Mr Big/Dr Kananga in LALD - his disguise/villainy etc.?

Silhouette Man

Does anyone else here on AJB feel that Mr Big/Dr Kananga is a rather wasted character as the main villain in LALD - he doesn't really seem to get very much screentime, I feel. His death was an absolute joke - as many of the Guy Hamilton Bonds were - DAF and TMWTGG also had poor villain death scenes - only GF packed any punch.

John Brosnan made the comment that the make-up job on Mr Big was very bad - he looked more white than black as Yaphet Kotto interfered in the make-up, wantuing someopne else to do it (badly). Kotto was park of the Black Pride movement and he was clearly prickly and difficult on set. The 'reveal' that Mr Big and Dr Kananga wasn't really a very big surprise - even though it did set up a great 'Tales of the Unexpected' moment - along with the titles sequences evocation of Voodoo.

What are our thoughts here on the duality of Big and Kananga - would it have been better if Kotto had only played one of these characters - such as Kananga alone? I think this would have been the better option as Big looked quite unreal to me. The Mr Big of the books was a much more nuanced and interesting character that bares little to no resemblance to the charcter in the film version some 20 years later.

I'd really love to here your thoughts on this one...

Blackleiter

I agree. Although Kotto is a superb actor and he made an impact as Kananga, the "Mr. Big" makeup was too poorly done for the dual character to work.

Silhouette Man wrote:

Does anyone else here on AJB feel that Mr Big/Dr Kananga is a rather wasted character as the main villain in LALD - he doesn't really seem to get very much screentime, I feel. His death was an absolute joke - as many of the Guy Hamilton Bonds were - DAF and TMWTGG also had poor villain death scenes - only GF packed any punch.

John Brosnan made the comment that the make-up job on Mr Big was very bad - he looked more white than black as Yaphet Kotto interfered in the make-up, wantuing someopne else to do it (badly). Kotto was park of the Black Pride movement and he was clearly prickly and difficult on set. The 'reveal' that Mr Big and Dr Kananga wasn't really a very big surprise - even though it did set up a great 'Tales o9f the Unexpected' moment - along with the titles sequences evocation of Voodoo.

What are our thoughts here on the duality of Big and Kananga - would it have been better if Kotto had only played one of these characters - such as Kananga alone? I think this would have been the better option as Big looked quite unreal to me.

AlphaOmegaSin

Mr Big in the Novel has more of a Gentleman approach to him, described as being Bald and Fat with a Heart Condition. I have always thought that idea of Dr Kananga disguising himself as Mr Big is a bit silly to be honest.

The Scene in the Book where Bond gets his Finger Broken made me squirm.

BIG TAM

I've always thought they should have had Kananga & Mr. Big as two separate characters. Yaphet Kotto could quite easily have played Mr. Big as he was without the useless make-up & James Earl Jones could have played Kananga. You could still have retained Tee Hee, Baron Samedi, etc.

superado

The movie's plot was obviously a product of its time and just as LTK featured cartels, LALD featured similar elements from "The French Connection" and of course, the black exploitation movies from the 70's (as mentioned above) and because of that, I don't think an adaptation of the refined and intelligent character traits of Mr. Big in the novel would have given any bite to the screen version. This is a case in which the villain was made more cinematically "interesting," just as was done with Le Chiffre in 2006's CR, although the opposite is true when bombastic villains were toned down from the books to film, like Drax and Red Grant.

As for the duality and masquerade gimmick, I think it was a good idea and would have been more so in today's wired world of information, when a "legimtimate" island-state (complete with bonafide UN representation) is also behind a major heroine network in the United States for its island grown produce, e.g,, a brilliant plot. Just think of Elliot Carver and Gustav Graves, whose guilt was near obvious from the beginning, so in comparison a subterfuge like Mr. Big's was already a superior strategy; speaking of Gustav Graves, I think it was stupid to go through the painful identity change just to literally leave breadcrumbs of conflict diamonds from the start of his "new" life. The ruse has potential in LALD, but it was just dumb how Mr. Big went through the trouble of the elaborate masquerade for Bond's benefit, but to immediately reveal himself for dramatic effect, to just then decide to "waste" Bond.

As for Guy Hamilton, I wonder if he experienced similar pressures as Sam Mendes (jumping into the fantastic world of Bond from his high-drama staple) to take a creative leap into the more fanstastic realm of later Bond films to better suit the growing comic book tastes of Bond audiences; today, that audience are video game and high-adrenalin action movie junkies. The change from the already fantastic direction of GF into the even more fantastic and silly direction of DAF, LALD and TMWTGG may have also been influenced by Tom Mankiewicz, who received shared or solo credit for those films' screenplays, and the amount of time from GF to DAF just shows the likely pressure of becoming relevant with the times.

Sir Hillary Bray

I gotta say, the first time I saw LALD (circa 1978) I had no clue that Kananga and Mr. Big were the same person until the reveal. Was it necessary to have them be the same person? No, that was silly -- how did Kananga find the time to put on and take off that makeup every day? Did Kananga really need to be supplier and distributor? I mean, Pablo Escobar wasn't running street crews in American ghettos in the 1980s/90s. I guess for Kananga owning the whole value chain was too tempting to pass up.

Blackleiter

Really???? Have you checked with your occulist lately? )

Sir Hillary Bray wrote:

I gotta say, the first time I saw LALD (circa 1978) I had no clue that Kananga and Mr. Big were the same person until the reveal.

Sir Hillary Bray

Blackleiter wrote:

Really???? Have you checked with your occulist lately? )

Sir Hillary Bray wrote:

I gotta say, the first time I saw LALD (circa 1978) I had no clue that Kananga and Mr. Big were the same person until the reveal.

What can I say? I was 14 at the time, had just discovered Bond films the year before, and was totally willing to suspend disbelief. Ah, the innocence/cluelessness of youth...

Blackleiter

A mere child! You deserve a pass. )

Sir Hillary Bray wrote:

Blackleiter wrote:

Really???? Have you checked with your occulist lately? )

Sir Hillary Bray wrote:

I gotta say, the first time I saw LALD (circa 1978) I had no clue that Kananga and Mr. Big were the same person until the reveal.

What can I say? I was 14 at the time, had just discovered Bond films the year before, and was totally willing to suspend disbelief. Ah, the innocence/cluelessness of youth...

ChromeJob

I believe Rick Baker made the gag Samedi head that Bond shoots (with the eyes rolling upwards, still one of my favorite creepy moments in Bond films), but who did the Mr. Big makeup? Baker was young then, but a protege of Dick Smith, a modern master (THE EXORCIST, TAXI DRIVER, ALTERED STATES). I think he did LALD about the time did John Landis' SCHLOCK!.

chrisisall

Sir Hillary Bray wrote:

What can I say? I was 14 at the time, had just discovered Bond films the year before, and was totally willing to suspend disbelief. Ah, the innocence/cluelessness of youth...

Same here, but one year younger than you. I figgured Mr. Big just had facial scars from a fire or something that made his mouth look like that when he talked.
When he ripped off the pieces I was all like, ahhh, just like in Beneath The Planet Of The Apes! Only those came off easier! )

chrisisall

Blackleiter wrote:

A mere child! You deserve a pass. )

If you're handing them out....

Blackleiter

Sure - you want one?

chrisisall wrote:

Blackleiter wrote:

A mere child! You deserve a pass. )

If you're handing them out....

chrisisall

Blackleiter wrote:

Sure - you want one?

I guess I deserve one. 8-)

One more thing- about when Bond puts the cartridge in Kananga's mouth... have YOU ever tried to swallow a horsepill THAT big? And he couldn't have been TRYING, so how exactly did that work, btw?????

Moore Than

One can certainly question the Mr Big/Dr Kananga duality. But for me it is totally justified in just one line. "Names is for tombstones, baby!" ) Classic.

Live And Let Die was my introduction to Bond, it remains a big (and sentimental) favourite of mine.

Smiert-Spionam

Moore Than wrote:

One can certainly question the Mr Big/Dr Kananga duality. But for me it is totally justified in just one line. "Names is for tombstones, baby!" ) Classic.

Live And Let Die was my introduction to Bond, it remains a big (and sentimental) favourite of mine.

"Now take him outside and waste the sucker!"

There are so many classic lines like that in LALD! Always been one of my favourtie Bond films and definately my fave Roger Moore flick.

Always loved the Kananga character! Creepy and ruthless...Kananga was a character that you could see was fuming inside but kept a calm demenour on the outside when faced with Bond. Kotto, I feel, pulled this off very well!

LastRatStanding

Smiert-Spionam wrote:

There are so many classic lines like that in LALD! Always been one of my favourtie Bond films and definately my fave Roger Moore flick.

Another great Live and Let Die quote: "Any cost, any, Bond must die!" Always stuck in my mind from the first time I seen it until now, a classic line!

Always loved the Kananga character! Creepy and ruthless...Kananga was a character that you could see was fuming inside but kept a calm demenour on the outside when faced with Bond. Kotto, I feel, pulled this off very well!

I certainly agree with that! He definitely focused his anger on Solitaire as opposed to Bond - Dat Pimp slap! I'm not sure whether it was out of cowardice or just a longing to show Bond that nothing scared him, but you could see fear in Kananga from the moment Bond comes along - hence the quote I mentioned! However contrary to the quote, he seems to muck around trying to kill Bond. Up to this point it seems like he is really eager to actually just simply kill Bond which is quite unusual for a Bond Villain! But as always he ends up trying his luck and comes up with some impressively silly ways to get rid of him, they mention throwing him from a plane, then Kananga is sitting with Bond with Bond trapped in a chair and they take him OUT of that position to put him on a crocodile farm, and then tries to feed him to sharks. However, This is of course, the mindset of a Classic Bond Villain! But if there was a Bond Villain that should have taken his opportunity, and certainly came across as though he truly wanted to, it should have been Kananga! Unfortunately at the end of the day he didn't put up much of a fight.

As for his ridiculous Demise..who knows! I've heard a lot of bad things about it and of course it's silly - but i've also heard a lot of bad things about Milton Krest's head exploding in Licence To Kill. I don't think it would have been wise to have Kananga's guts and the like shower the entire room red! But let's face it, he's not just a hollow balloon. I dont know, it depends how you look at it - does a character as good as Kananga merit a GOOD death or MEMORABLE death?

Silhouette Man

I think that Yaphet Kotto himself is actually a very interesting actor - I've been reading some of his interviews and they sound fascinating. It seems he felt that the Mankiewicz script left a lot to be desired from an actor's point of view. He also wrote two books and directed a film in 1972. He's a really interesting figure. There will be an article touching on all of these elements on The Bondologist Blog soonish.