The 4th James Bond film, Thunderball, is a bit of an interesting case. The novel was conceived a number of years earlier as a screenplay. Fleming had enjoyed a bit of success with the Bond novels and desperately wanted to see his superspy make the leap to the big screen. To this end, he worked for a time with screenwriter Kevin McClory to create an original adventure for 007. But screenwriting is a fundamentally different art form than novels, and one imagines that Fleming (with his tendency to over describe everything) would quickly become frustrated with the much leaner world of screenwriting. Eventually he abandoned the thing and turned the script into his 8th Bond novel without crediting the work of his collaborators. This led to lawsuits that kept Thunderball from being the first Saltzman-Brocoli adventure and ultimately resulted in the screen rights to Thunderball reverting back to McClory several years after the film came out. McClory exorcized those rights in 1982 with his version of the story Never Say Never Again. While it isn't considered part of the official Bond canon, it did feature Sean Connery in his last performance as 007. We’ll look at both films here, starting with 1965’s Thunderball.
Thunderball is a giant, gaudy Bond film. It’s by far the biggest of the films so far in terms of spectacle, and while there are some very nice moments, the overall movie doesn't gel and comes off as a bloated, indulgent mess.
SPECTRE, the evil organization from the first two films, is back and they’ve stolen two nuclear warheads. SPECTRE head Blofeld will detonate the warheads in major cities unless the world pays an exorbitant ransom within a given window of time. Obviously, every secret agent in the west is dispatched to find the warheads before the deadline, but only one of those agents is James Bond (Sean Connery). Bond has dealt with SPECTRE recently and has a hunch as to where the warheads must be. He heads to Nassau and quickly meets up with two Bond girls, SPECTRE assassin Fiona Volpe (Luciana Paluzzi) and Domino (Claudine Auger) the “kept woman” of Largo (Adolfo Celi). Largo owns a particularly suspicious yacht that might just prove to be the home of the warheads. Proving it isn’t easy, but Bond is not alone, he is joined by his frequent, American sidekick Felix Leiter (Rik Van Nutter). This is Leiter's 3rd appearance in the series and Van Nutter is the 3rd actor to play him. This frequent recasting of Leiter is unceremonious and speaks to how the franchise will handle the eventual recasting of 007 — with as little acknowledgement as possible.
Anyway, it’s not a bad plot for a thriller. It's a strong goal with strong urgency, you'd think that the film would move quickly. Unfortunately the first 40 minutes are achingly dull. After a pre-credit sequence that just can’t compare to its thrilling counterpart in Goldfinger, Bond finds himself in a health spa. It’s not the most cinematic of locations, though it does allow Bond to seduce (read: blackmail) an attractive nurse into a sauna and for Bond to be almost killed by a back stretching machine. That back stretching scene is undoubtedly the most unintentionally hilarious scene in the series up till now, and it doesn’t help that veteran Bond director Terrence Young plays it with deadly seriousness. It turns out that the culprit behind the murder attempt is a SPECTRE agent. While the information pays off later, one gets the feeling that this whole spa sequence could have been cut in half and placed in a more exciting and dynamic location.
The second act of Bond looking for the warheads is significantly stronger though. Upon arriving in Nassau, there are some pretty good sequences such as when Bond checks a recording device he left in his room to see if anyone has been there. The camera eerily pans around the room in time with the footsteps on the tape. Another shot where Bond approaches a dockside party by boat, the lights growing larger from out of the darkness, is quite elegant. Also Bond gets to do some actual espionage, and even though not much seems to come of it, it's fun to let it all wash over you as long as you don't think too hard. The film is relatively true to Fleming’s novel, but has been cluttered by extra characters and situations to extend the plot and justify the film’s larger budget. As a result the film feels overstuffed and convoluted. The film is just too self-consciously big.
Anyway, it’s not a bad plot for a thriller. It's a strong goal with strong urgency, you'd think that the film would move quickly. Unfortunately the first 40 minutes are achingly dull. After a pre-credit sequence that just can’t compare to its thrilling counterpart in Goldfinger, Bond finds himself in a health spa. It’s not the most cinematic of locations, though it does allow Bond to seduce (read: blackmail) an attractive nurse into a sauna and for Bond to be almost killed by a back stretching machine. That back stretching scene is undoubtedly the most unintentionally hilarious scene in the series up till now, and it doesn’t help that veteran Bond director Terrence Young plays it with deadly seriousness. It turns out that the culprit behind the murder attempt is a SPECTRE agent. While the information pays off later, one gets the feeling that this whole spa sequence could have been cut in half and placed in a more exciting and dynamic location.
The second act of Bond looking for the warheads is significantly stronger though. Upon arriving in Nassau, there are some pretty good sequences such as when Bond checks a recording device he left in his room to see if anyone has been there. The camera eerily pans around the room in time with the footsteps on the tape. Another shot where Bond approaches a dockside party by boat, the lights growing larger from out of the darkness, is quite elegant. Also Bond gets to do some actual espionage, and even though not much seems to come of it, it's fun to let it all wash over you as long as you don't think too hard. The film is relatively true to Fleming’s novel, but has been cluttered by extra characters and situations to extend the plot and justify the film’s larger budget. As a result the film feels overstuffed and convoluted. The film is just too self-consciously big.
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| To be fair, some of the big stuff is really, really cool. |
Another issue is the film’s underwater scenes. Thunderball was the first film to have big, underwater sequences with real sets and everything. These scenes make up about 20% of the film, your mileage may very as to when, and if, the novelty wears off, but I was certainly bored of it by the end.
It doesn’t help that the climactic underwater battle is just confusing. It pits dozens of scuba-divers against each other. Terrence Young wanted a big, giant battle underwater and is determined to show us every bit of it. As a consequence of this, and the fact that everyone has a breathing mask on, it’s hard to know when we’re looking at Bond, and when we’re looking at some random guy (ironically, Fleming’s novel solved this problem by painting numbers on everyone).
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| Is this James Bond? I really have no idea. |
Even worse the sequence is tremendously unfocused. In the midst of the ultimate battle the film cuts to a 3 second shot of a random sea creature. Worst of all, Bond doesn’t really save the day, so much as be there when it’s saved. (spoiler alert) Bond doesn’t rescue the girl, disarm the warhead or kill Largo. (end spoilers) The movie has little for him to do after he finds the bombs.
As irritating as it can be, it’s still an enjoyable film. John Barry once again provides a score that pushes the film to greater heights than it might have achieved otherwise. Ken Adam’s sets are as good as ever and Volpe is a very good Bond Girl. The film isn’t completely incompetent, just inconsistent and slow. The franchise is going to need to balance its spectacle with tighter scripts if it wants to keep passing muster.
Not long after Thunderball, Sean Connery left the franchise citing fatigue and diminishing script quality. After his replacement didn’t work out, he returned for Diamonds Are Forever and swore off Bond for good. But when the Thunderball rights reverted back to Kevin McClory, Connery was convinced to don the tux one last time for McClory’s 1983 Thunderball remake, Never Say Never Again, which apparently has no relation to the recent Justin Bieber concert film, so stop asking. Never is a decisive film among Bond fans. For one, it was produced without EON (the Saltzmen-Brocolli company producing the Bond films), and therefore tends to be dismissed out of hand as a film that “doesn’t count.” Also, Connery was 53 when he made the film and some feel that he was simply too old to play 007, never mind that Roger Moore, the current “official” James Bond at the time, was a good 3 years older. But despite all these points, Never Say Never Again is better than a lot of the Bond films, and it certainly beats the pants off of Thunderball in several respects.
Firstly it has a better script. Much of the bloat from the Saltzman-Broccoli picture has been removed. The plot to steal the warheads is much simpler and, while aspects of it have been updated for “modern audiences,” is much more faithful to Fleming’s novel and, one suspects, to the treatment he wrote with McClory.
Also, while Terence Young seemed a little out of his depth with the large budget of Thunderball, Never’s director Irvin Kershner was fresh off of directing a little art house film called The Empire Strikes Back and aquits himself with a little more confidence here. The underwater sequences are done with more restraint. There are some good action sequences involving remote controlled sharks and a couple nice stunts in the car chase. Kershner knows not to over sensationalize the already ridiculous material, resulting in a more even-toned film then some of the contemporary Bond films.
Most importantly, Connery is still a great Bond. He may not have much to do with the version Flemming wrote about, but when he's engaged with the material, he really is a blast. Whatever problems this film has (I'll get to those in a minute), Connery seems more relaxed as Bond here then he did in his prime. More then ever he resembles Carry Grant, calm, sophisticated, fun. The rest of the cast is good too. Largo is played very well by Klaus Maria Brandaur. He's still a bond villain, but he plays the role with a touch of real world menace that grounds him. Edward Fox (Day of the Jackal) is having a blast as a more cranky version of M. Barbara Carrera makes a great impression as the assassination fetishist Fatima Blush, and in a surreal touch, future Bond satirist Rowen “Mr. Bean” Atkonson has a small role.
After a very strong first half, it starts to falter. There is an impossibly goofy sequence where Bond plays a videogame with Largo called “Domination” in which players compete to conquer the world and losers get an electric shock via the joystick. Towards the end, the film loses it completely with a scene where Bond and Domino jump a horse off a castle wall and take a 300 foot plunge into the sea below, and the less said about the missile hovercraft things the better. Also, the score by Michel Legrand ranges from "perfectly fine" to one of the worst scores I've heard. Lots of bad Saxophone compared with John Barry's smooth, jazzy rhythms.
But despite these issues Never Say Never is a better, more confident film than Thunderball. The original film has bigger and better spectacle, but the remake has better acting, a better pace and an ending that's easier to follow even if it's imagery isn't nearly as iconic. Neither film represents an essential entry in the Bond canon, but they're both fun up to a point.
After a very strong first half, it starts to falter. There is an impossibly goofy sequence where Bond plays a videogame with Largo called “Domination” in which players compete to conquer the world and losers get an electric shock via the joystick. Towards the end, the film loses it completely with a scene where Bond and Domino jump a horse off a castle wall and take a 300 foot plunge into the sea below, and the less said about the missile hovercraft things the better. Also, the score by Michel Legrand ranges from "perfectly fine" to one of the worst scores I've heard. Lots of bad Saxophone compared with John Barry's smooth, jazzy rhythms.
But despite these issues Never Say Never is a better, more confident film than Thunderball. The original film has bigger and better spectacle, but the remake has better acting, a better pace and an ending that's easier to follow even if it's imagery isn't nearly as iconic. Neither film represents an essential entry in the Bond canon, but they're both fun up to a point.
Grades:
Thunderball: C
Never Say Never Again: B-
Never Say Never Again is currently streaming on Netflix Instant.
If you enjoyed this review, you can check us out on Facebook and don't forget to checkout the rest of the Bondathon:
Dr. No
From Russia With Love Goldfinger
Thunderball / Never Say Never Again
You Only Live Twice
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Diamonds are Forever
Live and Let Die
The Man With The Golden Gun
The Spy Who Loved Me
Moonraker
For Your Eyes Only
Octopussy
A View To A Kill
The Living Daylights
Licence to Kill
Goldeneye
Tomorrow Never Dies
The World Is Not Enough
Die Another Day
Casino Royale
Quantum of Solace
Skyfall
Never Say Never Again is a good movie, it would be nice to see it with a better music score, thats the one thing that weakens this movie.
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