Live and Let Die (1973)!!!!...

Yay. 10/10

Yay!

Nay

Of the Bond films I’ve seen so far. It didn’t have the best villain but I loved the overall theme and tone of the film, the action was good and it was my favorite actor playing Bond overall.

It's much loved but really, well I'll let my review say my piece. I'll go just about Yay.


Connery was gone, for good this time, no amount of cash would entice him to don the tuxedo for a "legitimate" Bond movie again....... This meant that producers Broccoli & Saltzman would be showcasing the third actor to play James Bond in a four year period! After the fall out of the casting of Lazenby in OHMSS, it was agreed that a established actor was needed this time around. Timothy Dalton was mooted, as he was for OHMSS (he was never offered the role though until 1986), but it came down to just two actors, Roger Moore & Michael Billington. Billington would screen test for the role of 007 a few times in his life but never landed the coveted role, as a sweetener he got to play a minor character in 1977's The Spy Who Loved Me. So Roger Moore it was, someone the producers knew quite well and who was well in vogue after starring in The Persuaders and The Saint. He also was honoured to play the role, wanted it badly and accepted the fanaticism that went with it.



Moore's take on Bond the man was a world away from Connery, and rightly so, but Live and Let Die is not far removed from Connery's last outing, Diamonds Are Forever. In truth it's a weak script, with Mankiewicz probably under orders from above to play to Moore's strengths and keep the overt humour and cartoon escapades as a selling point. The decision to pitch Bond into a world of voodoo is a good one, and it was not, as some believe, an attempt to grasp the tails of the Blacksploitation market that had made waves in the early 70s. It's a better film than Diamonds Are forever, without doubt. The villains are memorably played, though Kananga's (Koto) demise is indicative of the daftness that would blight many Bond movies from here on in, and in Hamilton's hands the action, especially an adrenalin pumping speedboat chase, is quality entertainment. Top blunderbuss theme tune, too, from Paul McCartney & Wings. While Felix Leiter is back on good charming form in the hands of Hedison (a real life friend of Moore and it shows).



Problems elsewhere, though, stop this from being a great Bond movie. Much of the film is made up of scenes that are played purely for smiles rather than for dramatic purpose. In short a Bond movie has stopped taking itself seriously. The introduction of Sheriff Pepper (James) is pointless, the beautiful Seymour shows promise but then becomes one of "those" Bond girls who is a liability to 007 outside of the bedroom, and the film is padded out with scenes that offer nothing important to the story. Hendry's Rosie Carver is a dope and poorly written, though it gave Bond his first inter-racial "dalliance", something that the producers were nervous about behind the scenes. While there's no Q! And George Martin's score is very hit and miss.



A new actor playing Bond and many failings in the picture, could Bond still succeed? Yes indeed! Moore, in spite of not getting good page to work from and getting stick from the critics, put his own stamp on the role by looking smooth, having an excellent vocal delivery and being someone the girls wanted to bed and the boys wanted to be. The box office sang to the tune of over $160 million, over $40 million more than Diamonds Are Forever. The tag-line ran "More Action, More Excitement, More Adventure", though not entirely accurate, there was indeed an abundance of fun play and gadgets are us (Felix Lighter, priceless). Bond was set to continue coining it in for the foreseeable future, but the dye had been cast and Bond ran the risk of becoming purely a cartoon caricature.....

YAY

7/10

This has perhaps the weirdest pre-credit sequence of all Bond films in that it doesn't feature Bond at all. The producers might've been nervous with another new Bond coming on board after the Lazenby dissapointment.

It is also interesting because it allows us a glimpse into Bond's home life, he is not particularly adept at making coffee as it turns out.

The plot is a bit bollocks and it's a bit weird that Kananga's real motivation isn't revealed until the end. The Mr. Big & Kananga being one and the same person twist is also handled in a rather lacklustre way.

I have to admit having always had a bit of a crush on Jane Seymour, for me she is still one of the most beautiful women in the world even though her Solitaire is a rather passive Bond girl.

I really wish I liked this one more. I like all the elements (voodoo, New Orleans bayou country, bizarre murders, the supernatural, that fantastic song, the gorgeous Jane Seymour)—and don’t think they add to a satisfying whole. The plot goes nowhere fast, and the script keeps traipsing over the same ground over and over and over again. The “twist” is at once obvious and ludicrous. The sets (e.g., Kananga’s office) seem weirdly cheap until the end. Henchmen Baron Samedi and Tee-Hee are more interesting than Kananga/Mr. Big. Moore wandering around ’70s Harlem in his Sunday best and the blaxploitation stuff are unintentionally hilarious.

I’m more favorably predisposed than I used to be because I do enjoy those elements, but every time I watch it I wonder why they couldn’t have more faithfully adapted Fleming’s book (one of his best: voodoo, bizarre murders, and Blackbeard’s treasure), from which they later borrowed a particularly gruesome scene for Licence to Kill. I also keep thinking how more or less the same material had been done better and earlier in The Saint’s “Sibao” (also, of course, with Moore).

Ah well.