Live and Let Die (1973) User Reviews

Positively surreal Blaxploitation Bond

[CuriosityKilledShawn · 8/10 · 15 December 2006]

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?

Here Bond's trademark introduction of "Bond, James Bond" is brushed off with a witty remark, "Names is for tombstones, baby!"

[Fella_shibby · 8/10 · 11 December 2020]

I first saw this in the early 90s on a vhs. Revisited it recently. This is the eighth film in the Bond series and the first to star Roger Moore as James Bond. Here 007 is sent to New York to investigate the deaths of three British agents, leading him to Kananga n Mr. Big, thereby trapping him in a world of gangsters, dictator, drug traffickers and voodoo occultists.

Here Bond faces Dr. Kananga, Baron Samedi (a paranormal entity), ferocious crocodiles, a venomous snake, Tee Hee, a henchman who has a pincer for a hand, Dambala, a henchman with a penchant for snakes and wears a goat pelt on his head, Whisper, a fatty who cannot speak properly and various henchmen in red tshirts and blue pants.

Bond gets to cool off with Madeline Smith, Jane Seymour and Gloria Hendry, a babe with an amazing toned obliques n rectus abdominis.

The film has a lovely boat chase which is amazingly well photographed in Louisiana around the Irish Bayou. I am a big fan of movies shot in the marshy areas n the bayou of Louisiana.

In the novel, Tee Hee is a henchman without the metal claw and he breaks the little finger of Bond's left hand.

In the novel, Whisper's quiet voice is attributed to a bout of tuberculosis during infancy.

A new era for James Bond, and a fairly effective and enjoyable opening film.

[barnabyrudge · 7/10 · 11 January 2005]

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. 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.

Bond Over Easy, Cool But Dumb

[slokes · 7/10 · 24 July 2004]

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.

Very nice change

[rich-37209 · 7/10 · 15 August 2018]

After all the physical stuff with Sean Connery, Roger Moore will always be the true James Bond to me. Understated humour and a lot of Britishness. I love it. And, needless to say, Jane Seymour is positively enchanting.

Lean, mean, but lacklustre

[ian-433 · 6/10 · 31 October 2005]

Roger Moore's debut as 007 was a bit wan but, in retrospect, probably his best outing. He looked pretty lean and mean for a 45 year-old. For a British audience, Moore (The Saint, The Persuaders) was the natural successor to Sean Connery.

Director Guy Hamilton makes this an expertly staged but somehow lacklustre affair. While the background voodoo theme is suitably bizarre, the main McGuffin about drugs smuggling is rather under-whelming for a Bond movie. Yaphet Kotto is a potentially strong baddie but has too little to do amid the familiar carnage and boat chases. And the introduction of the series' first out-rightly comic character in Sheriff JW Pepper presaged the self-defeating lapse into self-spoofing the films would increasingly take.

Nor does a heavy-handed score by Beatles producer George Martin help. Unlike regular Bond composer John Barry's music, Martin's is ponderous, overlaid onto the action rather than organic to it.

Still, Paul McCartney's blistering title-song really jolts Bond into the 70s. And Live and Let Die does have one of the best jokes in the entire series, in the opening sequence when a CIA agent, watching a New Orleans jazz funeral, innocently asks a nondescript fellow bystander: "Who's funeral is it…?"

Roger Moore introduction as a likeable and sympathetic James Bond in this spectacular adventure

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 20 December 2005]

Various agents MI6 have dead . M (Bernard Lee) sends 007 (Roger Moore , he was forty-five when he made this his debut as Bond) with license for kill to investigate it . Suspicion lead to Doctor Kananga (Yaphet Kotto at 33 as Big/Dr. Kananga is the youngest actor to play a main Bond villain) whose public image is a humanitarian person who defends his country in the United Nations . He governs tyrannically the island of San Monique . There lives Solitaire (Jane Seymour) , being totally submitted from infancy by Kananga. She is a tarot-cards reading psychic and doesn't know about life and acts as a marionette , craving her own way of life. His tutor (Kotto) believes that her virginal state originates to her a sixth sense and he trusts this quality as an expert guesser to dodge the law enforcement . Others characters appear in the film are the followings : Baron Samedi (Geoffrey Holder) . He's a Voodoo's chaman who controls the San Monique people for executing the Kananga's orders . He takes his name of death's Voodoo God . The villainous Tee Hee (Julius Harris) , a giant killer , posteriorly copied in other Bond films (Richard Kiel in ¨Spy who loved me¨) . He deeply enjoys murdering with his steel arm that hooks the victims . Rosie Carver (Gloria Hendry) is an explosive and sexy CIA agent who brings to Bond towards the lush jungle of the perilous island. James Bond will confront numerous dangers , odds ,risks , as the taking on starving crocodiles located on a breeding place where there's a poster captioning : ¨Trespassers will be eaten¨. Besides, a breathtaking speedboat pursuit by leaps and bounds , developed on everglades (in New Orleans , Louisiana) , including intervention a headstrong sheriff (Clifton James) who pursues them by a police car . As always , 007 will use several gadgets delivered by ¨Q¨ (Desmond Llewelyn) , such as : a prodigious as well as magnetic wristwatch , Roger Moore's personal favorite , and air bombing cartridges, both objects with special importance in the film.

Sir Roger Moore as a new James Bond is cool , lacked coldness and toughness characterized by Sir Sean Connery ; however , earning in irony , suavity and smoothness . Sean Connery turned down the then astronomical sum of five and a half million dollars to perform James Bond. Sean Connery gave Sir Roger Moore his personal seal of approval for inheriting his character , calling him "an ideal Bond¨ and making him the oldest actor to do so. The youngest was George Lazenby , who was twenty-nine in 007 On Majestic's secret service (1969). It contains spectacular and exciting final confrontation between Bond and enemies in the underground cave that was paced in moving and stimulating manner . Agreeable and catching title song sung by Paul McCartney and his band Wings , and sensational musical score by George Martin. Colorful and brilliant cinematography by Ted Moore. The movie was well directed by Guy Hamilton who also made other James Bond films.

An Average Bond Aventure

[timdalton007 · 7/10 · 22 November 2005]

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.

Best James Bond film (and that's saying something!)

[lukerfaulkner · 10/10 · 15 April 2021]

It has it all. Most stunning actress (Jane Seymour), a totally carefree and composed Bond (Roger Moore), an incredible array of supporting actors and characters, the best chase scene (boats), moments that have me laughing in hysterics "secret agent... on whose side?"... I could go on and on, but it's one of my favourite films of all time!

Live and Let Die

[Scarecrow-88 · 6/10 · 1 July 2012]

Roger Moore's first stint as James Bond, 007, embarks on a different kind of series of films based on the adventures of debonair, wise-cracking, sexually active, and seemingly impeccable at thinking on the spot when all hope seems lost British Intelligence super agent, going for a definite tongue-in-cheek, totally absurd approach. I have always liked Moore's Bond and For Your Eyes Only can be used as a 007 film that shuts up his critics who consider him a failure as the elusive secret agent.

Yaphet Kotto is in fine form as Ambassador of a Caribbean island of San Monique, with a major heroine operation extending to both American cities New York and New Orleans. Kotto's Kananga has eyes/gunmen/spies everywhere, his advanced network has quite the tentacles so Bond will certainly have his hands full. While I cringe at the Voodoo culture exhibited on display as the cultural stereotypes are exploited to their maximum, there are characters who make the most of their roles, such as claw-handed Julius Harris as Tee Hee, Geoffrey Holder (and that devious smile) as dangerous Voodoo Priest, Baron Samedi, and the seemingly a sweetheart agent in the Caribbean, Gloria Hendry (who turns out to be working both sides out of fear of what Kananga will do to her). Others show up such as Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea's David Hedison as Bond's New York, American CIA contact, Clifton James in an ill-advised tobacco-chewing hick sheriff, JW Pepper (always spouting "Boy!" to everyone he finds egregious) , and the incredibly beautiful Jane Seymore as Kananga's tarot card reader, clairvoyant Solitaire (who becomes Moore's Bond girl).

The action sequences include an extended motor boat chase (that seems to go on forever, played for humorous effect, such as when it flies across roads causing wrecks by those chasing him, leading one boat into a rich man's pool, another into Pepper's cop car, and a third through a wedding reception!), Bond's ingenious (if totally ludicrous) escape from encroaching crocs, and Bond's use of a Cessna plane to avoid Kananga's boys killing him. A funeral procession in New Orleans cleverly is used by Kananga to rid himself of spies guarding his headquarters, Bond puts a "magnetic watch" to good use on several occasions when in hairy situations, and how a "gas pellet" is used to "pop" Kananga has to be seen to be believed. That double decker bus and hand glider establish the kitchen sink rule that the filmmakers wanted Moore's Bond to use every form of transportation possible in his first outing as 007.

One of the very best!

[educatingben · 9/10 · 26 November 2019]

This Bond outing is one of the very best in the franchise. Bedides having one of the best Bond theme songs in the franchise written and performed by Paul McCartney and Wings, Live and Let Die boasts an array of interesting characters, played by some of the famous actors of the Era (Yaphet Koto, Jane Seymour, David Hedison, Jeffrey Holder and of course in the role he made his own, Roger Moore) . I enjoyed seeing New York City in the gritty early 70s. For a Bond movie, this one had an interesting story which is easy to follow and wildly entertaining. The best is that you need to be a bond fan to enjoy Live and Let Die.

Peculiar, but not bad

[fletch5 · 7/10 · 20 October 2000]

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".

Poorly done adventure kicks off the Roger Moore era

[TimBoHannon · 2/10 · 30 March 2003]

With Sean Connery finally leaving the role of James Bond, Englishman Roger Moore became his successor. While Moore would eventually leave his own stamp on the part, he is much too stiff and tentative here. He does not resemble Sean Connery in looks or mannerisms. Bond is way too nice to his adversaries, often conversing with them as if they are his good friends. Sean Connery's Bond would never say thank you after being roughed up and shoved out a door. This problem stains the entire movie, and led me to question Bond's good judgment. Moore would get better, but he is caught in a weak plot involving drug smuggling and the voodoo nonsense of Baron Saturday.

The air of absurdity materializes as early as the pre-title sequence, where a British agent watches a funeral procession that turns out being his own. This is one of three rather ludicrous killings that melt into Paul McCartney's famous title song. Unfortunately, the best theme in the series is the high point of the movie. Any hope that will improvement will come thoroughly dashed within fifteen minutes.

Bond starts an investigation of the three aforementioned murders, all connected to Dr. Kananga (Yaphet Kotto), the prime minister of a small island nation. Bond's mission takes him to Harlem, where he discovers a link between Kananga and criminal mobster Mr. Big, both later revealed to be the same person. Aiding Kananga/Mr. Big is a lusciously beautiful tarot card reader named Solitaire (Jane Seymour) and a vast organization of stereotyped cronies.

"Live and Let Die" is a flop in nearly every way. In addition to Moore's poor rendition of Bond, the action is lackluster, the characters are irritating, the soundtrack is terrible, the style is incongruous, and the film is racist. All the black people use fractured "blackspeak" and are either drug dealers or mob enforcers. Adam (Tommy Lane) orders some lazy henchmen to chase Bond saying, "The man who gets him stays alive! Now MOVE YOU MOTHERS!" Later, he encounters hick Sheriff J.W. Pepper (Clifton James) and risks his organization's entire plot by not shooting him.

Pepper is also an annoying, negative stereotype who undermines the film's best scene. Writer Tom Mankiewicz says he included Pepper so he could make fun of all groups equally. Since when are the Bond films about making fun of people? I bet Albert Broccoli would have shuddered if he heard during the making of "From Russia with Love" that the series would one day come to this.

Finally, the movie's climax is poorly written and executed. Bond carelessly leaves one of his weapons lying around for anyone to find, leaving him defenseless. It is the second time that he essentially allows himself to be captured. Maybe Mankiewicz and director Guy Hamilton were just looking for an excuse to create a brawl. Moore was never particularly good at brawls.

Despite its myriad of flaws, "Live and Let Die" has three positives. The most obvious one is Solitaire, Kananga's radiant mistress and the film's best character. Solitaire is intentionally vulnerable, and Seymour understands that well. As for the eye candy, Solitaire is arguably the most physically attractive Bond girl.

The other two positives are Kananga and his aide Tee-Hee (Julius W. Harris). Not surprisingly they are the only two non-stereotyped blacks. Kotto plays Kananga as an intelligent, well-expressed man who is in complete control of his emotions. Only Max Zorin is a more effective Moore era villain. Bond and Tee-Hee's train fight at the end is one of the few jewels of Moore's time although it does not approach the original in "From Russia with Love." The idea of a bad guy trying to kill Bond after the victory is won occurred in five of the eight films by this point and lost its appeal.

As far as 007 adventures go, "Live and Let Die" is one of the worst despite its three good characters. Moore would improve, and but it would take until 1977 to undo the damage from the film and its successor.

"Names is for tombstones, baby!"

[J.Bond · 8 August 1998]

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.

Roger Moore made a fine debut as James Bond in Live and Let Die

[tavm · 7/10 · 2 September 2022]

After Sean Connery permanently left EON upon completing Diamonds Are Forever, Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli decided to replace him this time with a known actor as opposed to a complete unknown like George Lazenby. So they got Roger Moore, who had just completed his only season of "The Persuaders", as the new James Bond. His version of 007 is assigned to find out who's behind the killing of his fellow agents in New York, New Orleans, and an island in the Caribbean. So in Harlem, he encounters Dr Kananga (Yaphet Kotto) with his henchman Tee Hee (Julius Harris) and virginal tarot card fortune teller Solitaire (Jane Seymour). I'll just now say that Moore is quite charming and funny in his first Bond film. Director Guy Hamilton, with this his third Bond film, stages many exciting chase scenes with cars and boats that adds to the funny tone of much of the narrative. Ms. Seymour, in her early '20s here, was quite a looker here and today still has it, that's for sure! I'm sure anyone watching this now, and even maybe then, might have been a little uncomfortable with some stereotypes concerning the Black race of the time as well as that of a Southern redneck police sheriff called J. W. Pepper played here by Clifton James though he still gets some laughs from me. I did like one cultural sequence unique to New Orleans in my home state of Louisiana: the funeral procession which starts with a slow-jam version of "Just a Closer Walk with Thee" before segueing to the more upbeat "New Second Line" (a.k.a "Joe Avery's Piece") which was composed by Milton Batiste, a relative of Jon Batiste who just left "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" recently. By the way, the knife-wielding assassin in that sequence was played by trumpeter Alvin Alcom of the Olympia Brass Band that also performed in this particular scene. Oh, and this marked the first time Bond kissed a woman of color in the series, a woman named Rosie Carver played by Gloria Hendry. Two more things worth noting: this was the only time in the series before the reboot in Casino Royale that Q was not depicted. In fact, Desmond Llewelyn was either not available or Saltzman and Broccoli wanted to lessen the dependence on gadgets so decided to not call him (though there are still some of that here). And the Felix Leiter here was played by David Hedison who would be the only one before CR to reprise the role in Licence to Kill 16 years later. In summary, Mom and I enjoyed rewatching this JB flick again so many years later! P. S. Loved both Paul McCartney and Wings version of the title song and as well as that of B. J. Arnau in the nightclub sequence. Also, Geoffrey Holder was awesome as Baron Samedi!

Yaphet Kotto Does That Voodoo So Well

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 18 June 2009]

My favorite essayer of James Bond debuted in this film. Live And Let Die marked the debut of Roger Moore as intrepid British secret agent 007. I've always thought that Moore perfectly fitted the public's idea of what to expect from James Bond than any other actor who portrayed him, although purists who faithfully have read the Ian Flemming novels would no doubt disagree.

Moore was in an interesting position with this film. With Sean Connery finally and as he thought irrevocably never playing 007 again and with George Lazenby not capturing the dollars of the movie going public, if Moore had failed in the role, no doubt the James Bond series would have come to an end.

When you think of some of the plans of world domination that Sean Connery foiled in his films that SPECTRE had, Moore's assignment in Live And Let Die is kind of minor league stuff. Three British agents are killed almost simultaneously in different parts of the world, one at the United Nations in New York, one in the New Orleans French Quarter, and one on the Caribbean island nation of San Monique that is ruled by Yaphetto Kotto. That's what 007's mission is, to find out what links these deaths in these disparate areas of the globe.

Kotto is our head villain and while his ambition isn't quite SPECTRE domination of the world, it's still pretty extensive. He has some connections with a Harlem racketeer and also with some voodoo priests in all these areas. In fact voodoo and the fear of it forms a great piece of his method of keeping power and part of the plot as well.

Roger Moore and Jane Seymour who was 'introduced' in Live And Let Die have more narrow escapes in this film than they did in some of those old movie serials. His wrist watch becomes a very valuable weapon in his arsenal. And not only does 007 have to deal with human predators, Moore has to both play tag with some alligators and nearly swim with some hungry sharks.

Live And Let Die got an Academy Award nomination. The title song written by Paul and Linda McCartney became one of the biggest songs to come from a Bond film. It lost however to the Barbra Streisand classic title song, The Way We Were in 1973.

Because it introduced Roger Moore as 007 to the movie going public, Live And Let Die has an enduring significance in film history. But even if it were not a milestone film, Live And Let Die is one of the best of James Bond films to come out with any actor playing 007.

One of Roger Moore's Best Contributions to the Series

[JamesHitchcock · 7/10 · 26 July 2005]

Although I have always regarded Sean Connery as the best of the actors to play Bond, I have never (unlike some Connery diehards) regarded the casting of Roger Moore as his successor as a mistake. Moore brought a different interpretation to the role, one which owed something to parts he had played in two adventure series on television, Simon Templar in "The Saint" and Brett Sinclair in "The Persuaders". Whereas Connery's tough, gritty Bond allowed something of the hard man below the surface to show through, Moore played the character much more as a suave, sophisticated English gentleman. (Connery's Bond, like the actor himself, was definitely Scottish).

The villain of "Live and Let Die" is Kananga, the leader of the small Caribbean island of San Monique. (Shouldn't that be Sainte Monique?) For a Bond villain, Kananga's ambitions are surprisingly limited, with no scheme for world domination. He has, however, close links to the New York underworld, and has hatched a plot to flood the American market with heroin. Kananga is deeply superstitious, and employs the services of Solitaire, a beautiful young woman with the power to foretell the future through the use of tarot cards. As with a number of the other films, much of the plot of this one revolves around Bond's ability to win over the villain's female accomplice.

The Bond films, of course, are all dependent upon a stylised formula involving adventure (especially chase sequences), exotic locations, beautiful women, evil villains, memorable music and a generous (but preferably not too generous) helping of humour. When all the elements of the formula come together, the result can be a highly enjoyable piece of entertainment. "Live and Let Die" has, by and large, got most of the elements right. Its main asset is the lovely Jane Seymour, one of the most beautiful as well as one of the most talented of the Bond Girls, as Solitaire. She was one of the youngest of the Bond Girls, being only 22 a the time the film was made (Honor Blackman and Maud Adams, for example, were both in their late thirties when they starred in a Bond film), but despite her lack of experience turns in a very good performance. Her Solitaire is not a strong action heroine like Pussy Galore or Anya Amasova, but a passive figure, melancholy and fatalistic, troubled by her psychic powers but at the same time frightened of losing them. As such she has rather more depth than the average Bond heroine.

Roger Moore is also good in this film; in 1973 he was still clearly youthful enough to be convincing in the role and makes the most of it. As the villainous Kananga Yaphet Kotto is adequate, but he does rather suffer the fate of being outshone by the two secondary villains, his henchman Tee Hee (the man with the metal arm and claw for a hand ) and Baron Samedi with his demonic peals of laughter. (Curt Jurgens suffered a similar fate in "The Spy who Loved Me", where Richard Kiel's Jaws turned out to be more memorable than his own Stromberg). There are some exciting chase sequences, particularly the one in the old bus across San Monique, and the waterborne one through the Louisiana bayous. I didn't much care for the character of J W Pepper, a rather stupid redneck Louisiana sheriff with a thick Deep South accent who was obviously intended as the film's main comic relief. (He makes another appearance in "The Man with the Golden Gun"). Nevertheless, there was some successful use of sardonic humour, such as the scene where a man, watching a traditional New Orleans jazz funereal, asks "Whose funeral is it?" and is told "Yours" immediately before being stabbed to death. The music was also good, especially Paul McCartney's brilliant theme song. My overall view is that this is, together with "For Your Eyes Only", the best of the Roger Moore Bond films. 7/10

James vs Ju-Ju.

[BA_Harrison · 6/10 · 2 January 2012]

As an avid fan of 70s horror and exploitation, I have no problem at all with Live and Let Die's voodoo plot elements and many blaxploitation trappings: as far as I am concerned, they only serve to make this a very unique debut for Roger Moore as cinema's greatest secret agent, setting it well apart from everything Connery did as Bond.

In addition to superstitious mumbo jumbo and jive-speaking soul brothers, this adventure also benefits from a kick-ass theme song from Paul McCartney, an appearance by big-breasted Hammer babe Madeline Smith, the casting of a hot-as-hell Jane Seymour as sexy Tarot reader Solitaire (so called because, until meeting Bond, she'd only played with herself?), and some classic, corny quippery from an impossibly suave Moore.

Unfortunately, despite all of this, the film must be considered something of a disappointment, suffering as it does from a weak storyline/script, dreadful pacing and sub-par action, including a soporific, overlong speed boat chase, during which we are introduced to Clifton James' irritating Sheriff J.W. Pepper, surely the most ill-advised character of the whole Bond franchise.

More Action. More Excitement. More Adventure.

[hitchcockthelegend · 7/10 · 20 May 2012]

Live and Let Die is directed by Guy Hamilton and adapted to screenplay by Tom Mankiewicz from the novel written by Ian Fleming. It stars Roger Moore, Yaphet Koto, Jane Seymour, David Hedison, Julius W Harris, Gloria Hendry, Earl Jolly Brown, Clifton James and Geoffrey Holder. Music is scored by George Martin and cinematography by Ted Moore.

Bond 8 and 007 is assigned to investigate the recent murders of MI6 agents in New Orleans, San Monique and New York. Suspicion falls on San Monique ruler Dr Kananga, a man who has definite links to Harlem crime lord Mr Big. As 007 digs deeper he uncovers a plot to corner the world's heroin market, but halting such a plan is hindered by the presence of voodoo in his midst.

Connery was gone, for good this time, no amount of cash would entice him to don the tuxedo for a "legitimate" Bond movie again....... This meant that producers Broccoli & Saltzman would be showcasing the third actor to play James Bond in a four year period! After the fall out of the casting of Lazenby in OHMSS, it was agreed that a established actor was needed this time around. Timothy Dalton was mooted, as he was for OHMSS (he was never offered the role though until 1986), but it came down to just two actors, Roger Moore & Michael Billington. Billington would screen test for the role of 007 a few times in his life but never landed the coveted role, as a sweetener he got to play a minor character in 1977's The Spy Who Loved Me. So Roger Moore it was, someone the producers knew quite well and who was well in vogue after starring in The Persuaders and The Saint. He also was honoured to play the role, wanted it badly and accepted the fanaticism that went with it.

Moore's take on Bond the man was a world away from Connery, and rightly so, but Live and Let Die is not far removed from Connery's last outing, Diamonds Are Forever. In truth it's a weak script, with Mankiewicz probably under orders from above to play to Moore's strengths and keep the overt humour and cartoon escapades as a selling point. The decision to pitch Bond into a world of voodoo is a good one, and it was not, as some believe, an attempt to grasp the tails of the Blacksploitation market that had made waves in the early 70s. It's a better film than Diamonds Are forever, without doubt. The villains are memorably played, though Kananga's (Koto) demise is indicative of the daftness that would blight many Bond movies from here on in, and in Hamilton's hands the action, especially an adrenalin pumping speedboat chase, is quality entertainment. Top blunderbuss theme tune, too, from Paul McCartney & Wings. While Felix Leiter is back on good charming form in the hands of Hedison (a real life friend of Moore and it shows).

Problems elsewhere, though, stop this from being a great Bond movie. Much of the film is made up of scenes that are played purely for smiles rather than for dramatic purpose. In short a Bond movie has stopped taking itself seriously. The introduction of Sheriff Pepper (James) is pointless, the beautiful Seymour shows promise but then becomes one of "those" Bond girls who is a liability to 007 outside of the bedroom, and the film is padded out with scenes that offer nothing important to the story. Hendry's Rosie Carver is a dope and poorly written, though it gave Bond his first inter-racial "dalliance", something that the producers were nervous about behind the scenes. While there's no Q! And George Martin's score is very hit and miss.

A new actor playing Bond and many failings in the picture, could Bond still succeed? Yes indeed! Moore, in spite of not getting good page to work from and getting stick from the critics, put his own stamp on the role by looking smooth, having an excellent vocal delivery and being someone the girls wanted to bed and the boys wanted to be. The box office sang to the tune of over $160 million, over $40 million more than Diamonds Are Forever. The tag-line ran "More Action, More Excitement, More Adventure", though not entirely accurate, there was indeed an abundance of fun play and gadgets are us (Felix Lighter, priceless). Bond was set to continue coining it in for the foreseeable future, but the dye had been cast and Bond ran the risk of becoming purely a cartoon caricature..... 7/10

Best Roger Moore Bond.

[schauweckerpsx · 10/10 · 21 March 2003]

This is my favorite Roger Moore Bond movie. It doesn't skimp on anything. It's fast-paced all the way. Which is something to be said since this was Roger Moore's first Bond movie. Great action sequences and characters,this is in my top three!

Live and Let Die (1973) **1/2

[JoeKarlosi · 6/10 · 25 February 2007]

Roger Moore takes on duties as James Bond for the first time in this strange and unconventional 007 outing. This one can be tossed into the "mediocre" bin of Bond adventures, and there are so many reasons for this that it's difficult knowing where to begin. The story is rather confusing, for a start. It seems that a British representative at the United Nations in New York has been killed along with another one in New Orleans and one more on the island of San Monique, so this takes Bond on an investigation into New York City, including uptown Harlem. There he first runs afoul of a black crime boss operating as the pimp-like "Mr. Big", and then journeys onward to the voodoo island of San Monique, where he squares off with an African leader named Kananga (Yaphet Kotto). Kananga's woman and Tarot Card consultant is the beautiful young Solitaire (Jane Seymour), and his "right-hook man" is Tee Hee (Julius Harris) who lost one of his hands to the crocodiles and sports a deadly metal hook in its place. Somehow the usual plot line of drug trafficking also figures into all of this, don't ask me how.

With the dawn of the 1970s we first got to see the change into a more comic book direction for the Bond franchise with the previous film DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER; but LIVE AND LET DIE really takes it to a whole new level. This film plays more like an early seventies blaxpoitation pic, where you'd expect to see Pam Grier or Shaft arrive into any next scene. Black characters recite such stereotypical lines as: "man, for twenty bucks I'd take you to a Ku Klux Klan cookout!" (said gleefully by a taxi driver when 007 offers him a twenty to follow another car), and "keep your hands up, Honkey!" (when Bond is approached at gunpoint). Not that any of this in itself is a bad thing for the times, because I do dig these types of films, man; it's just that James Bond himself seems so uncomfortably out of place in such an untypical environment. This is made even more obvious when having newcomer Moore in the role for such a storyline, as he is much more refined and gentlemanly, not nearly as dangerous and street-smart as Sean Connery, or even George Lazenby, were. Roger would get better as his tenure in the series would progress, but here he has some big shoes to fill and is just finding his footing. To his credit, Moore sensibly didn't try to imitate Connery, but his own brand of Bond would require a few films to perfect. One thing Roger was excellent at was giving little comical quips and one-liners, and here he delivers a few good ones ("butterhook" he non-chalantly throws Tee Hee's way while the henchman fumbles trying to take Bond's watch off his wrist).

One of the best sequences in the movie is when Bond is left standing on a small island in the center of a group of hungry crocodiles and alligators. Unfortunately, another sequence involving speed boat chases goes on much too long and does not have the desired effect of enthralling us. Kananga's ultimate fate in the end comes off as utterly ridiculous and laugh-inducing in the way it's handled, even if the idea itself was inspired. The worst offense of all, though, has to be the addition of a really stupid and annoying backwards southern sheriff named J.W. Pepper, who is an embarrassing disgrace to this series as a comedic foil, and who was incomprehensibly brought back for next year's THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN! I wonder if he was the inspiration for Jackie Gleason's character in SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT?

The best thing about LIVE AND LET DIE turns out to be the classic title song by Paul McCartney. Too bad it wasn't used to accompany a better Bond film. Former Beatles producer George Martin takes on the score, but it's not a very good one. The constant re-use of the "Live and Let Die" instrumental theme becomes grating after awhile. **1/2 out of ****

Amo esse filme

[mariadovaldafonseca · 10/10 · 27 May 2020]

Roger é um dos melhores 007.... talvez o melhor! Um clássico

Pretty good.

[theshadow908 · 7/10 · 2 February 2007]

Roger Moore takes over the role of James Bond in the 8th installment to the series. In this film, James Bond goes to New York to investigate the mysterious deaths of some British agents. He feels there is a connection between a big time Harlem gangster named Mr. Big and Kananga, the mysterious owner of a small island who is trying to sell self produced heroin. As he gets deeper into the case, he discovers that Kananga and Big might be more closely connected than he originally thought. This is a pretty good installment to the Bond series.

After Diamonds are Forever, the James Bond series needed a serious boost so it could be a serious spy series again. Though this movie isn't as good as the early Connery films, it's certainly better than the last two in the series. For the most part it sticks close to the Ian Fleming novel, though there are a few differences, mostly in the beginning and the end. The last film was more like a dumbed down action movie than a James Bond movie, and I was glad to see that they fixed that with this film by putting James Bond on a serious case. One thing that bothered me though was the dialogue. The writers kind of overloaded on the jokes and one liners, which made almost every line out of Bond's mouth corny.

The acting isn't bad. Roger Moore gives his best performance as James Bond in this movie, and though he's nowhere near Connery, he's miles above Lazenby. David Hedison plays an average Felix Leiter. Jane Seymour was an alright Bond girl, and Yaphat Kotto wasn't too bad of a villain.

Overall, this movie had room for improvement, but it wasn't bad for the most part.

7/10

Just about the weakest of the James Bond films.

[mallard-6 · 4/10 · 10 September 1999]

Roger Moore is a surprisingly stiff James Bond, and lacks the humor most of the other Bonds have brought to the role. The movie is clumsy, and (from the perspective of 1999) terribly dated--rooted as it is in its own times "swinging" pop culture. The movie is slight--with such events as the power boat race occupying a disproportionate amount of screen time, and the cute but clumsy use of the southern "cracker" sherriff.

In short? Give the film a miss if you possibly can.

Good Bond movie with a good line in bad guys

[bob the moo · 4 July 2002]

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.