ReBONDing: The Moore Years, Pt. 3
Reevaluating the Roger Moore Era (1973 - 1985)
When we last left James Bond, he didn't seem to age very well with time nor space. Let's see how he fairs with his first two entries instead...
LIVE AND LET DIE (1973)
Directed by Guy Hamilton
Written by Tom Mankiewicz, Ian Fleming (novel)
Running Time: 2 hours, 1 minute
Original Verdict:
After Connery turned down the then astronomical sum of $5.5 million to return as Bond, Roger Moore then enters the scene. Weird voo-doo surrounds the story-line as well as introduces to the rest of the world the undeniably gorgeous Jane Seymour as Solitaire, one of my Top 5 Bond Girls. Yaphet Kotto, who portrays Mr. Big / Kananga, stars as one of my favorite Bond villains as well as Baron Samedi (Geoffrey Holder) as one of the better henchmen of the Bond Franchise. Includes one of the best James Bond songs performed by Paul McCartney.
Rating: 4 out of 5.
I've been hard pressed to recall the last time I actually sat down and watched any James Bond movie other than the recent rebooted ones starring Daniel Craig. My wife's opinion of any James Bond movie can pretty much be summed with one sentence: "If it's not starring Daniel Craig, I'm not having any of it." So, whenever I put any of these older films on in the living room, the outcome is two-fold: I'm transported back in time while simultaneously transporting my wife to the other side of the house for the next two hours.
THE REEVALUATION
While it may have happened earlier in the series, Live and Let Die feels like the first Bond film that was heavily influenced by current trends and other cultural phenomenon, rather than being the trendsetter it was in the previous decade. The most obvious influence was the blaxploitation genre (i.e., Shaft, Superfly), but Live and Let Die also has elements of The French Connection and even Dirty Harry, only not as heavy.
The Cold Open: A murder at the United Nations, a murder in New Orleans, Louisiana, and a murder in the Caribbean Islands (all British MI6 agents that were currently on assignment). And while this opening does create intrigue, there is absolutely zero James Bond in this cold open. Disappointed! While Live and Let Die is one of Moore's stronger films from his time in the driver's seat, it has one of the weakest pre-credit sequences of the entire franchise the film. We're not starting off on the right foot here, people!
The Story: So, Mr. Big (aka Kananga) wants to flood the U.S. with two tons of free heroine to put his current competition out of business, claiming this bold move will "double the amount of addicts" in the country. Not entirely sure if this is the most sound business plan, but I'm "hooked." Illegal narcotics were quickly becoming a major talking point in the U.S. by the early 1970s, so why not bring James Bond into the mix. Considering what the original novel was about, I guess drugs were a better plot point than smuggling pirate gold into Soviet Russia. Live and Let Die definitely falls into the category of "loose adaptation."
The Villain: Kananga \ Mr. Big - One in the same. Yaphet Kotto gives one of my favorite villain performances of the entire franchise. He's intelligent. He has charisma. And he's the perfect match for Moore's first assignment. Even when Bond torches his poppy fields, he just laughs it off and invites Bond and Solitaire in for a glass of champagne instead. Classy. While I'm not sure if he's my favorite Bond villain -- but only because I haven't given it enough thought at this time -- I do believe he'd end up making the Top 5.
The Heavy: All of Mr. Big's bidding is divided by three henchman: Tee Hee (main henchman), Baron Samedi (Voodoo "spirit" more known for being the "Uncola nuts" 7-Up guy), and Whisper. I love Tee Hee in this film. He's menacing but also oddly polite. While all three henchmen here do their fair share of work, they pale in comparison to Mr. Big's expansive crime syndicate, who seems to have every single African American under his employ throughout then entire Eastern seaboard and reaching as far south as Louisiana. Impressive to say the least.
The Girls: Oh Solitaire... you're still one of my favorite Bond girls. She's enchanting. She's mysterious. And she's a horrible fortune teller. Jane Seymour's performance is subtle and delicate. She fits rather snugly into the "damsel in distress" role, even if her character seems too naive.
The Gadgets: A magnetic wrist watch (with hidden saw blade) and a shark gun with exploding bullets. Not the best. Not the worst. However, when listening to Tom Mankiewicz on the Live and Let Die commentary track, I found it rather humorous that he expressed how important it was as a screenwriter to first introduce a Bond gadget early on in the film, so as the audience knows what to expect later during a climatic scene. Unfortunately he failed to follow his own formula when he introduced the exploding bullets in the third act; a gadget that would go down in history to produce the most ridiculous death of a Bond villain. Ever.
What Doesn't Work? Kananga's death is outrageous and completely ridiculous. The Boat Chase sequence runs out of gas two-thirds of the way through with an anti-climatic finish. George Martin's score (which was the first Bond film not to feature John Barry) is adequate at best, but seems to echo too much of what Lalo Schifrin was doing during the same time period, onlybetter. (I guess that's what you get when you pay for Paul McCartney: great song, mediocre score.) And with a film that is filled to the gills with unfortunate and horribly portrayed stereotypes, the worst out of all of these is Sheriff J.W. Pepper. When I was younger, Sheriff Pepper was a riot. Watching him now is like fingernails on a chalkboard.
Unfortunately, Live and Let Die is anything but structurally sound. Some characters are crammed into one scene (M and Miss Moneypenny visiting Bond's apartment in the middle of the night to send him out on assignment) while others are missing entirely (Q). All of this to quickly move James to New York City, where he's then promptly shipped off to the Caribbean because Bond's "whitest guy in Harlem" disguise sticks out like a sore thumb. Everything in this film feels rushed, with very little character development. (But then again, what did I really expect from a James Bond film?)
Though the film is peppered with disappointing elements -- Rosie the double-agent, the goofball airplane chase, and the blatant racism (which is mild in comparison to the book, mind you) -- Live and Let Die is still a decent entry into the James Bond lexicon. It was fun revisiting this film, seeing what these group of filmmakers were trying to accomplish with a new James Bond. I'm just glad I have the ability to fast-forward when I watch this film again.
Reevaluation Score: 3.5 out of 5.
THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN (1974)
Directed by Guy Hamilton
Written by Richard Maibaum and Tom Mankiewicz
Ian Fleming (novel)
Running Time: 2 hours, 5 minutes
Original Verdict:
One of the corniest of the entire Bond Franchise. Christopher Lee as Scaramanga, his henchman, Nick Nack (Herve Villechaize, also known as Tattoo from Fantasy Island) are anything but to be taken seriously.
Rating: 2 out of 5.
THE REEVALUATION
The Man with the Golden Gun feels as if it were filmed back-to-back with Live and Let Die. While I know this is not the case -- the film was actually just rushed into production due to the popularity of Live and Let Die -- it was released less eighteen months later; the first time (and last) to be achieved since the Sean Connery era. Regardless of the facts at hand, these two films were very much cut from the same cloth. Released during the apex of the New Hollywood system, these Bond films became products of their own environment; heavily influenced by B movie sub-genres, strongly rooted in its own cheesy cornball antics all while oddly thumbing its nose at the serious films in the theater next door.
The Cold Open: World-renowned assassin Francisco Scaramanga is killing time by disposing of hired hit men in his "mad funhouse" (conveniently nestled inside his private lair). In the process, the audience is provided with yet another weak opening. The absence of James Bond for the second time only hinders this lukewarm and unimpressive pre-credit sequence.
The Story: Capitalizing on the popularity of Fleming's last Bond novel (published posthumously, I might also add) and the constant threat of a global energy crisis that plagued the 1970s, the producers mashed these two predominant story elements together with an end result of minimal success. While the story is supposed to be more personal -- Bond's life is threatened when Scaramanaga sends a gold bullet to MI6 with his name on it -- the overall story of locating the "Solar Agitator" that would make fossil fuels obsolete mostly fizzles.
The Villain: Most purists consider Francisco Scaramanga as Bond's equal. A KGB-trained killer and world-renowned assassin, Scaramanga collects a million dollars a hit. Portrayed by the grandfatherly (and yet still slightly creepy) Christopher Lee, Scaramanga is definitely the showoff in this film. He has a golden gun that's assembled from a fountain pen, lighter, and cigarette case. That is bad ass! However, it's really hard to take him seriously once he slips on the blue tracksuit and slides down the trick stairs to make his kill.
The Heavy: Hervé Villechaize as Nick Nack. I was not a huge supporter of Nick Nack when I first saw this film. I thought he was silly, never threatening. He was the first henchman that made me scratch my head in confusion. Or maybe it was because I didn't like seeing Tattoo as a bad guy. Upon my re-watch of The Man with the Golden Gun, my opinion of Nick Nack changed. We're in a new era of Bond, where not all henchmen are to be taken seriously, or even seen as a viable threat to Bond. Nick Nack fills that role perfectly as comic relief. And he also becomes the first henchman not to have his life ended at the hands of Bond (which will become a trend of sorts throughout the remainder of this decade).
The Girls: Mary Goodnight is as useful as a pair of bicycle peddles on a wheelchair. While fantastic to look at, Brit Ekland's performance leaves much to be desired. One wonders if it was her own fault or the limitations of her character in the script. We're also introduced to Maud Adams for the first time; her second appearance has a much happier ending. She portrays Adrea Anders, Scaramanga's mistress who is just trying to get out of a terrible situation. Her performance is much more up to par to the others in the film, that is, until Scaramanga disposes of her.
The Gadgets: A third nipple. Seriously, that's it! If you want to count Scaramanga's golden gun a gadget, you can but I would advise against it. The gun is not used by Bond to help him get out of a precarious situation, so in my world it doesn't count.
What Doesn't Work? J.W. Pepper, Part 2. This time vacationing in Thailand (honestly, Graceland seems more speed). The funhouse maze with mirrors. Agent Goodnight. Scaramanga's blue tracksuit. An AMC dealership located in the Far East. And lastly, the slide whistle bridge jump barrel roll. They take one the most amazing car stunts ever filmed and then they crap all over it; completely deflating the entire situation. It was the first recognizable cringe-worthy Bond moment. Sadly, it wouldn't be the last.
Rather than setting the standard, Moore's second film is again drowning in B movie influences. It's Enter the Dragon meets Westworld, mixed with more high-speed chase antics (with a flying car, I might add), along with another heaping helping of the always colorful racist, Sheriff J.W. Pepper.
Regrettably, The Man with the Golden Gun is still one of my least favorite Bond films. It's clunky, there's no real threat, no real suspense, and anything that is deemed important feels like an afterthought compared to the elegant lifestyle of Francisco Scaramanga. Rather than a battle of wits (which had been Mankiewicz's original idea), Bond is resorted to being conveniently dropped into precarious situations -- including a Kung Fu dojo -- that lead him to both Scaramanga and back to his original mission. The final act of the film results in an anti-climatic ending, the final box office numbers pale in comparison to previous films, and this was the last film that producers Harry Saltzman and Albert "Cubby" Broccoli work on together before they part ways.
Everything that was new and fresh about this new James Bond was beginning to show its wear and tear. Not that there wasn't anything salvageable in this film. It produced one of my favorite Roger Moore Bond moments, where her interrogates the ammunition manufacturer in Beirut. Moore is spot on in that scene, where he perfectly balances his humor along with his ability to quite threatening. Moreover, John Barry and his brilliant music is back. The film is lifted considerably with his score, peppering his heavy brass arrangements throughout the picture. The Man with the Golden Gun has great moments, but those moments don't add up to a great film.
Reevaluation Score: 2.5 out of 5.
James Bond will return...
When we last left James Bond, he didn't seem to age very well with time nor space. Let's see how he fairs with his first two entries instead...
LIVE AND LET DIE (1973)
Directed by Guy Hamilton
Written by Tom Mankiewicz, Ian Fleming (novel)
Running Time: 2 hours, 1 minute
Original Verdict:
After Connery turned down the then astronomical sum of $5.5 million to return as Bond, Roger Moore then enters the scene. Weird voo-doo surrounds the story-line as well as introduces to the rest of the world the undeniably gorgeous Jane Seymour as Solitaire, one of my Top 5 Bond Girls. Yaphet Kotto, who portrays Mr. Big / Kananga, stars as one of my favorite Bond villains as well as Baron Samedi (Geoffrey Holder) as one of the better henchmen of the Bond Franchise. Includes one of the best James Bond songs performed by Paul McCartney.
Rating: 4 out of 5.
I've been hard pressed to recall the last time I actually sat down and watched any James Bond movie other than the recent rebooted ones starring Daniel Craig. My wife's opinion of any James Bond movie can pretty much be summed with one sentence: "If it's not starring Daniel Craig, I'm not having any of it." So, whenever I put any of these older films on in the living room, the outcome is two-fold: I'm transported back in time while simultaneously transporting my wife to the other side of the house for the next two hours.
THE REEVALUATION
While it may have happened earlier in the series, Live and Let Die feels like the first Bond film that was heavily influenced by current trends and other cultural phenomenon, rather than being the trendsetter it was in the previous decade. The most obvious influence was the blaxploitation genre (i.e., Shaft, Superfly), but Live and Let Die also has elements of The French Connection and even Dirty Harry, only not as heavy.
The Cold Open: A murder at the United Nations, a murder in New Orleans, Louisiana, and a murder in the Caribbean Islands (all British MI6 agents that were currently on assignment). And while this opening does create intrigue, there is absolutely zero James Bond in this cold open. Disappointed! While Live and Let Die is one of Moore's stronger films from his time in the driver's seat, it has one of the weakest pre-credit sequences of the entire franchise the film. We're not starting off on the right foot here, people!
The Story: So, Mr. Big (aka Kananga) wants to flood the U.S. with two tons of free heroine to put his current competition out of business, claiming this bold move will "double the amount of addicts" in the country. Not entirely sure if this is the most sound business plan, but I'm "hooked." Illegal narcotics were quickly becoming a major talking point in the U.S. by the early 1970s, so why not bring James Bond into the mix. Considering what the original novel was about, I guess drugs were a better plot point than smuggling pirate gold into Soviet Russia. Live and Let Die definitely falls into the category of "loose adaptation."
The Villain: Kananga \ Mr. Big - One in the same. Yaphet Kotto gives one of my favorite villain performances of the entire franchise. He's intelligent. He has charisma. And he's the perfect match for Moore's first assignment. Even when Bond torches his poppy fields, he just laughs it off and invites Bond and Solitaire in for a glass of champagne instead. Classy. While I'm not sure if he's my favorite Bond villain -- but only because I haven't given it enough thought at this time -- I do believe he'd end up making the Top 5.
The Heavy: All of Mr. Big's bidding is divided by three henchman: Tee Hee (main henchman), Baron Samedi (Voodoo "spirit" more known for being the "Uncola nuts" 7-Up guy), and Whisper. I love Tee Hee in this film. He's menacing but also oddly polite. While all three henchmen here do their fair share of work, they pale in comparison to Mr. Big's expansive crime syndicate, who seems to have every single African American under his employ throughout then entire Eastern seaboard and reaching as far south as Louisiana. Impressive to say the least.
 |
| Sheriff J.W. Pepper: The first -- yet oddly unoriginal -- hardly funny, (with zero quotable lines) uncouth "country jackass" that was eventually perfected by Jackie Gleason as Buford T. Justice, just four years later in Smokey and the Bandit. |
The Girls: Oh Solitaire... you're still one of my favorite Bond girls. She's enchanting. She's mysterious. And she's a horrible fortune teller. Jane Seymour's performance is subtle and delicate. She fits rather snugly into the "damsel in distress" role, even if her character seems too naive.
The Gadgets: A magnetic wrist watch (with hidden saw blade) and a shark gun with exploding bullets. Not the best. Not the worst. However, when listening to Tom Mankiewicz on the Live and Let Die commentary track, I found it rather humorous that he expressed how important it was as a screenwriter to first introduce a Bond gadget early on in the film, so as the audience knows what to expect later during a climatic scene. Unfortunately he failed to follow his own formula when he introduced the exploding bullets in the third act; a gadget that would go down in history to produce the most ridiculous death of a Bond villain. Ever.
What Doesn't Work? Kananga's death is outrageous and completely ridiculous. The Boat Chase sequence runs out of gas two-thirds of the way through with an anti-climatic finish. George Martin's score (which was the first Bond film not to feature John Barry) is adequate at best, but seems to echo too much of what Lalo Schifrin was doing during the same time period, onlybetter. (I guess that's what you get when you pay for Paul McCartney: great song, mediocre score.) And with a film that is filled to the gills with unfortunate and horribly portrayed stereotypes, the worst out of all of these is Sheriff J.W. Pepper. When I was younger, Sheriff Pepper was a riot. Watching him now is like fingernails on a chalkboard.
Unfortunately, Live and Let Die is anything but structurally sound. Some characters are crammed into one scene (M and Miss Moneypenny visiting Bond's apartment in the middle of the night to send him out on assignment) while others are missing entirely (Q). All of this to quickly move James to New York City, where he's then promptly shipped off to the Caribbean because Bond's "whitest guy in Harlem" disguise sticks out like a sore thumb. Everything in this film feels rushed, with very little character development. (But then again, what did I really expect from a James Bond film?)
Though the film is peppered with disappointing elements -- Rosie the double-agent, the goofball airplane chase, and the blatant racism (which is mild in comparison to the book, mind you) -- Live and Let Die is still a decent entry into the James Bond lexicon. It was fun revisiting this film, seeing what these group of filmmakers were trying to accomplish with a new James Bond. I'm just glad I have the ability to fast-forward when I watch this film again.
Reevaluation Score: 3.5 out of 5.
THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN (1974)
Directed by Guy Hamilton
Written by Richard Maibaum and Tom Mankiewicz
Ian Fleming (novel)
Running Time: 2 hours, 5 minutes
Original Verdict:
One of the corniest of the entire Bond Franchise. Christopher Lee as Scaramanga, his henchman, Nick Nack (Herve Villechaize, also known as Tattoo from Fantasy Island) are anything but to be taken seriously.
Rating: 2 out of 5.
THE REEVALUATION
The Man with the Golden Gun feels as if it were filmed back-to-back with Live and Let Die. While I know this is not the case -- the film was actually just rushed into production due to the popularity of Live and Let Die -- it was released less eighteen months later; the first time (and last) to be achieved since the Sean Connery era. Regardless of the facts at hand, these two films were very much cut from the same cloth. Released during the apex of the New Hollywood system, these Bond films became products of their own environment; heavily influenced by B movie sub-genres, strongly rooted in its own cheesy cornball antics all while oddly thumbing its nose at the serious films in the theater next door.
The Cold Open: World-renowned assassin Francisco Scaramanga is killing time by disposing of hired hit men in his "mad funhouse" (conveniently nestled inside his private lair). In the process, the audience is provided with yet another weak opening. The absence of James Bond for the second time only hinders this lukewarm and unimpressive pre-credit sequence.
The Story: Capitalizing on the popularity of Fleming's last Bond novel (published posthumously, I might also add) and the constant threat of a global energy crisis that plagued the 1970s, the producers mashed these two predominant story elements together with an end result of minimal success. While the story is supposed to be more personal -- Bond's life is threatened when Scaramanaga sends a gold bullet to MI6 with his name on it -- the overall story of locating the "Solar Agitator" that would make fossil fuels obsolete mostly fizzles.
The Villain: Most purists consider Francisco Scaramanga as Bond's equal. A KGB-trained killer and world-renowned assassin, Scaramanga collects a million dollars a hit. Portrayed by the grandfatherly (and yet still slightly creepy) Christopher Lee, Scaramanga is definitely the showoff in this film. He has a golden gun that's assembled from a fountain pen, lighter, and cigarette case. That is bad ass! However, it's really hard to take him seriously once he slips on the blue tracksuit and slides down the trick stairs to make his kill.
The Heavy: Hervé Villechaize as Nick Nack. I was not a huge supporter of Nick Nack when I first saw this film. I thought he was silly, never threatening. He was the first henchman that made me scratch my head in confusion. Or maybe it was because I didn't like seeing Tattoo as a bad guy. Upon my re-watch of The Man with the Golden Gun, my opinion of Nick Nack changed. We're in a new era of Bond, where not all henchmen are to be taken seriously, or even seen as a viable threat to Bond. Nick Nack fills that role perfectly as comic relief. And he also becomes the first henchman not to have his life ended at the hands of Bond (which will become a trend of sorts throughout the remainder of this decade).
 |
| "Hey Mr. Henchman, my eye's are up here." |
The Girls: Mary Goodnight is as useful as a pair of bicycle peddles on a wheelchair. While fantastic to look at, Brit Ekland's performance leaves much to be desired. One wonders if it was her own fault or the limitations of her character in the script. We're also introduced to Maud Adams for the first time; her second appearance has a much happier ending. She portrays Adrea Anders, Scaramanga's mistress who is just trying to get out of a terrible situation. Her performance is much more up to par to the others in the film, that is, until Scaramanga disposes of her.
The Gadgets: A third nipple. Seriously, that's it! If you want to count Scaramanga's golden gun a gadget, you can but I would advise against it. The gun is not used by Bond to help him get out of a precarious situation, so in my world it doesn't count.
What Doesn't Work? J.W. Pepper, Part 2. This time vacationing in Thailand (honestly, Graceland seems more speed). The funhouse maze with mirrors. Agent Goodnight. Scaramanga's blue tracksuit. An AMC dealership located in the Far East. And lastly, the slide whistle bridge jump barrel roll. They take one the most amazing car stunts ever filmed and then they crap all over it; completely deflating the entire situation. It was the first recognizable cringe-worthy Bond moment. Sadly, it wouldn't be the last.
Rather than setting the standard, Moore's second film is again drowning in B movie influences. It's Enter the Dragon meets Westworld, mixed with more high-speed chase antics (with a flying car, I might add), along with another heaping helping of the always colorful racist, Sheriff J.W. Pepper.
Regrettably, The Man with the Golden Gun is still one of my least favorite Bond films. It's clunky, there's no real threat, no real suspense, and anything that is deemed important feels like an afterthought compared to the elegant lifestyle of Francisco Scaramanga. Rather than a battle of wits (which had been Mankiewicz's original idea), Bond is resorted to being conveniently dropped into precarious situations -- including a Kung Fu dojo -- that lead him to both Scaramanga and back to his original mission. The final act of the film results in an anti-climatic ending, the final box office numbers pale in comparison to previous films, and this was the last film that producers Harry Saltzman and Albert "Cubby" Broccoli work on together before they part ways.
Everything that was new and fresh about this new James Bond was beginning to show its wear and tear. Not that there wasn't anything salvageable in this film. It produced one of my favorite Roger Moore Bond moments, where her interrogates the ammunition manufacturer in Beirut. Moore is spot on in that scene, where he perfectly balances his humor along with his ability to quite threatening. Moreover, John Barry and his brilliant music is back. The film is lifted considerably with his score, peppering his heavy brass arrangements throughout the picture. The Man with the Golden Gun has great moments, but those moments don't add up to a great film.
Reevaluation Score: 2.5 out of 5.
James Bond will return...
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