GET NEW POSTS VIA FEED
OR EMAILMovie Notes: Live And Let Die
Live and Let Die: Childhood memories.
Starring Roger Moore, Jane Seymour
Directed by Guy Hamilton
= 4 stars
Amazon link
Roger Moore (James Bond)
Jane Seymour (Solitare)
Live and Let Die from 1973 starred Roger Moore as James Bond, for the first time. I remember watching it as a kid. Although it’s an action-packed adventure, it has elements from other films of the time that prove entertaining, but aren’t really about James Bond, spies, or espionage. There is also a noticeable comedy vibe - almost as if it’s lampooning earlier Bond movies.
The plot centers around drug importing and is heavily “blaxploitation” inspired, with trips to New Orleans, Harlem, and voodoo rituals. It’s fine for Bond to get into exotic locations and countries, but this time in particular seems more calculated to mimic other action films of the time.
The good points are a young, truly beyond hot Jane Seymour as Solitaire, an icy tarot card reader who keeps turning up the Lovers card whenever James Bond approaches. There are also some inspired action scenes (the New Orleans funeral procession is classic, and the boat chase with a red-faced Southern sheriff delivers). Lastly, we get a great theme song by Paul McCartney (featuring varied musical sections, mimicking the varied locations in the film). One scene features a night club singer doing a bluesy, funkified version of Live and Let Die that is a real hoot.
To sum up, this feels like a decent entry into the Bond franchise, but I’ll have to watch some more Moore-as-Bond to really be certain.
IMDB: Live and Let Die
Wikipedia: Live and Let Die
Rotten Tomatoes: Live And Let Die 62%
Categories: 4 Star Movies, General, James Bond, Movies :: Tags: ::
Trackback URL
Front Page
Previous Post: Are Bloggers Bad For The Web?
Next Post: Movie Notes: The Man With The Golden Gun
Related Posts: Apple: Movie Download Purchases Are Great, But I Want More Rentals :: The Best And Worst James Bond Films :: Saturday Night Live Videos: iPhone And iPod :: Movie Notes: You Only Live Twice ::
Yep, agreed; this is one of the least ‘Bondian’ movies of the lot. Oddly colourless performance by Sir Roger in his first Bond outing, he seemed like he was still doing an episode of ‘The Saint’. Jane Seymour was the true revelation here; an extraordinarily attractive woman who also managed to inject some real personality into what was essentially just another ‘Bond Girl’ role (they generally start off powerfiul and confident and then go all ‘help me, James’ once they succumb to his libido. To be fair though, in this movie Solitaire arguably succumbed to her own). She was the best thing about it. The ‘Blaxploitation’ idea was not bad, but it really only worked in the urban Harlem environment, where Bond is an uncomfortable fish out of water. He might as well be in Moscow. Once down in de Bayou however, the gritty urban vibe disappeared to be replaced by a garish cartoon of dumbass Southern lawmen, hokey ‘voodoo’ trappings and a speedboat chase during which one had time to make a coffee, check the email, reminisce with friends of times past, etc. Continuing on from ‘Diamonds Are Forever’ both the ‘Americanisation’ of the Bond films and the creeping tide of ‘comedic’ content are patently obvious. Silly moments abound; a table sinks below the floor in a nightclub and no-one notices? The villains didn’t so much as point in the other direction and shout ‘hey, what’s that over there’ before it happened. Also, all the people in the ‘funeral parades’ are in on the plot? Oh yeah. Where did Bond get an entire tarot deck of ‘The Lovers’ card? Q? Kananga’s explosive yet bloodless death would have been a lot less cartoonish in real life (but there’s a PG rating to be kept in mind), and so on. Oh, and a Bond movie plot with actual supernatural elements? We’ve sure moved on from the ‘dragon’ in ‘Dr No’. Then again, Baron Samedi did look quite cool riding that train at the end…