Friends, tonight, we are once again talking about James Bond, and his extravagant adventures! This time, we are diving into the era of the James Bond franchise, when Roger Moore would enter the role as the main spy character, replacing Sean Connery, and George Lazenby for the next twelve years. That is until 1985, when Timothy Dalton would step up for the role after that for a short time. With that said, let’s review the 1973 James Bond film, Live & Let Die.
Plot: After some British agents are mysteriously killed by people from the voodoo occult down in Louisiana, New York, and San Monique, James Bond (Roger Moore) is sent in to take down the leaders that organized those killings. Will Bond succeed?
As far as Roger Moore stepping into the Bond role goes, he may not have quite the same amount of charisma, or charm that Connery, or possibly even Lazenby had. However, you can tell that when he plays the role, he is definitely trying to portray James Bond the way that he ought to. Whenever Moore is onscreen, his dialogue is smart, and clever. This is especially true when you see him in scenes with women, or even dealing with the most ruthless of villains. I’m guessing that his role must have received a very warm reception from the public if he stayed in the role for the next twelve years after this? I suppose that’s possible. Moving on from that aspect. There are also many other things to like about 007: Live & Let Die. First off, we should appreciate the fact that Bond was dealing with criminal masterminds, who most likely weren’t in league with the SPECTRE organization. That is unless they were, and that wasn’t revealed until one of the films after this one? Either way, for now, let’s presume that that was most likely a breath of fresh air from the previous films in that regards, wouldn’t you say? There’s also the action. Holy cow! We, the audience, can tell that they that the writers were really trying their hardest to step up their game by make the action sequences as cool, and awesome, as they possibly could. The same can be said about the character development, the theme song for this movie, and things like that. Oh, speaking of which, I don’t recall hearing about the song, “Live & Let Die,” originally originating from this film. I always thought that it was just a more ordinary song that was only sung by artists for real life like “All You Need Is Love,” by the Beatles, or songs like that. Who knew? Heck, who also knew that part of the song would be sung in films such as Shrek The Third when that was released thirty-four years after this film in 2007? Also, how could you not like how bits, and pieces of the song continue to play throughout the course of this movie? As for the characters, they may be kind of a mixed bag this time around. Some of them are developed quite well. However, there also those characters, such as the villains, who aren’t necessarily poorly written antagonists. However, some of them could have been fleshed out better. Still, there are others, like Bond, and Solitaire, who have really great personalities in their characters. Solitaire, who is played by Jane Seymour, serves as the love interest for Bond this time around? Okay, before I continue on about that, I have a question to ask? Is Bond going to continue going on from girl to girl, or even marrying a girl, and that girl gets killed by someone throughout this series? Or can Bond finally settle down, and stay married, or in that one relationship, even if it’s just for the next movie, or two? I don’t know, I just wouldn’t be surprised if some people started to get annoyed about Bond’s womanizing behavior somewhere along the way, you know? Anyway, Solitaire seems to be one of the better written females that has been in this film series. Here, we have a woman, who starts off as a tarot reader, yet has growth, and a really good character arc that may yet be as good as say the character arc of someone like Sonia Marmeladov from the novel Crime & Punishment. Finally, it’s good to learn about the culture of voodoo, in order that people have discussions about it, and why voodoo should NEVER be messed with in the first place.
The only downside to this film are that one, this film’s villains could have been developed more. Heck, even if one, or two, of the villains needed to be cut out, that probably would have been helpful. Additional, and this may not be a downside, as it is a warning, if parents have considered showing a PG-rated film like this to their kids, parents should take a look at it first. The reason being is because there are some scenes, especially in the beginning, that could be a little too frightening, and scary for children. So that’s something to be cautious about.
Well everyone, that’s my review for 007: Live & Let Die. I’m not sure if it was because of the new actor playing Bond, or even other related reasons, but you can definitely tell that they were trying their hardest to make this film as good as they could. The action is superb, some of the characters are well- written, even if others are not, and the movie is overall one of the better films within this series. Honestly, if you were to pick and choose which of the 007 films to watch, or not watch in this franchise, this is one of those that should definitely be one of the more popular ones. I was surprised by how good this Bond movie was, and you most likely will be too.
Final Grade: A
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