The opening of Never Say Never Again

Muston

I've always (and still do) loved the opening of NSNA when SC is on the terrorist enactment thing. When I was younger I thought it was the best opening Bond I'd seen and though the title music is **** (in a good way) I think it's the best thing about the film (along with Fatima Blush that is :007) )

Luke

Muston wrote:

I've always (and still do) loved the opening of NSNA when SC is on the terrorist enactment thing. When I was younger I thought it was the best opening Bond I'd seen and though the title music is **** (in a good way) I think it's the best thing about the film (along with Fatima Blush that is :007) )

The first time I saw it, I thought Bond was doing a training exercise. Its a fun scene (awful music excepted), but something about it feels set-up.

Blackleiter

You have identified two of the things I also enjoyed most about NSNA (i.e. the opening and Fatima Blush). I also thought Klaus Maria Brandauer was a quirky, but interesting villain, and I really liked Bernie Casey as Felix Leiter.

Muston wrote:

I've always (and still do) loved the opening of NSNA when SC is on the terrorist enactment thing. When I was younger I thought it was the best opening Bond I'd seen and though the title music is **** (in a good way) I think it's the best thing about the film (along with Fatima Blush that is :007) )

Bodie

I always liked the opening sequence. It was nice to see that even Bond has to be trained. Overall as a movie it didn't have much going for it.

Brandeaur and Carrera were good villians. Better than some in the official series.
I liked Pamela Salem as Moneypenny. She would have been a better replacement for Lois Maxwell than Caroline Bliss.
Bernie Casey was a good Felix. In fact one of my gripes about NSNA is that Felix actually comes across as a more compotent agent than Bond.
One moment of pure Bond - the scene with the doorman and the cigar case.

It was fair that it didn't do as well at the box office as OP and OP is one of the weakes in the official series.

Blood_Stone

Never Say Never Again was an inferior remake of Thunderball, but Connery's made up for it as well as his "phoning it in" performance in DAF.

Napoleon Plural

It is let down by the music. The writers said that originally it was done with the sound of a stop watch over the opening, and it was quite tense, but then it got changed for the hokey song.

It also doesn't make sense as Bond's 'victims' seem very good actors bearing in mind they'e acting like they're dead. Assuming he doesn't really kill them. Of course, this is another scene ripped off and used to better effect by the official team for the opener of TLD, just as the 'getting old' theme is a tad more classily used in the new film.

TonyDP

I remember watching the opening sequence in the theater and thinking to myself that it all looked staged and fake so I wasn't at all surprised when it turned out to be a training exercise. Like Napoleon says, some of the "deaths" seemed a little outlandish for what was supposed to be a training run - clearly an attempt by the filmmakers to throw the viewer off the scent - but, like pretty much the entire film, it just didn't work for me at all.

Jimmy Bond

I love the opening, but it is indeed let down by the terrible song.

This video shows how it SHOULD be, though (complete with gunbarell, theme, etc.): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytZ7YxAva2Q

Blackleiter

Much better!

Jimmy Bond wrote:

I love the opening, but it is indeed let down by the terrible song.

This video shows how it SHOULD be, though (complete with gunbarell, theme, etc.): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytZ7YxAva2Q