Review 95: Thunderball

Thunderball never reaches the spectacular height of the previous three entries, but nonetheless is a solid entry in 007 movie series.

Based on the ninth Bond novel Thunderball by Ian Fleming. In a bold and deadly scheme, the evil SPECTRE organization hijacks a NATO plane and seizes two atomic bombs each capable of killing millions of innocent people. As the world is held hostage by the threat of a nuclear nightmare, Bond jumps into action, racing against the clock as the trail leads him to tropical Nassau. There he meets Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi), a high-ranking agent of SPECTRE, and the stunning Domino (Claudine Auger), with whom he shares an irresistible attraction. The confrontation builds to an epic battle on the ocean floor, as Bond and his allies fight to avert a catastrophe of immense proportions.

It's almost impossible to review this film without going the films long and complicated history: In the late 50's Ian Fleming colaborated with writer/producer team Jack Wittingham and Kevin McClory to write and original screenplay for a Bond film. The film never got made and the screenplay was disgarded - until Fleming used it as the basis for his novel Thunderball. Wittingham and McClory sued Fleming claiming that some of the material in the novel were their idea.

The plot is a good old spy thriller.

and pivots on contempory themes of extortion and SPECTRE represents an evil unconstrained by ideology and there's a great mixture of gorgeous locations and tense plot. Also its nice to see SPECTRE back after a two year absence.

Returning director Terence Young's direction is
Ted Moore delivers us his best cinematography of the series with the underwater scenes which are beautifully photographed a gorgeous to look at and precisely who makes a welcome return to the series. He also creates some breathtaking shots that look like they've come from a documentry, gorgeous locals as I said earlier, the costumes are breathtaking and capture the flair and beauty of the Bahamas, the production design is impressive, the score by John Barry's is lush and suspenseful, there are great moments of suspense and intensity, the effects are possibly the best of the series, the sound mixing adds tension to the film, the gadgets are cool, the one liners are witty, the underwater scenes are well choreographed and entertaining to watch, particularly the climax, the action scenes are brutal and second best of the series, the title song by Tom Jones is bombastic and the ending was superb.

There are a couple of drawbacks, it's not as well paced as the first three films and with a running time of 2h 10m its the longest of the Connery films and could get dull for some.

The acting is excellent, Sean Connery's cool as usual

 

Claudine Auger is sensitive and lovely as Bonds leading lady Domino (but it's the final scenes of the movie were she's at her best)

 

Rik Van Nutter is strong as Felix Leiter

 

Adolfo Celi is an intimidating villain playing SPECTRE agent Emilio Largo.

 

However, Luciana Paluzzi is possibly the best bond henchwoman

Overall Thunderball isn't as good as the first three film, but I think its a great edition to the Bond franchise nonetheless, 4/5.

The Anonymous Critic