I was feeling nostalgic last night. It was hot even though the sun had gone down, so I decided to watch a film on the 70″ 4K TV we installed on our patio wall, experiencing the closest thing to spending the evening with my Dad 50 years ago at the drive-in watching Roger Moore’s first James Bond film, LIVE AND LET DIE.
He had taken me the previous summer to a triple James Bond feature at the same drive-in, screening GOLDFINGER, DOCTOR NO and FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE on the same night in that order. From that point forward, seeing the latest Bond film would be our thing.
My father passed away on March 2, 1982, so we didn’t have many more of the Bond films in our future, but the memories remain special, and I was more than in the mood to watch this.
To anyone making the claim the Bond films are politically incorrect, my response is “so what?” I grew up with these films and the era they were made in, and I’m not about to apologize for the films or my enjoyment of them. They were also the closest thing back then to the Marvel films we have today, full of action in which the stunts were real. In this case, someone actually drove a boat up a ramp over a road and actually landing on water. There was no CGI in a Bond film until the early 2000s.
The film was also notable for its predominantly black cast, with the film’s producers facing a backlash from American southern states because James Bond is depicted kissing a black woman. Today it’s no big deal, but back then people rose up in arms over this sort of thing. Three years after the film was released, I was in the military when I took leave to go home. A friend from the base drove home with me to see her family. When I drove to pick her up for the drive back to base, she had to stay longer to deal with her father having thrown out her sister from their home because she was dating a black man. People really don’t appreciate how radical this film was back in the day.
One could argue Ian Fleming’s book was better because of the scenes of more graphic violence, but Hollywood wasn’t ready to depict a man being mauled by a shark. That would take another two years with Steven Spielberg and JAWS. Felix Leiter being eaten by a shark would eventually be depicted in the 007 film LICENCE TO KILL nearly 16 years later.
But for what it was, it was a fun time spending 2 hours with my dad, and today, in all honesty, the film looks and sounds much better on my widescreen television than anything I remember experiencing at the theater.
The film starred Roger Moore, Yaphet Kotto, Julius Harris, Geoffey Holder, David Hedison, Gloria Hendry, Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell, Tommy Lane, Earl Jolly Brown, Roy Stewart, Clifton James and introducing Jane Seymour. Title song composed by Paul & Linda McCartney. Directed by Guy Hamilton, who also directed GOLDFINGER, DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER and THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN.