Live and Let Die
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Movie Reviews of Live and Let Die
Movie Review: Roger Moore's Debut As 007 Isn't Top-Notch But This Is Worth Watching for All Hardcore Bond Fans.
Summary: 3 Stars
Roger Moore made his cinematic debut as Ian Fleming's James Bond, Agent 007, in director Guy Hamilton's "Live and Let Die," the eighth official entry in the Albert R. Broccoli & Harry Saltzman franchise for United Artists. Yaphet Kotto, Jane Seymour, David Hedison, and Geoffrey Holder co-starred with Moore in this above-average outing. Chiefly, the sudden rage in movies about African-American heroes prompted Broccoli & Saltzman to exploit the black angle to market the film's appeal across cultures. Moore ranks "Live and Let Die" as his second favorite 007 escapade after Lewis Gilbert's "The Spy Who Loved Me." In my opinion, however, "Live and Let Die" qualifies as above average as a movie, but least impressive as a Bond movie, edged out the ninth Bond opus, Guy Hamilton's "The Man with the Golden Gun."
Basically, nothing either surprising or electrifying occurs in this installment. Nevertheless, "Live and Let Die" boasts several assets, for example, the careening speed boat chase through the Louisiana bayous, Tom Mankiewicz's witty dialogue, the notorious villain's heroin trafficking scheme, the various predicaments that Bond finds himself in from Harlem to the Caribbean with voodoo witchcraft shading in the background, and Paul McCartney's Oscar nominated rock song title tune. Additionally, the editing by Bert Bates, Raymond Poulton, and John Shirley is exceptionally crisp.
"Live and Let Die" featured a number of firsts for the James Bond franchise. The producers lensed this entry in 1.85.1 screen format, after they had converted to the Panavision widescreen process of 2.35.1 with "Thunderball," "You Only Live Twice," "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," and "Diamonds Are Forever." The smaller screen ratio cramps the epic scale of adventure that made the previous James Bond sagas the larger-than-life series that it is. The producers sought to contrast Roger Moore's Bond from Sean Connery's. According to Mankiewicz, Connery was more aggressive while Moore was more suave. Moore smoked cigars rather than the cigarettes that Connery puffed. Bond receives his briefing his own flat under tense conditions rather than in at M's office. Moore shuns hats unlike Connery. Indeed, Moore appears in the gun-barrel sequence without headgear. Moore's Bond hang-glided here as well as in "Moonraker." Q is conspicuously absent from "Live and Let Die." Bond travels to an imaginary country for the first time, and Moore's Bond cuddles up with an African American woman, Rosie Carver (Gloria Hendry), 007's first interracial romance. Sheriff J.W. Pepper blurted out the first profanity in a Bond movie. George Martin produced an inferior orchestral score, compared to John Barry's superb scores. "Live and Let Die" also incorporated a supernatural theme, something that no other Bond has ever done.
The opening gambit qualifies as one of the least provocative. British agents at the United Nations in New York City, in the French Quarter in New Orleans, and in San Monique--a remote island in the Caribbean--die under mysterious circumstances. M barges in on Bond at 5:48 AM to brief him, while Miss Moneypenny helps a female Italian agent hide from M. No sooner does 007 lands in the Big Apple than Mr. Big (Yaphet Kotto of "Across 110th Street") sends his henchmen to kill him. They kill his driver with poisonous dart in New York traffic and our hero struggles to control his swerving car from the backseat. Later, Bond blunders into Harlem, walks into a trap at the Fillet of Soul restaurant, and encounters, Solitaire (Jane Seymour), who can predict the future. She works for Mr. Big, but she doesn't sleep with him. Actually, Mr. Big and Dr. Kananga, an island diplomat, are one in the same, but their dual personality doesn't come as much of a surprise. Nevertheless, the unmasking scene pre-dates Tom Cruise's "Mission Impossible."
Bond escapes from Mr. Big and meets an African-American CIA agent Rosie Carver in San Monique. Our hero escapes narrowly from a snake in his bathroom and wields a rather handy bottle of after-shave. When Bond gets rough with Rosie, Kananga has her executed. Eventually, Bond meets Solitaire again, makes love to her, and tries to help her escape. Since she is no longer a virgin, Solitaire cannot foretell the future so she flees with 007 to Louisiana. The double-decker bus scene is a revision of the "Diamonds Are Forever" car chase where the villains think that they have Bond cornered. Bond discovers that Mr. Big wants to give away a billion dollars worth of heroin to run the Mafia out of the junk business.
Momentarily, Bond eludes Mr. Big's thugs during an amusing chase around a hanger in a propeller-driven plane and later in a bayou boat chase that goes on too long but ends explosively. Bond and Mr. Big engage in hand-to-hand combat in Mr. Big's underground headquarters where he blows the villain to smithereens. Tee Hee (Julius Harris of "Looking for Mr. Goodbar") makes a menacing villain with a steel pincer that can bend gun barrels. They tangle briefly on a train at the end. Clearly, their train tussle recalls Sean Connery's free-for-all with Robert Shaw in "From Russia, With Love" on the Orient Express and later Roger Moore's Donnybrook with Richard Kiel as Jaws in "The Spy Who Loved Me." Unfortunately, David Hedison does little more than deliver exposition as Felix Leiter. Sheriff J.W. Pepper--a forerunner to Jackie Gleason's redneck cop in the "Smokey and the Bandit" movies--is strictly comic relief and a little too broad. Actually, Pepper is a variation on the Las Vegas cop that pursues Bond down a back alley.
"Live and Let Die" was above-average, but this PG-rated Bond lacked the tenacity of earlier Bond movies. Guy Hamilton helms the film with his usual smooth style, but "Live and Let Die" nor the next Bond in line "The Man with the Golden Gun" can compare with "Goldfinger" or "Diamonds Are Forever." Roger Moore came into his own with the vastly superior Bond epic "The Spy Who Loved Me."
Director Guy Hamilton's commentary track is worth listening to and so is Roger Moore's commentary. This is simply a terrific must have DVD for loyal Bond fans!
Movie Review: Do do that voodoo
Summary: 3 Stars
LIVE AND LET DIE, the first James Bond film to star Roger Moore, often gets a bad rap among Bond fans. Stiff and too reliant on the one-liners, Moore was almost no one's favorite James Bond, and this entry in the series is one of the darkest... except for the long chase sequences (one, an extremely extended sequence involving speedboats jumping over dry land and a redneck Louisiana sheriff, would make you want to cringe if it didn't seem like part of a different film altogether.) It's racial politics are also very strangely handled, drawing perhaps too much from Ian Fleming's own bizarre fears about black Jamaican and American culture exploited in his novel on which the film is largely based. But there's much to recommend the film for: even though it draws heavily from popular culture fantasies of voodoo, it is one of the genuinely scariest Bond films, and the dramatic Paul McCartney and Wings theme song is used to fine effect throughout the film, especially in the scary sequence when the likable Gloria Henry, as Bond's first ever African-American romantic partner, realizes she's about to be killed by the villain Katanga (Yaphet Kotto). Geoffrey Holder is also very effective as one of Katanga's henchmen who disguises himself as Baron Samedi, and is featured in the film's final chilling shot. And then there is an extended sequence in a weed overgrown alley between a series of abandoned Harlem tenements that features some of the most breathtaking Gothic images in films of the period. Finally, in Jane Seymour as the prophetic Solitaire, it has one of the most memorable of all Bond women, particularly in that she's one of the more helpless ones (almost all the best Bond women other than Seymour are the ones who can actually fight, like Ursula Andress and Honor Blackman). True, her Seventies couture is often quite laughable, and so is one especially unfortunate chase sequence with Bond driving a double-decker bus while Seymour--for some unknown reason--sits sedately in the back. She has a lovely voice, however, that sounds properly uncanny when she reads her prophetic Tarot cards to Kotto. For all its faults, this is a hard film to forget.Movie Review: Moore's First Bond A mixed bag.
Summary: 3 Stars
The Spy Who Loved Me is the bond film where Roger Moore finally nailed the Bond character. This film has a lot going for it. The positive is Moore although already 45 was at the peak of his looks, so his youthful appearence is quite enjoyable to see. Secondly the wonderful Jane Seymour as Solitaire. Yaphet Kotto as kananaga. All around casting good. The bus chase and boat chase are amazing. However, the film is dated by the emphasis on the Superfly persona of the time. It also has Bond going after a drug kingpin rather than the usual meglmaniac. Although the drug plot is refreshing. Moore is a little wooden at times and he ssems to be living under Sean Connerys shadow although this was his first time. Th ecinematagrophy is not panavision.Movie Review: Good old movie
Summary: 3 Stars
Since this movie was made in the 70's it is a little corny now days but still entertaining and the sound track alone is with the price.Movie Review: Shocked at these positive reviews....
Summary: 2 Stars
Has anyone who loves Live & Let Die ever seen another Bond movie? Where do I start with this extremely weak film? Other than the theme song, a cool voodoo/graveyard sequence and the alligator pond, this is one of the low points in the franchise. Short on action and exotic locals, but packed with ghetto slang, goofy characters and an overall lack of secret agent "coolness". The 1960's were at an end and this movie is just way too early 70's looking (and sounding). Overall it's more dated than Dr No (made 10 years prior) if that's even possible. The Spy Who Loved Me is the film that won me over as far as the Moore years go. This (for me) was a terrible start for Roger Moore. It's like a long episode of Starsky & Hutch....but boring.