Bond Night yells Live and Let Die to kick off the Roger Moore era with voodoo cults, hungry crocodiles, rubber snakes and racist sheriff J.W. Pepper!
By Michael O’Connor // Welcome to Bond Night! This month we’re sacrificing virgins to the Roger Moore James Bond filmography with the introduction of Live and Let Die (1973). Director Guy Hamilton’s third Bond film after the classic Goldfinger and the campy romp Diamonds Are Forever introduces a brand new Bond and a whole new era for the debonair super-spy. Join us as we scour the swamps for the perfect Bond Night experience by pairing the film with a meal of Cajun cuisine and a couple highballs of the classic Sazerac cocktail. Just watch out for rubber snakes!
HISTORY
Producers Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman must have been freaking out. Here they had one of the most lucrative franchises of all time and they couldn’t find an actor to play James Bond! Sean Connery had declared himself their hated enemy… even after bribing him with £1.25 million to return for Diamonds Are Forever. As for male model George Lazenby, he had dumped them after just one date, the underperforming (but also underrated) On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
After scouring the universe for possible Bonds and even considering American Clint Eastwood, they finally settled on Englishman Roger Moore. He had been an option in the back of their heads since the very beginning of the franchise. But now they were ready to go all the way and commit to a multiple picture deal.
So what did they see in Moore? He certainly wasn’t a tough guy like Connery or Lazenby, and he wasn’t a young man either. In fact, he was older than Connery and by the time he left the role, he would be the oldest actor to play the character. To some Bond fans, casting Moore was a terrible mistake and his run was a blight on the franchise.
But let’s consider the times and the mindset of the producers. They recognized in Moore the suave, easy charm they were seeking and a sense of comic timing that was integral to a series that wasn’t taking itself so seriously anymore. And they were also thinking practically. If they were going to work with someone for six or seven films, they didn’t want to repeat the mistakes of the past. Unlike Connery, Moore was a close personal friend of theirs; and unlike Lazenby, he was a consummate professional with an established track record as an actor.
The Bond of the 70s needed to be a ladies man who could exude the worldly, aristocratic airs of a cultured professional, but wouldn’t come off as arrogant, snobbish, or old fashioned. Fortunately, this was a balance Moore could pull off admirably. There was something surprisingly warm and goodnatured about his portrayal of this supposed cold-blooded assassin.
While Connery had been a gorilla in a monkey suit, hiding the killer instinct beneath the thin veneer of civility, Moore took the opposite approach. His Bond was a gentleman first and reluctant killer second. Urbane and intelligent, he was heroic but not without his vices, which he would indulge with mischievous pleasure. Armed with a sardonic, dry sense of humor and an impish mastery of the double entendre, he achieved wonders with a carefully placed eyebrow and a feigned schoolboy’s innocence. In other words, Roger Moore was having a good time, and if you shared his sense of humor, you probably were too.
In some ways, Roger Moore was a risky choice, but he might also have been the franchise’s best hope for survival. James Bond had to change if he was to stay relevant a full decade after his debut in Dr. No, and you can see that sentiment expressed in just about every facet of Live and Let Die’s production.
In six of the seven preceding films, James Bond fought Blofeld and his SPECTRE agents, staving off plots to overthrow the world. But here, writer Tom Mankiewicz eschews super-weapons and ultimatum bribes in favor of a drug dealer named Mr. Big who uses superstition to keep his gangster army in line. The voodoo flavor and mysticism imbue this entry with a creepy, supernatural element that is unlike any other Bond film. And the grisly tactics of Mr. Big and his associates help to ground the plentiful absurdities and outrageous humor and raise the personal stakes between the principal characters.
That balance of grounded and grisly and heightened and fanciful is aided mightily by Beatles producer George Martin’s raucous and daring score. While the safe bet would have been to bring back Bond soundtrack vet John Barry for another go, Martin’s work here announces that the Bond series will never be the same. It’s imbued with attitude, funk, and emotion and that’s before you even mention Paul McCartney’s incredible title track. By the time you get finished singing along, you’ll not only have heard the greatest Bond title track but also one of the best rock songs of its era.
Finally, it’s worth pointing out that despite the stripped down, grittier style of cinematography on display here, this film pulls the stops out for its big action sequences. The boat chase, in particular, is the most daring and audacious action scene of the franchise up to this point. It would mark the first in a long slew of jaw-dropping stunts by some courageous people behind the scenes and become a staple element of the franchise.
Stir all that together into a voodoo stew and it’s a cinch to see Live and Let Die is hearty with new flavors. But do these new flavors satiate or nauseate? Let’s settle our appetites and wet our whistles before we return for the verdict.
DINE
If you’re going to watch a film set in New Orleans and the surrounding bayou, you’ve got all the excuse you need to load up on some savory and spicy Cajun cuisine. A blend of French, African-American, and old Southern cooking sensibilities, these dishes are often hearty and dense with rice and gravy, shrimp, crawfish, and sausages and plenty of spice.
Your best bet for the total Bond Night experience is to track down a local Cajun restaurant that specializes in jambalaya and gumbo. They’re perfect dishes for sharing, the gumbo being more of a rich, gravy-like stew and the jambalaya a spicy rice dish. Depending on the recipe, there are a variety of different kinds of meats and vegetables that will accompany them, but you should aim for a variety if you can. Chicken and sausage in the jambalaya for instance, and shrimp and okra in the gumbo.
If you’re one of the unfortunate folks who doesn’t have a local Cajun restaurant in your vicinity, soul food or any alternative American Southern style cuisine is a legitimate backup option.
DRINK
Sitting down at his table at the New Orleans Fillet of Soul club, James Bond is about to order a bourbon and ice before Felix Leiter interjects. “Two Sazeracs,” he corrects 007, before adding to James, “Where’s your sense of adventure? This is New Orleans. Relax!”
The Sazerac is essentially a unique spin on the Old Fashioned, a cocktail that was discussed during last Bond Night’s Diamonds Are Forever coverage. Spicy, dry, and herbal, this is a cocktail for adults who enjoy the taste of a nice spirit and believe a cocktail can be more than a spiked fruit smoothie. It’s got just enough edge to keep you sipping rather than guzzling, and it’s complex enough to surprise your tastebuds every time they come into contact.
Like the Old Fashioned, this cocktail uses American Whiskey, but Rye instead of Bourbon. And instead of an orange, you’ll use a lemon. And instead of Angostura bitters, you’ll use Peychaud’s. Noticing a pattern?
There’s just one wild card in the tarot deck if you’re accustomed to making Old Fashioneds: the absinthe rinse. It’s a crucial element, but it can be an expensive one with most bottles running over $50. A fine substitute is Herbsaint, which isn’t quite absinthe, but will do the trick. Plus, bonus points: it was originally created in New Orleans.
As for the Rye Whiskey, I recommend James E Pepper’s 1776. I like to imagine the filmmakers got the name of everyone’s favorite racist sheriff from this spirit. It’s fiery and outrageous and you’re going to want to quiet it down with the rest of our Sazerac ingredients. If you can’t find James Pepper around, the ubiquitous and excellent Bulleit Rye or the aptly named Sazerac Rye are excellent substitutes.
(Editor’s note: these are excellent ryes. Rittenhouse also makes a great spirit, and surprisingly enough, Jim Beam’s offering is quite palatable at a significant discount. -JT)
Sazerac
- 2 oz. James E Pepper 1776 Rye Whiskey
- 1 teaspoon simple syrup or 1 sugar cube muddled and dissolved
- 3-4 dashes of Peychaud’s bitters
- Herbsaint or Absinthe rinse
- Thick slice of lemon peel
Directions
Coat the inside of the glass with a little absinthe (or Herbsaint). The best way to do this is to fill a small spray bottle or atomizer with absinthe and spray the inside of the glass three times. Otherwise, pour a very small amount into your glass and carefully roll it along the walls of the glass, then discard.
Add your bitters and simple syrup or sugar cube. If you’re using a sugar cube, be sure to muddle and dissolve it completely into the bitters before adding your rye whiskey. Finally, cut a thick slice of lemon peel, twist it over the drink, rub it along the rim of the glass, and drop it in.
INTERMISSION
Pause the film at 00:51:06 or right after Bond reveals a hand of The Lovers cards.
Then fix up another round of Sazeracs, quoting your favorite J.W. Pepper lines as you go. I recommend “What are you, some kind of doomsday machine, boy?” or “We got a swamp full of Black Russians drivin’ boats to beat the band down here!” No one will know what the hell you’re going on about and will probably suggest you lay off having another Sazerac. But don’t worry, they’ll figure it out in the second half of the film and their lives will never be the same again.
Live and Let Die – VERDICT
The first time I screened Live and Let Die for Bond Night, I was concerned with how my friends were going to react to it. Despite being a huge fan of the original Ian Fleming novels and Sean Connery’s more sadistic, brutal portrayal of the character, I happen to enjoy Roger Moore’s alternative take on James Bond. But I realize that among my fellow Bondians, I’m fairly unique in that open-mindedness. I was curious how an audience discovering James Bond for the first time would feel about the series’ change in direction and leading man.
I needn’t have worried. One of my friends was already fully onboard the Moore train, proclaiming that R.M. was his favorite James Bond yet. The others may have been on the fence, but no one was dreading the next six films in the Moore era. 
As for the film itself, I had my reservations about how the racial undertones would play to my group. I certainly wouldn’t call this film racist and would even argue that it takes pains to show the absurdity of racist attitudes and behavior. But I’m also aware that this movie is nowhere near politically correct or culturally sensitive. Pitting a heroic white guy against an army of jive-talking black gangsters is bound to raise eyebrows.
Ultimately, we decided that the film continued the dubious reputation of Bond films that are still more sexist than racist. I don’t know why that brought me a sense of relief except perhaps that the series has been sexist from the beginning and we were all acclimated and desensitized to it by now.
That said, there is a moment in the film that happens just before intermission that made us all pause. One of my friends brilliantly dubbed it the “Fate Rape” scene. Bond tricks Solitaire into sleeping with him by literally stacking the deck in his favor. In the real world, it would be ridiculous to call this rape; but in a world that has a character like Solitaire with her steadfast belief in the reality of her forecasting powers, it at least toes the line of non-consensual behavior.
In spite of these morally gray storytelling decisions or perhaps because of them, my audience was captivated by Live and Let Die. We ruminated over heavy topics such as these in between lighter hearted callouts to favorite scenes like Bond running across the backs of real, live crocodiles or constantly getting bamboozled by trap doors and revolving booths in Mr. Big’s clubs. We also debated whether magic really existed in the world of this film or if it was entirely parlor tricks and illusions.
And then, of course, there was J.W. Pepper, the racist sheriff who pursues Bond during the epic boat chase through the Louisiana swamps. With a knack for blurting out the most ignorant, awful things anyone has ever heard and making facial expressions we weren’t even aware were possible, the blustery, bigoted Pepper stole the show. It’s one hell of a performance on the part of actor Clifton James and instantly quotable. At one point after the film ended, one friend wanted to know if any fan-fiction existed pitting Sheriff J.W. Pepper against Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd from Diamonds Are Forever. I said I doubted it and encouraged him to immediately remedy that failure on the part of the fandom.
Personally, I’ll admit to an unhealthy affinity for Live and Let Die. That’s partly because I think it’s a legitimately strong film and partly because it’s outrageous and ridiculous in all the ways that tickle my funny bone. The film never fails to amuse me, whether it’s Roger Moore’s delivery of a line like “Butterhook” or the obviously fake rubber snakes littered throughout. But most of all, it takes chances with the formula rather than deciding to play it safe. Live and Let Die is just a weird, daring outlier from the rest of the series, and that’s admirable in a franchise that’s twenty-four movies long with plenty of forgettable entries.
Sure, it may be a blatant Blaxploitation ripoff, but so what? James Bond plus Blaxploitation is my peanut butter and jelly. Or in Bond terms, my martini and cocktail shaker.
RANK
I know I’m going to catch some outraged stares, but I’m going to say it anyway. I think Live and Let Die is a slightly better James Bond film than Dr. No.
Blasphemous? Perhaps. But Live and Let Die was the Dr. No of its era, introducing a James Bond that would be around just as long as Connery and redefining the franchise for another generation of fans. Sporting a sharp new actor in the role, a wild beast of a script, and a killer score, Live and Let Die is a unique and well-crafted entry. Plus, it’s a hell of a lot of fun and guaranteed to thoroughly entertain and thrill your Bond Night crew.
If you still think I’m crazy, surely we can agree to let bygones be bygones. Or should I say, live and let… live?
- Goldfinger
- From Russia With Love
- On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
- Live and Let Die
- Dr. No
- Thunderball
- Diamonds Are Forever
- You Only Live Twice
Bond Night Will Return with The Man With The Golden Gun…
About Bond Night
Bond Night is a tradition started by myself, a bonafide Bondian, and friends whose exposure to the James Bond film franchise was limited. One film a month is paired with a region-appropriate cuisine and cocktail, and spirited discourse about each film’s merits and shortcomings. The goal of this column is to translate that experience here, walking newbies and Bond-experts alike through fifty years of the British superspy’s cinematic history (from Dr. No through today) and declassifying all the secret intel necessary for you to host your own Bond Night with friends and family.