How did LALD became so " Classic" ?

Arsenal02071

4EverBonded said:
Why is LALD a class? Two words: Paul McCartney :)

Someone seems to agree with me :P

Baltimore_007

Crab_Of_Doom said:
Because it is a classic! =))

Really Mr Crab, I had you down as one of my favorite new members and now this atrocity

:|

Live and Let Die is a classic, it has all the ingredients you could ask for, danger, suspense, humor, scares, lovely women, intimidating characters, a good Bond, outstanding music, enthralling action sequences etc, how anyone can dare to berate it is a mystery, go and have another watch I say, but now time for some sleep I-)

talos7

I'm born and raised in New Orleans. Live and Let Die was the first Bond that I saw in a theater. I was ten years old and I was hooked. I often went fishing with my dad and we traveled the waterways through which Bond raced. At ten it was quite a rush. We had a fairly fast boat and it wasn't hard imagining that I was 007.

DarthDimi

Crab_Of_Doom said:
Because it is a classic! =))

Spam. This.

dchantry

sirseanisbond said:
followed up by Sean’s non-consecutive reprisal of the role in DAF when he was clearly too old left the Bond franchise in a chaotic state.

Its funny to say too old when he was only 43 when he did DAF and this was about the same age as TD and PB when they did their first and younger than RM when he did his first.
I think the problem with Connery in DAF was that he held the producers to ransom and decided that the only character prep and grooming he would do was to plant the 1st available toupe on his head and be as overweight as he wanted.
In NSNA 10 years later he looks much better, fit and groomed and is very good as Bond. Shame about the film :)

dchantry

Whoops, forgot the subject.
LALD, good, yes, classic, you must be joking. Falls way below TSWLM, FYEO and OCT even on Sir Rog list.
I think the biggest thing both LALD and TMWTGG have going for them is that Sir Rog looks so damn young and good which is the one thing he gets criticised for his last 3 films for, although I hope I look as good as he did at 57.
In fact, if you took all of his 7 films and imagined them filmed with the 1973 version of him then you would see a drastic shift in LALD popularity.

NicNac

The film itself was well publicised, focusing on the amazing stunts (the best to date apart from the amazing ski-ing sequences in OHMSS).
The producers were careful to sell the film on the action rather than anything else, plus Roger Moore was the most popular TV actor in the world at the time and everyone was intrigued to see him as Bond.

As such there is a generation of people who hold the film dear to their hearts despite the fact the plot has more holes than a Swiss cheese.

Volante

I think it would've been a lot more classic had it stayed closer to the book, which is one of the best Bond novels.

timmer

Live and Let Die is a great Bond film. I rank it the best of the non-Sean/Laz films. I like it most of all though, because it continues the Guy Hamilton stretch, and the campy-colourful-creepy-danger vibe of DAF, but minus Sean's pure awesomeness. Othwerwise - no complaints. LALD is pure Bond. Wouldn't change a thing.
I wouldn't call it a classic though. I reserve that status for the first 6 films and that's it. The 70's was a whole new exciting Bond world, sprung from the 60's classics.

Crab_Of_Doom

Baltimore_007 said:

Crab_Of_Doom said:
Because it is a classic! =))

Really Mr Crab, I had you down as one of my favorite new members and now this atrocity

:|

Live and Let Die is a classic, it has all the ingredients you could ask for, danger, suspense, humor, scares, lovely women, intimidating characters, a good Bond, outstanding music, enthralling action sequences etc, how anyone can dare to berate it is a mystery, go and have another watch I say, but now time for some sleep I-)

What?? I love LALD. I just meant that it's a stupid question. And my answer to why it's classic is 'cause it's classic. That's why I put the smiley there. LALD is one of my favourites.

DarthDimi said:

Crab_Of_Doom said:
Because it is a classic! =))

Spam. This.

Spam. This.

Why don't you get a life, Dimi? I just said I think it's a classic.

Sorry for the dubble post.

Mod edit: double post fixed.

haserot

those commenting on the use of black actors in Live And Let Die..... while Blaxploitation was in it's heyday at the time - the use of black actors in major roles in major hollywood productions was still not widely done... Blaxploitation was considered a subgenre of film, which had a devoted cult following - but it was still not a money making draw like the bigger budget, and bigger studio counterparts...

so what Broccoli did was something pretty unique to major film scene, and that was cast the majority of the cast with black actors and actresses - it helped shine the spotlight on a lot of talents that might not have gotten the same breaks otherwise, or not as soon.. The fact that the role many of them played as being "stereotypical" is only stereotypical by today's standards... for a black actor to get such a prominent role as a villain - was not widely done... most black actors were kept to very few speaking roles, and if they were on screen, many of them played butlers, sidekick, servants, or your typical hood rat, or the like.... i can't think of too many major hollywood films from that time period or before, where a black actor was given a role with clout and power, and menace - and yet have the sophistication and class that Kananga had.... it was extremely rare to do.... he wasn't the typical "ghetto thug".. while yes, he was a criminal - he was also a dignitary and intelligent..

Yaphet Kotto speaks greatly of Cubby, and what he did to help his career as a black actor at the time..

beyond it's cultural impact - for me, LALD is a great Bond film... it has a good balance of humor and action... Moore in his debut proves the role isn't too much for him to handle, and he settles in nicely (though his true greatness comes out 2 films later)..

Yaphet Kotto is superb as Kananga.. i tend to love villains who possess both charm and menace - which Kananga has without question..

Martin provides one of the best Bond scores that wasn't conducted by a man named Barry... it has a great rock/funk/groove feel to it - and it's a great soundtrack to thrown in while on a road trip during the summer..

darren_blacksmith

It was very successful at the box office, and (I believe) always sells really well on DVD, Blu-ray etc.

Also, as others have pointed out, its seems aims at a slightly more mature audience than the other Moore missions.

JWESTBROOK

Volante said:
I think it would've been a lot more classic had it stayed closer to the book, which is one of the best Bond novels.

Its unfortunately extremely slow until you get to Bond and Solitaire on the train. However, I do wish the film had been a stricter interpretation, because once it gets good, it gets really good.

Dr_Metz

I hate Live And Let Die. I'm surprised people go as far to consider it a "classic".

DarthDimi

Crab_Of_Doom said:
Why don't you get a life, Dimi? I just said I think it's a classic.[/b]

Thread title: How did LALD became so " Classic" ?
Your post: Because it is a classic!

Okay, elaborate then and add arguments. Also, the added emoticon is not the best tool to convince people you're being very serious... No hard feelings though.

CommanderRoss

How it became a classic? Simple, it did everything a proper Bond film has to do. It pushed the envelope of action-stuntwork. It was, as @Haserot pointed out correctly, at the forefront of a cultural change. It has a slight incling to the bizarre, something that is so important to the Bond books but so seldom seen in the films. It had the girls, the storyline, and of course, a fresh new actor. To me LALD is Moore's best. After that it becomes too much seventies, allthough finally in FYEO he comes back to this ' kind' of playig Bond. And then, as has been sai before, there's the excellent music.

But the main point is the bizarreness of the story. A two-bit dictator turning out to be a hughe criminal, using the occult as cover (and believing it himself). We are first lead to believe it actualy works (solitaire telling of Bonds' arrival) but then it's he himself who mocks it and she's wrong. It's this tension that makes it a classic.

timmer

Ahh but Solitaire was right. The cards told her in New York, that she and Bond would be lovers. She tried to deny but she knew better. From that point on she faced a dilemma, in that she had to deceive Kananga. LALD was smartly done. They played with the occult theme just right. It's the only Bond with supernatural overtones, yet not to the point of ever distracting from the more prevailing Bondian vibe. We are led to believe that the voodoo was real, that Solitaire had powers, until Bond took them away from her, however Bond being the focused agent that he is, doesn't dwell on such matters. He just gets on with the job. He only pauses briefly to ponder the mystery of why Samedi wasn't dead, when he should be, and then gets on with the mission. The Samedi character is handled very deftly. It's easy to look at him as just another thug in Kananga's gang, and like Bond dismiss the fact, that he seemed to rise from the dead, after surely being killed, as simply unexplainable. However if one is familiar with the voodoo lore, I think this was a little nod to Samedi's supernatural demonic nature. With the final shot of a triumphant Samedi riding the front of the train in an impossible way, Bond remains oblivious, but we see, if we choose to see, that the demon, is still very much alive, and no doubt relishing his next opportunity to corrupt human souls, having done such a fine job with Kananga and company. Or we can dismiss Samedi's reappearance as an artistic device on Eon's part. Either way works. LALD is a smart film that way.

Samuel001

I've often found this film more than any other, the one I enjoy when most others seem to put it down. It's a very low ranking film but it really has many things I like about Bond in it - even Bond checking his room for bugs.

I'll be sure to do a write up on it, when I next view it but for me along with For Your Eyes Only and Octopussy, these three Moore films get a big thumbs up and are three of my favourites from the series and that's from someone who prefers every other Bond actor to Moore bar Brosnan! I blame the films though, not him.

OHMSS69

LALD is a classic because
1. Roger is in his prime and looked so good. (he was 45 but looked 35)
2. Jane Seymour was hot and a great Bond girl.
3. The film is sooo 70's. Blaxplotation...it is unique
4. Finally the villians are so much fun to watch. Kanaga/Mr.Big and his gallery of rogues were a fun bunch. Tee Hee, Whisper, Adam and Baron Samedi. Not until LTK did we see such care and attention paid to casting the bad guys.

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