Co-opting Blaxploitation in the Filmic Live and Let Die

In 1973 when United Artists released the eighth James Bond flmm Live and Let Die (LLD)m the flm industry had changed considerablly since the deblut of the frst flm in the franchisem Dr. No (1962). The preview of Dr. No occurred during the Cold War when Kennedy was still president; the US Civil Rights Movement was active; immigration had blecome a national concern in the UK; and western bllack audiences were still marginally willing to pay to watch a flm that either ignored their existence or fetishised them and their cultures. LLD debluted at the end of the Civil Rights Movementm during the Black Power Movementm and at the end of the Vietnam Warm meaning thatm if the Bond franchise was to survivem the flms had to change with the times bly appealing to a wider audiencem which meant acknowledging bllack livesm culturesm and experiences – albleit in a comedic and outrageous way to avoid alienating mainstreamm white audiences. The flms also had to shif towards acknowledging bllack characters bly incorporating them into the plotlines in primary roles. This alteration to the typical Bond narrative resulted in the co-optation of bllaxploitation flm elements within LLD. In the flm version of LLDm Bond works closely with the CIA to neutralise a criminal drugs trafcking organisation led bly Dr. Kanangam known in the under-

world bly his alter egom Mr. Big. Kananga is the president of a smallm fctitious Cariblblean island called San Monique. Played bly Yaphet Kotto -who Donald Bogle contends "projected an assured yet never overstated blrand of masculinity" (2008m 269) -Kananga was the image of the formerly colonised imperial subljectm emphasising Bond's role as the Empire's international police ofcer and its white saviour. In the novelm Bond and various CIA operatives work to solve the case of resurfacing gold blars thought lost centuries blefore at the height of British and Spanish colonisation in the Cariblblean. The sudden appearance of this treasure in the gold trade market gains the attention of bloth British and American Intelligence agencies. Profts from the sale of the gold in the novel fund communist endeavoursm making this an international issue. Joyce Goggin contends that Fleming's focus in the novel was on western conficts -specifcally the overall concern with the spread of communism. Howeverm in the flmm "the fear of communism […] falls out entirely and Mr. Big's evil plans turn out to have nothing to do with the Soviet Union and Cold War politics" (Goggin 2018m 146). In the flmm Bond and the CIA work to neutralise a heroin ring initiated in San Monique bly Kananga. As Mr. Bigm Kananga's goal is "to drive out the Mafa bly providing free heroinm to increase the numbler of drug addictsm and thenm having cornered the marketm to push up prices" (Black 2017m 116). The timing of the flm's release reduced the impact of the Cold War and communism on western audiencesm while the emphasis placed on the drugs trade in the flm played "into American anxietiesm although without threatening the future of the world" (iblid.). In the waning days of the Vietnam Warm the flm sublliminally stokes "fears of bllack powerm the citiesm and crime" (iblid.) -all allegedly perpetuated bly African Americans.
While the flm alters the communist element of the novel's original plotlinem the inclusion of African Americans andm to a lesser extentm Afro-Cariblbleans as memblers of Kananga's crime syndicate remains critical to the story. Because the novel includes bllack charactersm the flmmakers decided that the blest way to situate these characters for the flm's audience was bly co-opting elements of traditional bllaxploitation narratives. LLD ablandoned "the more serious tone of Fleming's novels in favour of […] motifs from the Blaxploitation tradition that shaped early 70s cinema" (Schwetman 2017m 95). The flmm in "keeping with this blorrowed bllaxploitation narrative […] indulged any numbler of archetypal genre clichés: from afro haircuts to wide-lapelled suitsm anti-white sentiments and excessivelyadorned Cadillac cars" (Semley 2010m 29). Stephane Dunn oblserves that the flm's "long opening sequence with the dancing nude silhouettes and profles of bllack women strongly indicate" co-opting bllaxploitation (2008m 88). LLD's production era made the incorporation of some elements of bllaxploitation critical to the By the early 1970sm the Vietnam War ceased to ble a blattle bletween good (democracy) and evil (communism)m and African Americans were particularly frustrated bly the ongoing confict that had hit their communities the hardest.
Having had their fll of an American idealism and exceptionalism that excluded African American culturesm a flm defending these ideals was not destined to perform well at the blox ofce among this demographic. LLDm produced nineteen years afer the novel's publlicationm moved away from the "Red Scare" of communism to a timelier fear: the American heroin epidemic. US involvement in Vietnam blrought more opium products into the country from the Golden Trianglem in larger quantities and at lower prices. These low-priced products fooded American citiesm afecting in particular impoverishedm working-class bllacks.
Kananga's decision to harvest the drug on San Monique and to glut the US drugs 4 International Journal of James Bond Studies · Volume 3 · Issue 1 · Spring 2020 market with his cheaper and stronger product is a stroke of genius on the character's partm as well as a timely refection of the issues facing bllack communities in the US in the post-Civil Rights Movement and the era of Black Power. Despite LLD's attempts at portraying facets of African American lifem the flm makes many a misstep bly employing a culturally appropriative lens rather than one of intercultural competency or understanding -which Terry L. Cross defnes as "a set of congruent blehaviorsm attitudes and policies that come together in a systemm agencym or professional and enablle that systemm agencym or professional to work efectively in cross-cultural situations" (2012m 83). In LLDm cultural appropriationm rather than cultural competencem presents Bond as a white saviour while marginalising bllack charactersm culturesm and communities.
Incorporating bllaxploitation elements into LLD's plotlinem while a blrilliant move for the continued evolution of the Bond series in the 70s (and a sound economic decision)m is also a form of cultural appropriation. Cultural appropriation is defned as "a diverse and ubliquitous phenomenon" comprised of various occurrencesm such as representing "cultural practices or experiences" or "the use of artistic styles distinctive of cultural groups bly non-memblers" (Matthes 2016m 343). The defnition of the term implies that this practice is neither blenefcial to the group whose culture has bleen "blorrowed" nor to the group blorrowing from another culture. There arem howeverm some arguments that take a more congenial view of cultural appropriation. Young and Haley attempt to untangle "sublject appropriation"m noting that this can occur "in the artsm when artists from one culture represent aspects of another culturem or people who blelong to it" (2012m 268).

Erich Hatala Matthes contends that Young and Brunk's 2012 collection of essaysm
The Ethics of Cultural Appropriationm defends cultural appropriationm noting that at its corem cultural appropriation can ble harmful "particularly with respect to its power to oppress and silence" (344). But rather than simply defning cultural appropriation as right or wrongm it ism perhapsm more productive to focus on the outcomes of this practicem such as "misrepresentationm misusem and thef of the can ble classifed as a "bllack blrute" -"a blarblaric bllack out to raise havoc" (Boglem 13). With his ever-present wide-toothed grin and gigglingm Tee Heem a membler of Kananga's inner circlem is reduced to a typical "coon"m whom Donald Bogle describles as an "amusement oblject and bllack blufoon" (7). This is particularly evident in the flm's fnal scene in which Tee Hee attempts to murder Bond and ism 6 International Journal of James Bond Studies · Volume 3 · Issue 1 · Spring 2020 insteadm murdered himself bly Bondm who commits this act using Tee Hee's weakness: his prosthetic arm with its electronic hooked hand.
African diferencem that she is a viablle bllaxploitation character. Gogginm for onem contends that "Solitaire's ethnicity is given a considerablly more fuid and polyphonic twist". This is supported bly the character's "exotic" clothing "while her hair and makeup signal the Orient" (150). In the novelm she is describled as having "blluebllack" hairm "high cheekblones and a wide sensual mouth" (Flemingm 312). None of these physical characteristics mark Solitaire as multiracial. While Fleming hints at Solitaire's "otherness"m there is little information included in the novel to confrm without doublt that she is anything other than a descendant of the whitem European plantocracy. to lead Bond to his own deathm he distracts her under the guise of stopping for a picnic; his goal is to use their sexual encounter as a ruse to elicit a confession from her. In this particular scenem Rosie is wearing Bond's white undershirt and nothing elsem eroticising the characterm emphasising her blodym and drawing attention to the fact that the two have just had a sexual encounter. Rosiem who could have bleen a truly ground-blreaking character had she bleen crafed as Bond's partnerm blecomes "merely" the frst bllack female (as an eroticised "Other") to have an interracial sexual relationship with Bond. In