The Bond films are something that alot of British kids and some American kids know alot about as even tho the films where made for and marketed to adults fathers would take there sons to go and watch the latest James Bond film. With Sir Sean Connery to many being THE James Bond and yet when the actor chose to come back after Diamonds Are Forever a new Bond actor needed to be found with him making his debut in this film and so then join me as I review the film that is the first James Bond film to star Sir Roger Moore with the film in question being called simply just "Live And Let Die" enjoy.
The plot of this film is when three secret agents are killed at the same time across the world James Bond is tasked with finding there killer and what connection they have to the mysterious Dr. Kananga. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. With the plot of this film being one that does set up what this new version of James Bond will be like and still telling a good plot in it's own right and while the film did of course have to tell the story in a good way it didn't need to set up who this what this new Bond was like. As it would have been very easy for the makers of this film to have this version of the character still be the same as he was just one film previously and yet they didn't they actually made him more charming and made him this character that will seduce the information he needs out of the women willingly rather then hitting them , this films plot is also one of the more tighter James Bond plots as we do get to see how people actions effect the plot of the film and not just be a one off thing and while yes this films plot can at times be very controversial it is still a plot that is well handled as there is alot of thought and effort put into making the films plot be as good as it is when that is something that really didn't need to be the case as the film could have just had a plot that was the basic James Bond plot and nothing more and yet there was alot of love put into it with the plot of this film also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this film is Sir Roger Moore as James Bond , Bernard Lee as M and Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. Acting wise this films acting is really good when it comes to the acting from all of the MI6 regulars which is something that really isn't all that shocking as both Bernard Lee and Lois Maxwell had been in the films from the very start and while we know Sir Roger Moore is a really good actor what we didn't know back then was how good he was going to be as James Bond. With the best actor in the whole entire film by default being Sir Roger Moore as out of himself, Bernard Lee and Lois Maxwell he is in the film the most and while he does of course get more confident in the role and add more of himself to the character the more the films progress it is interesting to see how this version of the character is still alot more darker then the version we get in films like for example "For Your Eyes Only" with this version of the character still for the most part being written like he was when Sir Sean Connery played him and this is something that des make Sir Roger Moore's acting come across as still being good but alot more uncomfortable to watch as he himself did find the scenes where he has to be violent towards women uncomfortable as that's not who he is as a person and yet none of that effects just how good he is in this film as right from the second the film starts and his appears on screen he has you hooked and hanging on every word that he says.
Also starring in this film is Yaphet Kotto as Dr. Kananga / Mr. Big , Jane Seymour as Solitaire and Clifton James as Sheriff J.W. Pepper. Also starring in this film is Julius W. Harris as Tee Hee Johnson , Geoffrey Holder as Baron Samedi , David Hedison as Felix Leiter , Gloria Hendry as Rosie Carver , Roy Stewart as Quarrel Jr. , Carry On Matron star Madeline Smith as Miss Caruso and Earl Jolly Brown as Whisper. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. With the best actor in this film being Jane Seymour as even tho this film is one of her earliest film roles she is still really good in this films with her having a presence that does make you want to see more of her character and while yes the rest of the films actors especially Yaphet Kotto as Dr. Kananga / Mr. Big also really good in there own right what makes Jane's stand out is the fact that she is giving us all of these emotions all with a single look something which all of the films actors fail to do with her even having great chemistry with Sir Roger Moore which is easy to do as he can have great chemistry with a table lamp with her even having her own natural charm that does come through in her performance in this film. With the acting that's in this film really being helped by the fact that this films script is just so good that all this films actors have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.
This films Bond Girl really is of course Solitaire whom is played is by the seriously stunning Jane Seymour. Her character was a decently well done one especially when compared to the useless Rosie Carver whom only appears in a few scenes and somehow manages to mess something up in every scene that she's in whereas with Solitaire she is someone whom is competent and is able to get things done with her having the unique gift of being able to see things in the future a gift that Dr. Kananga both as himself and as Mr. Big take advantage and heck one could even argue that Bond himself takes advantage of this due to the fact that when he finds the second she gets together with a man she looses her gift something Bond then tricks her into doing. With the fact that she could have gotten killed if Dr. Kananga or any of his allies saw her with Bond on the night that she lost her powers does mean that she could have died at any moment which is something that does add an element of danger to her character something which we saw when he berates her for thinking that the death of Bond on the island with Rosie was always going to be for Rosie as she was clearly disturbed to find out that she and Bond are to be lovers and thus loose her powers with the only thing that would have made her character more interesting being if we got to see her actively take part in some action as the most that she does is hit Bond with her handbag or even if we got to see how smart she is as we know that she is good at playing cards due to the end scene but we have no idea of how smart of a character that she is and this is something that would have helped her character out as she could have helped Bond work out a few things in the film. It does goes without saying tho that she is easily better then Rosie Carver due to the fact that she's not an annoying character who actually adds something to the film and is not just there so that Bond can get with another woman in the film.
Doing the production design for this film is Syd Cain and he does do some decent work on this film but his sets feel like there missing something. It's hard to say exactly just what that thing is as while the sets do look good but when you compare them to the sets from say "You Only Live Twice" for example they come of as not being all that good perhaps it might due to the fact that the sets in this film look a little bit to realistic for the fantasy aspect of the film to work or maybe it's because of the fact that there's true massive set that can be used to blow people's mind with the closest thing we get to that kind of set being the lair of Dr. Kananga and that's it and even then that set doesn't get introduce until very late into the film and isn't shown of all that well. As was said this films sets whilst they are missing that extra special something thy are still good with all of the films sets looking very visually impressive and help to match the films more darker tone this is something that does work for this film as it does make the film feel all the more better and thought out because of it and yet at the same time tho they don't mesh well enough for a James Bond set as you do expect the sets in a James Bond film to be over the top and outlandish as that is the world that James Bond lives in and while we do get a hint of that in the first scene after the pre-title sequence when we see the inside of James Bonds home for the first and only time there's not enough of it in the film but fair enough the makers of this film were trying to do something different and part of that does involve not giving the film that many outlandish sets but this is a film where they could get away with doing that due to the fact that both Mr. Big and Dr. Kananga are over the top and outlandish poeple.
There is no way to talk about this film and not talk about the controversy surrounding the book that's it's based. As the book also called Live And Let Die has all of the villainous characters in the film be black people something which is also true for this film with the makers of this film not really doing anything to hide that face by having some black people be good and having some white people be bad rather they just fully embrace the fact that all of the evil characters in the film are black people with this being something that wasn't OK in the seventies when the film was being made and its not OK now the only time when this would have been seen as being OK being when the book was first published in 1954 and even then it's debatable on if it was socially acceptable as while you could chalk this up to willful ignorance you could also make the argument that Ian Fleming knew what he was doing and both points would be completely valid. This is something that whilst it doesn't make this film hard to watch as there aren't any harmful stereotypes in the film and by all accounts the people of colour that worked on the film didn't mind the fact that all of the villains where also people of colour it is still a tough watch knowing that fact an it is something that if this film was made today it would get called out for and rightfully so as while it does make sense in the context of the film as Bond does go in a coloured part of New York and there will still be evil coloured people no matter where in the world you are to present all the people of one race as being one thing is something that is a raciest thing and it is something that does make this film feel like a unique time capsule.
This films opening song was also called Live And Let Die and was sung by the Paul McCartney And Wings with Sir Paul McCartney even co-writing the song with his then wife Linda McCartney. The song itself isn't that bad but at the same time it's doesn't suit Sir Paul at all with him feeling out of place on the song rather the better version of the song is the Guns N' Roses version as they take the elements that worked in the original version and make them the forefront whilst putting on there own unique spin on the song but in all fairness this original version is still really good and there is a reason why it keeps on getting played on the radio as it is a really good and well written song that does get the blood pumping. With the titles by Maurice Binder really capturing the more rock and roll feel of the song by having elements of death and macabre imagery such as skulls be at the forefront of the films opening titles with the opening titles more then matching the song perfectly with the only thing that's weird about this films opening titles being the fact that it features a girl waving for no reason which is just weird for the sake of being weird as it adds nothing to the titles and openly takes you out of them whereas with the song it is a well song sung but as was mentioned it was done by the wrong band as these titles would work so much better if it had the Guns N' Roses version playing over it as that version is more fast paced when compared to this version of the song and that that kind of fast tempo is something that a hard rock song like this one should have with the titles being something that could be a perfect match due to how dark the images can get in them.
Now then this film has / had a grand total running time of exactly two hours and one minuet and thirty eight seconds. Which to be fair to this film is pretty much the bogstandard running time for this film but in saying this tho the film does waste alot of time by giving us the still funny but unneeded comedy antics of Sheriff J.W. Pepper who whilst he is entertaining to watch in this film he just wasn't needed to be featured as much as he is as you could have cut alot of his scenes out and miss nothing that's important to the plot of the film and yet for one reason or another the makers of this film thought that it was important to have him feature in alot of the films really good boat chase scene with this film having more then enough there interms of plot to really cover that amount of running time in the first place. With the film not rally using it's running time all that wisely as the film doesn't really take that much time to fully develop its plot and granted this is somethin that is also true for the rest of the James Bond films as well it is something that does hurt and will always hurt in the first film to feature a new James Bond actor as that actor only gets one chance to make a good first impression with us the audience and if the plot isn't that well developed then us the fans will notice it even more with the makers of this film putting more thought and effort into having Miss Moneypenny hide Bonds Italian lover from M then they did into giving the film a really well developed plot. This is something that is also true for the films character development as while we do expect James Bond not to get any character development as he is mean to be a male power fantasy character we do still want the newly introduced characters to get some form of character development as that will help them stand out when compared to side characters in other James Bond films and yet the makers of this film but more thought and effort into giving us a reference to On Her Majesty's Secret Service then they did into giving the films characters some actual character development but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is an action film that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's a actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. The fact that this il does have some really good action in it is something that really isn't all that surprising due to the fact that all of the official EOP Productions James Bond films do have some really good and creative action in them with the same thing being tur for this film as you can tell that there is alot of thought and effort put into making this films action be as good as it cold possibly be. With the best example of this also being the action scene in the film as in the boat chase scene which it could be argued does go on for longer then it really needs to but we still do get some really fun moment in that scene be in Bond jumping the boat a stunt which was done for real or a boat quiet literally crashing a wedding even destroying the cake bottom line being there are alot of fun moments in this scene that all do come together to make a really strong action scene with the only thing that lets it down being the fact tat we don't get the films opening theme song which is something that would have made this film action scene be all the more better and while yes we do get a bit to much of Sheriff J.W. Pepper his antics in this scene are really funny as he's just trying to chase Bond down and arrest him for all of the damage that he is doing with the great pay off being that he can't arrest him due to the fact that Bond is working with the Americans with the rest of this films action being just as good as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall whilst it's not the best start to the Sir Roger Moore era of James Bond films it still is a really good start to these era of films as the rest of his James Bond films would just build off of things that worked well and still do work really well in this film with this film still being a pretty good film in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about al of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 7 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from Tenor , Wikipedia , Blogger and Google Images. With my personal favorite website to use to get the images that I used in this very review being Google Images just simply due to the fact that pretty much all of the images that are featured / presented to us and are currently up and also on Google Images are all fairly high quality and as well as being fairly high definition and well then boys and girls just freaking like James Bond I will return.
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