Thunderball (1965)
Runtime: 130 minutes
Directed by: Terence Young
Starring: Sean Connery, Claudine Auger, Adolfo Celi, Luciana Paluzzi
From: Eon/United Artists
Yes it’s true, this is the 100th movie I’ve talked about on here that I’ve given an official review to. I don’t have too much else to say about that topic except to note it as a bit of trivia.
Now, I’ve finally started back up on reviewing all of the Bond movies. The last one I did was way back in June. My bad for putting that on ice for so long. I gave strong reviews to the first three in the series; will I do the same for this one? Before I move on, I do have to bring up how this was originally a script done by Ian Fleming, Jack Whittingham, and Kevin McClory. From the early 60’s up to today, Mr. McClory has feuded with the official Bond franchise. The script was going to be the first Bond movie but it didn’t work out, so Fleming turned it into a book in the series instead. Then it became a movie. A lot of shenanigans went down and they made this movie after Goldfinger. More shenanigans happened after that and that’s why the feud has taken place for almost 50 years. Trust me, you don’t want to hear the entire story. Anyhow, that’s why this movie was remade as a Bond movie but not an official one in the early 80’s with Connery in the lead as Never Say Never Again. Me, I’ll always say “never again” to watching that film! It’s pretty awful and totally low-rent. Trust me, never view it.
As for this movie, SPECTRE returns, Blofeld still the leader whose face you never see. Their plot is to steal a pair of warheads and use it as ransom to get some phat cash, but of course end up using the warheads anyway. After the opening with Bond in France (you can tell it’s set there by the number of distinctive Citroen vehicles around), most of the movie is set in the lovely Bahamas. As they filmed on location you’ll be able to enjoy their scenery. The person who sets SPECTRE’s plan in motion is Largo (Celi), so you get to see Bond interact with the eyepatch-wearing villain. Also, you get to see Bond with some of Largo’s ladies, such as Domino (the attractive Auger) and Fiona (Paluzzi).
That’s about it for the plot, and well, I’d rank this in the bottom half of the Connery Bond movies(I don’t include Never Say Never Again in that, as it’s not an official Bond in any sort of way by my standards); that’s not really a bad thing and overall I wouldn’t say it’s a bad movie, per say. The scenery looks nice, there’s a good amount of exciting action (there is quite a bit of people getting killed by harpoons and spears!), the acting is fine, there are some great quips and one-liners, and adjusted for inflation this is the highest grossing Bond of all time. Yet, the reason why I rank it where I do amongst the other Bond movies that Sean did is that it’s too long at over 2 hours and it tends to drag a lot. Some things should have been shortened. Also, things get pretty goofy at the finale. Some of those special effects (not the underwater photography; there’s a lot of it here and it’s nice to look at, but that’s one part which drags at times) look pretty bad in 2010 and characters start acting differently just because the script tells them to. So, that’s why. It’s not a bad movie overall-as I’ve said already-but…
In an interesting bit of trivia, the theme song to the movie is by Tom Jones, and it's what you would expect of an old Bond song. However, someone else also submitted a song. It was none other than Johnny Cash. If you want to know what that song would have been like if it was played over the opening credits of this movie, go here to YouTube and view what one person put together.
I'll be back Tuesday night and this time that is a promise that will be kept.
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