"Live and Let Die" Poster Analysis

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"Live and Let Die" Film Poster (Wikipedia)

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“Live and Let Die” (Guy Hamilton, 1973) was Roger Moore’s first appearance as Bond. Moore had been “near the top of the list in 1962” (Sterling and Morecambe, 2002: 182) for “Dr No” (Terrance Young, 1962), however he was instead making “The Saint” (Leslie Charteris, 1962-1969) at the time. This popular series, both in the UK and in the US (Time Magazine, 1969), had a similar spy thriller genre to the Bond films, thus Moore’s name had become synonymous with the secret agent mantel. This explains why his name is positioned in the sweet spot of the poster in the same large, bold, aharoni typography as the other key information, that being the film’s title and the main character of the series. His name is also tied to the 007 mantle literally by combining the “o”s in his name to make zeros in the famous logo. The use of a red colour not only makes it stand out against the black, but also symbolises blood dripping, connecting it to the gun iconography of the “7”, and the danger and death that entails.

The central character denotes James Bond wearing a black suit, white shirt, and a blue Windsor-knotted tie, with a stern facial expression directly addressed at the audience and holding his pistol close to his face. The paradigm of the costume connotes professionality and high class, whilst the tie connotes Britishness using a navy-blue colour and “Windsor Knot”, both of which are associated with the army, a profession in turn linking to the secret service. Bond’s facial expression implies he is calm, collected, and suave due to the slight raised eyebrow and flat mouth. Furthermore, by looking away from the explosion behind him, it displays the unflinching nature of the protagonist, showing he is used to danger and destruction. The explosion could also be a symbol representing the religious iconography of a halo around Bond, presenting him as the moral hero of the film.  The icon of the gun also connotes a similar reading to the icon of the explosion, as the weapon itself is associated with danger and death, so by placing it close to his face in the style popularised by Pulman in the artwork for “From Russia with Love” (Terrance Young, 1963) (James Bond Lifestyle, 2021), it shows he is comfortable wielding such a weapon, and is skilled in its use.

The poster denotes four distinct women, all dressed in various bikinis, with sultry expressions, and all with direct address to the audience. The syntagmatic relation of this is that of a provocative and sexualised nature for the women. According to Mulvey: “In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact” (1999: 837). This is best demonstrated with the connotations of the snake on the card “Devil”, wrapped around the woman, like bondage, connoting sexual interplay. Furthermore, this uses the myth (“[how media will] constantly dress up a reality which […] is undoubtedly determined by history” (Barthes, 1957: 11)) of the Biblical story of the Devil taking a form of a snake to entice Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, implying the women is inciting the viewer or Bond to do something of a forbidden nature to her. Other cards have the symbolic words of “Lovers” or “Fortune”, connoting sex, and the luck of either Bond or the Bond Girl to be able to do it with the other. Further connotations can be derived from that of phallic imagery. This includes the icon of a machine gun that can be an index for a penis due to its shape and emphasised by the character of Solitaire riding it whilst in a sexualised pose, implying she is one of Bond’s sexual partners in the film. Taken into context with Bond’s unflinching pose with the explosions, this creates a display of “the powerful, awesome spectacle of phallic masculinity” (Lehman, 2001:26) to create an idealised role model for the primarily male audience.

The character second in from the left (Baron Samedi) denotes a black man, with a white flared suit, white top hat, and white face paint on one side, holding an SMG and adorned with a gold necklace. He has a half-snarl, half-laughing expression. As Moore stated: “Blaxploitation movies were fast becoming popular in 1970s cinema, and screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz thought it would be daring to use black villains” (2012: 37). Although as Chapman states: “the film is not in itself a blaxploitation picture, given that the hero is a white male and that it is set only partly in a black milieu” (1999: 138).  Racial profiling is a key signifier for this character, as black men are often depicted as “dangerous [and] exotic” (Alvarado, 1987: 195) at this time. The idea of him being exotic is primarily displayed through the voodoo imagery around Samedi. The two women either side (likely associates) are holding voodoo symbols, these being a doll and tarot cards. The gold jewellery and hypnotic background also aid this depiction. The idea of being dangerous is implied by the weapon, and him being shirtless, which is a typical costume paradigm for strong, fighting characters to display muscles and masculinity.  This, as well as his demonic grin, emphases his murderous nature and reinforces him as the villain of the film. This is further illustrated by the word “Death” written above him, and imagery of hell depicted below him.  This demonic imagery of hell, death and sadistic laughter is in “binary opposition” (Lévi-Strauss, 1925) to Bond’s halo, professionality, and seriousness, accentuating Samedi’s role as one of Bond’s enemies. This opposition is also displayed throughout the poster with black characters versus white characters, pink backgrounds on women versus the blue background for Bond (connoting difference in gender), and most notable the words “Live” and “Die” in the film title. Overall, this suggests conflicts will occur, both good versus evil, and one of sexual tension.

As already discussed, several signs are used to connote the action genre of the film. The poster denotes explosions, multiple types of guns, various cars and boats in chases and crashes, animals such as sharks and crocodiles and the icon of the knife positioned to represent the “I” in “Die”. Overall, these various props and stunts connote a semantic field of action due to the danger, spectacle, and death. Through enigma codes, this implies that at some point the audience will be able to witness all these events unfold and forms the main appeal of the action genre.

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Bibliography

AFI Catalog, ‘Live and Let Die (1973)’ at https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/54996 (accessed: 08 October 2021)

Alvarado, Manuel (1987) Learning the Media: Introduction to Media Teaching, Macmillan International Higher Education

Barthes, Roland (1957) Mythologies, Paladin

Chapman, James (1999) Licence to Thrill, I.B. Tauris

James Bond Lifestyle (2021), ‘Prop Store Cinema Poster Live Auction Offers Rare James Bond Posters and Feref Archive Concepts’, Available at: https://www.jamesbondlifestyle.com/news/prop-store-cinema-poster-live-auction-offers-rare-james-bond-posters-and-feref-archive-concepts (Accessed: 15 October 2021)

Lehman, Peter (2001), “Crying over the Melodramatic Penis” in Peter Lehman (ed.) Masculinity: Bodies Movies and Culture: Routledge, 2001

Lévi-Strauss, Claude (1925), The Structural Study of Myth

Moore, Rodger (2012) Bond on Bond: The Ultimate Book on 50 Years of Bond Movie, Michael O’Mara Books Limited

Mulvey, Laura (1999), “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” in Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen (ed.) Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings New York: Oxford UP, 1999

Sterling, Martin and Morecambe, Gary (2002) Martinis, Girls and Guns: 50 Years of 007, Robson Books

Time Magazine, 18th April 1969

Wikipedia, ‘Live and Let Die (Film)’, Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_and_Let_Die_(film) (Accessed: 08 October 2021)

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Filmography

Dr No (Terrance Young, 1962)

From Russia with Love (Terrance Young, 1963)

Live and Let Die (Guy Hamilton, 1973)

The Saint (Leslie Charteris, 1962-1969)