To give my honor to Roger Moore, who sadly passed away on Tuesday, I wanted to
share my thoughts regarding each of Moore’s Bond movies. Because he was in a whopping seven films, I
have decided to separate this content into two blogs.
“Live and Let Die” (1973)
While
Roger Moore is excellent in his initial appearance as James Bond, I have to
admit that “Live and Let Die” is not my favorite Bond film. Kananga, the main villain, regularly consults
Solitaire (Jane Seymour), a mysterious woman who can see the future through the
use of Tarot cards. Bond convinces
Solitaire that they were destined to be lovers (one could argue that this was
technically true; Solitaire had already seen “the lovers” card twice in
reference to her future with Bond, however, as James himself later confessed to
her “the deck was lightly stacked in my favor”). With this news, they have sex. She discovers that her ability to see the
future was dependent on her being a virgin.
Kananga is ticked off and spends the rest of the movie trying to make
Bond pay for what he did. There is more
that I don’t like about this film’s plot, but you get my point. This kind of story is not my cup of tea.
Despite the silly narrative, there are some excellent scenes. One of the memorable characters in the film
is Kananga’s henchmen, named Tee Hee (played well by Julius W. Harris). He is the scene stealer. Tee Hee, as he explained to Bond at one
point, has to wear a metal hand because he had lost his real one after an
unfortunate run-in with an alligator. In
a riveting scene, Tee Hee appears in Bond and Solitaire’s room on a train to
end Bond. After an epic fight, Bond
finally unhooks the wires connecting the villain’s metal hand with his body,
and proceeds to throw Tee Hee out of the window of the speeding train.
Meanwhile,
Solitaire is completely oblivious to any danger (because the bed could be
pulled out from the wall, and Tee Hee had shoved the bed up into the wall with
her still in it for the entire fight). With the threat gone,
Bond pulls the bed back down. “Well,
that wasn’t very funny.” She says. Bond gives her a love pat, and walks
away. “Now what are you doing?” She asks, impatiently. The metal piece of hand that was once on Tee
Hee was still connected to the window; Bond dislodged it and threw it out. Then Roger Moore gives this witty line: “Just
being disarming, darling.”
“The Man with the Golden Gun” (1974)
This
film is a mixed bag. Roger is, once
again, sensational all the way through.
But, unfortunately, some elements of the movie are not. For one thing, Bond’s love interest in this
film is a dumb blonde in every sense of the word. I don’t necessarily buy into that old stereotype,
but in this case it is valid. For
example, at one point, she inadvertently activates a console because she bends
over and hits a button with her behind!
Even the calm and composed James Bond seems to constantly lose his
patience with this girl.
One of the highlights is Christopher Lee’s portrayal of Francisco Scaramanga
(AKA, the man with the golden gun). Lee
is excellent. One of the enjoyments in this film is the banter that Bond and Scaramanga share. In one memorable scene, James Bond makes a
statement that reveals a lesser known fact about the world's most famous spy: namely that he
doesn’t revel in killing as one might expect. He simply does
it because it needs to be done. Bond
says to Scaramanga, “When I kill it’s on the specific orders of my government,
and those I kill are themselves killers.”
Incidentally, this notion about Bond is strongly implied in a scene in
Daniel Craig’s first Bond film “Casino Royale”.
In that scene, Vesper, Bond’s love interest, insinuates that killing
actually has a psychological effect on Bond. He denies it by saying, “I wouldn’t be very
good at my job if it did.” But the entirety of the scene
made it abundantly clear: despite his protests, Vesper was absolutely
right.
“The Spy who Loved Me” (1977)
Roger Moore has said that of all the Bond films
he did, “The Spy who Loved Me” was his favorite. I can see why. This movie is fantastic from start to
finish. I think this is Moore’s best
performance as 007. In the film, Bond
teams up with a female agent who is if not superior to him is at the very least
his equal (unlike the girl in the last film); he battles a powerful enemy
named Jaws (who is so effective they actually bring him back in the next film);
the main villain has a plan so dastardly that is certainly warrants Bond’s
undivided attention. The music is also a
resounding success. It features Carly Simon’s song “Nobody Does it Better”; this
is one of my favorite James Bond theme songs of all-time.
I
think my favorite sequence of the film is a chase scene. Bond and Anya, the female agent James teams
up with, are talking until she abruptly says, “James, that motorcycle…” Bond
finishes her sentence, “has been following us for the last mile.” Someone wants the two of them dead. After James does some fancy maneuvering, the
motorcyclist is defeated. But it is far
from over, another car with henchmen (including Jaws) appears. Anya begins to
warn James, but once again, he is well aware.
“Yes, I know,” he says. “Don’t
tell me.” He begins to showcase the
gadgets that Q had built into their car.
As a result, the car filled with henchmen falls off the road, and after
a large drop, crashes into the roof of a house (no one except for Jaws survives
the fall).
But
the assailants still don’t stop. Another
vehicle makes its presence known; it’s a helicopter with a built-in machine gun. “Do you ever get the feeling someone doesn’t
like you?” Bond asks. He tries to evade the attack with fancy driving, and when he
realizes that’s not working, he simply decides to drive the car right into a
river! “Can you swim?” He asks Anya, calmly. Anya freaks out, but the car simply converts
into a submarine (it’s Q’s car after all).
“It’s time we said goodbye to an uninvited guest,” Bond announces and he
fires a torpedo that destroys the helicopter.
“Alone at last,” Bond remarks.
What a dazzling, entertaining, and riveting scene! What a movie!
I’m
going to wrap it up here for today. I
plan to cover Roger’s remaining Bond films in the next blog, so stay tuned for
that. To be continued!
Kevin
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