Movie Club: Live And Let Die

WELCOME EVERYBODY TO THE LATEST DISCUSSION THREAD OF THE NEW MOVIE CLUB, DESIGNED TO RUN PARALLEL WITH R.O.C.K.S. A big thanks to everyone that are joining us through all of this.

The next few weeks we're going to do a few Bond films, and I've taken the decision to do the first outing each of the three Bonds that most embody what one thinks of when one hears the name James Bond - that is to say, Sean Connery, Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan.

This week it's the turn of Roger Moore, so we're watching Live And Let Die.

Remember any ideas for films to discuss are most welcome, and should be made on the Movie Club Introduction thread (the sticky one), and anyone is welcome to add their thoughts about movies already discussed on their respective threads.

Just a friendly reminder to everyone that, whilst fans are obviously welcome to passionately discuss and give their views on these movies, please remember to keep things on a friendly footing and respect your fellow posters.
Also, please do not post where or how to find the full movie online. And do not post asking others to PM it to you. You are however allowed to watch the movie in whatever manner you want.

This was probably the first Bond film I ever saw. So in my brain, Roger Moore was imprinted as the James Bond, and till today remains my favorite.

I've seen this movie many times but I rarely focus on the actual story. There's just so much other interesting stuff that keeps me entertained!
* Bond almost getting caught with Miss Caruso and the way Moneypenny helps Bond to "cover up" his "activities". ;)
* The magnetic watch. (if only such a gadget existed in real life! But even then I doubt it could divert the course of a bullet, as Q claimed).
* The gorgeous Jane Seymour as Solitaire, even if her acting wasn't that great. (but she was just 18 so I won't be too harsh)
* The entire sequence in the alligator farm
* The boat chase
* Sheriff J.W. Pepper
* Baron Samedi's laugh!
* The double-decker bus chase
* The escape from the villain's lair

I love LALD mainly because it pretty much has everything that one would expect from a typical Bond film. A GREAT theme song, the gun barrel opening, Maurice Binder's title sequence, witty one-liners, double entendres, pretty Bond girl, scary villain and even scarier henchmen, cool gadgets, exotic locations, Moneypenny, Q scolding Bond and so on and so forth.

LALD has quite a few homages to Dr.No. Both are the debut of their Bond actors, both are set largely in the Caribbean, both have a Quarrel character, in both the villain first tries to kill Bond by leaving a venomous creature in his room, and many other small ones as well.

The one thing that I didn't like about the movie was Rosie Carver. She was just too annoying. I don't know if her role was written like that or the actress overdid it. Either way, for me, she was the worst thing about the movie. And the "inflating and exploding" Kananga was a bit silly.

A little bit of trivia: Kananga was actually the name of the guy who owned the alligator farm. He was also the one who did the stunt of Bond running on top of the alligators. It did require quite a few takes to get right and in some cases his feet fell right next to the snapping jaws of the giant reptile! The video is on Youtube for those interested. I love the warning sign outside his farm (which was real and the director also liked it so much, he used it in the film): "Trespassers will be eaten!!"

LALD is one of my top-five favorite Bond films, and I've seen all of them. I remember first seeing this on an edited network TV back in the mid-1980's, and not long after saw it on VHS tape. Excellent film, and the voodoo/New Orleans aspect added a level of creepiness that was absent from the other Bond flicks. The Tarot cards & Jane Seymour's character were nice as well, and added to the mystical ambiance of the film.

Back in the '80's, there were a series of 7-up soft drink commercials that were all over TV at the time. As it turns out, the main voodoo "king" in LALD (the actor Geoffrey Holder) was the lead in these commercials - LOL:

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This was a really good film and very enjoyable.
Roger Moore is really good as Bond.
I remember seeing the end fight on the train scene on TV when I was really young.
The Voodoo King reminded me of the early 90's WWF/WWE wrestler Papa Shango.

I have now seen four full Bond films, three of them being Moore films. I really will have to check out more Bond films. :D

Ha! I remember Papa Shango! The 90s really had some very unique and memorable WWF wrestlers. I remember my friends and I used to spend the whole day playing a WWF card game which had all the WWF greats on them including Hulk Hogan, Macho Man, Ric Flair, Bret Hart, Ultimate Warrior, Undertaker, Andre the Giant, Ted Debiase, Yokozuna, Sid Vicious and many many more. :)

Mark, I hope you manage to watch all the remaining Bond films as well.

I also really like the theme tune. Although I will say I prefer Guns 'N' Roses cover of it. :D

Wilycub those wrestler were great back then. There are a lot of great current wrestlers but a lot of them are all too similar and lack a distinctive enough look to make them look different from all the others. Like if you said a long haired buy with a beard and some tattoos and trunks or flashy tights that pretty much describes most of the roster lol. But in the 80's/90's if you described a balding guy wearing red and yellow, a voodoo guy in skull paint, a scotch guy with a kilt, an army guy, a Viking, a police man, a Mountie, a sumo etc etc.

"Mark M, post: 124940, member: 5058" said:

I also really like the theme tune. Although I will say I prefer Guns 'N' Roses cover of it. :D

I've never heard the Guns 'N' Roses cover of the theme song. I will give it a listen and let you know my opinion. :)

"Mark M, post: 124940, member: 5058" said:

those wrestler were great back then. There are a lot of great current wrestlers but a lot of them are all too similar and lack a distinctive enough look to make them look different from all the others. Like if you said a long haired buy with a beard and some tattoos and trunks or flashy tights that pretty much describes most of the roster lol. But in the 80's/90's if you described a balding guy wearing red and yellow, a voodoo guy in skull paint, a scotch guy with a kilt, an army guy, a Viking, a police man, a Mountie, a sumo etc etc.

Oh yeah, definitely! WWF wrestlers in those days were like superstars. We all know that WWF was all scripted and staged and not really a sporting event. So naturally it makes sense to make it almost like a TV series where we had the good guys and the bad guys and there were actually plots which arced between tournaments (remember when Hulk Hogan turned evil and used to wear black and then turned back good? or when the Undertaker would be declared dead only to rise again?). And each wrestler had his own unique outfit, personality, fighting style, catchphrase, signature move and back story. Watching them was like watching a superhero ensemble movie these days, like "The Avengers". :)
As you correctly pointed out, these days all that glamour and glory is gone. I can't tell one wrestler apart form the next. They all look pretty much the same to me. So I don't suspect that kids of today are as crazy about WWE as they were back in the 80s and 90s.

Come to think of it there is a WWE wrestler called Cesaro who for a time had a James Bond style entrance video and wore a suit for his entrance. He gimmick has changed a bit now.

I like all types of wrestling but I wish they would dbe a bit more original with their gimmicks to stand out instead of looking so generic.

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"Wilycub, post: 124941, member: 25043" said:

We all know that WWF was all scripted and staged and not really a sporting event....

Wait a minute...what...staged? ITS STILL REAL TO ME! LOL. :biggrin:laugh:roflmao
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G'N'R version.
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Just seen this film again for the first time in a few years. Definitely one of the best.

For my money it's in the top two of Roger Moore's - tough call which I prefer between it and For Your Eyes Only. Moore's debut here was quite excellent. After the previous film, Connery's last, Diamonds Are Forever, was too overblown, they needed to go back to basics. And that's what this film does. Sure, it has the usual gimmicks that we associate with the Bond films, but nothing is overdone.

Because this film marked the appearance of a new actor in the lead role, as I said, the usual gimmicks are there, and in particular, everything that makes us think Bond is toned up. The action, the music, the beautiful women, the one-liners - everything about this film just screams Bond. It's one of the most Bond-like of all Bond films, if that makes sense. Along with Connery's debut, Dr No, it's one of the best embodiments of the genre (George Lazenby's only outing in the role, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, also has a lot of extra-Bond-like qualities, for much the same reason as this film, they wanted to reassure the audience that it might not be Connery but it was still Bond).

A word about the music - which reunited Paul McCartney with his old producer George Martin, who composed the incidental music and produced the song. Again, the fact that it's George Martin is very apparent to my ears. I recognise his sound - check out Paul's 1982 album Tug Of War, again produced by Martin, in particular the songs "Wanderlust" and "Here Today" (the latter being Paul's tribute to John Lennon, this was his first album after his ex-bandmate's death). Live And Let Die is the only Bond theme I have seen live - I saw Paul live back in 2003, and he did this near the end of the show, it was the last solo song he did that night before the big finale of Beatles classics. And it's pretty damn awesome, embodying the variety that The Beatles were famous for, a ballad verse and chorus, a rocking instrumental break and a reggae bridge. Still one of the best Bond themes ever.

The fact that the villain's plot here is something different to the usual world domination is a refreshing change. The heroin plot is well thought out. It feels plausible.

Actually this brings me onto the comparisons and influences on this film. Puppet On A Chain, a novel by Alistair MacLean and then film in 1969 and 1971 respectively, is also about heroin smuggling, albeit not on quite such a grand scale as this - and the film also features a speedboat chase (which apparently inspired the makers here).

But the biggest external influence on this film, it occurred to me today, is a little bit older, older even than the first Bond film. There are many comparable moments between Live And Let Die and Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece North By Northwest. The death at the UN building is very reminiscent, then the chase through the poppy fields pursued by the helicopter is very reminiscent of Cary Grant's mad dash through the crop field pursued by the plane. And of course the final scene where he seduces the heroine on the train!

Not to say that this film doesn't have memorable moments in its own right - the crocodile farm in particular, of course. That sign, "Trespassers will be EATEN" is one of the greatest moments in the entire Bond canon, and Bond's quick dash over the waiting crocs, using them as stepping stones, is wonderful without being too far-fetched. That's the thing about Bond films - they come in cycles, and usually reach a trough where they get too overblown, and then quickly recover with a back-to-basics approach the next time. This is that back-to-basics recovery.

All in all, this is one great movie!