What's your favorite James Bond movie? For me, it has to be 1973's Live and Let Die starring the late Sir Roger Moore in his 007 debut. I first got a glimpse of the film when it aired on TBS in the late 1980s. Now the keyword here is "glimpse." I was a little bitty kid back then. My dad was channel surfing, came across Life and Let Die, and watched a few minutes before switching over to something else. He's never cared much for Roger Moore's take on James Bond, which explains why he changed the channel. I was disappointed because the few minutes I viewed intrigued my interest. Luckily for me, in the 80s and early 90s, TBS reaired movies many, many times.
Live and Let Die was first published in the UK in 1954, and it's the second adventure featuring the British assassin James Bond. Like all 007 stories, author Ian Fleming wastes no time jumping into the story. Bond is sent to New York by M to take down the criminal known as "Mr. Big," an agent of the Soviet counterintelligence organization SMERSH. Along with his CIA pal, Felix Leiter, Bond begins the investigation at Mr. Big's nightclub. Shortly after arriving, they are captured and interrogated. Mr. Big uses his fortune-telling employee, Solitaire, to determine if they are telling the truth. Besides one broken finger, Bond and Leiter escape the situation.
Solitare leaves Mr. Big and falls in love with Bond. The two travel to St. Petersburg, Florida, where they meet up with Leiter. Soon after, Mr. Big captures Solitare, and Leiter loses an arm and leg to a shark. Bond learns Mr. Big is hiding17th century gold coins in the bottom of fish tanks and smuggling them into the United States. In the end, Bond goes to Jamaica to save Solitaire and stop Mr. Big's evildoings.
Final Thoughts
To properly read Ian Fleming's Live and Let Die, you have to keep in mind that Fleming wrote it in the 1950s, and the racial terminology fits in with that period. Yeah, in the '50s, James Bond was a racist and a sexist. He loves having women at his beck and call.
While the film adaptation is my favorite Bond outing, the original novel is one of my least favorites. Besides being heavily outdated, the story is all over the place, and the pacing feels rushed. Now I read the Kindle eBook, and I've heard it's the shorter version, whatever that means. The eBook is 174 pages, and the 1954 hardback is 234 pages. What the heck happened here? Did the publisher or Amazon censor the book for us Americans?
Overall, Live and Let Die is a by-the-book James Bond adventure with outdated stereotypes and cliches. Despite the many flaws, it's still a decent read if you have 90-minutes to kill. I recommend watching the 1973 movie beforehand tackling the novel (more like a novella).
I like this one too (the movie- I haven't read the book). I have to admit the sheriff gets me every time- cliched as heck I know, have no idea if it's in the book, but he kills me. I imagine the books are a tough read, as you say, being VERY outdated, but glad they're still decent in spite of that. I suppose Bond in the books is not very likable though given the misogyny and everything...
ReplyDeleteThat's weird about the missing pages!