Today we see the release of Skyfall on Blu-Ray and DVD. This latest James Bond film surprised quite a bit of people who weren’t sure the franchise would be able to recover from the missed opportunity that was Quantum of Solace. So, it came out of left field that this follow-up ended up being one of the best films of 2012. From the acting, direction and writing the film was top-notch. One other thing which truly stood out about this film was it’s theme song.
“Skyfall” by Adele wasn’t just one of the best film songs of 2012, but most like going to turn out to be in the top 5 of best James Bond theme songs when all has been said and done. This is why to commemorate the release of the film on video I’ve chosen the Adele sung theme song of the same name to be the latest “Song of the Day”.
The song harkens back to the true James Bond classic theme songs by Shirley Bassey like “Goldfinger” and “Diamonds are Forever” right up to my personal favorite, Paul McCartney’s “Live and Let Die”. Maybe it was destiny that Adele would end up doing a James Bond theme song. Her soulful vocal range just shouts early James Bond and her “Skyfall” easily holds it’s own against the classic Bond themes of the 60’s and early 70’s.
The song itself has a very simple melody that incorporates the iconic 007 theme. Almost sung like a mournful ballad that hints at the danger and death awaiting the intrepid 007 and those around him, the song spends much of it’s running time with Adele singing in a very subdued fashion until we hit the final third of the track when she finally lets her inner diva shine….and shine she does.
Skyfall
This is the end Hold your breath and count to ten Feel the Earth move and then Hear my heart burst again
For this is the end I’ve drowned and dreamt this moment So overdue I owe them Swept away I’m stolen
Let the sky fall When it crumbles We will stand tall Face it all together
Let the sky fall When it crumbles We will stand tall Face it all together At skyfall At skyfall
Skyfall is where we start A thousand miles and poles apart Where worlds collide and days are dark You may have my number You can take my name But you’ll never have my heart
Let the sky fall When it crumbles We will stand tall Face it all together
Let the sky fall When it crumbles We will stand tall Face it all together At skyfall
Where you go I go What you see I see I know I’d never be me Without the security
Of your loving arms Keeping me from harm Put your hand in my hand And we’ll stand
Let the sky fall When it crumbles We will stand tall Face it all together
Let the sky fall When it crumbles We will stand tall Face it all together At skyfall
With the previous Bond entry, Diamonds Are Forever, we finally see Sean Connery run out of gas when it came to playing the title role of James Bond. Yet, despite the obvious boredom Connery was having in the film the producers of the series were still wanting him to come back for another Bond film. Maybe it was his experience during the production of Diamonds Are Forever or Connery finally decided it was truly time to go the series’ producers didn’t get their wish and were in a rush to find someone new to wear the mantle o Agent 007.
They finally found their new James Bond in the form of English-actor Roger Moore and production on Live and Let Die began soon after.
Roger Moore, for me, has always been the start of the less serious, but much more fun era of the James Bond franchise. His films still had the intrigue and action of the Connery-era, but the writers and producers of the series put in more one-liners and humor in the story. We begin to see the start of this in the previous Bond film (not handled as well and came off as awkward at times), but it was in Live and Let Die and in Roger Moore that this change in the series’ tone finally hit it’s stride.
The film dials back the global domination attempts by the series of villians both SPECTRE and not. This time around Bond must investigate the deaths of three MI6 agents who had been investigating one Dr. Kananga, the despot of the fictitious Caribbean island of San Monique. Kananga (played by Yaphet Kotto) also has an alter-ego in the form of Mr. Big who runs a series of soul food restaurants as a front for his drug business. Every Bond film always tries to out-elaborate the previous one with it’s villains plans. There’s no attempts by Kananga/Big to dominate the world. His plans are pretty capitalistic in a ruthless sort of way. He wants to corner the drug market in the US by flooding the illegal drug market with his own heroin which he plans to give away for free thus bankrupting the other crime lords and drug dealers.
This plan by Kananga actually looks to be very sound and it helps that he has the beautiful seer Solitaire (played by a young and beautiful Jane Seymour) to help him outwit ad stay ahead of his competitors and the law. His plan would’ve succeeded if not for the meddling of one British super-spy named James Bond.
Live and Let Die might not have been as serious about it’s story as the early Connery films, but it definitely had a much more faster pace with more action to distinguish Moore from Connery. One particular famous action sequence involves Bond escaping from Kananga’s drug farm in the Louisiana Bayou country being chased not just by Kananga’s henchmen but by the local police in the form of Sheriff J.W. Pepper who plays the role of fool and comedy relief in the film. Even the smaller action scenes in the film had more life and fun to them like Bond escaping a gator pit by timing a run across the backs of a line of gators to safety.
Where the previous bond film’s attempt at injecting humor and more action into the story were more failures than successes in this film Roger Moore Bond film they worked in due part to Moore’s playful delivery of the one-liners and bon mots the role has become known for of late. Any trepidation that audiences and producers might have had about Moore taking on the role that had been made famous by Connery soon went away as this film played out.
Live and Let Die still remains my favorite of all the Roger Moore Bond films and saw it as the highlight of his time playing the character. While the follow-up films were good in their own right it was this initial Moore entry in the series where the writers, Moore and veteran Bond filmmaker Guy Hamilton were able to find the perfect balance of thrilling action and humor that the rest of the Moore-era films couldn’t replicate.
Next up for James Bond…The Man with the Golden Gun.
Lisa Marie recently wrote up her very unique review of the James Bond film Live and Let Die and I’ve decided to use that review as the springboard for the latest “Song of the Day” entry. It’s easy enough to figure out that the latest choice is the similarly titled song from the film by Paul McCartney: “Live and Let Die”.
This song remains one of the most recognizable songs made specifically for a film. Most songs that become part of a film’s appeal tend to be pre-existing licensed songs and music. Live and Let Die would be the first James Bond film that would introduce Roger Moore as the British superspy and 007 agent. The song itself, written by Paul McCartney and his wife Linda, would become even more popular than the film through the years.
While the song has been covered by many bands and groups through the years it would be the cover by Guns N’ Roses in 1991 as part of their Use Your Illusion I album that many consider the best cover. I consider both favorite songs of mine, but I must pick McCartney’s original over the GnR cover by the smallest of margins.
Live and Let Die
When you were young and your heart was an open book You used to say live and let live you know you did you know you did you know you did But if this ever changin’ world in which we live in Makes you give in and cry Say live and let die Live and let die
What does it matter to ya When ya got a job to do Ya got to do it well You got to give the other fella hell
You used to say live and let live you know you did you know you did you know you did But if this ever changin’ world in which we live in Makes you give in and cry Say live and let die Live and let die
I know what you’re going to say before you say it.
“Okay, Lisa,” you sigh, “I hate to tell you this butLive and Let Dieis not a horror film. Live and Let Die is a James Bond film. In fact, it’s the first one to feature Roger Moore in the role of Bond. It’s the one where Yaphet Kotto is the guy who’s both a Harlem drug dealer and a world leader and he’s planning on importing all this heroin from Haiti or somewhere and Bond runs off with his Tarot card reader who is played by Jane Seymour, who has mismatched eyes, just like you!”
“Thank you,” I say in my shy little way as my cheeks flush red and my mismatched eyes glance downward.
“However,” you continue, “it’s hardly a horror film. Live and Let Die is just the James Bond film where they go to Louisiana and end up chasing each other in boats and then Clifton James shows up as this redneck sheriff and its just kinda embarrassing.”
“May I speak now?” I ask as I narrow my multi-colored eyes at you, “Now, to be honest, I’ve only recently started to really watch all of the old school James Bond films from the 60s and the 70s but Live and Let Die is actually one of my favorites, even with Clifton James as Sheriff J.W. Pepper. I mean, the film’s actually a lot of fun, Yaphet Kotto made a great villain, and even if Roger Moore wasn’t quite as sexy and dangerous as Sean Connery was, at least he wasn’t all stiff and humorless like Daniel Craig. In fact, I think it could be argued that Live and Let Die was the first — and maybe only — truly Grindhouse James Bond film. I just find it interesting how the whole film is basically a hybrid of all of the big exploitation genres of 1973. The scenes in Harlem and really the film’s entire plot is pretty much ripped off from blaxploitation while the voodoo scenes all have this kind of campy, Hammer feel to them. Even the scenes in Louisiana are an homage to the southern car chase movies that were apparently big at the drive-ins back then.”
“That’s all good and well, Lisa, but how does that make Live and Let Die a horror film? And don’t say it’s because Felix Leiter is played by David Hedison, the star of the original Fly because–”
“Hold on,” I say, “this is the point where we show the trailer.”
“Okay, Lisa Marie,” you say, “now that you’ve indulged in your bizarre trailer fetish, explain just how exactly this is a horror film and don’t try doing that thing you always do where you link it to some weird-ass thing that happened to you like ten years ago.”
My nostrils flare as I begin, “Ten years ago, me and my family were taking a vacation in voodoo country…”
“Lisa Marie, did you not read the previous paragraph?”
“Oh, sorry.” I pause in order to get my thoughts straight in my head. “Well, first off, let’s start with the opening credits. Now, I’ll be honest here and admit that I’ve always kinda wanted to be one of those girls that are always dancing around naked during the opening credits of all the old school James Bond films–”
“That’s a shock.”
“–so I always end up paying attention to those opening credits. I mean, that’s my time to fantasize about being in a James Bond film. And I have to say, the opening credits of Live and Let Die — Agck! Seriously, everyone always spends so much time talking about how great the theme song is that they kinda miss just how freaky and nightmarish those opening credits are. I mean, seriously, when you’re at home alone and you’re watching this in a dark room, these opening credits are genuinely unsettling. Here, check them out.”
“Okay,” you say, “I can see how the credits might freak you out but that’s just like 2 minutes of a two hour film–”
“Oh my God, I’m so not even done yet!” I snap, “This film isn’t about James Bond fighting drug dealers. All of that stuff with Yaphet Kotto and the heroin and all that — it’s all just an excuse to get to what the film is truly about: James Bond vs. Baron Samedi, the man who can not die! As played by Geoffrey Holder, Baron Samedi’s only in a few scenes but he dominates the entire film. I mean, it’s actually kinda funny because every time Baron Samedi shows up, someone dies but the film comes to life.”
“In fact,” I continue, now pretty much talking to myself, “when Baron Samedi first appears in the film, he’s killing this poor, terrified man by holding a poisonous snake up to the man’s face and oh my God, that scene freaked me out when I first saw it! In fact, it’s the only scene from a James Bond film that’s ever given me a nightmare. Even Eva Green drowning in Casino Royale didn’t freak me out as much as that snake scene did and you know I’m a lot more scared of drowning than I am of snakes. Which is odd since I live in Texas and there’s a lot more snakes around here than large bodies of water…”
“Slow down and breathe, Lisa Marie,” you say, “you’re getting off topic.”
“Right, sorry. Anyway, it’s a scary scene precisely because Baron Samedi seems to be enjoying killing the man so much. Then again, it could also be the fact that Baron Samedi had the most evil laugh ever. Seriously, listen to it in the scene below.”
As you watch the scene, I continue to speak, my words tumbling one after another out of my mouth, “But the scariest Baron Samedi scene isn’t even on YouTube. Seriously, YouTube sucks. I hate YouTube. I mean, you can find a thousand videos of silly people doing that Wii workout game in their underwear but you can’t find the freakiest Baron Samedi scene ever. Seriously, forget about Occupying Wall Street. Let’s occupy freaking YouTube and demand–”
“Focus, Lisa.”
“Sorry. Anyway, the freakiest scene in Live and Let Die and I would dare say the freakiest scene of the entire James Bond series, comes towards the end of the film. Baron Samedi pops up out of this grave and James Bond like shoots him and blows off half his forehead, right? And Baron Samedi just stand there perfectly still and emotionless. Then, his eyes slowly roll upward and stare up at where his forehead used to be. So, Bond shoots him like three more times and Baron Samedi just collapses like a rag doll. And then, suddenly, Baron Samedi — forehead intact — pops out of another grave and does that evil laugh of his! Oh. My. God! It is so freaky! I was watching it and I was just like…AGCK!
“And that,” I conclude, “is why Live and Let Die is a horror film.”
However, now that I’m finished, you don’t reply. I look up and I see that you’re gone.
Through the Shattered Lens 