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Live And Let Die
Live And Let Die film poster
James Bond	Roger Moore
Also starring	Yaphet Kotto Jane Seymour David Hedison
Directed by	Guy Hamilton
Produced by	Harry Saltzman, Albert R. Broccoli
Novel/Story by	Ian Fleming
Screenplay	Tom Mankiewicz
Cinematography by	Ted Moore
Music by	George Martin
Main theme	Live and Let Die
Composer	Paul McCartney Linda McCartney
Performer	Paul McCartney & Wings
Distributed by	United Artists
Released	USA: June 27, 1973 UK: July 12, 1973
Running time	116 min.
Budget	$7,000,000
Worldwide gross	$161,800,000
Preceded by	Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
Followed by	The Man With The Golden Gun (1974)
IMDb profile

Live and Let Die, released in 1973, is the eighth spy film of the British James Bond series and the first to star Roger Moore as the fictional British secret agent James Bond. The film was produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman. In the early 1970s, Broccoli and Saltzman wanted to choose a new actor to portray the Bond character, to replace Sean Connery. After a substantial search, they selected Moore for the lead role.

The film is adapted from the novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. In the film, a drug lord known as Mr. Big plans to distribute two tonnes of heroin free so as to put rival drug barons out of business. Bond is soon trapped in a world of gangsters and voodoo as he fights to put a stop to Mr. Big's scheme.

Live and Let Die was released during the height of the blaxploitation era, and many blaxploitation archetypes and cliché are depicted such as afro hairstyles, derogatory racial epithets ("honky"), black gangsters, and "pimpmobiles." It departs from the former plots of the James Bond films about megalomania and instead focuses on drug trafficking, depicted primarily in blaxploitation films. Moreover, it is set in African American cultural centres such as Harlem, New Orleans, and the Caribbean Islands. It was also the first James Bond film featuring an African American Bond girl, Rosie Carver (played by Gloria Hendry who starred in several blaxploitation films, including Black Caesar and its sequel Hell Up in Harlem).

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Vehicles and gadgets 4 Production 4.1 Casting 4.2 Filming 4.3 Music 5 Release 6 References 7 External links

Three British MI6 agents, including one "on loan" to the American government, are killed under mysterious circumstances within 24 hours while monitoring the operations of Dr. Kananga, the dictator of a small Caribbean island called San Monique. James Bond is sent to New York City, where the first agent was killed and where Kananga is currently visiting the UN, to investigate. As soon as Bond arrives in New York City, his driver is killed while taking him to meet Felix Leiter of the CIA.

The driver's killer leads Bond to Mr. Big, a gangster who runs a chain of Fillet of Soul restaurants throughout the United States. It is during his confrontation with Mr. Big that Bond first meets Solitaire, a beautiful tarot expert who has the uncanny ability to see both the future and remote events in the present. In disguise as Mr. Big, Kananga demands that his henchman kill Bond, who manages to escape unscathed. Bond follows Kananga back to San Monique, where he subsequently meets Rosie Carver, a CIA double agent. Later he meets the boatman Quarrel, Jr. who takes him to the home of Solitaire. Using a stacked tarot deck of only cards showing "The Lovers", Bond seduces her. Solitaire, as a result of coupling with Bond, loses her foresight abilities and is forced into cooperating with Bond to bring down Kananga.

It transpires that Kananga is producing two metric tonnes of heroin and is protecting the poppy fields by exploiting locals' fear of voodoo and the occult. Through his alter ego, Mr. Big, Kananga plans to distribute the heroin free of charge on the market, which will drive all the other drug cartels out of business, increase the number of addicts, and give Kananga a monopoly of the heroin market. Kananga's men capture Bond and Solitaire at the New Orleans airport. In his plastic gangster mask, Bond does not know Mr. Big for real. So Kananga rips off the mask and asks a disgusted Bond if he slept with Solitaire.

Later, Kananga leaves Bond in the hands of Tee Hee Johnson, who takes Bond to the Farm, a community in the Louisiana backwoods filled with crocodiles. Kananga leaves Solitaire in the hands of Baron Samedi to be sacrificed. Bond is left to be food for the thousand crocodiles but he jumps on the back of the reptiles to get out of the pond. He sets the Farm on fire, killing some of Kananga's men. This leads to a long speedboat chase with local sheriff J.W. Pepper and the Louisiana state police trying to blockade the forces. Later, back in San Monique, Bond interrupts the voodoo sacrifice and plays Solitaire. Bond shoots at least three Baron Samedis. But the real one rises from a grave with a machete, leading to a fight. Samedi ends up being killed in a coffin full of poisonous snakes. Bond and Solitaire travel below ground into Kananga's lair. In the end, Kananga cuts Bond several times, drawing blood to bait some sharks. But Bond puts a gas pellet in Kananga's mouth, forcing the dictator to turn into a balloon and explode. After the job is done, Felix leaves Bond and Solitaire on a train out of the country.

Tee Hee makes a last attempt on Bond's life and is ejected from their train compartment at high speed. The central voodoo character, Baron Samedi, is seen perched on the front of the speeding train in which Bond and Solitaire are traveling, in his voodoo outfit and laughing mysteriously.

Main articles: List of James Bond henchmen in Live and Let Die and List of James Bond allies in Live and Let Die

• Roger Moore as James Bond: an MI6 Agent
• Yaphet Kotto as Dr. Kananga and Mr. Big: A corrupt Caribbean Prime Minister who doubles as a drug lord.
• M — Bernard Lee: Head of the "OO" section of MI6.
• Miss Moneypenny — Lois Maxwell: M's secretary.
• Felix Leiter — David Hedison: Bond's CIA colleague.
• Solitaire — Jane Seymour: Kananga's girlfriend and a seer.
• Sheriff J.W. Pepper — Clifton James: A local Louisiana sheriff.
• Tee Hee Johnson — Julius Harris: Kananga's primary henchman who has a pincer for hand.
• Baron Samedi — Geoffrey Holder: Another Kananga henchman who has ties to the Voodoo occult.
• Rosie Carver — Gloria Hendry: A traitorous young CIA agent in San Monique.
• Quarrel Jr. — Roy Stewart: Bond's ally in San Monique and son of Quarrel from Dr. No.
• Miss Caruso — Madeline Smith: An Italian agent whom Bond romances.
• Whisper — Earl Jolly Brown: Another Kananga henchman who only whispers.

Main articles: List of James Bond vehicles and List of James Bond gadgets

• Magnetic watch (Rolex Submariner)— Returned to Bond by Miss Moneypenny from Q Branch. When turned on, it generates a powerful magnetic field. In theory, Bond claims, it can even deflect a bullet. It also has a motorized, rotary saw built into the bezel.
• Bug sweeper — Bond uses a handheld device that can sweep a room for electronic microphones.
• Morse code transmitter - hidden inside a grooming brush.
• Although not an official gadget, Bond improvises a small flamethrower using a can of after-shave lotion and a lit cigar.
• Glastron Speedboats- used in the extensive Louisiana boat chase
• Bond has an espresso machine at his home. In 1973, such devices were uncommon for home use (much as Bond, in From Russia with Love, had a pager and car-phone years before mobile phones were within consumer reach). M: "Is that all it does?"
• Similarly, early on in the film, Bond is seen using a Pulsar P2 digital watch, which only entered distribution as recently as 1972. The P2 had an LED display which was activated by pushing a button on the side.

Coachbuilder Les Dunham provided a Chevrolet Corvette conversion (the Corvorado) which uses components from a 1971 or 1972 Cadillac Eldorado; this car was briefly seen in the blaxploitation film Superfly.^{[citation needed]} He kept the vehicle for several years as a show car. One of the vehicles 007 is pursuing in the film (as a passenger in a taxicab) is a Cadillac Fleetwood Pimpmobile, along with an Eldorado coupe.

Live and Let Die was the first Bond film scored by someone other than John Barry (George Martin), and it was the first time a fictional country was used as a setting (this would happen again in Licence to Kill). As well, it is the only film in which the Bond character commits a political assassination, since Kananga is the leader of a nation.

When Broccoli and Saltzman had to replace Sean Connery in the Bond role, they at first decided they would not hire another actor and instead hire someone from the Armed Services. Acting upon this EON Productions advertised in various army magazines with the line: "Are you 007?" This idea was later thrown out after Equity objected and demanded they stop.

Live and Let Die also marked the appearance of the first romantically-involved African American Bond girl, Rosie Carver (played by Gloria Hendry, an actress who starred in several blaxploitation films, including Black Caesar and its sequel Hell Up in Harlem). When the film was first released in South Africa, the love scenes between Gloria Hendry and Roger Moore were removed because interracial affairs were prohibited by the apartheid government.

The producers made a conscious effort to distance the new James Bond played by Roger Moore from the interpretation made famous by Sean Connery, perhaps an effort to avoid comparisons to George Lazenby. For example: Roger Moore's Bond never orders a vodka martini (neither shaken, nor stirred), he drinks bourbon whiskey; the mission briefing occurs in Bond's flat (not seen since Dr. No in '62); Roger Moore's James Bond does not wear a hat; he smokes cigars, not cigarettes; Bond does not use his traditional Walther PPK handgun, but a Smith & Wesson Model 29 revolver.

Solitaire's Tarot cards are backed with a repeating red pattern with '007' worked into it. The High Priestess card was deliberately designed to resemble Jane Seymour. The deck was released as the "James Bond 007 Tarot Deck" with blue backs and, along with an instruction book and layout mat as the "James Bond 007 Tarot Game." The deck was later reissued, with a different back pattern, as the "Tarot of the Witches Deck" (with a different backing). The deck faces were designed by Fergus Hall.

By 1972, Broccoli and Saltzman had auditioned or considered a number of actors for the role, most notably Julian Glover (later the villain in the 1981 Bond film For Your Eyes Only), John Gavin, Jeremy Brett, and frontrunner Michael Billington, who ultimately lost the role to Roger Moore. Thereafter Billington was always a constant frontrunner to replace Moore if Moore did not return to the role, notably for Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, and Octopussy; he also appeared in the 1977 film, The Spy Who Loved Me as a villain who is killed in the pre-title sequence.

Moore had previously been considered for the role of Bond after You Only Live Twice, but was quickly dismissed due to his popularity as Simon Templar in the television series The Saint. There are also some reports that Moore was considered in 1962 for Dr. No, however, these are seen as apocryphal given that most of the evidences used to support these reports are false or misleading.

Live and Let Die is the first of two films featuring Louisiana Sheriff J.W. Pepper portrayed by Clifton James, who later reprised the role in The Man with the Golden Gun. It is also the first of two films featuring David Hedison as Felix Leiter, who later reprised the role in Licence to Kill; no other actor has played Leiter more than once.

Madeline Smith, who played the beautiful young Italian agent Miss Caruso who is in bed with Bond in the film's opening, was recommended for the part by Roger Moore after working with her on TV. Smith said that Moore was extremely polite to work with, but she felt very uncomfortable being clad in only blue bikini panties since Moore's wife was on the set overseeing the scene.

Director Guy Hamilton liked the running over crocodile stunt so much he named the villain after the stuntman who performed it, Ross Kananga, the owner of the Jamaican crocodile farm where the scene was filmed. In one take of the stunt, the last crocodile snapped at Kananga's heel, tearing his trousers. This is detailed on the Special Edition DVD, complete with slow-motion replay. The filmmakers discovered the farm while scouting for locations when they saw a sign warning that "TRESPASSERS WILL BE EATEN." This sign is also seen in the film.

For the alligator farm scene, Moore suggested that he wear alligator-skin shoes. Bond's boat in the speedboat jump scene over the bayou unintentionally set a Guinness World Record at the time, and a villain's boat that made the jump later unintentionally destroyed Sheriff Pepper's patrol car. Due to Clifton James's spontaneous character acting in that scene, it was kept.

Bond evades several police officers when commandeering a double-decker bus — two Chevrolet Novas were seen as police vehicles. Although the Chevrolet vehicles were on loan from GM, this was a few years before the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department experimented with a similar Nova for police duty to which law enforcement agencies ordered them in bulk.^{[citation needed]}

The film was shot primarily at Pinewood Studios, Jamaica , New Orleans and New York City.

Main article: Live and Let Die (soundtrack)

Taking a temporary hiatus from scoring Bond films, John Barry passed the baton over to George Martin.

For the theme song, Martin teamed with former-Beatle Paul McCartney, who had previously been considered for Diamonds Are Forever in 1971. This was the first time the pair worked together since Abbey Road in 1969. The theme was written by Paul and his wife Linda McCartney and performed by Paul and his group, Wings. The tune, the first 'true' rock and roll song used to open a Bond film, was a major success in the U.S. (#2 for three weeks) and the UK (#9), Paul's best showings in over a year. For many years "Live and Let Die" was a highlight of his live shows, complete with fireworks and lasers and in 2005, it was performed live by McCartney during the halftime show at Super Bowl XXXIX. In 1991 the song was covered by the rock band Guns N' Roses.

Live and Let Die was released on June 27, 1973.^[1]

Year	Result	Award	Recipients
1974	Nominated	Academy Award for Best Original Song	Paul & Linda McCartney
1974	Nominated	Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture	Paul & Linda McCartney
1975	Won	Evening Standard Best Picture	Guy Hamilton

• Live and Let Die at the Internet Movie Database
• Live and Let Die at Rotten Tomatoes
• Live and Let Die at Box Office Mojo
• MGM Official Site: Live and Let Die
• Blaxploitation and Live and Let Die - from the article Cleopatra Jones, 007: Blaxploitation, James Bond, and Reciprocal Co-optation

v • d • e The James Bond Films

"Official" (EON Productions) films Dr. No • From Russia with Love • Goldfinger • Thunderball • You Only Live Twice • On Her Majesty's Secret Service • Diamonds Are Forever • Live and Let Die • The Man with the Golden Gun • The Spy Who Loved Me • Moonraker • For Your Eyes Only • Octopussy • A View to a Kill • The Living Daylights • Licence to Kill • GoldenEye • Tomorrow Never Dies • The World Is Not Enough • Die Another Day • Casino Royale • Bond 22 Non-EON films Casino Royale (1954 TV) • Casino Royale (1967 satire) • Never Say Never Again