Respect Mr Scaramanga
With the arrival and hype of the new Bond movie I fear some of us Bond fans are losing sight of the classics. My favourite by far being "The Man With the Golden Gun". The movie is made so much better by having the best ever baddie.
Francisco Scaramanga is by far the best Bond villan in my opinion. He is rich, smart, charasmatic, arrogant and can equal (if not better) Bonds skill with a gun. In the movie Mr Scaramanga could have killed Bond three different times (that I can think of) and yet Bond some how got the better of him. I would peronally say that Scaramanga's skill and control over the pistol goes above and beyond anything Bond has shown us. Did you see the way he shot the top of the champagne when Bond arrived on the beach. Truly spectacular.
Also, Scaramanga is one of the very few people Bond is actually jealous of. He is filthy rich - he has his own island, servant, power station, flying car etc. He has a beautiful girl and really has everything he could ever want.
Bond: You live well, Scaramanga
Francisco: At a million dollars a contract I can afford to, Mr Bond. You work for peanuts, a hearty well done from her Majesty the Queen and a pittance of a pension. Apart from that we are the same. To us, Mr Bond, we are the best
He also says some great one-liners. My favourite of which being "I love a girl in a bikini - no concealed weapons".
When the great Christopher Lee took up the role he says that he wanted to play the 'dark side of Bond'. I personally think he did this wonderfully and in the process created a Bond villan that will be remembered for years to come. You can close this thread if it is inappropriate, for this is just the ramblings of a die hard Scaramanga fan. 😛