The Legend of the Golden Gun

Growing up with a father that was a real cowboy. I grew up watching westerns from a very early age. I grew up watching all of the standards i.e. John Wayne, The Lone Ranger, Bonanza, Big Valley and even older stuff like Roy Rogers and Gene Autry. This movie while not great acting was very good to an 8 year old. I recently saw it again on the encore western channel and every time I see it I still enjoy it. This movie is a throw back to the old westerns that when you look a them today are very cheesy. But if you look at the Lone Ranger they are quite similar in their morale compass. They tell a good story where the bad guy gets his and the good guy gets the girl and the horse. While I agree with another poster that this was probably a failed pilot it is good for what it is. I think that some people think that all movies have to be great art in order to be any good. While they are entitled to their opinion I respectfully disagree.

It's been a helluva long time since I saw this movie so details are a bit hazy, what I do remember is that at the time, I thought it was great!

There's a scene where a guy on horseback is being chased by some other guys on horseback and he comes to a huge ravine, not one to stand and get slaughtered by the marauding followers, he just jumps off the edge of the cliff (still on horseback mind you) and makes his escape. I remember thinking 'What about the poor horse?!'

I think at the end he saves the damsel in distress by jumping across a pit and snatching her from her position hanging over the pit, or something like that. Anyway, I would love to see it again if only to re-live a childhood memory...

After years of searching I have finally found it! I remember this film from my childhood and I recall it giving me a spiritual lift, which for somebody who is now not very spiritual I could kind of do with rekindling. I could only remember certain thinks about the film, such as a old man passing on a golden gun and a white suit whilst training a young apprentice to shoot at plates when blind folded. I would love to see this film again, and would appreciate someone telling me where I can buy it from. Now and again I have thought about this film with a golden gun and asked friends and work colleagues whether they had seen it. Each time I was met with a blank face, or with the reply 'you mean the James Bond film'. At least now I know I did not imagine it. I suppose it's quite a sad admission but this film really made me feel happy!

Robert Davi plays real life baddie William Quantrill who kills the family of John Golden (Jeff Osterhage). Golden himself is left for dead in a river. After this Golden looks to exact revenge upon Quantrill. He comes across J.R. Swackhammer wonderfully played by Hal Holbrook who trains Golden. The film gets good when Holbrook shows up and starts to take on a nice flavour. This is a TV movie so it is not going to play out like Clint Eastwood's 'The Outlaw Josey Wales' with its subject matter, but might work well if you have kids in the 10-14 range who like a western. Also starring Keir Dullea as the over confident General Custer and great veteran R.G. Armstrong as corrupt Judge Harrison Harding. As you might have guessed through out the film Golden meets real life legends from the Old West.

Now this TV movie is far from perfect and a couple of big things for me that didn't work were early on we are shown a scene that oozes cheesiness to me. We watch John Golden in slow motion ride his horse Moonbeam, which he is singing a song about. I thought this was completely unneeded as within a couple minutes Osterhage's acting should be able to bring his love through toward the horse. The other is the music in a couple of scenes does not really have a western feeling. It is more of a 1979 or disco-influenced theme and any seriousness in the scenes are washed away. In turn though well worth a watch. On a side note Harve Bennett was executive producer who went on to produce and co-write Star Trek II through V.

While I admit that I have not seen this movie since My early teens, it is one of those movies that has stuck with me over the years. I can seriously point to this as an influential movie, not because of the cheesy 70's soundtrack, but because of the spiritual aspect that at least one other reviewer noted. There was something there that caught my attention, and that is saying something.

I don't remember much about the movie, other than the master teaching the young boy about how to sense the target he was shooting at and use his mind not his eyes (sort of proto-Jedi). I also remember that the golden gun had seven bullets, not six, and that that was a key factor, but not why it was so important.

Never the less, it left an impression that I hold to to this day. I hope to find it someday. I would like to see it again, even if it was as hokey as others claim it to be.