Live and Let Die (film)

The film is adapted from the novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. In the film, a Harlem drug lord known as Mr. Big plans to distribute two tons of heroin free to put rival drug barons out of business. Mr. Big, however, is revealed to be the disguised alter ego of Dr. Kananga, a corrupt Caribbean dictator, who rules San Monique, the fictional island where the heroin poppies are secretly farmed. Bond is investigating the death of three British agents, leading him to Kananga, where he is soon trapped in a world of gangsters and voodoo as he fights to put a stop to the drug baron's scheme.

Live and Let Die was released during the height of the blaxploitation era, and many blaxploitation archetypes and cliché are depicted such as afro hairstyles, derogatory racial epithets ("honky"), black gangsters, and "pimpmobiles". Guy Hamilton was again chosen to direct, and since he was a jazz fan, decided to film in New Orleans. Hamilton didn't want to use Mardi Gras since Thunderball featured Junkanoo, a similar festivity, so, following suggestions of a friend and searching for locations in helicopters, he decided to use two well-known features of the city, the jazz funerals and the canals.

While searching for locations in Jamaica, the crew discovered a crocodile farm owned by Ross Kananga, after passing a sign warning that "trespassers will be eaten." The farm was put into the script and also inspired Mankiewicz to name the film's villain after Kananga. However, Broccoli and Saltzman decided to stick to Fleming's Caucasian description, and Jane Seymour, who was in the TV series The Onedin Line, was cast for the role. before being cast again.

Madeline Smith, who played Miss Caruso, sharing Bond's bed in the film's opening, was recommended for the part by Roger Moore after he had appeared with her on TV. Smith said that Moore was extremely polite to work with, but she felt very uncomfortable being clad in only blue bikini panties while Moore's wife was on set overseeing the scene.

This was the only Bond film until 2002 not to feature 'Q', played at this stage by Desmond Llewellyn. Llewellyn was currently appearing in the TV series Follyfoot, but was written out of three episodes to appear in the film. The producers however had already decided not to include the character, much to Llewellyn's annoyance.

Filming

Ross Kananga suggested the jump on crocodiles, and was enlisted by the producers to do the stunt. The speedboat jump scene over the bayou, filmed with the assistance of a specially-constructed ramp, unintentionally set a Guinness World Record at the time with cleared. Unfortunately, the waves created by the impact caused the following boat to flip over. From a budget estimated to be around million, the film grossed million worldwide including million from the United States.

The film holds the record for the most viewed broadcast film on television in the United Kingdom by attracting 23.5 million viewers when premiered on ITV on 20 January 1980.

Reception

Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times stated that Moore "has the superficial attributes for the job: The urbanity, the quizzically raised eyebrow, the calm under fire and in bed". However, he felt that Moore wasn't satisfactory in living up to the legacy left by Sean Connery in the preceding films. He rated the villains "a little banal", adding that the film "doesn't have a Bond villain worthy of the Goldfingers, Dr. Nos and Oddjobs of the past." Chris Nashawaty similarly argues that Dr. Kananga/Mr. Big is the worst villain of the Roger Moore James Bond films. BBC Films reviewer William Mager praised the use of locations, but said that the plot was "convoluted". He stated that "Connery and Lazenby had an air of concealed thuggishness, clenched fists at the ready, but in Moore's case a sardonic quip and a raised eyebrow are his deadliest weapons" Reviewer Leonard Maltin rated the film two and a half stars out of four, describing it as a "barely memorable, overlong James Bond movie" that "seems merely an excuse to film wild chase sequences". Danny Peary noted that Jane Seymour portrays “one of the Bond series’s most beautiful heroines” but had little praise for Moore, whom he described as making “an unimpressive debut as James Bond in Tom Mankiewicz’s unimaginative adaptation of Ian Fleming’s second novel…The movie stumbles along most of the way. It’s hard to remember Moore is playing Bond at times – in fact, if he and Seymour were black, the picture could pass as one of the black exploitation films of the day. There are few interesting action sequences – a motorboat chase is trite enough to begin with, but the filmmakers make it worse by throwing in some stupid Louisiana cops, including pot-bellied Sheriff Pepper.”

IGN ranked Solitaire as 10th in a Top 10 Bond Babes list. In November 2006, Entertainment Weekly listed Live and Let Die as the third best Bond film. MSN chose it as the thirteenth best Bond film and IGN listed it as twelfth best.

{|class="wikitable" |- !Year !Result !Award !Recipients |- |1974 || Nominated || Academy Award for Best Original Song || Paul & Linda McCartney |- |1974 || Nominated || Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture || Paul & Linda McCartney |- |1974 || Won || Evening Standard Best Picture || Guy Hamilton |}

Broadcast television versions

ABC's later, Bond Picture Show airings of Live and Let Die restore the opening scene where the agent is killed in New Orleans. However, the same version also deletes the word "mother" from the line "is this the stupid mother that tailed you from uptown?" Also in the Bond Picture Show version, all instances of the word "boy" as a epithet have been removed. For instance, in one scene where J.W. Pepper clearly says the word, the word "Huh?" has been substituted, instead.

See also

References

External links

Category:1970s action films Category:1973 films Category:Blaxploitation films Category:Exploitation films Category:British films Category:Drug-related films Category:English-language films Category:Films based on novels Category:Films directed by Guy Hamilton Category:Films set in a fictional country Category:Films set in New Orleans, Louisiana Category:Films set in New York City Category:Films shot in Jamaica Category:Films shot in New Orleans, Louisiana Category:Films shot in New York City Category:James Bond films Category:MGM films Category:Pinewood films Category:Sequel films Category:Rail transport films