Live and Let Die – A Whole New Bond Era

As any – true – Bond fan knows, Sean Connery is the best James Bond.  I guess that means I’m not a ‘true’ fan, as Roger Moore was always my favourite agent with a Walter PPK.  But, before you hate me for that, I did grow up in the seventies and eighties with fond memories of watching Moore in the cinema and on TV on Sunday afternoons.  To me he was Bond and no one else was.  It was only later in life when I properly watched Sean Connery’s Bond and realised just how different Moore’s take on the superspy really was.

Now, both are great, but ‘Live and Let Die’ is Moore’s first outing and it was immediately a lighter affair.  There is violence here and there, but it almost always comes from the baddies.  Connery was not beyond giving a woman a punch in the face here and there if he thought the situation warranted it, whereas Moore is a more gentle and dignified Government killer.

The plot centres on more of a ‘simple’ Bond villain, i.e. Yaphet Kotto’s 'Kananga' and his attempts at bringing in drugs to the USA.  This feels almost believable when compared to Spectre’s previous exploits involving world domination and secret volcano bases.  However, what the plot makes up for in believability, it soon goes into typical Bond ‘over-the-topness’ – we have plenty of crazy attempts on Bond’s life, plus killer scarecrows, human sacrifices and a villain who just won’t die – no, seriously.  But, it could be cynically said that if you’ve seen one Bond film then you’ve seen them all – generally expect the chases, the ‘muted’ fist fights of yesterday (before slow-mo and bullet time became the norm!) and of course beautiful girls falling at our hero’s feet.  It’s all there.  It’s just now wrapped up in a decidedly campy package that never really would have worked with Connery’s wry smile.

Moore had a lot to live up to by stepping into a role made so famous by another actor and he did that by completely changing how he played the role.  Here, self-knowing humour is used almost as much as his PPK.  There’s often a division between Connery and Moore fans.  Many prefer the darker, more serious tone of Connery, however, if you’re looking for a decent little cheeky romp and a beautifully over the top performance by comedy relief Clifton James as Sheriff Pepper then this will certainly entertain.  And it has added marks for utilising about the most – memorable – henchmen in one film – you have Whisper (and man who only speaks in whispers), a guy with a claw for a hand, a man who can’t be killed, a man who sacrifices people with snakes and, as mentioned, a guy you can shoot in the head and he just comes back at the end.  Sorry, maybe I should have put a ‘spoiler’ warning there.  Anyway, it’s great fun for a new Bond era.

8/10 The Force is definitely strong with this one