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Live and Let Die
1973 · Film · 121 min
Part of James Bond Collection
Directed by Guy Hamilton
James Bond must investigate a mysterious murder case of a British agent in New Orleans. Soon he finds himself up against a gangster boss named Mr. Big.
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9 comments on Hacker News
Moreover, there are almost zero examples of Eon films where the Eon ideas were good.
The films are pretty straight-ahead adaptations of Fleming novels through _Live and Let Die_. After that, they were out of books they had rights to, and the films take a serious plunge in terms of actual quality. For my money, the only genuinely watchable non-adaptation example after LALD is _Goldeneye_.
I mean, note the huge jump in quality when Craig came on when they finally DID have a Fleming novel they could work from again, right?
My take after reading those is that the films are generally better works, but the other thing that's worth remembering is that Eon was out of the business of "adapting" Fleming novels after _Live and Let Die_. The follow-up (_The Man With The Golden Gun_) shares a title with a novel, but little else, and after that the films are mostly just a pastiche of whatever's-hot-in-Hollywood (e.g., _Moonraker_ having a space battle) and story elements pulled from lesser Fleming works and short stories.
The exception obviously is the _Casino Royale_ with Daniel Craig, which most fans view as one of the best Bond films. I've forgotten the specifics, but that book was unavailable to Eon for decades due to some copyright and licensing shenanigans.
Sadly, the reader probably figures out "Moonraker" within a few chapters.
In Fleming's "Goldfinger", Goldfinger is actually trying to steal the gold from Fort Knox. It was much more realistic to have him instead trying to destroy the gold to increase scarcity.
Say what you want about the film "Live and Let Die" but reading Fleming trying to write "jive" was just embarrassing.
It was not product placement as we think of it today, i.e. paid product placement; sometimes filmmakers use products that the character would use without any other motivation, in order to add depth to the character. (Aston Martin didn't pay them, either.)
In 1962, pretty much the only watch that someone in Bond's role would have worn was a Rolex -- the whole idea of a waterproof dive watch was pretty novel at the time, since Rolex invented the idea in the 50s, and was already associated with intrepid adventurous types after Hillary wore one on Everest (again, because pretty much nothing else was up to the task).
I believe the Bond wore it Dr No on a NATO (nylon) strap, not leather; it's definitely a NATO in some of the later films, but shifts to the iconic bracelet eventually (e.g., certainly by the time Roger Moore wore one with an absurd magnet and unbelievable spinning saw in Live and Let Die a decade later).
Anyway, that site isn't a great reference. It's got some things wrong. The traditional story about the watch in that film is that they got to the beach scene without a watch for Connery, or without a proper one, and the scene was shot with Cubby Broccoli's watch to get at least the right brand in the shot. That story has been printed and repeated a shitload of times, but all the principals are long dead so I have no idea if it's been verified properly in recent times. (In Googling for references for this reply, I saw a new version of the story, which is that the watch was Connery's own; I've never read that before.)
There is quite a lot of non-consensual kissing in those films.
I recently watched "Live and let Die", and indeed it is in there. You do not have to look far. It is a common Bond method of seduction.
OT a little, but I learned today that the scene from Live and Let Die where Bond runs across the back of a bunch of crocs wasn't faked. As a child I'd always been told that the stuff you see in movies is not real, but it turns out that sometimes it is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDeUzB12ln8
"The Spy Who Loved Me" was the shortest of Fleming's works that I read. But given that, I agree with the author of the article that many of the Bond books had serious failings.
I read "Live and Let Die" and was embarrassed for Fleming for his attempt to channel Joel Chandler Harris. A case where the film bettered the book.
"Goldfinger" has the villain actually trying to steal the gold from Fort Knox. Another case where it was better in the film.
"Diamonds Are Forever" and "Casino Royale" are the books I can say I liked the most.
I know if walmart moved into a new city and started giving away hardware for free, then waited until all the local hardware stores had been shut down for 10 months, and then jacked up their prices to 100 times what they used to be before going free, that'd be pretty illegal.
This is what drug dealers do.
It was also the plot of the James Bond film Live and Let Die.
Also, digital watches existed in 1975. In fact, one of those ten Bond films you mention (Live and Let Die, 1973) featured Bond wearing a digital watch (it was a cool gadget).