just flawed and you just either lived with or you don't.

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The kung fu fight could be easily edited out. Half of Peppers shit could be gone without notice. Dub the rest of his appearance with some less idiotic lines. Leave the jump in but take away the whistle. Leave the score alone.

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