History YMMV / LiveAndLetDie

* BadassDecay: Bond is supposed to be a very good spy and secret agent. Yet on this movie it is quite jarring how EVERYBODY seems to know what he is, what's he's up to, and what he's doing. Not only that, but they're following and tailing him at almost EVERY SINGLE INSTANT in the whole film, to the point he gets betrayed twice AND trapped three times. At least part of this is explained by Solitaire's tarot reading giving the bad guys a heads up. After that, Mr. Big ''is'' well connected. There is also a recurring theme in the Creator/RogerMoore films where Bond is less of a secret agent and more of a ''living legend'' given Scaramanga's reaction to him (which is not entirely unlikely given how he is a OneManArmy who has saved the whole world at least twice by this point.)

* BrokenBase: Relating to Baron Samedi's immortality, Solitaire's VirginPower of clairvoyance, and the implication that Kananga is old enough to be Solitaire's grandfather despite appearing to be in his late 40's. Accepting that these are real (and there is a lot of potential evidence that they are) means that you are accepting the existence of magic in the James Bond franchise, which is understandably something that a lot of people have a problem with in their spy fiction. Especially if you are a fan of the darker and more realistic incarnations of Bond such as Timothy Dalton. (That said, "magic in James Bond" is OlderThanTheyThink, as both this novel, ''Literature/FromRussiaWithLove'' and ''Literature/YouOnlyLiveTwice'' feature [[PropheciesAreAlwaysRight surprisingly accurate prophesies]]).

* GeniusBonus: At the close of the pre-credits sequence, to ratchet up the tension of the agent's death, the musical score quotes the Huge Chord from Music/TheBeatles' "A Day in the Life". The film's composer was George Martin.

* Although there's a bit of FairForItsDay, the whole story seems to be the ''absolute antithesis'' of "Political Correctness"....
** All black characters are either villains and/or they get killed.
** The mysterious psychic henchwoman, Solitare, turns out to actually be an unwilling collaborator and slave. She gets de-powered due to sex with Bond and spends the rest of the film as a helpless DamselInDistress.
** The whole film apes the whole {{Blaxploitation}} craze (a genre about empowering blacks and the AngryBlackMan or SassyBlackWoman AntiHero fighting evil bigoted white authority figures) yet subverts the heck out of it (Now the heroic MightyWhitey is fighting the evil AngryBlackMan)! The CleopatraJones [[{{Expy}} expy]] turns out to be a villain who's terrified of everything like some [[MinstrelShows Minstrel Show]] character.
** There is an openly-bigoted Sheriff who's clearly an idiot but he's still ''technically'' one of the ''good guys''. There's two heroic black guys but they get killed.
** The black baddies with the WhereDaWhiteWomenAt subtext....AndThatsTerrible! Bond has sex with a black lady and she gets killed.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The title theme by Music/PaulMcCartney and Music/{{Wings}}. Whoa. So much so that Music/GunsNRoses did a cover of it.

* BrokenBase: Relating to Baron Samedi's immortality, Solitaire's VirginPower of clairvoyance, and the implication that Kananga is old enough to be Solitaire's grandfather despite appearing to be in his late 40's. Accepting that these are real (and there is a lot of potential evidence that they are) means that you are accepting the existence of magic in the James Bond franchise, which is understandably something that a lot of people have a problem with in their spy fiction. Especially if you are a fan of the darker and more realistic incarnations of Bond such as Timothy Dalton. (That said, "magic in James Bond" is OlderThanTheyThink, as both this novel and ''Literature/FromRussiaWithLove'' feature [[PropheciesAreAlwaysRight surprisingly accurate prophesies]]).

* FairForItsDay: ''Live and Let Die'' was Ian Fleming's second 007 novel (1954) - while the book's narrative and the black dialect Bond hears in Harlem read pretty cringe-worthy, and Bond's got some very politically incorrect attitudes towards blacks, he does observe that a typical young couple in the restaurant he goes to is interested in the same things as everyone else in the world, and is glad "they're not genteel about it". Mister Big himself notes that blacks have made major contributions to many human endeavors, and aims to be the first black super-criminal. Felix Leiter is also openly accepting of blacks and even reminds Bond to be less rude when referring to them. Also, during Bond's initial briefing, even M (a hidebound reactionary even by the standards of the time) says that Mr. Big or someone like him was inevitable.

* BadassDecay: Bond is supposed to be a very good spy and secret agent. Yet on this movie it is quite jarring how EVERYBODY seems to know what he is, what's he's up to, and what he's doing. Not only that, but they're following and tailing him at almost EVERY SINGLE INSTANT in the whole film, to the point he gets betrayed twice AND trapped three times. At least part of this is explained by Solitaire's tarot reading giving the bad guys a heads up. After that, Mr. Big ''is'' well connected. There is also a recurring theme in the Roger Moore films where Bond is less of a secret agent and more of a ''living legend'' given Scaramanga's reaction to him (which is not entirely unlikely given how he is a OneManArmy who has saved the whole world at least twice by this point.)

** David Hedison is one of the more popular actors to portray Felix Leiter. His likability in the part and his great chemistry with Roger Moore probably did much to convince the producers to bring him back opposite Timothy Dalton sixteen years later in ''Film/LicenceToKill''.

** Inflatable Yaphet Kotto, for a start.

** Italian agent Caruso, seen only in the opening scene where she had slept with Bond after a mission in Rome, then hides in the closet from M when he and Moneypenny unexpectedly show up at Bond's apartment.

* SoOkayItsAverage: Generally considered a campy and rather stereotypical period piece that is lifted up by a suspenseful plot driven by Roger Moore and Jane Seymour's standout performances.

* TearJerker: All of the abuse Solitaire endures at Kananga's hands; especially noteworthy is when he knocks her to the ground after having lost her abilities.
** Rosie's death. Treacherous as she was, she clearly did not appreciate what she had gotten herself in to and her fear at being killed proves to be very real at the end.

* FairForItsDay: For all the cringeworthy portrayals of African-Americans as jive-talking superstitious criminals, Bond's two most competent allies, Quarell and Strutter, are both African-American, and the bigoted sheriff J.W. Pepper is portrayed as and openly referred to as an idiot. And if you're feeling extra generous, you can write off the "jive-talking superstitious" part of that last sentence as the Kananga's personal fetish, enforcing the theme on his underlings. You could also note that Creator/YaphetKotto plays Kananga as being every bit as sophisticated, intelligent, and dangerous as any other Bond villain.

* BrokenBase: Relating to Baron Samedi's immortality, Solitaire's VirginPower of clairvoyance, and the implication that Kananga is old enough to be Solitaire's grandfather despite appearing to be in his late 40's. Accepting that these are real (and there is a lot of potential evidence that they are) means that you are accepting the existence of magic in the James Bond franchise, which is understandably something that a lot of people have a problem with in their spy fiction. Especially if you are a fan of the darker and more realistic incarnations of Bond such as Timothy Dalton.

* Bond hears Felix communicating to his car through a cigarette lighter, noting "[[{{Pun}} A genuine Felix Leiter/Lighter. Illuminating.]]" In ''Film/LicenceToKill'', Felix (again played by David Hedison) gives Bond a cigarette lighter as a gift for being his wedding's best man [[spoiler:which he uses to kill Franz Sanchez as vengeance for the maiming of Felix and the death of Felix's wife]] ...all of which happened to him in the book ''Live and Let Die''.

* HilariousInHindsight: Bond hears Felix communicating to his car through a cigarette lighter, noting "[[{{Pun}} A genuine Felix Leiter/Lighter. Illuminating.]]" In ''Film/LicenceToKill'', Felix (again played by David Hedison) gives Bond a cigarette lighter as a gift for being his wedding's best man [[spoiler:which he uses to kill Franz Sanchez as vengeance for the maiming of Felix and the death of Felix's wife]] ...all of which happened to him in the book ''Live and Let Die''.
** After her deflowering, [[GoodBadGirl Solitaire suddenly can't get enough sex with Bond]]. Years later, Creator/JaneSeymour stars in ''Film/WeddingCrashers'' as the more sex-crazed Katherine Cleary. And bonus points, her husband William is played by Creator/ChristopherWalken, who played Max Zorin in ''Film/AViewToAKill'', which was Creator/RogerMoore's last Bond film.

* OneSceneWonder: The lovely Ms. Caruso from after the title sequence.

* [=Tearjerker=]: All of the abuse Solitaire endures at Kananga's hands; especially noteworthy is when he knocks her to the ground after having lost her abilities.

** David Hedison is one of the more popular actors to portray Felix Leiter. His likability in the part and his great chemistry with Roger Moore probably did much to convince the producers to bring him back opposite Timothy Dalton sixteen years later in ''Film//LicenceToKill''.

* TheScrappy: Sheriff J. W. Pepper, to a certain extent, although this really set in for him after he reappeared in ''Film/TheManWithTheGoldenGun''. Amusingly the designer for Victory Games' RPG based on the franchise glommed onto the character for this reason: a lot of random encounter charts call for the sheriff to appear wherever the player characters are and attach himself to them in order to make their activities more difficult.

* TheScrappy: Sheriff J. W. Pepper, to a certain extent, although this really set in for him after he reappeared in ''Film/TheManWithTheGoldenGun''.

* {{Bowdlerization}}: As discussed [[http://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com/2012/08/james-bond-novels-that-were-edited.html here]], several of Fleming's less-sensitive moments were changed or deleted outright when this book first hit the United States.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: That Paul [=McCartney=] title theme. Whoa. So much so that Music/GunsNRoses did a cover of it.

* FairForItsDay: ''Live and Let Die'' was Ian Fleming's second 007 novel (1954) - while the book's narrative and the black dialect Bond hears in Harlem read pretty cringe-worthy, he observes that a typical young couple in the restaurant he goes to is interested in the same things as everyone else in the world, and is glad "they're not genteel about it". Mister Big himself notes that blacks have made major contributions to many human endeavors, and aims to be the first black super-criminal. Also, during Bond's initial briefing, even M (a hidebound reactionary even by the standards of the time) says that Mr. Big or someone like him was inevitable.

** [[DamselInDistress For her faults]], Solitaire is often considered as one of the most beautiful Bond girls in the franchise. No small feat

* FairForItsDay: ''Live and Let Die'' was Ian Fleming's second 007 novel (1954) - while the book's narrative and the black dialect Bond hears in Harlem read pretty cringe-worthy, he observes they're interested in the same things as everyone else, and is glad "they're not genteel about it". Mister Big himself notes that blacks have made major contributions to many human endeavors, and aims to be the first black super-criminal. Also, during Bond's initial briefing, even M (a hidebound reactionary even by the standards of the time) says that Mr. Big or someone like him was inevitable.

** Baron Samedi is probably the most well-remembered character from the film. He would later get a guest role in [[VideoGame/GoldenEye1997 Goldeneye]].

--> "The Negro races are just beginning to throw up geniuses in all the professions-scientists, doctors, writers. It's about time they turned out a great criminal. After all, there are 250,000,000 of them in the world. Nearly a third of the white population. They've got plenty of brains and ability and guts. And now Moscow's taught one of them the technique."