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The Baron Samedi Appreciation Thread

CIACIA
edited March 2013 in Bond Movies Posts: 120
I like Live and Let Die. Really, I do. One of my favorite scenes is at the end while Bond and Solitaire are on the train. Tee Hee sneaks into their compartment. Bond and Tee Hee scuffle while Solitaire is trapped in a fold-up bed. Bond wins as Tee Hee is thrown to his death out the window from the moving train (one of Moore's darker moments IMO). Before the viewer has a chance to relax, it cuts to the evil Baron Samedi, riding outside the very front of the train, laughing hysterically like a mad man. That scene literally creeped me out. I thought for a second Bond would have to fight this paranormal being. But then the end credits roll and I breath a sigh of relief!

Baron Samedi has to be one of the more interesting characters in Live and Let Die. He is a way more interesting character than Mr. BIG/Kanangas. Plus he's the only villain in the entire series that hinted at occult.

Comments

  • HASEROTHASEROT has returned like the tedious inevitability of an unloved season---
    Posts: 4,399
    i really like Live and Let Die as well... but i also really like Kananga as a villain... but i hated the fact that there was no real fight with Baron Samedi and Bond, it was over before it even started, which kind of makes me feel cheated.. they did a decent job building him over the course of the film, to only have him punched out and fall into a coffin of snakes - and then suddenly appear at the end of the film.... a more menacing and suspenseful scene would've been Samedi stalking Bond and Solitaire through his graveyard..
  • baronsamedi76baronsamedi76
    Posts: 174
    All I can say is I love Baron Samedi ^:)^
    I think the fact that he wasn't used too much in the movie adds to his appeal.
    Everybody loves a bit of mystery.
  • myworldisenoughmyworldisenough
    Posts: 1,143
    He's the only villain to date, to actually rise from the dead, so to speak? Great look, he would win best costume at a Halloween party!
  • Goldeneye95Goldeneye95
    Posts: 546
    I loved Baron Samedi! He was a great Bond Henchmen. Scary, good look, & the first Bond Henchmen that could rise from the dead, because he had multiple lives.
  • jackdaggerjackdagger
    Posts: 498
    I love Baron Samedi! I really like how they actually made him a character in the movie as opposed to the book (where Kananga used his cross and hat a symbols to threaten people). A fun theory I had was that Samedi was really the mastermind behind everything, and Kananga was merely his pawn. And because he lived at the end, he can continue causing chaos, since he's the man who cannot die. ;)
  • RogueAgentRogueAgent
    Posts: 12,526
    One of my all time faves, also the first Bond film i ever saw! And i think he was probably one of the other reasons why i got so hooked on Bond! Brilliantly played by Geoffrey Holder! 8-X
  • myworldisenoughmyworldisenough
    Posts: 1,143
    And a great laugh on him too.
  • CIACIA
    Posts: 120
    jackdagger, I have the same theory. Baron Samedi was really backstopping Kananga for no other purpose than to watch the carnage and laugh hysterically. In the movie, I can't remember if Kananga ever gave Baron an order. He seemed to randomly show up on on his own accord.

    I like to think that Bond battling Baron would have been epic. But maybe it's for the best and the viewer is left wondering. Using Blofeld as an example, I always thought he was more menacing when we didn't see his face like in TB and FRWL. Telly Savalas did an excellent portrayal in OHMSS, but we learned about the man behind the mystery.
  • 00Ed00Ed
    Posts: 140
    I think that one of the things I've always found intriguing about LALD is the fact that it's the only Bond film that involves the supernatural, between Solitaire's Tarot Card fortune telling actually seeming to work, and the suggestion at the end of the film that Baron Samedi lives.

    myworldisenough wrote:
    And a great laugh on him too.

    Yeah, that Geoffrey Holder was unforgettable.

    "Crisp and clean with no caffeine! 7Up! The Un-Cola! AH HAH HAH HAAAH!!!"
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