Live and Let Die (1973)

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

"Live and Let Die is the first James Bond film that starred Roger Moore in the lead role as Agent 007. Like Sean Connery before him, Moore would make seven Bond films. His would be over a 13-year period, with one other star before his last film. That, incidentally, was Connery 12 years after his sixth appearance in the role. One thing interesting about the Bond series is that each actor who has had the role four or more times has started with high ratings, and by the time of their last films, their ratings have reached their lowest point. The box office results also reflect this. All of the films continue to make good at the box office, but the later ones of each lead actor have less spectacular rates of return. It just seems that audiences get tired of the same actor as Bond after a while. In this film, Moore showed that he would be likely to stay in the role. He is a capable Bond in all aspects. His physical challenges aren't as many or spectacular as in the earliest films. But his cunning and alertness are quite sharp. This film mixes a little exotic Caribbean travel with visits to the U.S. First, New York, and then New Orleans and the bayous of Louisiana. A big chunk of the story was filmed in the latter and in Jamaica. For excitement, this movie has the best boat chase episode of any film I can recall. It lasts a long time, involves several boats, and has some fantastic scenes. These include boats shooting across patches of land, jumping barriers, crashing through a boat block, and crashing and exploding. All of the cast are very good. After this film, Jane Seymour became widely known and her star rose fast. Most Bond films have one bad guy character who stands out for something special about her or him - size, mechanical body parts, strength, etc. In this film, it's Julius Harris as Tee Hee. He is both very tall and has a metal claw hand - or clamp hand. However, he turns out not to be so tough as other Bond opponents have been in the past. The characteristic unusual encounter of a Bond film in "Live and Let Die" is with a congregation of alligators and crocodiles. The IMDb filming locations lists Jamaica Safari Village for shooting of the crocodile farm scenes. Jamaica has native crocs but not alligators, and Louisiana has alligators but not crocs. The scenes clearly seem to show both reptiles. My guess is that the tourist village in Jamaica also has some alligators in captivity, along with the native crocs. A bunch of snakes of various types also got in on the action of this film. This film shows a strange and interesting aspect of culture in some of the Caribbean islands. Early Spanish explorers and settlers brought the Catholic religion to the islands. Christianity clearly is against superstition and occult practices. Yet, some places where voodoo had existed before retained its beliefs and practices, mixing them in with their Christianity. The scenario of the voodoo ceremony has a scene when Tee Hee appears to rise from a grave. The many people are on their knees and rapidly and repeatedly crossing themselves. One very strange thing in this film was the funeral parade in the French Quarter of New Orleans. In both instances when the two separate events are shown, the streets otherwise are empty of people except for the throng in the parade and a secret agent and an assailant. I can't imagine any day when there wouldn't be many people seen on the streets of the Quarter. The plot for this film has some holes or blanks. We never learn why the British ambassador to the U.N. is killed in the beginning. The ending is also unusual and odd. Most Bond films end with the good guys defeating or rounding up the bad guys. But nothing is shown of the dozens of men and women in New Orleans who staged the funeral parades to cover murders. There were many folks involved in the crimes in this film that seem to get away with murder. These are just some of the different aspects of this Bond film. The curious treatment of some things, or lack thereof, make it seem that the filmmakers were running out of time or money and needed to tighten up the script. The end result was little pieces being removed that answered the questions and tied it all together logically. But for those glaring miscues or oversights, this film would have scored nine stars in my rating. Here are a couple of favorite lines from the film.James Bond, "A sort of junkie's welfare system."Kananga, "That heroin will be very expensive, indeed, leaving myself and the phone company the only two growing monopolies in the nation for years to come."

"Live and Let Die" is one of the more deceiving "James Bond" films. The face of the franchise may have changed with Roger Moore assuming the mantle of 007, but everything below the neck is fairly familiar. So what seems like a reboot is more like a facelift, albeit a needed one.Moore comes to the role of Bond with an energy that Connery clearly lacked by the end of his tenure, despite Moore being in his forties (and three years older than Connery period) when beginning what would become a seven-film run. He definitely feels like an "elder statesman" Bond, with his charm and cunning his greatest assets. Nevertheless, he seems excited to slide into the familiar "Bond" scenarios and dialogue and make them his own.These "Bond" elements are familiar because of the return of "Diamonds are Forever" writer Tom Mankiewicz and director Guy Hamilton. That film was a disaster in many respects, so the fact that "Live and Let Die" is an improvement is no small feat. (Then again, Hamilton did helm "Goldfinger," so who knows?) Like "Diamonds," the story keeps Bond predominantly on American soil after a few British agents are compromised in New York City, New Orleans and the fictional island of San Monique. The connection between them all is the superstitious crime syndicate leader and heroine kingpin Dr. Kananga (Yaphet Kotto) and his lackeys Tee Hee (Julius Harris), Baron Samedi (Geoffrey Holder) and tarot card reader Solitaire (Jane Seymour).The film's release during the era of Blaxploitation films in cinema makes the black villain and various other black characters particularly interesting to say the absolute least. On the one hand, the film features black actors in key roles in an action franchise that in many ways couldn't be whiter. On the other, almost all the black characters are sinister, and Bond heads off into the sunset with the doe-eyed fair-skinned British lady who is clearly out of place, even if she's engaging to watch. At least Bond doesn't go blackface, i.e. this film avoids the social misfire of "You Only Live Twice."Regardless of how the black cultural and voodoo cultural elements were handled, they certainly make "Live and Let Die" a more memorable "Bond." The jazz funeral/second line sequences are unforgettably brilliant, the night club trick tables are pretty clever too and Bond's crocodile escape is surprisingly harrowing given the legitimate stuntwork. And while Q may be absent, the magnet watch features prominently and creatively throughout the film. These touches are truly what make "Bond" films memorable and fun and there's more hits than misses, unlike Mankiewicz's work on "Diamonds.""Live and Let Die" is probably a masterpiece compared to "Diamonds," but objectively, it's merely a good "Bond" entry and a necessary course-correction. The film relies way too much on formula, with predictable chase sequences involving unusual vehicles and a last-second plot to kill James in the epilogue, to name examples. "LALD" has Bond operating a propeller plane, double-decker bus and a speedboat (one of the lengthiest and most tiresome "Bond" chases with barely enough payoff). Hamilton continues his preferred style of filming all these sequences with slapstick in mind rather than making them feel dangerous or suspenseful. Then there's the film's J.W. Pepper problem — the unnecessary caricature of a Louisiana sheriff is worth knocking the whole film down a peg.Anchoring "Live and Let Die" is Paul and Linda McCartney's title track, which one-off "Bond" composer George Martin wisely builds into the film's score at some needed moments. A mostly uptempo rock song, it's uniqueness helps accent the many ways in which "Live and Let Die" stands out among the "Bond" canon, in spite the many ways it still heeds to formula and shares qualities with some of its lesser "Bond" peers.~Steven CThanks for reading! Visit Movie Muse Reviews for more

This won't be a classic like few previous Bond films with Sean Connery as the lead. But it does have it's moments and it has quite a bit of upgraded action sequences. Sure, some parts are still quite cheesy but it wasn't all that campy either this time around. This is a pretty decent outing for Roger Moore as the new James Bond for the new era. I think Roger Moore is quite a likable guy and it's not all that surprising why the producers wanted to keep him as Bond for such a long period. I mean Roger was like 45 when it took on the role of the International Men of Mystery. I even liked the opening and the opening theme song song for this installment. However Moore just didn't convince me as James Bond, he was a pacifist after all. He played Bond as this giddy normal guy than a cold super spy. He is watchable but just didn't convince me as Bond. I did like the setting though, which takes place in Louisiana, especially the New Orleans area. And Caribbean island while dealing with some supernatural stuff with some sort of voodoo chanting and dancing thrown into the mix. The plot isn't difficult to follow though and it has quite a bit of action sequences that entertains. I will say some parts just comes off a bit odd, I will even go as far as to call it weird during certain points in this movie, but it's coherent enough to make it work. It's like watching Scooby-Doo, except it's a James Bond Adventure. Overall this is a decent Bond film and a decent outing for Roger Moore. 7/10

It took a while for the Bond films to get back into form, but Live and Let Die was a big leap forward toward the greatness that were the first 3 films. We had a new Bond in Roger Moore here, and a great one I may add. I never really bought into Lazenby as Bond in 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service', but it took a matter of minutes before I bought into Moore as 007. In many ways I think this film hearkens back to Dr. No. It has the one villain focus, instead of the Spectre approach (which is good in its own right). But it also takes place on plenty of mysterious locations, very similar to Dr. No.While the plot doesn't have a global scale like almost every other Bond film does, Yaphet Kotto gives us a menacing turn as a drug lord who's killing ways are different than anything we have seen before in a Bond film. For me, it was a good change of pace from the Blofeld movies. Even though it's a much different story than the other films, Mr. Big was perhaps my favorite villain since Goldfinger, and most definitely the best overall film since then. I even found the smiling sidekick to be entertaining. I will say, I found it strange as to the drug lords obsession with using reptiles and amphibians to kill their enemies. First snakes, then crocodiles, and sharks?This film is famous for a few reasons, but it's theme song being near the top. It flows well with the themes of the actual film to go along with it's catchy hook. But I think some recognition should be given to Jane Seymour, who at 22 years of age, holds her own against Moore and Kotto. Not to mention the fact that she is still gorgeous to this day. Most of all, I think this film is more fun than the past few films. It's not as dry and far more realistic than previous entries. The action scenes aren't anything extraordinary and the few policeman sequences are just plain dumb, but Live and Let Die is loads of fun.+Refreshing entry+Good and unique Bond villain+Seymour+Theme song-Kooky police officers-Not a ton of action7.3/10