Bond Revisited

Live And Let Die (1973)
Bond 8

When Bond (Roger Moore) investigates the murders of three fellow agents, he soon finds himself a target, evading the vicious assassins as he closes in on the powerful Kananga (Yaphet Kotto). Known as "Mr. Big," Kananga is coordinating a globally threatening scheme using tons of self-produced heroin. As Bond tries to unravel the mastermind's plan, he meets Solitaire (Jane Seymour), the beautiful Tarot card reader whose magical gifts are crucial to the crime lord. Bond, of course, works his own magic on her, and the stage is set for pulse-pounding action sequences involving voodoo, hungry crocodiles and turbo-charged speedboats. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: Sean Connery turned down the then astronomical sum of $5.5 million to play James Bond. Ross Kananga (credited as "stunt coordinator") was the owner of the crocodile farm in which Bond escapes some hungry reptiles. Kananga did this stunt by himself wearing Roger Moore's clothes and shoes made of crocodile skin. It took five attempts to complete the stunt. During the fourth attempt, one of the crocodiles snapped at one of the shoes as it went by. The producers (while scouting locations) first took notice of Ross Kananga's farm from the sign out front which read: "WARNING; TRESSPASSERS WILL BE EATEN." The producers liked Ross Kananga so much that the movie's villain, Dr. Kananga, was named after him.

All of Moore's contracts include an unlimited supply of hand-rolled Monte Cristo cigars (in one 007 movie the final bill comes to 3176.50 pounds). The tarot cards say 007 on the back. The power-boat jump over the causeway set the world record for distance: 110 feet. The second boat was not scripted to collide with the police car, but after this happened while shooting the stunt, the script was changed to accommodate it.

The Characters:

• James Bond - played for the first time by Roger Moore. Moore had previously been considered for the role of Bond after You Only Live Twice, but was quickly dismissed due to his popularity as Simon Templar in the television series The Saint. There are also some reports that Moore was considered in 1962 for Dr. No, however, these are seen by some fans and researchers as apocryphal.
• Dr. Kananga - Yaphet Kotto, the dictator of a small Caribbean island called San Monique. His business is drug trafficing (an uncommon endevour for a Bond villian).
• Baron Samedi - Geoffrey Holder, the seven up guy. In the closing scene of the film, the central voodoo character, Baron Samedi, is seen perched on the front of the speeding train in which Bond and Solitaire are travelling, in his voodoo outfit and laughing mysteriously, despite having been supposedly killed by Bond during the film's climax.
• Solitare - Jane Seymour, The lead Bond girl of Live and Let Die, Solitaire is the mystical mistress of the Tarot. Represented by the High Priestess in the deck, she supposedly has the power of the Obeah and hence is treated with the utmost respect by everyone who works for Kananga. Solitaire describes her role as the wife to "the Prince no longer of this world", but more straightforwardly, she tells Kananga the future and what course to take in his schemes through of a set of specially designed Tarot cards. Solitaire's powers is a heavenly gift that will be taken away if she is violated by earthly love, something that Bond is blissfully unaware of. Actress Jane Seymour thought that Solitaire had a lot of potential story-wise, which she felt went unexplored in the film. Furthermore, she didn't like the way Bond "cheated" Solitaire of her powers ("I didn't think he (Bond) was such a nice guy!"). In any case, Solitaire is unique among Bond girls that she was a virgin and Bond was her first.
• Rosie Carver - Gloria Hendrey, Rosie Carver made history as the first Black Bond girl that is romantically involved with 007. In the film, Rosie is represented by the Queen of Cups (in a reversed position), and she is a double agent in every sense of the word. She claims to be working for the CIA and her previous assignment was with the murderered British agent Baines. But she is really working for Kananga, and thus it is suggested she helped lure Baines to his death, and is about to do the same with Bond. Hendry, on the Special Edition DVD commentary track, confessed that she was nervous about her kissing scene with Roger Moore, as his wife was on the set. She was relieved when Mrs. Moore gave her the thumbs up: "Go for it!"

The Theme Song:

For the theme song, Martin teamed with former-Beatle Paul McCartney, who had previously been considered for Diamonds Are Forever in 1971. This was the first time the pair worked together since Abbey Road in 1969. The theme was written by Paul and his wife Linda McCartney and performed by Paul and his group, Wings. The tune, the first true rock and roll song used to open a Bond film, was a major success in the U.S. (#9) and the UK (#2), Paul's best showings in over a year. For many years "Live and Let Die" was a highlight of his live shows, complete with fireworks and lasers and in 2005 was performed live by McCartney during the halftime show at Super Bowl XXXIX. In 1991 the song was covered by the rock band Guns N' Roses, which is really were I remember it from, since I was only 3 in '73.

The Vehicles & Gadgets:

• Magnetic watch — Given to Bond by M, not Q (Q was left out of this movie). When turned on, it could snag any light weight metallic item. In theory, Bond claims it can even deflect a bullet. It also has a saw built in it.
• Bug sweeper — Bond uses a handheld device that can sweep a room for electronic microphones.
• Although not an official gadget, Bond improvises a small flamethrower using a can of after-shave lotion and a lit cigar.
• Bond has an espresso machine at his home. In 1973, such devices were uncommon for home use (much as Bond in From Russia with Love had a pager and car-based telephone years before cell phones were invented).
• Similarly, early on in the film, Bond is seen using a Pulsar digital watch, which only entered distribution as recently as 1972. Bond's has an LED display which was activated by pushing a button on the side.

The Pretitle Sequence:

Several British agents monitoring the operations of Dr. Kananga, the dictator of a small Caribbean island called San Monique, are murdered in mysterious circumstances. One is bitten by a snake during a voodoo ceremony in San Monique, one during a meeting of the UN in New York, and one in New Orleans during a funeral prosession. One of the few pretitle sequences that do not include Bond.

The film was released during the height of the 1970s blaxploitation era, and the influence of those films is quite evident. For instance, the film departs from conventional Bond plots (which entailed villainous plots to disrupt world power structures) and instead places its emphasis on drug trafficking, a common hallmark of the blaxploitation genre. The film further deviates from most Bond films, in that it takes place in the African American cultural centres of Harlem, New Orleans, and the Caribbean Islands. Furthermore, the film contains several blaxploitation archetypes, most notably afro hairstyles, derogatory racial epithets (i.e "honky"), black gangsters, and "pimpmobiles". In addition, the white police officers, especially Sheriff J.W. Pepper, are poorly displayed with several negative stereotypes.

Live and Let Die marked several milestones for Bond films. It was the first time a fictional country would be used as a setting (this would happen again in Licence to Kill), and it was also the only occasion in which 007 commits what amounts to a political assassination, since Kananga is the leader of a nation. Live and Let Die is also the first James Bond film in which the character Q was absent. (Q does appear in Dr. No, though not played by Desmond Llewelyn and not addressed as Q but rather by his real name, Major Boothroyd.) Furthermore, Live and Let Die marked the appearance of the first romantically-involved African American Bond girl, Rosie Carver When the film was first released in South Africa, the love scenes between Gloria Hendry and Roger Moore were removed because interracial affairs were prohibited by the apartheid government. [Source]

Yet another Bond movie set in America or the Caribbean. I thought Bond was with British Secret Service. Just kidding. Okay, Roger Moore. As I have told you before Moore was my Bond, in that I mean I grew up with Moore being Bond. Although Sean Connery has surplanted Moore as my favorite Bond, he is still second favorite. He was different then Connery in that Moore seemed to be more British, a little more proper I guess. He also is the franchise king of one liners. The chases are getting bigger (boat chase from the alligator farm with several jumps). It is interesting to note the Sheriff Pepper, the redneck, tobacco chewing comic relief was so popular that he made it into the next movie, going on a vacation trip to Bankok where he meets Bond for a second time in The Man With The Golden Gun.

Next Up: Bond 9, The Man With The Golden Gun, and three nipples...