Live and Let Die (film)  

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Live and Let Die is a 1973 spy film. It was the eighth film in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions, and the first to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. It was directed by Guy Hamilton and produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, while Tom Mankiewicz wrote the script. Although the producers had approached Sean Connery to return after his role in the previous Bond film Diamonds Are Forever, he declined, sparking a search for a new actor to play Bond; Moore was signed for the lead role.

The film is based on Ian Fleming's 1954 novel of the same name. The storyline involves a Harlem drug lord known as Mr. Big who plans to distribute two tons of heroin for free to put rival drug barons out of business and then become a monopoly supplier. Mr. Big is revealed to be the alter ego of Dr. Kananga, a corrupt Caribbean dictator, who rules San Monique, a fictional island where opium poppies are secretly farmed. Bond is investigating the deaths of three British agents, leading him to Kananga, and he is soon trapped in a world of gangsters and voodoo as he fights to put a stop to the drug baron's scheme.

Live and Let Die was released during the height of the blaxploitation era, and many blaxploitation archetypes and clichés are depicted in the film, including derogatory racial epithets ("honky"), black gangsters, and pimpmobiles.<ref name="booklet" /> It departs from the former plots of the James Bond films about megalomaniac super-villains, and instead focuses on drug trafficking, a common theme of blaxploitation films of the period. It is set in African-American cultural centres such as Harlem and New Orleans, as well as the Caribbean Islands. It was also the first James Bond film featuring an African-American Bond girl romantically involved with 007, Rosie Carver, who was played by Gloria Hendry. The film was a box-office success and received generally positive reviews from critics. Its title song, written by Paul and Linda McCartney and performed by their band Wings, was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Plot

Three MI6 agents are killed under mysterious circumstances within 24 hours in the United Nations headquarters in New York City, in New Orleans, and the small Caribbean nation of San Monique, while monitoring the operations of the island's dictator, Dr. Kananga. James Bond, Agent 007, is sent to New York to investigate. Kananga is also in New York, visiting the United Nations. After Bond arrives, his driver is shot dead by Whisper, one of Kananga's men, while taking Bond to Felix Leiter of the CIA. Bond is nearly killed in the ensuing car crash. [[File:007Glastonspeedboats.jpg|thumb|left|Glastron speedboats in the Louisiana boat chase. The boat chase scene was filmed in the Bayou Des Allemands.]] The killer's licence plate leads Bond to Harlem where he meets Mr. Big, a mob boss who runs a chain of restaurants throughout the United States, but he and the CIA do not understand why the most powerful black gangster in New York works with an unimportant island's leader. Bond meets Solitaire, a beautiful tarot reader who has the power of the Obeah and can see both the future and remote events in the present. Mr. Big demands that his henchmen kill Bond, but Bond overpowers them and escapes with the help of CIA agent Strutter. Bond flies to San Monique, where he meets Rosie Carver, a local CIA agent. They meet up with Bond's ally, Quarrel Jr., who takes them by boat near Solitaire's home. When Bond suspects Rosie of being a double agent for Kananga, Rosie tries to escape but is killed remotely by Kananga. Bond then uses a stacked deck of tarot cards that show only "The Lovers" to trick Solitaire into thinking that fate is meant for them; Bond then seduces her. Having lost her virginity and thus her ability to foretell the future, Solitaire realizes she would be killed by Kananga, so she agrees to cooperate with Bond.

Bond and Solitaire escape by boat and fly to New Orleans. There, Bond is captured by Mr. Big, who removes his prosthetic face and reveals himself to be Kananga. He has been producing heroin and is protecting the poppy fields by exploiting the San Monique locals' fear of voodoo priest Baron Samedi, as well as the occult. As Mr. Big, Kananga plans to distribute the heroin free of charge at his restaurants, which will increase the number of addicts. He intends to bankrupt other drug dealers with his giveaway, then charge high prices for his heroin later in order to capitalise on the huge drug dependencies he has cultivated.

Angry at her for having sex with Bond and that her ability to read tarot cards is now gone, Kananga turns Solitaire over to Baron Samedi to be sacrificed. Kananga's henchmen, one-armed Tee Hee and tweed-jacketed Adam, leave Bond to be eaten by crocodilians at his farm in the Deep South backwoods. Bond escapes by running along the animals' backs to safety. After setting the drug laboratory on fire, he steals a speedboat and escapes, pursued by Kananga's men under Adam's order, as well as Sheriff J.W. Pepper and the Louisiana State Police. Most pursuers get wrecked or left behind, and Adam does not survive Bond's strike.

Bond travels to San Monique and sets timed explosives throughout the poppy fields. He rescues Solitaire from the voodoo sacrifice and throws Samedi into a coffin of venomous snakes. Bond and Solitaire escape below ground into Kananga's lair. Kananga captures them both and proceeds to lower them into a shark tank. However, Bond escapes and forces Kananga to swallow a compressed-gas pellet used in shark guns, causing his body to inflate and explode.

Leiter puts Bond and Solitaire on a train leaving the country. Tee Hee sneaks aboard and attempts to kill Bond, but Bond cuts the wires of his prosthetic arm and throws him out the window. As the film ends, a laughing Samedi is revealed to be perching at the front of the train.

Cast

thumb|right|Promotional image of the cast of Live and Let Die. From left: Julius Harris, Jane Seymour, Geoffrey Holder, Roger Moore, Yaphet Kotto and Earl Jolly Brown

  • Roger Moore as James Bond - 007, a British MI6 agent who is sent on a mission to investigate the murder of three fellow agents.
  • Yaphet Kotto as Dr. Kananga / Mr. Big, a corrupt Caribbean Prime Minister who doubles as a drug lord.
  • Jane Seymour as Solitaire, Kananga's psychic and Bond's love interest.
  • Clifton James as Sheriff J.W. Pepper, an uncouth Louisiana sheriff.
  • Julius W. Harris as Tee Hee Johnson, Kananga's primary henchman who wears a pincer-tipped prosthetic arm.
  • Geoffrey Holder as Baron Samedi, Kananga's henchman who has ties to the Voodoo occult.
  • David Hedison as Felix Leiter, Bond's CIA colleague who is also investigating Mr. Big.
  • Gloria Hendry as Rosie Carver, a junior CIA agent in San Monique.
  • Bernard Lee as M, the Head of the Secret Intelligence Service
  • Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny, M's secretary.
  • Tommy Lane as Adam, one of Dr. Kananga's henchmen who pursues 007 through the Louisiana Bayou.
  • Earl Jolly Brown as Whisper, Kananga's henchman who only whispers.
  • Roy Stewart as Quarrel Jr., Bond's ally in San Monique and son of Quarrel from Dr. No.
  • Lon Satton as Harry Strutter, a CIA agent who assists Bond in New York.
  • Arnold Williams as Cab Driver 1.
  • Ruth Kempf as Mrs. Bell, a student pilot.
  • Joie Chitwood as Charlie.
  • Madeline Smith as Miss Caruso ("Beautiful Girl"), an Italian agent whom Bond briefly romances at the beginning of the film.
  • Michael Ebbin as Dambala, One of Kananga's henchmen in San Monique and a voodoo priest who terrifies and kills his victims with a snake.
  • Kubi Chaza as Sales Girl.
  • B. J. Arnau as a cabaret singer.




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Live and Let Die (film)" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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