Live and Let Die: Gator Bait Edition

[Grievous Angel Draven]

No pepper, no slide whistle.

Lovin' it, but were you able to remove the "kung-fu girls" as well as J.W. Pepper in the canal chase?

 

[ohmss]

Nah, but it is possible to dodge around the car driving off and leaving Bond. A simple cut makes it look like Bond closes the car door and then runs to the river. I don't know why he would do that but it works better than what actually happens in the film.

 

[Sluggo]

This edit looks really interesting. I really liked the original, but now that the slide whistle and other goofy bits have been cut, I think I'll like this even more.

And how could some people say this was one of the worst Bond films? Moonraker, anyone?

 

[Tubes]

I'm not into arbitrary numbering systems and grading in movie reviews, so this review will be slightly different.

Presentation:
Very nice menu opening. Main menu includes scene selection, an info page, and special features. Special features include a green keyed version of Roger Moore's scope gun barrel sequence and the main titles set to the Guns and Roses cover of the title song. Fairly meaty for a single disc DVD and one of the most appealing openings of a fanedit.

Video:
Video is flawless. Crystal clear with very few artifacts. The reds tend to pixelate (a common problem with .DV codecs), but it is very seldom seen. The cropping down to 2.35 is servicable and could so with some reframing here and there. Fortunately, most of the action in LALD takes place in the middle of the screen, so you don't get chopped heads that sometimes plague reframing. A few shaved scalps, but nothing irritating.

Audio:
Alas, this is the weak part. The vast majority of the film, the audio is fine. There are certain points, however, that could use more work. The added score feels slapped on as opposed to mixed in and occasionally I can still here the original music bleeding through. One small part of the audio, during the shortened boat chase, feels bizarre and almost throws me out of the movie. In the original film, Tee Hee's henchman steals JW Pepper's relatives boat as JW is calling him for help. In order to cover this, the editor uses Rock and Roll by Led Zeppelin. I'm assuming that JW's relative is listening to it on his radio, but there is no indication to that.

Editing decisions:

The black and white pre titles looks very nice. The boat chase works well despite the amount cut from it.

Result:
Since the vast majority of the film is flawless and the editing is, for the most part, fluid, I'll approve Live and Let Die: Gator Bait Edition. It's not a replacement disc, in my opinion, but it's an interesting take on the film and cuts a lot of the problems people have with the film. I would like to see a Version 2 at some point in the future that fixes this edits small problems.

 

[Grievous Angel Draven]

Thanks Tubes. So, is it cleared for approval?

 

[Hymie]

I just watched this film last night and suffice it to say my feelings were mixed.

After the first hour, I was really impressed as any cuts that were made were seamless and I had to refer back to the list to see what was changed. Unfortunately, the edit really started to go downhill in the second half and I was far from impressed.

My Problems with the Edit.

Recropping the Film: Why would you alter the film from the way it was originally shot. It didn't give any substantial advantage to the film and a number of scenes (in particular the ones with taro cards) had the bottom or top of the screen cut off losing an important part of the shot. The first 3 films were in 1.85 and while I have no idea why they went back to this for LALD, that is how they shot it and IMO you should have just left it as it was.

Black and White opening: I personally hate how everyone wants to have b&w openings for Bond films since Casino Royale, as it serves no real purpose but to be stylistic and reference CR. The few elements left in color were good, but after the murder of the MI6 agent and everything goes to color, it then goes back to b&w with yellow highlights at the island scene. This jumping back and forth took me out of the story and made it obvious that I was watching a fan edit rather than simply a version of the film.

The Boat Chase: Initially I didn't have a problem with cutting the boat chase because I was for removing some of JW, what resulted felt very truncated and removed one of the real great scenes from the film. The inclusion of a brief snippet of Rock music before JWs brother-in-law's boat is stolen is just weird and doesn't belong. I don't know what its supposed to be other than to cover some of JW's dialogue. Why not just have silence? The song comes in and goes with no provocation and reason and is a big flaw. As for the chase itself, you definitely could have left some more of the actual chase in the film to add that sense of fun and excitement while still eliminating JW. Instead, you shortened the scene way too much and what is left craves you wanting more (much Moore :wink: ).

Audio: I don't know about others, but I had a big problem with the audio when I watched it. Granted I watched it on a standard tv with no special setup, but when you have to keep adjusting the audio every 5-10 minutes it becomes annoying. I also had a problem with the music you added in, as it was often far too loudly mixed and mostly felt out of place. The use of "He's Dangerous" sounded good on paper, but those 80s metal guitar rifts have no place in a 1973 film. This edit also suffers from the problem that the Bond theme needs to play whenever Bond does something cool or exciting. The last 30 minutes is filled with new music, which is all noticeably done and particularly out of place during the final fight with both Kanaga and TeeHee.

Like I said, I really liked the film after the first half and though that the Gator Bite edition might become the definitive edition for me. After finishing the film, however, I think I'll stick to the UE. Sorry :-(

 

[Grievous Angel Draven]

Recropping the Film: Why would you alter the film from the way it was originally shot. It didn't give any substantial advantage to the film and a number of scenes (in particular the ones with taro cards) had the bottom or top of the screen cut off losing an important part of the shot. The first 3 films were in 1.85 and while I have no idea why they went back to this for LALD, that is how they shot it and IMO you should have just left it as it was.

Totally get your point. I've never reframed anything before, and I didn't look though it as well as I thought I did. If I was doing TMWTGG, I would've reframed it to, so all the Moore films would have matching scope.

Black and White opening: I personally hate how everyone wants to have b&w openings for Bond films since Casino Royale, as it serves no real purpose but to be stylistic and reference CR. The few elements left in color were good, but after the murder of the MI6 agent and everything goes to color, it then goes back to b&w with yellow highlights at the island scene. This jumping back and forth took me out of the story and made it obvious that I was watching a fan edit rather than simply a version of the film.

I can see why you didn't like it, but I just wanted to give a unique opening to the film to reflect the appearance of a new Bond and his absence from the pre-title sequence.

The Boat Chase: Initially I didn't have a problem with cutting the boat chase because I was for removing some of JW, what resulted felt very truncated and removed one of the real great scenes from the film. The inclusion of a brief snippet of Rock music before JWs brother-in-law's boat is stolen is just weird and doesn't belong. I don't know what its supposed to be other than to cover some of JW's dialogue. Why not just have silence? The song comes in and goes with no provocation and reason and is a big flaw. As for the chase itself, you definitely could have left some more of the actual chase in the film to add that sense of fun and excitement while still eliminating JW. Instead, you shortened the scene way too much and what is left craves you wanting more (much Moore :wink: ).

I never really cared for the boat scene that much, but I can see why someone wouldn't want it removed. It slowed down the pacing, and made for a sequence that was too long and too silly. I completely acknowledge the audio edit was awful, and I hadn't got any sound effects to cover up J.w. and silence would've been too jarring.

Audio: I don't know about others, but I had a big problem with the audio when I watched it. Granted I watched it on a standard tv with no special setup, but when you have to keep adjusting the audio every 5-10 minutes it becomes annoying. I also had a problem with the music you added in, as it was often far too loudly mixed and mostly felt out of place. The use of "He's Dangerous" sounded good on paper, but those 80s metal guitar rifts have no place in a 1973 film. This edit also suffers from the problem that the Bond theme needs to play whenever Bond does something cool or exciting. The last 30 minutes is filled with new music, which is all noticeably done and particularly out of place during the final fight with both Kanaga and TeeHee.

I have no idea what happened there. It must have been Sony Vegas' or DVD Architect's render that caused those problems. I've learned a few music insertion techniques that I'm using on my TSWLM edit.

Like I said, I really liked the film after the first half and though that the Gator Bite edition might become the definitive edition for me. After finishing the film, however, I think I'll stick to the UE. Sorry :-(

Thanks for the review. I never meant this to replace the UE, I just wanted another take on LALD, and I hope you feel that's what you got.

 

[Hymie]

I know you never meant it to replace the UE, but whenever I go into a fan edit I wonder if it will replace the regular movie or not. Because of the issues above (mostly the audio ones) this will not. Hopefully that will help you when you tackle TSWLM. As for another version of LALD, I don't think I'll ever watch your version again. :-(