| | | Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman Present Roger Moore as James Bond 007 in Ian Fleming's...
Features: DVD, Widescreen, Aspect Ratio 1.85:1, English, French, Spanish, Subtitled, Sensormatic
James Bond battles the forces of black magic in this high-octane adventure that hurtles him from the streets of New York City to Louisiana's bayou country. With charm, wit and deadly assurance, Roger Moore steps in as Agent 007 and takes on a powerful drug lord (Yaphet Kotto) with a diabolical scheme to conquer the world.
"One of the last great, funky James Bond films..." Blake Davis, KFOR Channel 4 News
"Great stunts and a cool theme song..." Dan Lybarger, Lawrence Journal-World
"Handsome and smoothly likeable..." Los Angeles Times
"...[has] a grand sense of fun and some of Moore's best moments in the franchise." Rob Vaux, Flipside Movie Emporium
"Inventive...thrilling...high-powered." Time
Editor's Note
LIVE AND LET DIE is famed Bond portrayer Roger Moore?s first turn as 007. In it, the super spy infiltrates a gang of narcotics smugglers in voodoo-infested Jamaica. His daring exploits lead him on a number of incredible chases. As the sexy Solitaire, a young Jane Seymour makes for one of the more memorable Bond girls, and the always captivating Yaphett Kotto delivers an excellent performance as one of the more grounded (and, as such, arguably more chilling) villains of the series. The film?s theme song, Paul McCartney?s ?Live and Let Die,? is one of the highlights of the entire Bond music canon and a classic in its own right.
Plot Summary
The eighth adventure in the Broccoli/Saltzman series finds James Bond doing his part to help Americans "just say no". A burly Caribbean dignitary plans to dump an enormous amount of free heroin into the American market in order to boost the number of users as quickly as possible. While attempting to thwart the villain, Bond takes time out to romance one of the evildoer's advisors, a sexy tarot-reader known as Solitaire. Snakes, sharks, crocodiles and gunmen bar the rest of the way, and 007 also proves his powerboating skills in the course of completing this harrowing mission.
| Features | Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, DTS Stereo | | Audio: French Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound | | Dubbed: French | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English, French, Spanish, Mandarin, Korean, Thai | | Three Seperate Audio Commentary Trakcs Featuring Sir Roger Moore, Director Guy Hamilton, & Screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Mgm Entertainment |
| Release Date: 9/4/2007 |
| Running Time: 122 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1973 | | Catalog ID: 106634 | | UPC: 00027616066329 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1 |
| Cast & Crew | David Hedison | | Jane Seymour | | Roger Moore | | Yaphet Kotto | | Albert R. Broccoli - Producer | | Bert Bates - Editor | | George Martin - Original Music By | | Guy Hamilton - Director | | Harry Saltzman - Producer | | Ian Fleming - Based On Novel By | | Stephen Hendrickson, et. al. - Art Director | | Ted Moore - Cinematographer | | Tom Mankiewicz - Screenplay |
| Awards |
Nominee (1974) | | | Grammy, Paul McCartney, et. al., Album of Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture | | | Oscar, Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney, Best Music, Original Song | |
Grammy (1974) | | | Paul McCartney, et. al., Nominee, Album of Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture | |
Oscar (1974) | | | Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney ("Live and Let Die"), Nominee, Best Music, Original Song |
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| | Professional Reviews | Total Film
"...Roger Moore's first 007 job is still top entertainment..." 01/01/2001 p.110Reel.com 8 of 10
Equal parts 007 vehicle, campy Blaxploitation flick, and high-throttle, Smokey and the Bandit-style back-roads chase, Live and Let Die may not live up to the slick standards of other Bond dazzlers, but this Guy Hamilton entry in the British spy series has dated remarkably well. Featuring polyester pimps (aren't they all!), voodoo and tarot sorcery, cantankerous crocodiles, and big-bellied smokeys, Live and Let Die is a supremely groovy, funky, early '70s serial...Basically, the plot of Live and Let Die is a throwaway. Tom Mankiewicz's script (from Ian Fleming's most controversial Bond novel) isn't particularly suspenseful, memorable, or even logical. Instead, it's the impressive stunt-work, the handsome scenery, and (particularly enjoyable here) the breezy, street-smart, uptown attitude that makes this flick tick. After witnessing the always-debonair Sean Connery slither through a host of too-cool '60s Bond adventures, 'its refreshing to watch Moore's 007 stepping to the funked-up, raw vibes of the early '70s, dallying with afro-ed heroines, sporting shiny, synthetic attire and riding around in huge, hood-ornamented cars. - Robert Payne
Chicago Sun-Times 7 of 10
"Live and Let Die" is the ninth James Bond picture, and not exactly the best. It has all the necessary girls, gimmicks, subterranean control rooms, uniformed goons and magic wristwatches it can hold, but it doesn't have the wit and it doesn't have the style of the best Bond movies...This may have something to do with the substitution of Roger Moore for Sean Connery as 007. Moore has the superficial attributes for the job: The urbanity, the quizzically raised eyebrow, the calm under fire and in bed. But Connery was always able to invest the role with a certain humor, a sense of its ridiculousness. Moore has been supplied with a lot of double entendres and double takes, but he doesn't seem to get the joke...There are a few elements every Bond movie absolutely must have, and "Live and Let Die" has them. It opens, of course, with a meeting with M and the faithful Miss Moneypenny. It has Bond arriving at the Caribbean hideout by man-bearing kite. It has a spectacular chase (this one involves speedboats, but isn't as much fun as the great ski chase two Bonds ago). It has a spectacularly destroyed villain (he swallows a capsule of compressed air and explodes). It has the girls. And it has Bond exhibiting his mastery of the better things in life by asking room service for a bottle of Bollinger - not cold, but "slightly chilled," please...And it does, to give it credit, have the one basic Bond scene that always seems copied from the previous Bond movie: The penetration of the underground citadel. - Roger Ebert
ReelViews 6 of 10
Following six James Bond movies with Sean Connery (and one with the dead-on-arrival George Lazenby), it was difficult -- to say the least -- for fans to accept the transition to wisecracking Roger Moore when he debuted in 1973. It didn't help that his introductory film was one of the worst Bonds of all time (ranking alongside Moore's Octopussy and Timothy Dalton's The Living Daylights). Worse still, the only thing about Live and Let Die to weather the test of time is its title song (written by Paul & Linda McCartney, and performed by Wings)...As is often the case with Bond movies, this one runs too long. There is a speedboat chase that, aside from being executed in a pedestrian fashion, goes on forever. It's not exciting, and the introduction of comic asides with Sheriff J. W. Pepper (Clifton James) are wildly out-of-place...Live and Let Die has the requisite action scenes and several enticing women for Bond to woo (including a CIA agent played by Gloria Hendry and Jane Seymour in her first screen appearance), but, in addition to missing Connery's presence, the movie lacks the usual tension and energy. Watching Live and Let Die isn't a complete waste of time, but there's no overriding reason why anyone should go out of their way to see it unless they're a die-hard Bond fan or are curious about Roger Moore's first turn in the role. - James Berardinelli
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