I seldom read so long posts but GM's are always an absolute pleasure to read {[]
Are you a professional writer?
And are you just writing out of your mind or are you working on these posts before you put them up?
You're a good man, too, sir. I'm definitely out of my mind, haha. I'm marginally an academic, which explains the effusive posts, but am a published writer. My latest venture is an escapist spy thriller set at the end of WW2 for which I'm trying to find a publisher.
I think there are a number of things that make many of today's films somewhat less enjoyable than films of the past - over-reliance on special effects, lame sex jokes, too many sequels, prequels and remakes, stunt-casting. But I don't have a problem at all with injecting a little "social justice " every now and then. About time if you ask me.
Well said. Anyone who wants to see Bond blackmail a woman for sex for no other reason than because it's "really funny" has clearly lost the plot. :v Indeed, as Gassy Man points out, even that particular scene is quite multilayered if one is inclined to actually give it some thought.
Pros:
.Connery's best performance.
.The Bahamas.
.Beautiful cinematography.
.Great villains, girls, and allies all around.
.The jet pack is silly but classic.
.The motorcycle rocket.
.I think he got the point.
.The underwater battles don't drag to me. They're amazing to look at.
.Fiona Volpe.
.The SPECTRE meeting.
.Rik van Nutter isn't a great actor but he looks like the literary Leiter.
.Moves at a slow pace but is never boring.
.The entire nighttime sequence at Palmyra and the Junkanoo.
.Ken Adam's sets.
.Feels epic in scale.
.The definitive SPECTRE film.
Cons:
.The sped up fight on the Disco Volante.
.Some of the dubbing and editing is jarring but not a big deal.
10/10 -{ . Perfect mix of Young's style and the epic scale of the later films.
As part of my Bond marathon, I am posting on all these pro's and con's board for every Bond film I see. This time it's for Thunderball, a film that I just couldn't get into the many years ago when I first saw it.
Now, my opinions have changed hugely, and I consider it to be a solid entry in the franchise, and a definite winner in my books. I guess back eight years ago when I first saw it, I was still a teenager and just didn't have the patience to watch it since it does take time to really think and understand what's going on.
Pro's:
* The return of the DB5
* Amazing performance by Sean Connery
* Terrence Young's directing. The film actually shows us at the beginning how the atomic bombs were stolen, and what Bond is up against.
* Unlike the previous film, I really felt a sense of urgency with this. SPECTRE are planning on bombing an unknown city in one of two continents. It's purely an act of terrorism in exchange for money, but knowing them, whats to stop them from blowing up the world anyway - money or no money.
* The bond girls, especially Paula. It's sad she died as I thought she was a sweetheart. Domino was good, though not one of the best.
* Lago was SPECTRE #2. Very convincing and a classic Bond villain
* The Bahamas location, similar and reminded me a lot of Dr No
* The final underwater battle scene - but what was really awesome was the build up.
* Bond constantly escaping death at every turn.
* Subjective opinion, but I like this film more as a whole than GF. Though it's close...
* I LOVE the score in this movie, one of the best in the series. The title song is pretty top notch also.
Con's:
* Back projection on the disco volante (final fight)
* Fiona Volpe - I just didn't like her at all. Maybe that's the whole 'point' though...
* Not enough DB5 - minor issue though.
* Takes a while for the interest to build up with the plot
Overall, definitive Bond film and a true classic. Goldfinger had an amazing first half of the film and had the entire film been up to the quality of what we saw in Miami, England and Switzerland, then Goldfinger would win with no contest. As a whole, Thunderball wins as far as quality goes.
Goldfinger had an amazing first half of the film and had the entire film been up to the quality of what we saw in Miami, England and Switzerland, then Goldfinger would win with no contest.
Rating: 8/10
Good point.
I saw Goldfinger in 2015 in the Prince Charles cinema, London. I enjoyed the first parts, the ones you mentioned. But, for some reason, when the movie shifted to the American scenes, the whole movie just seemed awkward, in a way I'd never noticed before. Maybe it was seeing it in the cinema for the first time in decades. I don't know. But, those USA scenes just looked so dated in a way that the European scenes did not. The attack on Fort Knox scenes in particular are really clunky when watched on a big screen. However, once they are inside Fort Knox and Oddjob and Bond are kicking blazes out of each other, then normal, classy service resumes.
I guess what I'm saying is that Goldfinger seems very uneven when seen in all its glory, the way it was meant to be seen, and not interrupted by TV ads every 10 minutes.
I really should watch Thunderball again. I saw a few minutes of it when it turned up on TV the other day - the climactic battle was just beginning and in HD it looked just stunning.
My problem with the film has always tended to be that some changes from the book, unlike with Goldfinger, were for the worse. Fleming's Bond thinks his assignment in Miami is a waste of time which takes him away from where the real action is likely to be, whereas movie Bond has M change his assignment *to* Miami - the start of a process over the years of Bond becoming an all-knowing superman. One of the pleasures of the novel is Bond being only half-aware for most of the narrative that huge events are taking place right under his nose. That having been said I'm not sure that it would have been entirely possible to express this on film.
Also, it's a shame that the producer's didn't go with the original 'Mr Kiss-Kiss, Bang-Bang' theme song - was this Harry Saltzman's notorious tin ear for a good song striking again?
Also, it's a shame that the producer's didn't go with the original 'Mr Kiss-Kiss, Bang-Bang' theme song - was this Harry Saltzman's notorious tin ear for a good song striking again?
Not in this case- UA wanted a song actually called "Thunderball" for cross-promotion purposes- every time it was heard on the radio, it would advertise the film. This was a late decision, by which point Barry had (a) used the melody of MKKBB as the basis for much of his score and (b) recorded two vocal versions, one by Shirley Bassey and one by Dionne Warwick.
Also, it's a shame that the producer's didn't go with the original 'Mr Kiss-Kiss, Bang-Bang' theme song - was this Harry Saltzman's notorious tin ear for a good song striking again?
Not in this case- UA wanted a song actually called "Thunderball" for cross-promotion purposes- every time it was heard on the radio, it would advertise the film. This was a late decision, by which point Barry had (a) used the melody of MKKBB as the basis for much of his score and (b) recorded two vocal versions, one by Shirley Bassey and one by Dionne Warwick.
Thank you, that's really interesting. The Dionne Warwick version gets my vote.
I really should watch Thunderball again. I saw a few minutes of it when it turned up on TV the other day - the climactic battle was just beginning and in HD it looked just stunning.
My problem with the film has always tended to be that some changes from the book, unlike with Goldfinger, were for the worse. Fleming's Bond thinks his assignment in Miami is a waste of time which takes him away from where the real action is likely to be, whereas movie Bond has M change his assignment *to* Miami - the start of a process over the years of Bond becoming an all-knowing superman. One of the pleasures of the novel is Bond being only half-aware for most of the narrative that huge events are taking place right under his nose. That having been said I'm not sure that it would have been entirely possible to express this on film.
Also, it's a shame that the producer's didn't go with the original 'Mr Kiss-Kiss, Bang-Bang' theme song - was this Harry Saltzman's notorious tin ear for a good song striking again?
Other than a bit of dodgy editing and dubbing Thunderball is all pros for me. Some say the whole shrublands thing is too slow and the underwater scenes too long but I love them. It sets tb apart. At Shrublands we get to spend some time with connery at his nonchalant best. We have spectacular locations, great action, beautiful girls, an interesting henchman " what does vargas do? " a great villain, awesome score and the true emergence of q. We also get a look at all the other 00's..... I love this film.
I really don't mind Vargas, partly because I always liked the actor who played him. Admittedly Philip Locke doesn't look especially like a Vargas, but I'll let him off.
About the dodgy editing, it seems that in each and every one of the early films, there was a transition that was used for most of the length of the movie.
Thunderball has the wiping effect, Goldfinger has the fade effect and I need to rewatch Dr NO and From Russia... With Love to find out which ones were theirs.
PROS
- Ken Adam: the SPECTRE boardroom, the MI6 emergency meeting room, the hotel rooms, the Disco Valante, Palmyra
- Palmyra, Palmyra, Palmyra ... damn!, Largo has a nice villain's headquarters. This is obviously a real place, has anybody ever visited it?
- Barry: so much good music it overflowed the original soundtrack lp, with approx 30 minutes of leftovers released on cd decades later.
- The underwater motif that dominates much of the film makes some otherwise long boring scenes come across as absolutely epic and adds to the whole countdown-to-doomsday vibe.
- Binder: this is his first classic title sequence (Dr No was quite different) and it's all silhouettes cut into a background of everchanging underwater imagery.
- The SPECTRE boardroom scene. So much is done right in this one scene, it alone is worth the price of admission.
- Fiona Volpe. The scene where she first meets Bond is unnecessary to the plot, but lots of fun. All her dialog with Bond is classic.
- Note, she has moved right into Paula's room immediately after having her kidnapped, the brazen hussy! She's not in Bond's bath, she's in Paula's bath, they had those adjoining rooms.
- Domino wears a lot of sexy and unusual swimsuits, especially that first one with the translucent diagonal "window" ... you gotta pay attention to the fine details in this scene!
psst! What you're looking for is bottom cleavage on the starboard side
- I finally realised Bond never does return to the parade to meet Domino, so it's not such an issue how many hours he left her with Felix while he attended to other matters. Still, I wonder what Domino and Felix ended up talking about?
- Bond and Domino consummate their relationship underwater rather than in the men's change room. That was never a very classy detail on Fleming's part.
- Despite the underwater scenes going on so long without dialog, all the techno-thriller stuff is played straight and very ominous.
- Lots of great looking machinery getting fetishized by the camera here, Fleming would have approved.
- For once, Leiter is sandy-haired if not Texan.
- First Q in the field.
- Bond has his own sexy assistant, who shares an adjoining room and is OK with him picking up the villain's mistress right in front of her (she shrugs!)
(and Martine Beswick is a returning actress: she was one of the gypsy girls in FRWL, nice to see her get a bigger part with actual dialog).
- Bond actually has his own headquarters for this job, even if it's not up to the standard of Palmyra.
- Underwater sealife. Fleming didn't get his beloved landcrabs, giant squid, bird sanctuary or even the centipede in Dr No. But in this film, Domino is introduced riding a giant sea tortoise! and that final underwater battle features lots of critters watching the action, weird crabs, octopi and of course all those sharks.
- Loads of classic dialog
- So many iconic scenes that got repeated in future films: the technothriller countdown to doomsday in all three Gilbert films, the underwater scenes in tSWLM and FYEO, the sexy assistant and parade in MR, all of Xenia Onatopp's early scenes in Goldeneye, and of course major chunks of SPECTRE. Somehow even earlier films had scenes borrowed from this film (introduction of Leiter in Dr No, introduction of SPECTRE in FRWL)
- Even nonBond films have recycled these iconic scenes, like Dr Evil trying to feed a minion to sharks in the middle of a meeting in International Man of Mystery, and Elastigirl's new employers having their offices on the world's largest hydrofoil in Incredibles 2.
CONS
- McClory! (boo, hiss). It's his fault Fleming had that final heart attack, and by proving so difficult to work with, EON decided not to collaborate with Feldman, meaning it's also kinda McClory's fault we got the "funny" version of Casino Royale.
- Conspicuous pacing and structural problems the first three films did not have. Was this somehow McClory's fault too? Maibaum and Young and Hunt are all credited here, and they didn't waste so much time telling the story in the earlier films, those films were tight.
- Neither vocal take of Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is used in the film.
- The pre-credits sequence. nothing to do with Fleming so fars I can tell. Features a villain in drag, setting bad precedent for Diamonds are Forever. This gangland funeral/grieving widow scene is one that the much maligned SPECTRE actually did improve on!
- The jetpack. Worst gadget ever. and then it overshadows the reappearance of the Aston.
- The transition from precredits to credits is uncharacteristically anticlimactic after the pathetic jetpack and underwhelming use of the Aston.
- Shrublands, takes up almost a third of the film. I don't like this section in Fleming's book either, nor in Never Say Never Again. The only connection it has with the rest of the film is the convoluted substitution for Domino's brother, which is not needed to make the plot work.
- Bond spends too much time playing the fool, especially in Shrublands and when talking to Q.
- Just how much time did Bond spend at Palmyra and with Volpe after he left Domino with Leiter at the parade? Seems like so many different things happen days should have gone by.
- Why does Bond not use an alias when he meets Largo? He knows Largo is with SPECTRE, and not only did SPECTRE specifically target James Bond for assassination two films earlier, they even sent that card from Tatiana to his employer's address!
- When Largo harpoons the shark at the end, that's real isnt it?
A straightforward, honest-to-God, high-stakes mission. Operation Thunderball. No personal angle to Bond's motivation.
TB has a classic take on what makes Bond tick and how he operates. During Connery's tenure it was more 'Bondian' for 007 to put the mission first, perhaps using, in the process, another character's weakness or personal grievance - rather than being motivated by any personal issues of his own. In TB, Bond exploits Domino's desire for revenge, after explaining to her that Largo was behind the death of her brother. Bond is attracted to Domino and he likes her, but he needs her help to defeat the enemy, despite the risk to her life; he secures her co-operation by using the necessary means.
One of the themes in the early Bond films, as also in Fleming, is the discipline 007 needs to keep any personal emotions in check. It's true that in DN Bond makes a passing reference to wanting to avenge Strangways's death, and that in GF he needs to rein in his feelings about Jill's murder before getting on "coldly and objectively" with his assignment. It's also true that, at the beginning of TB, Bond says he'd have liked to have killed SPECTRE agent Colonel Boivard himself, because Boivard had murdered two of his colleagues; Bond indeed gets a chance to finish off Boivard and, later, he also indulges in some tit-for-tat shenanigans with Count Lippe. But 007's default mode at least until OHMSS is always dutiful and detached, putting first his assigned mission without significant digression. Despite Bond's sensuality, the opportunities he takes for sexual gratification, and his fleeting moments of sadness over the deaths of allies, Sean Connery's performance reflects a fundamentally dispassionate approach.
By contrast, in recent Bond movies, Bond is more likely than not to have some key complicating personal involvement in the plot (or, if not Bond, it's M who has this, as in TWINE; or the villain, as in SF and SP). Going beyond simply making love to the latest heroine, the recent Bond's knotted personal stake-holding is repetitious and eventually grows tiresome, making purist fans like me nostalgic for the days of straightforward missions and passing fancies. For example, SP's reworking of TB's SPECTRE board meeting has an initially traditional tone, echoing the original, but is then spoiled (to my mind) by Bond's incursion and Christoph Waltz's enigmatic line "Cuckoo!" - alluding to his back-story as Franz Oberhauser with "James". Connery's Bond just wouldn't have cared about the soapy elements of the recent movies, partly because he's never given a personal history himself. He remains "Mister Bond."
None of which is to say that there aren't dramatic interpersonal dynamics in TB. All interactions involving Fiona Volpe are compelling. Fiona is a user, too, but with a sadistic twist. Her scenes bring to the film a heady concoction of cruelty, duplicity and sexual manipulation; a deadly clash between erotically charged assertions of one-up(wo)manship. Fiona exemplifies the murderous ruthlessness of the original SPECTRE, at least as much as Number One and Largo.
In TB, the direction, writing and performances are at their best in Fiona's scenes, and the audience misses her after her death. The same is true of Fiona's successor, Fatima Blush, in the TB re-make NSNA. The femme female's sexual neuroses are even more to the fore in NSNA; the film loses much of its steam after Fatima's explosive exit, limping its way in so-so fashion towards the denouement.
In TB, Fiona's challenge becomes self-reflexive at the point that she goads "Bond, James Bond," taunting him about his reputation and his ego in thinking that he needs only to make love to a girl to win her over "to the side of right and virtue" and to make her "hear heavenly choirs singing": "but not this one!" As a SPECTRE operative, Fiona would conceivably know about Tania falling for Bond in FRWL and her defection, but Tania was never properly a 'bad girl' in the first place. Fiona is surely referring more to Bond's conversion of Pussy Galore in GF; but how would she know about Pussy, given that SPECTRE hadn't had any apparent involvement in Operation Grand Slam? It's almost as if Fiona shares with the audience a common cultural knowledge of the mythology of the Bond films and their sexual politics, knowingly expressing a self-reflexivity which would become increasingly important to the films as part of the entertainment (witness DAF and NSNA). In a commentary track for the DVD issue of TB, John Cork links Fiona's confrontational lines, here, to criticisms found in unfavourable contemporary reviews of GF which addressed how unconvincing it was that Bond should turn Pussy from her implied lesbianism through his sheer sexual charisma. Cork also remarks that Fiona's dialogue is possibly a case of the film-makers cheekily retaliating against critics who had tended to write off Bond as a "sadistic brute".
TB boasts brilliant talent on the production side, with Terence Young, Ted Moore, Ken Adam, John Barry, Richard Maibaum, Peter Hunt and Bob Simmons among the returning regulars. Much of the creative chemistry which had made Bond a success in the earlier films is well at work again here.
Director Terence Young brings back to the series some of his distinctive edginess, which was missing in Guy Hamilton's relatively relaxed GF. Admittedly Young's style is rather 'watered down' in TB, if not 'flooded out', by the increased emphasis on spectacle, hardware and gadgetry ("...and the kitchen sink!") but Young's direction of the SPECTRE board meeting is one memorable example of his dark sensibility at play, keyed into Fleming; and indeed many highlights of the movie convey his deliciously callous sense of humour as director, such as Vargas 'getting the point' or Bond pausing to toss lilies over Colonel Boivard's corpse in the fireplace or Fiona needing to sit out a dance because "she's just dead."
After SPECTRE's absence from GF, its return in TB is welcome, helping to connect the film with Young's earlier Bonds. DN's
Joseph Wiseman plays Blofeld, his face concealed, and Eric Pohlmann returns to voice the character, as he did in FRWL. (Incidentally, I love how Waltz channels both Wiseman and Pohlmann in his softly spoken opening line in SP: "Don't let me interrupt you.") TB represents the point at which SPECTRE announces itself as a major threat to the western world, a returning adversary with enlarged criminal ambition; though in the novel, of course, this was SPECTRE's debut outing. With the exception of Kevin McClory's rogue NSNA, TB is the last Bond film featuring Blofeld which limits his role to a sinister background presence rather than billing him as the movie's principal villain. (I'm ignoring the pre-credits sequence of FYEO. NTTD might reinstall Blofeld in the background, but Waltz's take on the character as personally entangled with Bond might bring a different dynamic to his cameo than the 'anonymous' Blofeld had in the early films: this remains to be seen.)
Sean Connery performs the widescreen opening gunbarrel sequence for TB, replacing Bob Simmons who had doubled for him in the original gunbarrel used in DN, FRWL and GF (with its smaller aspect ratio). Connery's pose as he shoots is the epitome of stylised cool: left knee slightly bent, right foot angled back and left hand extended in a slightly fey attitude. Even his involuntary sway as he tries to hold the pose passes into the trademark; this 'mod' version of the gunbarrel sequence remains good for Eon's later Connery Bonds, YOLT and DAF.
'Mods vs. rockers' was very much part of the pop cultural landscape in the mid 60s. If Connery at any level qualifies as a 'mod' (this is the first movie in which 007 dances), Largo's and Fiona's lackeys would be the rockers - middle-aged men in black, with 50s quiffs, as Mark O'Connell describes them in his book 'Chasing Bullets'. As a leather-clad biker assassin, Fiona would, I guess, be the rocker-in-chief. "See you later, alligator!" quips Bond, referencing a popular rock-and-roll number. Though this throwaway line is actually a post-coital joke about Pat Fearing, Fiona is equally given to biting Bond in bed, as we see later in the film. Bond's joshing at the clinic about 'the rack', "Where's the kickstarter?" might also have appealed to youths in the audience fashionably obsessed with their motor scooters or motorbikes (as the case might have been).
TB has an exciting, pop-art credits sequence. Titles designer Maurice Binder returns to the fold, matching Robert Brownjohn's previous work for the series with his own erotic, visual style; John Barry is firing on all cylinders, Tom Jones is at the top of his game vocally and Don Black's lyrics introduce a weird bromance dynamic to the title song.
Beyond the credits, the film has a rich visual design, including a glorious colour palette for the sequences in The Bahamas (which follows a use of grey for rooms at Shrublands - admittedly less enthralling). One of my favourite sequences of the film is the one which tracks Bond's arrival in evening dress at the casino in Nassau: there's the smooth approach of Bond's boat, rippling the water; Bond's disembarkation at the quay, where he moves "like a cat" (a compliment once paid to Connery by Harry Saltzman); Bond's casual walk past happy diners and dancers; his moment of apology when nearly bumping into a beautiful woman (including the embarrassment of their obvious mutual attraction); his cool purchase of £500 of casino chips and his stroll over to the chemin de fer table. All this is accompanied by John Barry's lounge-jazz arrangement of the 'Thunderball' theme, with its trickling piano line. The sequence has about it a patina of luxury which is wholly of apiece with Fleming's enjoyment in prose of exotic locations, sophisticated leisure and elite clubland scenes; it perfectly articulates a 60s Bondian fantasy of the possibilities of excitement for a young, single, well resourced gentleman abroad (be he civil servant, lifestyle journalist or travelling salesman with an expense account). There's a throwback in SF to this sequence: Daniel Craig makes a comparable approach by boat to The Floating Dragon Casino in Macau, while composer Thomas Newman uncharacteristically goes 'the full John Barry' with his instrumental of the 'Skyfall' theme.
Musically, Barry's incidental cues in TB draw from two songs, the unused 'Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang' as well as the main title 'Thunderball', enriching the score and setting a precedent for soundtracks of later films which also draw from two (or more) new themes ('On Her Majesty's Secret' and 'We Have All The Time In The World'; 'The Living Daylights', 'If There Was A Man' and 'Where Has Everybody Gone?'; 'The World Is Not Enough' and 'Only Myself To Blame'). 'Thunderball' is the better of the two songs here, despite being a late replacement, but Barry's incidental arrangements of 'Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang' are vital to the film's score too, amplifying the romance of Nassau and the exotic thrills and spills at Club Kiss Kiss on the night of the junkanoo. Barry's re-working of his '007' theme from FRWL and (of course) DN's 'The James Bond Theme' are also part of TB's musical DNA.
Molly Peters, Martine Beswick and Lois Maxwell support Luciana Paluzzi and Claudine Auger in making TB a sexy Bond film, 60s style. Nikki van der Zyl, this time dubbing Claudine Auger, continues to suffuse the series with her subliminally recognisable, sublimely silky voice: the voice of the 60s Bond girl.
Cons:
Inconsistent pace. The land-bound and surface-level action benefits from fast editing, whereas the underwater scenes (quite ground-breaking at the time) sometimes feel sluggish, slowing down the film. The climactic underwater battle is an exception: it's impressively epic, quirky and nasty, by turns.
Problems with TB's pace are compounded when the film is shown on commercial television. I remember a UK broadcast on Saturday evening on ITV in the 70s: it may have been only the second outing for TB on the network, at a time when Bond on TV was still 'appointment viewing'. On that occasion ITV bridged each of the frequent ad breaks, either side, by the iconic gunbarrel walk, without music but with the gunshot. Thrilled though I was to be seeing the gunbarrel multiple times, I also remember feeling disappointed by its association with ad breaks, interrupting a film which at times seems to slow up anyway.
Connery occasionally looks weighed down by all the hardware in TB and by the Bond formula itself, the beginnings of a weariness which became much more of an issue in YOLT. There are odd moments during Connery's tenure as Bond when he seems, on screen, to show flashes of annoyance: the actor, that is; not just the character. One example is in YOLT, as Bond lands in Tanaka's lounger having just slid down a metal chute. Apparently, Connery actually hurt himself when performing the landing, and the annoyance shows on his face in the moment. There's a scene in TB where Bond is hoisted aboard Leiter's helicopter and Connery has to shout his lines over the sound of the engine and rotor blades, reporting the location of the missile and the intended target, and ordering Leiter to contact NATO forces urgently. I have no evidence of this beyond my inference watching Connery on screen, but the actor looks distinctly peeved about having to yell out that mouthful of expository material over the loud noise.
I'm afraid I need to mention on the 'cons' side of this post aspects of Domino's role and her scenes with Bond. The initial round of dialogue between hero and heroine is sub-adolescent, so lame it's unintentionally funny. Domino: "Your name's James Bond and you've been admiring my form?" Bond: "Mmmmmmm ... !" (That salacious "Mmmmmmm!" was a signature of Connery's 60s performances as Bond - Lazenby tried to copy it.) In his DVD commentary John Cork makes a case that TB is really the story of Bond's relationship with Domino. That's not an angle that I buy, as I don't see Claudine Auger's performance as strong enough to sell it. I accept Cork's complimentary point about some of Auger's acting choices (downcast eyes when with Largo; a smile when with Bond). And Cork makes an interesting observation about how Bond seems to struggle to conceal his emotions when he breaks the news to Domino about her brother's death. (Bond's hand shakes in close-up as he offers Domino Francois's watch and bracelet; he then puts on sunglasses, perhaps to conceal a tear.) But I think Cork is overstating the impact of the Bond/Domino romance if claiming that it's a key driver of the film. It's more a matter of gloss. What comes first is Operation Thunderball. Even Domino's spearing of Largo at the end, saving Bond's life, is a re-hash of the twist in FRWL whereby Tania shoots Rosa Klebb: it passes into cliche.
Some of the editing is crude, as if struggling to sustain continuity and to keep the story going in a workable time-frame amidst all the spectacle. There's also some iffy back projection and some sped-up footage which draws attention to itself and doesn't add value. The use of transitions which wipe across the screen brings to my mind now the 'Star Wars' prequels, an unfortunate association.
The legal conflict over accrediting authorship of TB's source novel affects the film's 'authorship' insofar as Kevin McClory was entitled to share a credit as producer and make the film. Whether this was a factor or not, TB ends up feeling less coherent in terms of collaborative auteurism than had FRWL, DN or GF - in spite of Young's presence and Eon's regular roll call of production talent. Exposition of the legally contested plot is also shovelled through the film incrementally in a sometimes rather clunky way.
Adolfo Celi's Largo looks a little too hammy, even for a 60s Bond baddie, but he certainly has sadistic moments: he's a post-war villain with roots as much in WW2 stereotypes as in the Sicilian mafia. Robert Rietty's voicing of the character lends menace. (Rietty had previously dubbed Carl Mohner as captain of the titular ship in Lewis Gilbert's 1960 movie, 'Sink The Bismarck!', though as an enemy Mohner's Kapitain Lindemann was more sympathetic than Largo.) I generally prefer Klaus Maria Brandauer's very different 80s iteration of Largo in NSNA, as a techy, charming psychotic.
In TB's final act, the film's alternation between scenes set above surface and the underwater sequences limits the part played by dialogue in the unfolding of the narrative. Below surface the story is told through visual choreography, sound effects and music. SPECTRE's operation is finally defeated in the epic underwater battle. When Largo escapes and boards the Disco Volante, his first, functional line, "Weigh anchor!" has to somehow say it all, telegraphing the frustration of defeat after several minutes with no dialogue in the film; voice artist Rietty makes a fair fist of it. The last time Largo himself had spoken, his plans had still been well on track. As a side note, it has to be said that Largo's rubber frog suit is none too flattering, given actor Celi's middle-aged rotundity.
Rik Van Nutter is an eminently forgettable Felix Leiter.
Henchman Vargas needs a mention. He never kills anyone, and in that sense he disappoints. Largo builds up Vargas, insinuating how he gets his evil kicks, and Philip Locke gives a suitably sinister performance. Yet this creepy lackey doesn't score a hit - probably because, if he did, the effect in dramatic terms would be to risk stealing some thunder from Fiona. After the captured Paula has taken a cyanide pill, Vargas protests, "*I* didn't kill her!" (Largo had wanted Paula kept alive.) This line sums up Vargas's ineffectual villainy. He remains memorable mainly for his own death scene.
George Pravda's atomic scientist Kutze is little more than a plot device, despite the significance of his change of allegiance and his brief apology echoing what had become recognisable as the standard defence of real-life war criminals ("I only did what I had to do; what I was told to do!") Kutze is such a peripheral, unprepossessing figure that now he usually just gets laughs. @AugustWalker: lol!
Overall: classic Bond, if flawed, and a lot of fun; big, widescreen entertainment in the mid-60s heyday of Bondmania.
Critics and material I don't need. I haven't changed my act in 53 years.
On rewatch, a 6/10. Sluggish pacing, an average performance from Connery (imo), and the big (dull imo) underwater battle at the end bring it down for me.
"Hostile takeovers. Shall we?"
New 2020 ranking (for now DAF and FYEO keep their previous placements)
1. TLD 2. TND 3. GF 4. TSWLM 5. TWINE 6. OHMSS 7. LtK 8. TMWTGG 9. L&LD 10. YOLT 11. DAD 12. QoS 13. DN 14. GE 15. SF 16. OP 17. MR 18. AVTAK 19. TB 20. FRWL 21. CR 22. FYEO 23. DAF (SP to be included later)
Bond actors to be re-ranked later
Comments
Are you a professional writer?
And are you just writing out of your mind or are you working on these posts before you put them up?
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
Well said. Anyone who wants to see Bond blackmail a woman for sex for no other reason than because it's "really funny" has clearly lost the plot. :v Indeed, as Gassy Man points out, even that particular scene is quite multilayered if one is inclined to actually give it some thought.
"Better make that two."
Pros:
.Connery's best performance.
.The Bahamas.
.Beautiful cinematography.
.Great villains, girls, and allies all around.
.The jet pack is silly but classic.
.The motorcycle rocket.
.I think he got the point.
.The underwater battles don't drag to me. They're amazing to look at.
.Fiona Volpe.
.The SPECTRE meeting.
.Rik van Nutter isn't a great actor but he looks like the literary Leiter.
.Moves at a slow pace but is never boring.
.The entire nighttime sequence at Palmyra and the Junkanoo.
.Ken Adam's sets.
.Feels epic in scale.
.The definitive SPECTRE film.
Cons:
.The sped up fight on the Disco Volante.
.Some of the dubbing and editing is jarring but not a big deal.
10/10 -{ . Perfect mix of Young's style and the epic scale of the later films.
Now, my opinions have changed hugely, and I consider it to be a solid entry in the franchise, and a definite winner in my books. I guess back eight years ago when I first saw it, I was still a teenager and just didn't have the patience to watch it since it does take time to really think and understand what's going on.
Pro's:
* The return of the DB5
* Amazing performance by Sean Connery
* Terrence Young's directing. The film actually shows us at the beginning how the atomic bombs were stolen, and what Bond is up against.
* Unlike the previous film, I really felt a sense of urgency with this. SPECTRE are planning on bombing an unknown city in one of two continents. It's purely an act of terrorism in exchange for money, but knowing them, whats to stop them from blowing up the world anyway - money or no money.
* The bond girls, especially Paula. It's sad she died as I thought she was a sweetheart. Domino was good, though not one of the best.
* Lago was SPECTRE #2. Very convincing and a classic Bond villain
* The Bahamas location, similar and reminded me a lot of Dr No
* The final underwater battle scene - but what was really awesome was the build up.
* Bond constantly escaping death at every turn.
* Subjective opinion, but I like this film more as a whole than GF. Though it's close...
* I LOVE the score in this movie, one of the best in the series. The title song is pretty top notch also.
Con's:
* Back projection on the disco volante (final fight)
* Fiona Volpe - I just didn't like her at all. Maybe that's the whole 'point' though...
* Not enough DB5 - minor issue though.
* Takes a while for the interest to build up with the plot
Overall, definitive Bond film and a true classic. Goldfinger had an amazing first half of the film and had the entire film been up to the quality of what we saw in Miami, England and Switzerland, then Goldfinger would win with no contest. As a whole, Thunderball wins as far as quality goes.
Rating: 8/10
1. Dalton 2. Moore 3. Connery 4. Lazenby 5. Craig 6. Brosnan
"Better make that two."
Good point.
I saw Goldfinger in 2015 in the Prince Charles cinema, London. I enjoyed the first parts, the ones you mentioned. But, for some reason, when the movie shifted to the American scenes, the whole movie just seemed awkward, in a way I'd never noticed before. Maybe it was seeing it in the cinema for the first time in decades. I don't know. But, those USA scenes just looked so dated in a way that the European scenes did not. The attack on Fort Knox scenes in particular are really clunky when watched on a big screen. However, once they are inside Fort Knox and Oddjob and Bond are kicking blazes out of each other, then normal, classy service resumes.
I guess what I'm saying is that Goldfinger seems very uneven when seen in all its glory, the way it was meant to be seen, and not interrupted by TV ads every 10 minutes.
My problem with the film has always tended to be that some changes from the book, unlike with Goldfinger, were for the worse. Fleming's Bond thinks his assignment in Miami is a waste of time which takes him away from where the real action is likely to be, whereas movie Bond has M change his assignment *to* Miami - the start of a process over the years of Bond becoming an all-knowing superman. One of the pleasures of the novel is Bond being only half-aware for most of the narrative that huge events are taking place right under his nose. That having been said I'm not sure that it would have been entirely possible to express this on film.
Also, it's a shame that the producer's didn't go with the original 'Mr Kiss-Kiss, Bang-Bang' theme song - was this Harry Saltzman's notorious tin ear for a good song striking again?
Concur with Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, it was as good as Nobody Does It Better in terms of being a signature Bond intro.
Not in this case- UA wanted a song actually called "Thunderball" for cross-promotion purposes- every time it was heard on the radio, it would advertise the film. This was a late decision, by which point Barry had (a) used the melody of MKKBB as the basis for much of his score and (b) recorded two vocal versions, one by Shirley Bassey and one by Dionne Warwick.
Sorry, you're right. I was getting mixed up with Goldfinger!
Thank you, that's really interesting. The Dionne Warwick version gets my vote.
In the process of moving and almost forgot this baby. My seventh grade teacher of all people gave it to me.
-{
Impossible.
Other than a bit of dodgy editing and dubbing Thunderball is all pros for me. Some say the whole shrublands thing is too slow and the underwater scenes too long but I love them. It sets tb apart. At Shrublands we get to spend some time with connery at his nonchalant best. We have spectacular locations, great action, beautiful girls, an interesting henchman " what does vargas do? " a great villain, awesome score and the true emergence of q. We also get a look at all the other 00's..... I love this film.
Thunderball has the wiping effect, Goldfinger has the fade effect and I need to rewatch Dr NO and From Russia... With Love to find out which ones were theirs.
Why dose she need him alive?
- Ken Adam: the SPECTRE boardroom, the MI6 emergency meeting room, the hotel rooms, the Disco Valante, Palmyra
- Palmyra, Palmyra, Palmyra ... damn!, Largo has a nice villain's headquarters. This is obviously a real place, has anybody ever visited it?
- Barry: so much good music it overflowed the original soundtrack lp, with approx 30 minutes of leftovers released on cd decades later.
- The underwater motif that dominates much of the film makes some otherwise long boring scenes come across as absolutely epic and adds to the whole countdown-to-doomsday vibe.
- Binder: this is his first classic title sequence (Dr No was quite different) and it's all silhouettes cut into a background of everchanging underwater imagery.
- The SPECTRE boardroom scene. So much is done right in this one scene, it alone is worth the price of admission.
- Fiona Volpe. The scene where she first meets Bond is unnecessary to the plot, but lots of fun. All her dialog with Bond is classic.
- Note, she has moved right into Paula's room immediately after having her kidnapped, the brazen hussy! She's not in Bond's bath, she's in Paula's bath, they had those adjoining rooms.
- Domino wears a lot of sexy and unusual swimsuits, especially that first one with the translucent diagonal "window" ... you gotta pay attention to the fine details in this scene!
- Bond and Domino consummate their relationship underwater rather than in the men's change room. That was never a very classy detail on Fleming's part.
- Despite the underwater scenes going on so long without dialog, all the techno-thriller stuff is played straight and very ominous.
- Lots of great looking machinery getting fetishized by the camera here, Fleming would have approved.
- For once, Leiter is sandy-haired if not Texan.
- First Q in the field.
- Bond has his own sexy assistant, who shares an adjoining room and is OK with him picking up the villain's mistress right in front of her (she shrugs!)
(and Martine Beswick is a returning actress: she was one of the gypsy girls in FRWL, nice to see her get a bigger part with actual dialog).
- Bond actually has his own headquarters for this job, even if it's not up to the standard of Palmyra.
- Underwater sealife. Fleming didn't get his beloved landcrabs, giant squid, bird sanctuary or even the centipede in Dr No. But in this film, Domino is introduced riding a giant sea tortoise! and that final underwater battle features lots of critters watching the action, weird crabs, octopi and of course all those sharks.
- Loads of classic dialog
- So many iconic scenes that got repeated in future films: the technothriller countdown to doomsday in all three Gilbert films, the underwater scenes in tSWLM and FYEO, the sexy assistant and parade in MR, all of Xenia Onatopp's early scenes in Goldeneye, and of course major chunks of SPECTRE. Somehow even earlier films had scenes borrowed from this film (introduction of Leiter in Dr No, introduction of SPECTRE in FRWL)
- Even nonBond films have recycled these iconic scenes, like Dr Evil trying to feed a minion to sharks in the middle of a meeting in International Man of Mystery, and Elastigirl's new employers having their offices on the world's largest hydrofoil in Incredibles 2.
CONS
- McClory! (boo, hiss). It's his fault Fleming had that final heart attack, and by proving so difficult to work with, EON decided not to collaborate with Feldman, meaning it's also kinda McClory's fault we got the "funny" version of Casino Royale.
- Conspicuous pacing and structural problems the first three films did not have. Was this somehow McClory's fault too? Maibaum and Young and Hunt are all credited here, and they didn't waste so much time telling the story in the earlier films, those films were tight.
- Neither vocal take of Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is used in the film.
- The pre-credits sequence. nothing to do with Fleming so fars I can tell. Features a villain in drag, setting bad precedent for Diamonds are Forever. This gangland funeral/grieving widow scene is one that the much maligned SPECTRE actually did improve on!
- The jetpack. Worst gadget ever. and then it overshadows the reappearance of the Aston.
- The transition from precredits to credits is uncharacteristically anticlimactic after the pathetic jetpack and underwhelming use of the Aston.
- Shrublands, takes up almost a third of the film. I don't like this section in Fleming's book either, nor in Never Say Never Again. The only connection it has with the rest of the film is the convoluted substitution for Domino's brother, which is not needed to make the plot work.
- Bond spends too much time playing the fool, especially in Shrublands and when talking to Q.
- Just how much time did Bond spend at Palmyra and with Volpe after he left Domino with Leiter at the parade? Seems like so many different things happen days should have gone by.
- Why does Bond not use an alias when he meets Largo? He knows Largo is with SPECTRE, and not only did SPECTRE specifically target James Bond for assassination two films earlier, they even sent that card from Tatiana to his employer's address!
- When Largo harpoons the shark at the end, that's real isnt it?
IG: @thebondarchives
Check it out, you won’t be disappointed
A straightforward, honest-to-God, high-stakes mission. Operation Thunderball. No personal angle to Bond's motivation.
TB has a classic take on what makes Bond tick and how he operates. During Connery's tenure it was more 'Bondian' for 007 to put the mission first, perhaps using, in the process, another character's weakness or personal grievance - rather than being motivated by any personal issues of his own. In TB, Bond exploits Domino's desire for revenge, after explaining to her that Largo was behind the death of her brother. Bond is attracted to Domino and he likes her, but he needs her help to defeat the enemy, despite the risk to her life; he secures her co-operation by using the necessary means.
One of the themes in the early Bond films, as also in Fleming, is the discipline 007 needs to keep any personal emotions in check. It's true that in DN Bond makes a passing reference to wanting to avenge Strangways's death, and that in GF he needs to rein in his feelings about Jill's murder before getting on "coldly and objectively" with his assignment. It's also true that, at the beginning of TB, Bond says he'd have liked to have killed SPECTRE agent Colonel Boivard himself, because Boivard had murdered two of his colleagues; Bond indeed gets a chance to finish off Boivard and, later, he also indulges in some tit-for-tat shenanigans with Count Lippe. But 007's default mode at least until OHMSS is always dutiful and detached, putting first his assigned mission without significant digression. Despite Bond's sensuality, the opportunities he takes for sexual gratification, and his fleeting moments of sadness over the deaths of allies, Sean Connery's performance reflects a fundamentally dispassionate approach.
By contrast, in recent Bond movies, Bond is more likely than not to have some key complicating personal involvement in the plot (or, if not Bond, it's M who has this, as in TWINE; or the villain, as in SF and SP). Going beyond simply making love to the latest heroine, the recent Bond's knotted personal stake-holding is repetitious and eventually grows tiresome, making purist fans like me nostalgic for the days of straightforward missions and passing fancies. For example, SP's reworking of TB's SPECTRE board meeting has an initially traditional tone, echoing the original, but is then spoiled (to my mind) by Bond's incursion and Christoph Waltz's enigmatic line "Cuckoo!" - alluding to his back-story as Franz Oberhauser with "James". Connery's Bond just wouldn't have cared about the soapy elements of the recent movies, partly because he's never given a personal history himself. He remains "Mister Bond."
None of which is to say that there aren't dramatic interpersonal dynamics in TB. All interactions involving Fiona Volpe are compelling. Fiona is a user, too, but with a sadistic twist. Her scenes bring to the film a heady concoction of cruelty, duplicity and sexual manipulation; a deadly clash between erotically charged assertions of one-up(wo)manship. Fiona exemplifies the murderous ruthlessness of the original SPECTRE, at least as much as Number One and Largo.
In TB, the direction, writing and performances are at their best in Fiona's scenes, and the audience misses her after her death. The same is true of Fiona's successor, Fatima Blush, in the TB re-make NSNA. The femme female's sexual neuroses are even more to the fore in NSNA; the film loses much of its steam after Fatima's explosive exit, limping its way in so-so fashion towards the denouement.
In TB, Fiona's challenge becomes self-reflexive at the point that she goads "Bond, James Bond," taunting him about his reputation and his ego in thinking that he needs only to make love to a girl to win her over "to the side of right and virtue" and to make her "hear heavenly choirs singing": "but not this one!" As a SPECTRE operative, Fiona would conceivably know about Tania falling for Bond in FRWL and her defection, but Tania was never properly a 'bad girl' in the first place. Fiona is surely referring more to Bond's conversion of Pussy Galore in GF; but how would she know about Pussy, given that SPECTRE hadn't had any apparent involvement in Operation Grand Slam? It's almost as if Fiona shares with the audience a common cultural knowledge of the mythology of the Bond films and their sexual politics, knowingly expressing a self-reflexivity which would become increasingly important to the films as part of the entertainment (witness DAF and NSNA). In a commentary track for the DVD issue of TB, John Cork links Fiona's confrontational lines, here, to criticisms found in unfavourable contemporary reviews of GF which addressed how unconvincing it was that Bond should turn Pussy from her implied lesbianism through his sheer sexual charisma. Cork also remarks that Fiona's dialogue is possibly a case of the film-makers cheekily retaliating against critics who had tended to write off Bond as a "sadistic brute".
TB boasts brilliant talent on the production side, with Terence Young, Ted Moore, Ken Adam, John Barry, Richard Maibaum, Peter Hunt and Bob Simmons among the returning regulars. Much of the creative chemistry which had made Bond a success in the earlier films is well at work again here.
Director Terence Young brings back to the series some of his distinctive edginess, which was missing in Guy Hamilton's relatively relaxed GF. Admittedly Young's style is rather 'watered down' in TB, if not 'flooded out', by the increased emphasis on spectacle, hardware and gadgetry ("...and the kitchen sink!") but Young's direction of the SPECTRE board meeting is one memorable example of his dark sensibility at play, keyed into Fleming; and indeed many highlights of the movie convey his deliciously callous sense of humour as director, such as Vargas 'getting the point' or Bond pausing to toss lilies over Colonel Boivard's corpse in the fireplace or Fiona needing to sit out a dance because "she's just dead."
After SPECTRE's absence from GF, its return in TB is welcome, helping to connect the film with Young's earlier Bonds. DN's
Joseph Wiseman plays Blofeld, his face concealed, and Eric Pohlmann returns to voice the character, as he did in FRWL. (Incidentally, I love how Waltz channels both Wiseman and Pohlmann in his softly spoken opening line in SP: "Don't let me interrupt you.") TB represents the point at which SPECTRE announces itself as a major threat to the western world, a returning adversary with enlarged criminal ambition; though in the novel, of course, this was SPECTRE's debut outing. With the exception of Kevin McClory's rogue NSNA, TB is the last Bond film featuring Blofeld which limits his role to a sinister background presence rather than billing him as the movie's principal villain. (I'm ignoring the pre-credits sequence of FYEO. NTTD might reinstall Blofeld in the background, but Waltz's take on the character as personally entangled with Bond might bring a different dynamic to his cameo than the 'anonymous' Blofeld had in the early films: this remains to be seen.)
Sean Connery performs the widescreen opening gunbarrel sequence for TB, replacing Bob Simmons who had doubled for him in the original gunbarrel used in DN, FRWL and GF (with its smaller aspect ratio). Connery's pose as he shoots is the epitome of stylised cool: left knee slightly bent, right foot angled back and left hand extended in a slightly fey attitude. Even his involuntary sway as he tries to hold the pose passes into the trademark; this 'mod' version of the gunbarrel sequence remains good for Eon's later Connery Bonds, YOLT and DAF.
'Mods vs. rockers' was very much part of the pop cultural landscape in the mid 60s. If Connery at any level qualifies as a 'mod' (this is the first movie in which 007 dances), Largo's and Fiona's lackeys would be the rockers - middle-aged men in black, with 50s quiffs, as Mark O'Connell describes them in his book 'Chasing Bullets'. As a leather-clad biker assassin, Fiona would, I guess, be the rocker-in-chief. "See you later, alligator!" quips Bond, referencing a popular rock-and-roll number. Though this throwaway line is actually a post-coital joke about Pat Fearing, Fiona is equally given to biting Bond in bed, as we see later in the film. Bond's joshing at the clinic about 'the rack', "Where's the kickstarter?" might also have appealed to youths in the audience fashionably obsessed with their motor scooters or motorbikes (as the case might have been).
TB has an exciting, pop-art credits sequence. Titles designer Maurice Binder returns to the fold, matching Robert Brownjohn's previous work for the series with his own erotic, visual style; John Barry is firing on all cylinders, Tom Jones is at the top of his game vocally and Don Black's lyrics introduce a weird bromance dynamic to the title song.
Beyond the credits, the film has a rich visual design, including a glorious colour palette for the sequences in The Bahamas (which follows a use of grey for rooms at Shrublands - admittedly less enthralling). One of my favourite sequences of the film is the one which tracks Bond's arrival in evening dress at the casino in Nassau: there's the smooth approach of Bond's boat, rippling the water; Bond's disembarkation at the quay, where he moves "like a cat" (a compliment once paid to Connery by Harry Saltzman); Bond's casual walk past happy diners and dancers; his moment of apology when nearly bumping into a beautiful woman (including the embarrassment of their obvious mutual attraction); his cool purchase of £500 of casino chips and his stroll over to the chemin de fer table. All this is accompanied by John Barry's lounge-jazz arrangement of the 'Thunderball' theme, with its trickling piano line. The sequence has about it a patina of luxury which is wholly of apiece with Fleming's enjoyment in prose of exotic locations, sophisticated leisure and elite clubland scenes; it perfectly articulates a 60s Bondian fantasy of the possibilities of excitement for a young, single, well resourced gentleman abroad (be he civil servant, lifestyle journalist or travelling salesman with an expense account). There's a throwback in SF to this sequence: Daniel Craig makes a comparable approach by boat to The Floating Dragon Casino in Macau, while composer Thomas Newman uncharacteristically goes 'the full John Barry' with his instrumental of the 'Skyfall' theme.
Musically, Barry's incidental cues in TB draw from two songs, the unused 'Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang' as well as the main title 'Thunderball', enriching the score and setting a precedent for soundtracks of later films which also draw from two (or more) new themes ('On Her Majesty's Secret' and 'We Have All The Time In The World'; 'The Living Daylights', 'If There Was A Man' and 'Where Has Everybody Gone?'; 'The World Is Not Enough' and 'Only Myself To Blame'). 'Thunderball' is the better of the two songs here, despite being a late replacement, but Barry's incidental arrangements of 'Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang' are vital to the film's score too, amplifying the romance of Nassau and the exotic thrills and spills at Club Kiss Kiss on the night of the junkanoo. Barry's re-working of his '007' theme from FRWL and (of course) DN's 'The James Bond Theme' are also part of TB's musical DNA.
Molly Peters, Martine Beswick and Lois Maxwell support Luciana Paluzzi and Claudine Auger in making TB a sexy Bond film, 60s style. Nikki van der Zyl, this time dubbing Claudine Auger, continues to suffuse the series with her subliminally recognisable, sublimely silky voice: the voice of the 60s Bond girl.
Cons:
Inconsistent pace. The land-bound and surface-level action benefits from fast editing, whereas the underwater scenes (quite ground-breaking at the time) sometimes feel sluggish, slowing down the film. The climactic underwater battle is an exception: it's impressively epic, quirky and nasty, by turns.
Problems with TB's pace are compounded when the film is shown on commercial television. I remember a UK broadcast on Saturday evening on ITV in the 70s: it may have been only the second outing for TB on the network, at a time when Bond on TV was still 'appointment viewing'. On that occasion ITV bridged each of the frequent ad breaks, either side, by the iconic gunbarrel walk, without music but with the gunshot. Thrilled though I was to be seeing the gunbarrel multiple times, I also remember feeling disappointed by its association with ad breaks, interrupting a film which at times seems to slow up anyway.
Connery occasionally looks weighed down by all the hardware in TB and by the Bond formula itself, the beginnings of a weariness which became much more of an issue in YOLT. There are odd moments during Connery's tenure as Bond when he seems, on screen, to show flashes of annoyance: the actor, that is; not just the character. One example is in YOLT, as Bond lands in Tanaka's lounger having just slid down a metal chute. Apparently, Connery actually hurt himself when performing the landing, and the annoyance shows on his face in the moment. There's a scene in TB where Bond is hoisted aboard Leiter's helicopter and Connery has to shout his lines over the sound of the engine and rotor blades, reporting the location of the missile and the intended target, and ordering Leiter to contact NATO forces urgently. I have no evidence of this beyond my inference watching Connery on screen, but the actor looks distinctly peeved about having to yell out that mouthful of expository material over the loud noise.
I'm afraid I need to mention on the 'cons' side of this post aspects of Domino's role and her scenes with Bond. The initial round of dialogue between hero and heroine is sub-adolescent, so lame it's unintentionally funny. Domino: "Your name's James Bond and you've been admiring my form?" Bond: "Mmmmmmm ... !" (That salacious "Mmmmmmm!" was a signature of Connery's 60s performances as Bond - Lazenby tried to copy it.) In his DVD commentary John Cork makes a case that TB is really the story of Bond's relationship with Domino. That's not an angle that I buy, as I don't see Claudine Auger's performance as strong enough to sell it. I accept Cork's complimentary point about some of Auger's acting choices (downcast eyes when with Largo; a smile when with Bond). And Cork makes an interesting observation about how Bond seems to struggle to conceal his emotions when he breaks the news to Domino about her brother's death. (Bond's hand shakes in close-up as he offers Domino Francois's watch and bracelet; he then puts on sunglasses, perhaps to conceal a tear.) But I think Cork is overstating the impact of the Bond/Domino romance if claiming that it's a key driver of the film. It's more a matter of gloss. What comes first is Operation Thunderball. Even Domino's spearing of Largo at the end, saving Bond's life, is a re-hash of the twist in FRWL whereby Tania shoots Rosa Klebb: it passes into cliche.
Some of the editing is crude, as if struggling to sustain continuity and to keep the story going in a workable time-frame amidst all the spectacle. There's also some iffy back projection and some sped-up footage which draws attention to itself and doesn't add value. The use of transitions which wipe across the screen brings to my mind now the 'Star Wars' prequels, an unfortunate association.
The legal conflict over accrediting authorship of TB's source novel affects the film's 'authorship' insofar as Kevin McClory was entitled to share a credit as producer and make the film. Whether this was a factor or not, TB ends up feeling less coherent in terms of collaborative auteurism than had FRWL, DN or GF - in spite of Young's presence and Eon's regular roll call of production talent. Exposition of the legally contested plot is also shovelled through the film incrementally in a sometimes rather clunky way.
Adolfo Celi's Largo looks a little too hammy, even for a 60s Bond baddie, but he certainly has sadistic moments: he's a post-war villain with roots as much in WW2 stereotypes as in the Sicilian mafia. Robert Rietty's voicing of the character lends menace. (Rietty had previously dubbed Carl Mohner as captain of the titular ship in Lewis Gilbert's 1960 movie, 'Sink The Bismarck!', though as an enemy Mohner's Kapitain Lindemann was more sympathetic than Largo.) I generally prefer Klaus Maria Brandauer's very different 80s iteration of Largo in NSNA, as a techy, charming psychotic.
In TB's final act, the film's alternation between scenes set above surface and the underwater sequences limits the part played by dialogue in the unfolding of the narrative. Below surface the story is told through visual choreography, sound effects and music. SPECTRE's operation is finally defeated in the epic underwater battle. When Largo escapes and boards the Disco Volante, his first, functional line, "Weigh anchor!" has to somehow say it all, telegraphing the frustration of defeat after several minutes with no dialogue in the film; voice artist Rietty makes a fair fist of it. The last time Largo himself had spoken, his plans had still been well on track. As a side note, it has to be said that Largo's rubber frog suit is none too flattering, given actor Celi's middle-aged rotundity.
Rik Van Nutter is an eminently forgettable Felix Leiter.
Henchman Vargas needs a mention. He never kills anyone, and in that sense he disappoints. Largo builds up Vargas, insinuating how he gets his evil kicks, and Philip Locke gives a suitably sinister performance. Yet this creepy lackey doesn't score a hit - probably because, if he did, the effect in dramatic terms would be to risk stealing some thunder from Fiona. After the captured Paula has taken a cyanide pill, Vargas protests, "*I* didn't kill her!" (Largo had wanted Paula kept alive.) This line sums up Vargas's ineffectual villainy. He remains memorable mainly for his own death scene.
George Pravda's atomic scientist Kutze is little more than a plot device, despite the significance of his change of allegiance and his brief apology echoing what had become recognisable as the standard defence of real-life war criminals ("I only did what I had to do; what I was told to do!") Kutze is such a peripheral, unprepossessing figure that now he usually just gets laughs. @AugustWalker: lol!
Overall: classic Bond, if flawed, and a lot of fun; big, widescreen entertainment in the mid-60s heyday of Bondmania.
New 2020 ranking (for now DAF and FYEO keep their previous placements)
1. TLD 2. TND 3. GF 4. TSWLM 5. TWINE 6. OHMSS 7. LtK 8. TMWTGG 9. L&LD 10. YOLT 11. DAD 12. QoS 13. DN 14. GE 15. SF 16. OP 17. MR 18. AVTAK 19. TB 20. FRWL 21. CR 22. FYEO 23. DAF (SP to be included later)
Bond actors to be re-ranked later
IMO , better than GF but not as good as OHMSS (if were talking 60s Bonds)