Thunderball

Perhaps it was the passing of Sean Connery in the last week or so, but I've been wanting to get back on my James Bond path lately. 

Previously, I'd been able to crank out the first three films, Dr. No, From Russia with Love, and Goldfinger. To varying degrees, I found them all entertaining and one of the most interesting parts of this journey is to see how the series started compared to what it is now.

Much to my joy, I recently discovered the Bond films are back on Amazon Prime for free. The consistency of will-they, wont-they be "free" is getting old - but at least for now they're all accessible (so get after it!). Eagerly, I began the 4K version of Thunderball. 

This 4th film in the series is an interesting one because it's the series at its most confident and ambitious, by far, trying to capitalize on having a winner with Goldfinger (and arguably the two films before that). As is the case when there can be too much ambition, it feels bloated and epic at the same time. 

I had a harder time tracking with the intricacies of the plot this time around but it boils down to: SPECTRE has stolen two nuclear weapons and hidden them in the Bahamas (convenient for Bond, wouldn't you say?). They're holding the US and UK ransom and will detonate them if they don't get 100 million pounds. So it's pretty straight forward, but what I found clumsy about Thunderball is its transitions. There are plenty of scenes where their purpose isn't exactly known and how/why all the characters got to one place isn't immediately obvious. It's never enough to be like "Woah, wait. What just happened?" but I found it frustrating when a lot of the lesser scenes feel like shades of earlier ones that don't have much purpose. In that same vein, I find the "procedural" nature of Thunderball irksome. For the last three films, Bond has learned about SPECTRE - the overarching villainous organization - but yet here they seem to catch everyone by surprise. MI6's and Bond's involvement is entirely reactive and despite there being SPECTRE-based scenes, they don't move much forward. Yes, I know this was a time before highly interconnected sequels, but it's kind of a testament to what we're seeing today in the Daniel Craig era that they are, mostly, deeply connected to one another. 

"Excuse me miss, do you have the time?"
"OMFG, James! RAVISH ME!"
"Ummmmm ok?"

"Listen here, seeeee.
This is a harpoon! Ya got it?"

Sean Connery as Bond is his usual charming, semi-rapey self here. It's been a criticism of mine in these films to a certain degree, but there's also some humor here. James Bond takes what he wants when he wants it dammit! Clearly the optics around his womanizing has changed over the years, but in the Bahamas with all the scantily clad, bikini-laced women running around, it's a wonder he can focus at all! I had to laugh out loud at a scene where a very basic interaction with a receptionist results with her giving doe eyes at him as he walks away. Despite that now-awkwardness about the character, Connery is still excellent as Bond overall. To me it doesn't feel as "owned" as Goldfinger did, but he's certainly got his swagger and confidence in the role by now. The rest of the cast does well, but I found certain characters to be lacking. Domino is a forgettable Bond girl (not the fault of Claudine Auger) partly because there's so much conflict with other women here. Similarly, I found Largo to be a forgettable villain in the grand scheme of Bond. Outside of his eye patch and affinity for being underwater, there's not much special about the character. Luciana Paluzzi's Fiona Volpe, a SPECTRE assassin, is intriguing as a counterbalance to Bond, but her character doesn't feel fully explored and...well...spoiler alert, she's not going to be around in further films so...

Thus far in the review, I've kind of ripped on Thunderball, but I was impressed by certain scenes too. I mentioned ambition earlier and it's clear there was a focus on making this one of the most significant "underwater" movies ever made. The primary focus of the action here, for better or worse, is underwater with self-propelling submersibles, and the hottest weapon of 1965, harpoons! Lots and lots of harpoons! To be fair, this makes Thunderball stand out among its predecessors and the underwater action is mostly entertaining. It's shot surprisingly well for a film where this was probably some of the first attempts at this stuff, and it has a wonderful original score to go along with it. Sure, it moves slower than normal, but there's something zany about seeing an all-out underwater battle between SPECTRE and US/British spies. Harpoons flying every which way, everyone trying to cut the other person's oxygen supply, some fun shots of a lionfish or eel being stuck amidst the action...it's all delightfully preposterous.

Underwater Disco Party!!

Although Thunderball may not have reached the highs of Goldfinger, or even From Russia with Love, it still gets points for trying to shake up the formula and is mightily ambitious coming from the success of the three Bond films before it. Certain elements make it more forgettable as an overall film, but particular underwater scenes stand out as impressive, even by today's standards. 

CONS

• I was getting frustrated with the transitions, not of scenes, but from one plot beat to the next. There's some need for better organization and streamlining here
• Lags considerably in the middle which is no surprise given it's over 2 hours long
• Bond being semi-rapey hasn't aged well
• Doesn't do much with SPECTRE in terms of advancing the overall plot
• Forgettable villain and Bond girl
• Good God, there is some awful greenscreen here!

PROS

• Connery is still smooth as ever in the role and owns it with ease
• Fiona Vulpa provides an interesting adversary for Bond that I wish would have been in more films
• I've said it before in these reviews, the Bond musical theme(s) are iconic for a reason. It just hits different
• Ambition of this series on full display here and the result is mostly impressive where you can tell they put their money. The underwater scenes, while slower in action, are something to behold, even today

Retro Rath's Review Score | 7.5/10