Is Live and Let Die (1973) the "Marmite" James Bond Film?
Silhouette Man
The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,845MI6 Agent
This thread is designed to address what is surely one of the most overlooked James Bond films of them all - Roger Moore's debut as James Bond in Live and Let Die (1973). This film seems to be what I refer to here as a "Marmite" James Bond film, by which I mean to say - "You either love it or hate it", just like that selfsame bread spread favoured by butch lorry drivers.
There are many criticisms/comments to be made of Live and Let Die (1973) as a James Bond film. I will now list some of these points in summary form below:
1. It carries on the camp spoofiness first seen in DAF.
2. it has no plot to speak of - something about the supply of the drug heroin - the plot strand being the thinnest thread to hang the loose series of set pieces and action sequences together in semi-coherent form.
3. All the villains are black - query blatant racist undertones a la the Fleming 1954 Bond source novel - token good guys Harold Strutter/Quarrel Jnr. There are no racist overtones from my POV as the black villains outwit Bond at every turn, plus the villains were black in the original Fleming Bond novel from 1954. So the racist criticism falls flat for me.
4. There are too many silly scenes - introduction of Roger Moore as Bond in his house, Sheriff J.W. Pepper scenes, wedding boat scenes, Kanaga's inflated ego death, Baron Samedi laughing into camera in end credits, Mrs Bell Bleaker Flying School scene etc.
5. Jokey one-liners in place of character-driven storyline.
6. The Dr Kananga/Mr Big disguise is very poor - he looks more pasty white than black as Mr Big - one good villain is better than two weak villains. Yaphet Kotto is largely to blame for this fact as he refused to use the make-up job proffered and rather decided on his own alternative make-up job, according to John Brosnan in his book James Bond in the Cinema. After all of the Blofeld/SPECTRE hokum, Dr Kananga is a most refreshing changeof tack and he is one of ther better, if not one of the more memorable James Bond villains of the last 50 years. Yaphet Kotto plays Kananga to the hilt - he is indeed the black version of James Bond just as the later Francisco Scaramanga was the dark side of James Bond as seen in TMWTGG.
7. Has the feel of a TV episode more than a feature film - like a prolonged Tales of the Unexpected episode. Syd Cain and the lack of Ken Adam's sets accounts for the more low-key nature of the film - just like DAF and TMWTGG. It also has the feel of the supernatural/voodoo chillers of the Hammer horror films of the 1950s-1970s, especially The Devil Rides Out (1968).
8. The first example of the James Bond films jumping on the veritable bandwagon - the black action or "Blaxsploitation" picture - all black casts like in Shaft or Superfly and countless others...Bond films from here on in become trend-followers, not trend-setters. Use of early 1970s lingo further dates the film to a certain time and place. "Honky", "Pimpmobile", "Waste him.", "Klu Klux Klan cook-out" etc. The requisite plot involving drugs - the novel version of LALD had been about Mr Big, SMERSH agent, smuggling gold coins to fund foreign SMERSH operations.
9. James Bond is mostly clueless throughout and the black villains seemingly outwit him at every turn.
10. Seems as thogh the producers/director/screenwriter are trying to avoid any overt comparisons with Sean Connery as James Bond - no typical Q scene, no proper M office-bound briefing, no proper Moneypennny scene, no hat tossing, no martinis ordered, Walther PPK unused (Tee Hee destroys it early on). Use of Colt .45. Moore Bond wears prefect's best "preppy" clothes and sterotypical black spy fit at the end.
11. LALD goes against the established James Bond formula - no Q to show the secrets of his gadgetry - buzz saw on watch.
12. Changes in the nature of the James Bond character construct - more of a cad and a bounder, the Eton drop-out "Englishman abroad"/"Englishman in New York", deflowers Solitaire throgh trickery of stacked deck, ungentlemanly of Bond - not what we've come to expect - far from the novel Bond whop defended the helpless and didn't mistreat women or take advantage of the vulnerable in society.
13. More graphically violent - see shooting in Voodoo scene, Kanangas cutting Bond's arm - draws blood, Bond throws petrol in Adam's eyes, stabbing, Tee Hee thrown from train - defenceless as arm locked, Kananga hitting Solitaire,
"humorous" maltreatment of Mrs Bell ("She's in intensive care, but she'll pull through.") A nasty James Bond following on from its very nasty predecessor DAF.
14. LALD is basically Dr. No II - many similarities between the both debut Bond films, but then so are YOLT, TSWLM and TND, LTK and QoS, MR and DAD etc.
15. The Bond girl relationship is handled very well here - Solitaire is endangered by making love to Bond - the hero puts the heroine in mortal danger - as Mr Big says "Did you touch her?". This is a break from earlier Bond films and Solitaire is much more entertaining that the dumb Mary Goodnight from the next year's TMWTGG.
16. Some also criticise the voodoo scenes as not belonging in a James Bond film but it's what makes this Bond film so very different from all the others - this underlying sense of darkness and realism.
This is my list of points so far - I may add more to it in time through the post editing function.
I'd now really love to hear the views of AJB members on what I have dubbed the "Marmite" James Bond film - Live and Let Die, which sees its 40th Anniversary on 5 July 2013. I'm currently writing a lengthy and alternative-based review of the film and I want to get a cross-section of views on this film, which, despite my criticisms here, I actually rather like!
I'm sure that most of us would agree that Live and Let Die is massively underrated as a James Bond film and as its unique to the James Bond canon, what better way to celebrate its 40th Anniversary in 2013 than to give it the reappraisal that it more than deserves!
Keep the posts coming!
There are many criticisms/comments to be made of Live and Let Die (1973) as a James Bond film. I will now list some of these points in summary form below:
1. It carries on the camp spoofiness first seen in DAF.
2. it has no plot to speak of - something about the supply of the drug heroin - the plot strand being the thinnest thread to hang the loose series of set pieces and action sequences together in semi-coherent form.
3. All the villains are black - query blatant racist undertones a la the Fleming 1954 Bond source novel - token good guys Harold Strutter/Quarrel Jnr. There are no racist overtones from my POV as the black villains outwit Bond at every turn, plus the villains were black in the original Fleming Bond novel from 1954. So the racist criticism falls flat for me.
4. There are too many silly scenes - introduction of Roger Moore as Bond in his house, Sheriff J.W. Pepper scenes, wedding boat scenes, Kanaga's inflated ego death, Baron Samedi laughing into camera in end credits, Mrs Bell Bleaker Flying School scene etc.
5. Jokey one-liners in place of character-driven storyline.
6. The Dr Kananga/Mr Big disguise is very poor - he looks more pasty white than black as Mr Big - one good villain is better than two weak villains. Yaphet Kotto is largely to blame for this fact as he refused to use the make-up job proffered and rather decided on his own alternative make-up job, according to John Brosnan in his book James Bond in the Cinema. After all of the Blofeld/SPECTRE hokum, Dr Kananga is a most refreshing changeof tack and he is one of ther better, if not one of the more memorable James Bond villains of the last 50 years. Yaphet Kotto plays Kananga to the hilt - he is indeed the black version of James Bond just as the later Francisco Scaramanga was the dark side of James Bond as seen in TMWTGG.
7. Has the feel of a TV episode more than a feature film - like a prolonged Tales of the Unexpected episode. Syd Cain and the lack of Ken Adam's sets accounts for the more low-key nature of the film - just like DAF and TMWTGG. It also has the feel of the supernatural/voodoo chillers of the Hammer horror films of the 1950s-1970s, especially The Devil Rides Out (1968).
8. The first example of the James Bond films jumping on the veritable bandwagon - the black action or "Blaxsploitation" picture - all black casts like in Shaft or Superfly and countless others...Bond films from here on in become trend-followers, not trend-setters. Use of early 1970s lingo further dates the film to a certain time and place. "Honky", "Pimpmobile", "Waste him.", "Klu Klux Klan cook-out" etc. The requisite plot involving drugs - the novel version of LALD had been about Mr Big, SMERSH agent, smuggling gold coins to fund foreign SMERSH operations.
9. James Bond is mostly clueless throughout and the black villains seemingly outwit him at every turn.
10. Seems as thogh the producers/director/screenwriter are trying to avoid any overt comparisons with Sean Connery as James Bond - no typical Q scene, no proper M office-bound briefing, no proper Moneypennny scene, no hat tossing, no martinis ordered, Walther PPK unused (Tee Hee destroys it early on). Use of Colt .45. Moore Bond wears prefect's best "preppy" clothes and sterotypical black spy fit at the end.
11. LALD goes against the established James Bond formula - no Q to show the secrets of his gadgetry - buzz saw on watch.
12. Changes in the nature of the James Bond character construct - more of a cad and a bounder, the Eton drop-out "Englishman abroad"/"Englishman in New York", deflowers Solitaire throgh trickery of stacked deck, ungentlemanly of Bond - not what we've come to expect - far from the novel Bond whop defended the helpless and didn't mistreat women or take advantage of the vulnerable in society.
13. More graphically violent - see shooting in Voodoo scene, Kanangas cutting Bond's arm - draws blood, Bond throws petrol in Adam's eyes, stabbing, Tee Hee thrown from train - defenceless as arm locked, Kananga hitting Solitaire,
"humorous" maltreatment of Mrs Bell ("She's in intensive care, but she'll pull through.") A nasty James Bond following on from its very nasty predecessor DAF.
14. LALD is basically Dr. No II - many similarities between the both debut Bond films, but then so are YOLT, TSWLM and TND, LTK and QoS, MR and DAD etc.
15. The Bond girl relationship is handled very well here - Solitaire is endangered by making love to Bond - the hero puts the heroine in mortal danger - as Mr Big says "Did you touch her?". This is a break from earlier Bond films and Solitaire is much more entertaining that the dumb Mary Goodnight from the next year's TMWTGG.
16. Some also criticise the voodoo scenes as not belonging in a James Bond film but it's what makes this Bond film so very different from all the others - this underlying sense of darkness and realism.
This is my list of points so far - I may add more to it in time through the post editing function.
I'd now really love to hear the views of AJB members on what I have dubbed the "Marmite" James Bond film - Live and Let Die, which sees its 40th Anniversary on 5 July 2013. I'm currently writing a lengthy and alternative-based review of the film and I want to get a cross-section of views on this film, which, despite my criticisms here, I actually rather like!
I'm sure that most of us would agree that Live and Let Die is massively underrated as a James Bond film and as its unique to the James Bond canon, what better way to celebrate its 40th Anniversary in 2013 than to give it the reappraisal that it more than deserves!
Keep the posts coming!
"The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
Comments
I disagree that Kananga is a weak villain, I actually find him engaging, threatening and unlike a lot of the earlier Bond villains, he doesn't boast any OTT characteristics. The whole drug smuggling storyline is also alot more realisic and plausable than a hollowed out volcano used to house kidnapped rockets (YOLT).
While I agree that LALD jumps on the blaxploitation bandwagon of the early 70's I don't believe it to be racist. The villains were all black in the LALD novel so why shouldn't that be the case in the film? Perhaps it's just me but I can't really understand the argument.
Another reason I love LALD is the fact that the humour (especially the sight gags) are a lot more subtle than some of Moore's later films i.e. TMWTGG/MR/OP. I find the banter between Bond and all of the villains humerous while still maintaining the vibe that Bond's life is in danger at all times. For the life of me I cannot think of a better henchmen in a Bond film than Baron Samedi. Perhaps only Red Grant in FRWL or Oddjob for GF come close.
It's difficult to pinpoint exactly why I love LALD so much but it's not a Bond film I get bored of easily, in fact it's one of the films I tend to watch more than the others. Even for a Bond fan who likes his films dark and gritty I find I can sit through LALD and not nitpick at the flaws which are peppered throughout. If you want a serious Bond film then go for some early Connery/Dalton or Craig. If it's entertainment you're after then it's difficult to look past Live and Let Die -{
Jane Seymour as the bond girl is well worth the time to watch it. Second reason is that it has the best bond theme song.
On a more serious note, reason three it is a highly entertaining bond, It does have some deep flaws, but when i watch it I never felt like I wasted time.
1 - Moore, 2 - Dalton, 3 - Craig, 4 - Connery, 5 - Brosnan, 6 - Lazenby
I can only see 2 reasons on that pic.
Where is the third one? ?:)
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
The third reason is a secret only revealed when she shows you her black box!
Some of the characters feel a bit stereotypical (The NY cabbie who later turns up in NO is a prime example) But it doesn't feel "Racist" per se, just a product of the times. I can't imagine Kotto, Julius Harris, Geoffrey Holder, etc., appearing in a film if they themselves felt it was racist, even if it was a James Bond film and they were guaranteed notoriety. The final interplay between Bond and Kananga before and after he escapes being fed to the sharks also felt very real. While brief, the knife fight he and Kananga have before they fall into the water was a better showdown than the ones he had with Stromberg and Drax, for sure. Kananga felt like a threat, Stromberg and Drax, not at all.
My only criticism would be Kananga's death. While I'm sure it looked good on paper, the actual finished product is hokey as Hell. They followed a similar tactic in LTK, but at least they included some fake blood to add to the effect. Kananga looked like a balloon that exploded, and I'm sure it would be a hell of a gory mess at the end of it.
Yes, this Roger Moore Bond is a real cad. This is indeed one of Moore's best performances as James Bond. Despite my criticisms above, I've come to really enjoy LALD after the God-awful DAF. LALD was a much better Bond film, as was TMWTGG, IMHO. As I said above, I'm writing an "alternative" LALD review as it is a very underrated/under-analysed film in many ways. Dr Kananga's showdown with Moore was the best until Zorin in AVTAK - all of the rest of the showdowns lacked any real menace, although I suppose Stromberg's was pretty good too, if a little Professor Dent-excessive in nature.
On the racist rap, I think LALD has a clean sheet, only Yaphet Kotto was worried about playing a black villain in a James Bond film at that tiime of early 70s Black Militancy - he gave a Black Power salute at one point in a photo call and I've heard of his fallng out with Roger Moore at some moments - can't remember where. A really good article looking at every aspect of the 1973 Roger Moore debut as James Bond cold and needs to be written and I intend to write it. It will look at all of these aspects of the film in an upocoming piece entitled 'Stranger in a Strange Land - An Alternative Review of Live and Let Die (1973)'.
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
It's actually quite popular among those of us of the vegetarian persuasion.
A Gent in Training.... A blog about my continuing efforts to be improve myself, be a better person, and lead a good life. It incorporates such far flung topics as fitness, self defense, music, style, food and drink, and personal philosophy.
Agent In Training
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
Not surprised about your choice of films, when you count Solitaire to the villains.
Like Granny Miles said in another thread, it's important to face the screen when watching Bond movies
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
If we want to get REAL technical, Solitaire does start out as a bit of a villain. She reports Bond's movements to Kananga, seems pleased over the fact he draws "The Fool" card upon their first meeting, and appears to have no qualms about Bond being led out to the alley to be shot by Kananga/Mr. Big's men until after he pulls "The Lovers" card and she changes her tune.
I'm sure Solitaire wants to get away from Kananga's control from the very start. But she doesn't start seeing Bond as any sort of a ticket to be able to do that until the cards keep falling that they'll end up lovers.
I hope you're not planning on following me from thread to thread and pointing out mistakes and grammatical errors. I certainly haven't been doing anything like that to you.
But as it seems that you feel the need to reply on everything which is discussed on AJB, our paths will cross now and then.
As for your explanation - bending what you wrote to what Solitaire is in the movie may be the correct term
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
But as it seems that you feel the need to reply on everything which is discussed on AJB, our paths will cross now and then."
Sorry about that. I thought a James Bond discussion forum was for the purpose of discussing James Bond.
Happy posting.
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
Best Leiter, great theme song, awesome boat chase, alligator farm...lots of great stuff.
"You must give me the name of your oculist."
Yes, Bond used a revolver in some of the novels, too. A Colt .45 and a Colt .38, I believe. I think the reason the Magnum was used was the fact it wasn't the Walther PPK - Sean Connery's gun. The writer, Mankiewicz had it symbolically destroyed by Tee Hee. Just like Major Boothroyd replacing Connery's Beretta .25 with the Walther PPK. Another link back to Dr. No there! Interesting - it also explains the power of the gun in the voodoo scenes!
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
Oh, so you did that too?!
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
Well, I actually used to pour aftershave into the sink and light it with matches. Not brave enough to do what you did!