Investigating the mysterious deaths of three agents, Bond
investigates the murky world of drugs and black magic. But what links Mr Big, a
feared crime boss, and Dr. Kananga, diplomat for a small Caribbean island?
There’s a very atmospheric opening to the film: the New
Orleans funeral procession and the San Monique voodoo ceremony are especially
chilling. There’s a heavy influence of the supernatural to the film with the
aspects of voodoo and tarot and the sinister Baron Samedi (Geoffrey Holder).
Rosie is scared by signs and portents- including, bizarrely, a very small hat-
and there are creepy scarecrows in the cemetery. The second voodoo ceremony is
also very well done. It’s telling that this is, to date, the only Bond movie
which mixes in the supernatural with the traditional spy action. It’s very much
a standalone, unique film in that respect.
Moore gives a decent performance in his first outing as
Bond, the tongue-in-cheek quips and one-liners coming thick and fast. He
doesn’t display the same killer instinct as Connery although he is quite handy
with an improvised flamethrower. All in all, there’s the basis of a good
character. This is also the fifth film to feature Felix Leiter and the fifth
actor to portray the character (David Hedison, who will return to the role in License
To Kill). Hedison’s performance is very
decent (which might be why he was asked back to the role, albeit after sixteen
years).
Yaphet Kotto makes for a powerful villain- his mask of
philanthropy hides heroin growing and distribution. His obsession with
Solitaire and his desire for control over her is unnerving. Jane Seymour gives
a luminous performance as tarot reader Solitaire. Her powers are linked to her
purity and, when seduced by Bond (in a clever little sequence involving fixing
the tarot deck), she is unable to read the cards. She does then become very much a damsel-in-distress, reliant
on Bond to rescue her, which slightly lessens the impact.
The sequence where Bond outmanoeuvres the San Monique police
in a rickety old double-decker bus is still impressive. The stunt at the farm,
where Bond runs across the ravenous alligators and crocodiles, is still
impressive (all the more so for being done by a stuntman for real)
We then get to one of the big missteps of the film: Sheriff
JW Pepper (Clifton James). A stereotypical racist redneck sheriff and about as
funny as trapping your fingers in a car door. The boat chase then lapses into cheap slapstick which skews
from the original macabre tone. This was the age of the blaxpoitation movie
which is writ large all over this film: Mr Big (and several others) refer to
Bond as a ‘honky’ and he’s criticised for being ‘a white face in Harlem’. It’s
unlikely that a film this consciously racist- in all its forms- would be made
in these more politically correct times.
There are several effects that haven’t stood the test of
time- TeeHee’s prosthesis, some of the rubber snakes for the voodoo ceremonies
and the inflated Kananga at the end- but on the whole it’s a decent film,
well-acted (for the most part) and a heady mix of sorcery and spydom.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Tez
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