Mister Big (James Bond)
| Live and Let Die | |
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British cinema poster for Live and Let Die, illustrated by Robert McGinnis
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| Directed by | Guy Hamilton |
| Produced by |
Harry Saltzman Albert R. Broccoli |
| Screenplay by | Tom Mankiewicz |
| Based on |
Live and Let Die by Ian Fleming |
| Starring | |
| Music by | George Martin |
| Cinematography | Ted Moore |
| Edited by |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | United Artists |
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Release date
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Running time
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121 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $7 million |
| Box office | $161.8 million |
Live and Let Die (1973) is the eighth spy film in the James Bond series to be produced by Eon Productions, and the first to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, it was the third of four Bond films to be directed by Guy Hamilton. Although the producers had wanted Sean Connery to return after his role in the previous Bond film Diamonds Are Forever, he declined, sparking a search for a new actor to play James Bond. Moore was signed for the lead role.
The film is adapted from the novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. In the film, a Harlem drugs lord known as Mr. Big plans to distribute two tons of heroin free to put rival drugs barons out of business. Mr. Big is revealed to be the disguised alter ego of Dr. Kananga, a corrupt Caribbean dictator, who rules San Monique, the fictional island where the heroin poppies are secretly farmed. Bond is investigating the deaths of three British agents, leading him to Kananga, and is soon trapped in a world of gangsters and voodoo as he fights to put a stop to the drugs baron's scheme.
Live and Let Die was released during the height of the blaxploitation era, and many blaxploitation archetypes and clichés are depicted in the film, including derogatory racial epithets ("honky"), black gangsters, and pimpmobiles. It departs from the former plots of the James Bond films about megalomaniac super-villains, and instead focuses on drug trafficking, a common theme of blaxploitation films of the period. It is set in African American cultural centres such as Harlem and New Orleans, as well as the Caribbean Islands. It was also the first James Bond film featuring an African American Bond girl to be romantically involved with 007, Rosie Carver, who was played by Gloria Hendry. The film was a box office success and received generally positive reviews from critics. It was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Live and Let Die", written by Paul and Linda McCartney and performed by their band Wings.
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