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Live and Let Die (1973) More at IMDbPro »

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26 out of 31 people found the following comment useful :-
Moore introduces his trademark cigar into his interpretation of 007..., 22 September 2003

Author: ironside (robertfrangie@hotmail.com) from Mexico

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

'Live and Let Die' is the only film that matches Bond exclusively against African-American drug czars... It is the only other movie besides 'Dr. No' with no briefing with Q, no meeting in M's office, and no musical score from the great John Barry... The motion picture begins with one of the most arresting openings of any Bond film, the killing of three British agents: one in Harlem New York, one in New Orleans and one on the island of San Monique...

Bond is called to investigate the deaths of the three British spies... He is menaced by a venomous snake in his hotel room, and cornered in the middle of a pool full of alligators... He stumbles upon a heroin trade operation presided by two contrasting personalities, Dr. Kananga and Mr. Big...

Yaphet Kotto is ruthless and calculating as the black master criminal... His position is shored up by the application of fortune-telling and magic charms... Under the alias of Harlem hood Mr. Big, Kananga plans to flood the US with free heroin... His entourage includes the mystical Baron Samedi (Geoffrey Holder) who may or may not be a supernatural being, and Tee Hee (Julius W. Harris) one of the best henchmen in a Bond film... Tee Hee is an intimidating giant enforcer with quite a 'right hand'... He seems amused by 'the least little thing,' after he twists Bond's gun barrel...

Before he became James Bond on screen, Roger Moore was a successful television actor who was respected for his work in such series as "Maverick," "The Persuaders," and, especially, "The Saint."

In his first appearance as 007, Moore wears a refined black jacket, dark gloves, and a magnetic wristwatch... He carries a shark gun that fires compressed-air bullets, and drinks the martini shaken not stirred... He enjoys a large cigar after a hot bath... He tries hard to conceal the presence of his early "guest," and goes into trouble when he tricks a mystical mistress using a fake deck of tarot cards... He claims to be a 'gentleman' when he refuses to tell his interrogator whether or not he's deflowered his chaste priestess... He becomes highly in danger in the land of black magic and fetishes...

Jane Seymour looks innocent in the ways of the world... She is lovely as the clairvoyant heroine Solitaire, whose powers fade after being romanced by the suave, and handsome English 007 Spy...

Rosie Carver is Playboy bunny Gloria Hendry, the weak CIA agent whose loyalty is controlled by a few bloody feathers...

Madeleine Smith is the voluptuous Miss Caruso who's undone by Bond's sheer magnetism... She is seduced with the aid of a watch that magnetically tugged down her zipper...

This eighth James Bond film is an entertaining spy adventure which went so far as to fail to include Q, forever played by actor Desmond Llewelyn...

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32 out of 43 people found the following comment useful :-
Positively surreal Blaxploitation Bond, 15 December 2006

Author: Shawn Watson (gator_macready@yahoo.com) from The Underverse

And none the worse for it, since every Bond film needs a fresh spin on the same old formula. Roger Moore's first outing as JB is, in equal measures, comical and action-packed. You'll never get bored. But it's definitely the weirdest Bond ever with loads of utterly bizarre moments.

It begins with M turning up at JB's house in the early hours while he's pumping some Italian agent for information (don't you just love his initialled dressing gown). Before sending him to America to investigate a Harlem pimp known as Mister Big he delivers some gadgets from Q-Branch, including a very useful watch. Q himself, or Major Boothroyd if you want to call him by his proper name, doesn't make any appearance in this one.

Standing out like a Muslim in an airport, almost every single black person JB encounters in Harlem is on Mister Big's payroll. And they've got a seemingly endless bag of tricks to play on him. The funny thing about Moore is that he's very proper and British and doesn't think anything of walking into a tough Harlem bar while dressed up like the Duke of Edinburgh. His stunned reactions when they mess with his head are seriously funny.

The action then moves to Lousiana and a savage Caribbean island as JB uncovers a massive heroin plot. There's a particularly long speedboat chase across a bayou where JB encounters Sheriff J.W. Pepper, the most stereotypical southern redneck ever. Think of Texas Businessman from The Simpsons and you get the idea. JB also gets to dodge a hundred hungry Gators and do, many times over, Solitaire, Mister Big's Tarot card reader.

I'm not sure what kind of formidable villain uses a Tarot card reader to help him do business but when you also surround yourself with a hook-handed maniac called Tee-Hee, a quiet fat guy called Whisper and a seemingly unkillable voodoo high priest called Baron Samedi then you really do become a serious baddie. Right? He even goes on a big speech about how his master plan works before attempting to kill JB slowly. Obviously this makes much more sense than just shooting him right away. When will they learn?

Despite being the oldest actor to debut as Bond (at 46), Moore does look younger than Connery. And while Sean was gruff and Scottish, Moore is perpetually calm and refined, even in the face of danger (fingers being chopped-off, snake in the bath, being eaten by gators/sharks). Everything that the British once thought they were. He has a certain sarcastic edge that the other Bond actors lacked. While some of his films may have been the sillier of the franchise, Moore has always been my favorite. And the massive revolver and holster he uses at the end is so much more masculine than the usual, wimpy as hell, Walther PPK.

And, as much as I am no fan of Paul McCartney, you gotta love that theme song! Exciting and iconic at the same time. And also yet another juxtaposition in the weirdest Bond movie ever.

MI6, Harlem, Pimps, Paul McCartney, Gators, Heroin, Voodoo, Snakes, Sharks, Clairvoyance, Rednecks, Afros, Fake Afros, Fillet of Soul, Human Scarifice, Scarecrows and a small-headed man in a Top-Hat who lost a fight with chickens. Is this a Bond film or did the whole world just go insane?

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32 out of 48 people found the following comment useful :-
Bond with spookiness!, 24 September 2001

Author: intercostalclavicle from Edinburgh, Scotland

This Bond film is often sorely neglected – and here is my little bit to say, "Hey, don't neglect Live and Let Die!". Because I have to say here and now that I am a fully qualified authority on Bond films (i.e. I've seen them all and know plenty enough about Bond and the Bond franchise) and that Live and Let Die is one of the best. Many others Bond fans may squirm at this, but a bold effort by Roger Moore at a very difficult task indeed (that is, following Connery's act), together with an unusual Voodoo-themed plot, a very creepy set of megalomaniacs, tasty set-pieces and the very best theme tune of any Bond film, make for pretty stonking viewing, I feel.

Looking closer at that plot, it really is quite unusual, Bond-wise, for a bit of dabbling in Voodoo and the occult. It creates a spooky atmosphere not normally a part of the average Bond experience. The heroin-based impetus behind the plot serves only as a sensible explanation for the eerie goings-on. Baron Samedi and Tee Hee cannot fail to both amuse you, frighten you and make you go "oooh!"; whilst the ever-dominating Kananga is nice 'n' scary – played by Yaphet Kotto. Sheriff Pepper is a touchy subject for Bond purists, but I like him - and Solitaire is a Bond girl with an intriguing touch (!). Oh! - and this is surely the best Felix Leiter. The set-pieces are spectacular in all the ways you would expect them to be (the bus chase, speed-boat chase and the infamous crocodiles stand out in particular), and the action is fast-paced throughout.

Oh, and that theme tune! It is too often ignored, in my opinion, and is so high-powered and so fitting to the film, I can't help but love it!

Bad points: Moore isn't quite Connery – although I do not question his good performance here, and Hey! No "Q"!

RATINGS

As a Bond film: 9 or 10 (out of 10)

As a film: 8 1/2

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37 out of 58 people found the following comment useful :-
Bond Over Easy, Cool But Dumb, 24 July 2004

Author: Bill Slocum (slokes@optonline.net) from Norwalk, CT USA

Was Roger Moore channeling Austin Powers in 1973? There's a scene in this, his first go-round as 007, where Bond is tied up and his arm is cut to draw blood and attract some hungry sharks swimming below. Moore twitches his eyebrow and asks: "Perhaps we can try something in a simpler vein."

Those sharks don't need any frickin' laser beams on their heads to get you to smell the Austin. Moore gets a lot of blame for turning the Bond movies into weakly-plotted farces, ignoring that the series had been moving in that direction since "Goldfinger" and that the previous installment, Sean Connery's final EON bow "Diamonds Are Forever," was every bit as goofy. Also, Moore could deliver a more serious Bond when the script allowed, and two of the finest Bonds ever, "The Spy Who Loved Me" and "For Your Eyes Only," were his.

But there's no getting around this, "Live And Let Die" is a dumb movie. The gadgets are silly, the villain's scheme is ill-defined, the storyline is frenetic and unengaging, the action is plodding and overlong. Moore starts out not quite know how to play Bond here, while the movie requires him to play the fool sauntering through Harlem in a double-breasted suit like the Prince of Wales waiting for some natives to show him around.

But this film makes me smile, in part because I'm young enough to remember what it was all about when it came out. If this was Bond for the cheap seats, it at least delivered the goods, with some vivid supporting characters, a knockout visual style, amazing title music from Paul McCartney, and most importantly for Moore's future in the series, drop-dead quips. My favorite is when the nasty Tee Hee twists his pistol muzzle out of shape with a metal pincer arm, then giggles when he hands it back: "Funny how the least little thing amuses him."

Julius Harris is menacing but charming as Tee Hee, mostly mute except when he sticks Bond in a gator pond and suggests the best way to disarm the beasts is to try and pull out their teeth. Chief villain Yaphet Kotto has his moments, too, but with odd shifts of character. In the beginning, he's stone-cold Ron O'Neal in "Superfly," and at the end, he's plummy Charles Gray in "Diamonds Are Forever." Jane Seymour is Bond's love interest, and why she goes off with him is another of those things best not thought about long.

There are two great characters in this movie, though, bigger than just about anything seen in a Bond movie before who kind of work in tandem in overhauling any objections about this film being too "cartoony." Clifton James is redneck sheriff J.W. Pepper, who throws off one madman line after another while Bond is off on one of his long silly chase scenes. James mugs through every scene he's in, rolling his tongue around, playing off everyone and everything, and delivering every hackneyed Southern stereotype to such righteous perfection it's enough to make cotton sprout out of his ears. Bond purists who whine should just take their vodka martinis shaken not stirred and let the rest of us enjoy the craziness. The series is supposed to be fun; if you want serious espionage go watch "Smiley's People." (I grant you Pepper shouldn't have returned in the next Bond film; that was a mistake.)

The other great outsized character is Geoffrey Holder as perhaps the most mysterious figure in the whole series, Baron Samedi. Is he supernatural? Is he just crazy from the heat? He's certainly different, a guy who sides with the bad guys without quite being one of them. The always-eerie quality of his appearances, either dancing in a big hotel production number or quietly sitting in a cemetery playing a flute, make you question whether there ain't something to that voodoo after all.

It's silly bashing Pepper but praising Samedi, they are both equally so unreal, in a way that's in tune with the rest of the movie. The best thing to do is enjoy the different kinds of fun on offer. Frankly, not having these guys around might push this film on the bad side of Spinal Tap's "fine line between stupid and clever," the side where "A View To A Kill" and "Moonraker" are on.

But "Live And Let Die" is a winner. It's a fun movie that brings me back to younger days, when my heart was an open book. It's a nice transitional film for the series in that Moore managed a mostly smooth entrance to the role of Bond. And it has one of the best final shots in movie history. That's all I'll say there; you know it if you saw it.

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16 out of 22 people found the following comment useful :-
Good Bond movie with a good line in bad guys, 4 July 2002
Author: bob the moo from Birmingham, UK

Several British agents are killed in America and in the Caribbean. Despite the difference in how the murders occur they seem linked together by drugs. Bond begins to investigate and finds links between the American drug dealer Mr Big and the mysterious owner of a Caribbean island Kananga. While investigating Bond falls foul of both despite gaining the affections of Kananga's beautiful mistress Solitaire.

Roger Moore's first Bond is one of his best. The film wisely steps away from those regular bad guys the Russians and gets a new feel by actually having non-white main characters. The plot is pretty good and doesn't have the usual `take over the world' feel to it. There is plenty of silly stuff of course but the stunts are quite good and Bond has a new line in `eyebrow raised' humour.

Moore will never be the best Bond but he did make the role his own – adding an element of self-deprecating humour to the role. Yaphet Kotto is a good actor and makes a good bad guy. Jane Seymour isn't convincing as the mystic property of Kananga – she really should have been played by a black actress and it shows a lack of bravery on the side of the producers that they went with a white face as the lead Bond girl. Julius Harris is good as Tee Hee and Clifton James adds some comedy value as J.W. Pepper.

Overall this is one of Moore's best Bond movies and certainly stands out from previous films with numerous Russian baddies. Also the theme music is a really fun song from Wings.

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11 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :-
An Average Bond Aventure, 22 November 2005

Author: Matthew Kresal from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Updating Ian Fleming's most controversial novel, Live And Let Die, the producers, writer Tom Mankiewicz, and director Guy Hamilton choose to embrace the action packed comical Bond film as seen in the previous Bond film Diamonds Are Forever. Unlike that film, which turned out to be a very mixed bag, it works here.

Roger Moore's debut as Bond sets up the tone of the films to come. Roger is more comic than Connery or Lazenby and in his later films is stuck with very bad one liners. But here, Bond's one liners are mostly well written and while Roger is mostly comedic, when a serious moment comes, Roger for the most part can play well. Roger makes his own Bond and steps out of Connery's shadow so well that it is extremely hard to make a comparison. On the down side, the more comedic 007 doesn't help the film in the realism department and that hurts the film quiet a bit.

In the casting of Solitaire, Jane Seymour fits Ian Fleming's description of the character to perfection. Not only does Seymour look the part, she also plays the part well. Given that in both the novel and the film, Solitaire is a poorly defined character who Bond saves at every possible chance, Jane Seymour plays the role with believability that is rarely matched by an any other Bond girl. While some of the lines are cliché, the tarot card and ESP abilities of Solitaire give Seymour a chance to show off her considerable talents that have only improved over the years since this film.

In Doctor Kananga, we get the first African American villain in a Bond film. Yaphet Kotto brings considerable menace to the character that is turned on and off as Kananga is both a public figure and then as drug lord Mister Big. It must be noted the well done plot twist of Mister Big being Kananga, though it doesn't make a lot of sense. Two things ruin an otherwise memorable character: his death. His death is completely absurd and doesn't even seem realistic.

The supporting cast is mainly African American actors and actresses playing villains. That fact brings out the fact that while this a 007 adventure, it is also jumping on the blaxplotation bandwagon of the early 1970's and serves to date the film. Those actors are underwritten and way too often used for comic relief. Rosie Carver is another example. She is an interesting character who is underwritten to the extreme and we come off not caring that she is dead.

While on the subject of the supporting cast, it should be note that David Hedison makes a great Felix Lieter. The bad memory of Norman Burton's Lieter as this Bond and Lieter share a very believable friendship. It is only a shame that the character doesn't appear again for 14 years as he could have added a lot to the Moore films. If there is one outstanding example of a bad character in this film, it has to be Sheriff J.W. Pepper. This type of character is out of place in a Bond film and one almost wonder's what everyone was thinking when this character was added. Most if Pepper's lines are cringe worthy, though the scene at the end of the boat chase where Pepper confronts Bond is the film's best comedic moment.

The film can be best viewed as a chase film. The film is really a bunch of chases that the plot revolves around. While this is usually the kiss of death for any film (look at 1997's Tomorrow Never Dies for example), it works here. The chases are well done and, despite thirty plus years of other action films, are exciting. The tension in the film is primarily found in these chases and fights that test's the abilities of 007. While humor fills these chases, which ruined many chase sequences in Diamonds Are Forever, it works here. If there is anything to complain about these chases, it is the occasional lack of music. This is no more apparent than in the film's best chase: the boat chase.

The boat chase is the film's lengthiest sequence and with good reason. The boat chase takes us across the buoy and showcases some amazing stunt work. The chase is occasionally hampered down by appearances by J.W. Pepper and his merry band of idiot cops. The chase is one of the better sequences to appear in the series and has truly stood the test time.

The music for the film marks a milestone in the Bond films. This was the first time ever John Barry didn't compose any music for the film. George Martin, a long time Beetles producer, was hired to the score and he created the best non-Barry Bond score until David Arnold's score for Tomorrow Never Dies 24 years later. The score has a great feel to it and doesn't feel dated at all. Martin is however guilty for leaving some of the action un-scored. The boat chase is for the large part un-scored, but when the music comes on the excitement. Martin does a very good take on the James Bond Theme and the film's score is built around an excellent main title song. The song is an unabashed rock song, but it fits very well with Maurice Binder's title sequence.

With a good main cast, a shaky supporting cast, good action sequences, an excellent tile song and a wonderful score by George Martin, Live And Let Die saved James Bond. Though when it is viewed in context with the rest of the series, it comes off as above average.

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14 out of 21 people found the following comment useful :-
Peculiar, but not bad, 20 October 2000

Author: nikodemus

As a whole, "Live and Let Die" is a pretty peculiar Bond film. Its characters and settings are rather unusual for a James Bond movie, not to mention the trifling with voodoo culture. However, the result is not bad.

Spiced with the awful 70s fashion, "Live and Let Die" is fun to watch. Of course the film has also intentional stylishness that shows particularly in the clever pre-credit sequence, which contains the murders of three British agents.

Yaphet Kotto gives a strong performance as the infamous main villain, Dr. Kananga. Kananga has many colorful henchmen, like the grinning Tee Hee, who does a very handy job opening a tin. Jane Seymour's Solitaire is a truly graceful Bond girl, but the useless role of Rosie Carver should have been deleted, or recast, at least. And where's Q?

"Live and Let Die" isn't Roger Moore's best Bond outing, but not his worst, either. It's definitely better than his next one, the thoroughly tiresome "The Man with the Golden Gun".

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15 out of 24 people found the following comment useful :-
"Names is for tombstones, baby!", 8 August 1998
Author: James Bond (hmssagent007@hotmail.com) from London, England

Ignoring a Roger Moore who presents a bit of a distraction for viewers watching the series in order, Live And Let Die is an excellent example of how pop culture helps the Bond series survive throughout the decades. The growing concern of a drug-using society at the time is featured, and an immensely popular Paul McCartney does the title theme - indicating that the Bond series need not be rooted solidly in the three-piece suit days of 1962. Jane Seymour gives an excellent performance in her "introductory" role (although it was her fourth film). A bit of black magic and voodoo intertwined with gadgetry and high-tech machinery will have the viewer wondering if, indeed, there was magic in the movie after all - indeed, the cards WERE always right under Solitaire's power. Magical or not, Live and Let Die provides an interesting doorway to the other five Moore pictures - J.W. Pepper returns and Tee Hee seems to be Jaws' forerunner.

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6 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
A new era for James Bond, and a fairly effective and enjoyable opening film., 11 January 2005

Author: Jonathon Dabell (barnaby.rudge@hotmail.co.uk) from Wakefield, England

Live and Let Die ushers in Roger Moore as the new James Bond. Prior to this movie, Bond had been played most often by Sean Connery, with the one exception being George Lazenby's short-lived stint in 1969 (On Her Majesty's Secret Service). Moore is very different to Connery and Lazenby. He plays Bond as a more relaxed, charming, humorous character. Over the years, many people have said that the Moore incarnation of Bond lacks the brutality of Connery's and the hard masculinity, but actually Moore is not the kind of actor to do Bond in that manner. He's merely playing to his own strengths, and creating a Bond that is akin to his acting style. I feel that Roger makes a perfectly likable 007, admittedly different to the character of the novels, but still a rousing screen hero.

The story has James Bond sent to solve the killing of three British agents. One was killed in New York, one in New Orleans, and the third on a voodoo-practising Caribbean island. Bond's starts his mission in New York, where he runs across a nasty black gangster named Mr Big and his gorgeous, tarot-reading accomplice Solitaire (Jane Seymour). Bond heads down to the Caribbean, where he "connects" Mr Big with a drug-smuggling big-shot named Dr Kananga. Then it's off to New Orleans, where Bond discovers that Kananga's master plan is to provide huge amounts of free heroin to the junkies of the world, creating a massive drug-reliant population and setting himself up as a supplier with a worldwide monopoly on the drug trade.

The title song, sung by Paul McCartney and Wings is one of the best of the series, a lively and powerful tune which fits the style and period of the film perfectly. Yaphet Kotto is a decent bad guy (his death scene at the end is both funny and memorable); Seymour is superb as the Bond girl (probably the best of the bunch apart from Barbara Bach in The Spy Who Loved Me). There are good set pieces as we have grown to expect from the Bond series, most notably a spectacular boat chase around the Louisiana bayous, a scene involving a bunch of hungry crocodiles, and a slick sequence featuring Bond's escape from corrupt island police aboard a slow and lumbering double decker bus. The film has some negatives, but not too many. The character of Baron Samedi doesn't fit in the film (check out that ludicrous closing shot, which seems to be hinting that Samedi is somehow immortal), and Clifton James's brash southern cop is an immature and irritating character who might just as well have been left out of the final cut. On the whole this is a good start to the Moore era, though. One point of interest:- Live and Let Die also features a scene in Bond's house at the very start..... only once before have we seen where Bond lives, and that was at the start of Dr No.

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12 out of 19 people found the following comment useful :-
Good Bond movie with a few minor problems., 24 September 2003

Author: Boba_Fett1138 from Groningen, The Netherlands

Of all the Bonds that have been made, this one is probably the darkest.

One of the things that I am missing is the humor. It misses the typical Roger Moore James Bond humor with as a result that the movie becomes a bit too serious. Sure it has some funny moment but it just misses the Roger Moore touch he added to the later Bond movies. But that's no wonder since this was Moore's first Bond, it looks like both actor and crew were still searching for the right character for Moore's Bond.

Another minor problem is the story. There happens too much in a too short amount of time. They could have resolved this by making the movie just 10 minutes longer.

But still it is a very solid Bond movie. It has some amazing character such as Baron Samedi and the legendary Sheriff J.W. Pepper that later returned in "The Man with the Golden Gun". The villains are one of the very best from the Bond series even though Kananga is a bit underused. Jane Seymour plays a great and beautiful Bond girl but again also she is a bit underused.

The atmosphere is pretty dark, mainly of course the scene's in Harlem. It's interesting but I still prefer the lighter Bond.

The movie is full with famous Bond scene's with the speed boat chase as one of the best. It's funny, spectacular and tense in other words: Typical Bond. I also always enjoy the scene's between Bond and M and this movie is no exception. Their relationship and the certain tension towards each other is priceless and always good for some hard laughs. It's pure comedy that not all people will understand.

The music by George Martin is different but it suits the movie and it's atmosphere really well! The main title song by Paul and Linda McCartney is also very good and one of the very best Bond theme songs.

Solid Bond that could have been excellent.

7/10

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