Never send a Brit to do a Scotsman’s job.Roger Moore takes over as James Bond in the eighth installment of the 007 franchise. Where Sean Connery was rugged and coarse, Roger Moore creates a more effeminate and campy Bond. Connery was a man’s man, while Moore introduces us to Bond the ladies man (which would largely be parodied in Austin Powers). Moore is a pretty boy (although he was 46 when the film was released) who, in my opinion, doesn’t look like he’s ever killed a man in his life.
The plot of the film seems more like blaxploitation cinema than a Bond flick but it remains to be true that even a bad Bond film is enjoyable on some level. Several MI6 agents and an American agent are found dead in the United States after investigating potential ties between a Caribbean dictator and a massive drug ring. Bond heads to the deep south, where he woos himself some brown sugar and information about the dictator’s nefarious plot to turn half the United States population into heroin addicts. Add to that a very harsh stereotype of southern whites and some slapstick comedy that does not belong anywhere near a James Bond film and you get Live and Let Die.
It’s a thin and quite poor way for Moore to break out of the gate. Granted, at this time the state of affairs in the world was not a happy one, what with Vietnam dragging many spirits down. Perhaps Moore’s incarnation of Bond was meant to provide an escapist delight for those who were down-trodden and looking to check reality at the door of the theater. This is very likely, but it’s simply not a context I can slip into.
Great theme song (perhaps the best of them all), lousy film.
RATING: 2.5 out of 5
