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James Bond "Less is MOORE" Editions

MusicEd921

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@"LastSurvivor" 's excellent License Revoked edit has got me motivated to tackle a project I've been wanting to for a loooong time.....editing all of Roger Moore's Bond films into less cheesy spy thrillers.  This is getting me back to my editing roots as my first edit was Moonraker (which I'll revisit when the time comes).  For now.....

...it all starts with:

live-and-let-die-vintage-movie-poster-original-half-sheet-22x28-6035.jpg


Released in 1973, Live and Let Die was Roger Moore's first foray into the popular spy franchise and it took Bond to the exotic locale of.....New York City.  Along with the the seedy underbelly of Harlem featuring lots of dated slangs being thrown around, we have Jane Seymour's first film role.  

In all honesty, this is my least favorite of the Moore era, which is why I'm glad I'm going in order of release.  

In relation to later entries, this one had a lot less of the cringey one-liners and outside of J.W. Pepper, this managed to be a bit more serious.  The only plot point that I found to be a letdown was that most of the characters believed in the supernatural voodoo aspects except for Bond and then Baron Samedi appears in a scene towards the climax and is blown away like he is made of porcelain only to come back again, get knocked into a case full of venomous snakes and then reappear with his signature laugh at the very end of the film (where they initially had plans to feature him again, but that never came to fruition).  My cutlist will reflect that Bond didn't buy into the supernatural and was right about at least the Baron being a sham.

Cutlist:

- With this being a new Bond's first appearance, I was surprised they didn't include him before the opening titles.  I have moved things around so that our new Bond appears as M is coming to give him his mission while Bond is hiding the fact that he has a woman in his apartment.  The titles kick in as Bond uses the magnetic watch to undress his lady friend.
- Bond's car ride as he arrives in NYC kicks into high gear as Whispers shoots a dart at the driver.  I've trimmed things so that as soon as the driver is shot the car immediately loses control.  Originally the dead driver was maneuvering in traffic really well for a dead guy.
- Cut dated dialogue between Bond and his cab driver (Bond literally refers to someone as a jukebox).
- Cut people calling Bond a honky and a cue ball.
- Cut Rosie Carver completely
- Cut Bond talking about handing the case over to Felix and then contradicting that in the next scene.
- Cut old lady at the air field
- Cut the next scene that references the old lady in the air field
- Make a cleaner cut from what the movie had going from Bond being lowered under the stage compared to what was there.
- Cut Bond saying "watch your step" before being cuffed to the chair.  It just felt out of place.
- Cut Bond saying "butter hook" to Tee Hee when he was trying to take Bond's watch off.
- Cut Bond saying "oh I was counting on that" to Tee Hee when he's being left with the crocs
- Rework the whole speed boat chase, cutting out JW Pepper completely as well as the henchman driving his car after Bond as grabbing JW Pepper's relative's speed boat as well as Bond crashing a wedding and grabbing their boat.
- Add music to new speed boat chase
- Cut Baron getting shot by Bond and exploding
- Cut "keep the change" line
- Trim the quick fight scene between Kananga and Bond so that Kananga comes right at Bond without stopping to raise the knife in the air leaving himself open to getting punched or kicked which Bond doesn't do.
- Cut inflatable Kananga.  Now we see him flail around after swallowing the compressed air dart and then we see the water explode.
- Cut Bond's terrible line after Kananga blows up
- Cut after Bond loses at cards as he immediately goes right in for the sex
- Add music to fight with Tee Hee
- Cut Baron sitting on back of train at the end

I'm well underway and will post clips soon!
 

bionicbob

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Great to see you back MusicEd!  Never enough Bond!
 

wilhelm scream

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Great cutlist! I would personally try and cut the pointless and annoying Rosie Carver.
 

MusicEd921

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wilhelm scream said:
Great cutlist! I would personally try and cut the pointless and annoying Rosie Carver.

Yeah the whole double agent thing was poorly handled and her only real purpose was to show how scared people were over the voodoo stuff.  I just watched the movie and I'm sitting here trying to think about what she actually did for the plot.  

I'll take a look and see what can be done.  I'm glad I'm not the only one who didn't like her character.
 

wilhelm scream

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musiced921 said:
wilhelm scream said:
Great cutlist! I would personally try and cut the pointless and annoying Rosie Carver.

Yeah the whole double agent thing was poorly handled and her only real purpose was to show how scared people were over the voodoo stuff.  I just watched the movie and I'm sitting here trying to think about what she actually did for the plot.  

I'll take a look and see what can be done.  I'm glad I'm not the only one who didn't like her character.

She wasn't even a competent double agent! If you can't get rid of her completly, at least trim her as much as possible.
 

LastSurvivor

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This sounds awesome.... glad to see you back musiced!  Count me in for this one!
 

MusicEd921

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Rosie Carver is gone!

In looking it over again, a few quick cuts here and there and we won't even know Rosie was there.

I kept the scene of Kananga scolding Solitaire over Bond still being alive and now when he mentions her seeing death, it can be implied it was for the snake and not Rosie.  Bond is there looking for Solitaire and Kananga, so being the super spy that he is, he doesn't need Rosie to take him anywhere.  We do lose Quarrel Jr.'s intro, but he's still there and is called by name later (just not with the jr. part).
 

wilhelm scream

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musiced921 said:
Rosie Carver is gone!

In looking it over again, a few quick cuts here and there and we won't even know Rosie was there.

I kept the scene of Kananga scolding Solitaire over Bond still being alive and now when he mentions her seeing death, it can be implied it was for the snake and not Rosie.  Bond is there looking for Solitaire and Kananga, so being the super spy that he is, he doesn't need Rosie to take him anywhere.  We do lose Quarrel Jr.'s intro, but he's still there and is called by name later (just not with the jr. part).
Thank you! If your planning on doing Man with the Golden Gun at some point, please remove the sheriff and his wife (I have no idea why they brought him back).
 

MusicEd921

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The Man with The Golden Gun is next, with some light preliminary research being done. JW Pepper will not be in that one either. I’ll share some additional thoughts on TMWTGG after this edit is complete. Having a Bond channel on PlutoTV definitely keeps me motivated lol!
 

wilhelm scream

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musiced921 said:
The Man with The Golden Gun is next, with some light preliminary research being done. JW Pepper will not be in that one either. I’ll share some additional thoughts on TMWTGG after this edit is complete. Having a Bond channel on PlutoTV definitely keeps me motivated lol!

To be fair, I think every Bond film could use a fan-edit.
 

Jrzag42

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Man with the Golden Gun is the only Moore bond film I've seen, so I'm excited to see what you do with it
 

MusicEd921

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Here's a little preview of the plane chase without the old woman on board.  I also had to cover up the dialogue of the driver of the green car because he starts to lose his mind over the fact that he can't seem the find the brakes as he is driving with a cracked windshield :rolleyes: :

LESS IS MOORE EDITION:


ORIGINAL:



The transition after the chase scene is weirdly off, so I have to look into that.  Notice that I cut Felix talking about the old woman and Bond asking how she is doing and instead cropped the shot so after Bond picks out his tie we see him in the background as opposed to walking away from Felix.  Even more weird is the random blank screen after that scene as we jump over to the agent watching Kananga's restaurant.  Stuff I'll fix going forward.

Do you think music should be added to this scene?  There are 3 chase scenes: the bus chase, the plane chase and the speedboat chase.  They have small bits of music, but nothing substantial.  There also isn't much in terms of the score to work with and I haven't found anything by John Berry that fits the movie's current aesthetic.
 

LastSurvivor

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musiced921 said:
Here's a little preview of the plane chase without the old woman on board.  I also had to cover up the dialogue of the driver of the green car because he starts to lose his mind over the fact that he can't seem the find the brakes as he is driving with a cracked windshield :rolleyes: :




The transition after the chase scene is weirdly off, so I have to look into that.  Notice that I cut Felix talking about the old woman and Bond asking how she is doing and instead cropped the shot so after Bond picks out his tie we see him in the background as opposed to walking away from Felix.  Even more weird is the random blank screen after that scene as we jump over to the agent watching Kananga's restaurant.  Stuff I'll fix going forward.

Do you think music should be added to this scene?  There are 3 chase scenes: the bus chase, the plane chase and the speedboat chase.  They have small bits of music, but nothing substantial.  There also isn't much in terms of the score to work with and I haven't found anything by John Berry that fits the movie's current aesthetic.

Overall I really like it.  Sure, you can see that there's someone else in the plane in a couple of shots, but I can live with that ;)  As you say, the transition is a bit off (i.e. dialogue seems slightly out of sync at the start) and the audio does have a strange over compressed quality to it too.   

Not sure music needs to be added to the scene. If you do, I would ensure it's something which fits the rest of the film and isn't something for example from a latter Bond movie which would stick out.  As you say, if it doesn't fit the asethetic, best to just leave it as it is. 

Good work though, all very promising
 

Problem Eliminator

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I see you've moved Moore's introduction as Bond up to the pre-titles sequence. Does that mean the original pre-titles has been cut? I always thought it was terrible, save for the New Orleans funeral procession, which is great and gets referenced again later.

Also, what is your reasoning behind cutting Baron Samedi at the end? That's a favourite scene of mine.
 

MusicEd921

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Problem Eliminator said:
I see you've moved Moore's introduction as Bond up to the pre-titles sequence. Does that mean the original pre-titles has been cut? I always thought it was terrible, save for the New Orleans funeral procession, which is great and gets referenced again later.

Also, what is your reasoning behind cutting Baron Samedi at the end? That's a favourite scene of mine.

At the moment I've kept the rest of the pre-titles stuff because it shows the agents being taken out which leads to M recruiting Bond for the mission.  The agent that is sacrificed and bitten by the snake is also referenced later when Solitaire is brought there.

I cut Baron laughing on the train at the end because we saw him die in the original cut of the film twice (in my version just the once when he is knocked into the coffin of snakes).  One of the themes of the movie which wasn't tackled that well was the superstition everyone has and how Kananga was playing up on that by having Baron do his thing, even after we see Baron at another point in the movie wearing regular clothes and just hanging out doing his trademark laugh.  I didn't like the immortal angle they were playing with and I felt like it was out of place for a James Bond movie (at least one where he isn't going to space).

Jaws on the other hand.....lol
 

Omaru1982

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Nice cutlist, I was going to ask about Clifton James being cut in the second film, but the response was there as I scrolled down. I find it kind of sad that he was typecast as playing dim witted sheriffs in everything he ever appeared in and it really confused my child brain (is that the same sheriff from Superman II? I would ask.)

Going to keep an eye open for both of these as Moores first two bonds were two of my favourites as a kid, but looking back with hindsight I could see the silly and contrived parts.
 

MusicEd921

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A little update!

I managed to cut the boat chase from 8-9 minutes down to 2 minutes.  The reason it was a bit excessive, besides all of the comedy bits and the several boat jumps across roads and people's lawns is that Bond changes boats midway through and oddly enough, the boat he escapes in initially is brown, yet right away his boat turns red and then he steals a boat midway through that looks brown again.  I'm no expert, but something just wasn't quite right with this.  Also, the several henchmen that go after him are defeated by crashing into the police or crashing into a wedding.

Now, Bond escapes the gator farm and he is immediately followed by the henchman Adam in the black boat (which he stole from J.W. Pepper's brother-in-law, but we don't see that).

I will post a clip soon.  After I did a test run with using the Boat Chase music from a different part of the chase over the new cut and replacing some of the boat sound effects over parts that I had to mute, there were SEVERAL flash frames that eluded me for some reason and I have to clean up hopefully tomorrow.  

In other news, I've decided that when I start Man with the Golden Gun, that car chase just has to completely go.  J.W. Pepper ( or at least a passenger), is visible in every angle of that chase.  :: sigh ::
 

wilhelm scream

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musiced921 said:
A little update!

I managed to cut the boat chase from 8-9 minutes down to 2 minutes.  The reason it was a bit excessive, besides all of the comedy bits and the several boat jumps across roads and people's lawns is that Bond changes boats midway through and oddly enough, the boat he escapes in initially is brown, yet right away his boat turns red and then he steals a boat midway through that looks brown again.  I'm no expert, but something just wasn't quite right with this.  Also, the several henchmen that go after him are defeated by crashing into the police or crashing into a wedding.

Now, Bond escapes the gator farm and he is immediately followed by the henchman Adam in the black boat (which he stole from J.W. Pepper's brother-in-law, but we don't see that).

I will post a clip soon.  After I did a test run with using the Boat Chase music from a different part of the chase over the new cut and replacing some of the boat sound effects over parts that I had to mute, there were SEVERAL flash frames that eluded me for some reason and I have to clean up hopefully tomorrow.  

In other news, I've decided that when I start Man with the Golden Gun, that car chase just has to completely go.  J.W. Pepper ( or at least a passenger), is visible in every angle of that chase.  :: sigh ::

Also, when you edit Man with the Golden Gun. Are you going to replace the Lulu theme with the rejected Alice Cooper version: 
 

lapis molari

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Solid cut-list. I look forward to this edit, I may not need to do my own. :)

The two big items that I'd want to do different are:

- Add Moore's cemetery scene from For Your Eyes Only as his introduction, with the helicopter taking off into the opening credits. Of course this only works for people who accept @"nostromo777" 's FYEO edit as their go-to version.

- Have Kananga die from shark bite, not gas pellet! I think there's enough footage to make this work (re-use a few shots, flip some for variety, and overlay a semi-transparent spreading red liquid on the water as final shot).
 

MusicEd921

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Hey @"wilhelm scream" , I'm sorry I missed your post there!  At the time you posted I was knee deep in trying to put together what classwork I could for my music students before we rolled out online learning on Wednesday of last week.  

That's a great idea!  I hadn't completely dedicated myself to Golden Gun yet, but I finished up my cutlist the other night and will be posting soon.

@"lapis molari" are you saying that I should edit out the completely realistic Kananga balloon from the end of their fight scene lol?  I just took a look at it and I'm not sure I could pull off the shark attack angle, but I could do a cutaway so we don't see Kananga shoot up to the ceiling and explode, but instead explode offscreen as the camera focuses on Solitaire and we can look back at the remnants in the water, sans any blood.  Thoughts?

I was just putting some finishing touches on the overall first draft.  Tons of flash frames I had to fix and music edits here and there.  I am toying with adding music to the TeeHee fight scene with either music from the shortened runaway car scene or the music used during Rosie Carver's death since she's gone from my edit.

I was watching PlutoTV's Bond channel the other night and caught the beginning of For Your Eyes Only.  Right away I was thinking about how that scene could be recycled in general as long as you cut after take off (and the priest giving Bond a clearly guilty look).  The only issue is Roger looks a bit older there compared to Live and Let Die when he still had some youth in his face.  @"nostromo777" 's edit sounds like quite a beast and when it's finished, that'll tell me whether I have anything to add to the mix or happily skip over it in favor of tackling ones not done yet.  

A little later today I am going to change this thread to just be about the "Less is MOORE" editions of Bond movies and continue on by adding my Golden Gun cutlist.  I'm anxious to hear of any other ideas or recommendations.
 
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