Live and Let Die Movie (1973)

Live and Let Die (1973), directed by Guy Hamilton, is about Bond's hunt for whoever killed three British agents within a short time in New York, New Orleans and the Caribbean island of San Monique. MI6 sends James Bond to find out who is responsible, and the trail leads to Dr. Kananga, the leader of San Monique, who also runs a Harlem criminal operation as Mr. Big. One man therefore holds two identities on two sides of the Atlantic.

Along the way, Bond meets CIA contacts and is drawn toward Solitaire (Jane Seymour), a young woman whose tarot readings Kananga relies on.

Live and Let Die follows James Bond from New York to New Orleans to San Monique as he stops Dr. Kananga, also known as Mr. Big, from flooding the US with free heroin. The story moves through four stages:

1. In New York, Bond finds that Mr. Big's Harlem network is tied to Dr. Kananga, the ruler of San Monique, so the criminal front and the head of state turn out to be the same man.
2. In New Orleans, Bond works with his CIA friend Felix Leiter and survives several attempts on his life. He meets Solitaire, the tarot reader whose predictions guide Kananga, and she becomes his ally and lover. Bond then learns the scheme itself: Kananga grows opium poppies on San Monique and plans to hand out heroin for free, ruin rival dealers and then control the market.
3. In Louisiana, Bond escapes from a crocodile farm and takes part in a long boat chase that also involves the comic Sheriff J.W. Pepper. He then travels to San Monique, where an agent he was working with turns out to have been betraying him, and Kananga captures Bond and Solitaire.
4. On San Monique, Bond escapes, burns the poppy fields with explosives and frees Solitaire from a planned voodoo sacrifice. In the last fight, he forces Kananga to swallow a compressed gas pellet, and Kananga swells up and bursts.

Bond and Solitaire then board a train to New York, where the henchman Tee Hee attacks and is defeated. The final shot shows Baron Samedi laughing on the front of the train.

The Live and Let Die movie had its US release on June 27, 1973 (confirmed), and its UK premiere at the Odeon Leicester Square in London is reported as July 6, 1973. The US date comes from Box Office Mojo. The UK theatrical release shares the July 6 date, and both UK entries are reported rather than confirmed.

In Australia, the film is reported to have opened on August 1, 1973. All three markets rated it PG.

At the end of Live and Let Die, Bond destroys Kananga's poppy crop, kills him with a compressed gas pellet, and defeats Tee Hee on the train to New York while Baron Samedi laughs on the front of the train. Solitaire is safe beside Bond, and the drug plan is finished.

The finale works in three steps. First, Bond burns the San Monique poppy fields with explosives, which removes the raw material for Kananga's plan to give heroin away free and ruin rival dealers. Second, he frees Solitaire from the planned voodoo sacrifice, and in the last fight he forces Kananga to swallow the gas pellet, so Kananga swells up and bursts. Third, the story leaves San Monique and returns to a train bound for New York, where Tee Hee attacks and is beaten.

What does the final shot mean? Baron Samedi is seen laughing on the front of the train, which hints that the voodoo figure is still around. Marcus Reyes reads the shot as a joke at the villain's expense and as a wink to the audience, because the film never settles whether Samedi is a man or a legend. That is opinion, but the staging supports it: Kananga is dead, yet the laugh keeps the voodoo atmosphere alive after the villain is gone.

The ending is also self contained. The film does not set up a specific next mission, so it closes on a train, a fight and a laugh rather than on a teaser. In opinion, that makes it a clean handoff in the series: the film before it, Diamonds Are Forever, and the film after it, The Man with the Golden Gun, are linked to it only by Bond himself and by the returning M and Miss Moneypenny, played by Bernard Lee and Lois Maxwell. Its local, street-level drug plot, centered on Harlem and a Caribbean island, is the story, and nothing at the end points beyond it.

Live and Let Die was filmed in New Orleans, Jamaica, England and New York City. Principal photography began in New Orleans on October 13, 1972, and that stretch included the bayou boat chase. The crew moved to Jamaica in November 1972.

Jamaica stood in for the fictional San Monique, and the crocodile farm scenes were shot at a farm in Falmouth, Jamaica, owned by Ross Kananga. The farm owner shares his surname with the villain Dr. Kananga, a coincidence of names that the production history reports without explaining. Interiors were shot at Pinewood Studios in England in December 1972. Street scenes were filmed in Harlem and Manhattan.

The result mixes location work in the US and Jamaica with interior shooting at Pinewood Studios. In opinion, the split suits the story: the Harlem and Manhattan streets, the Louisiana bayou and the Jamaican stand-in for San Monique each cover one stage of Bond's trail from New York to New Orleans to the island, so the geography of the shoot follows the geography of the plot.

Live and Let Die used 26 Glastron speedboats for its boat chase, and 17 were destroyed during rehearsals. As a practical stunt, that is a heavy price for a few minutes of screen time.

Two more production details stand out:

1. Salvador Dali was approached to design a tarot deck for the film, but his fee was too high, so the deck was designed by Fergus Hall.
2. Q does not appear, because the producers felt too much was being made of the films' gadgets. In opinion, that choice separates the film from entries such as Diamonds Are Forever and The Man with the Golden Gun, the films on either side of it in the series, since Bond here leans on the boat chase and the gas pellet fight rather than on a gadget briefing, while Bernard Lee's M and Lois Maxwell's Miss Moneypenny still appear.

For more on the series, see the James Bond movies hub.