Thunderball
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Features
• PAL
In Theaters : 29 December, 1965 |
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Thunderball Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥
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An Ambitious Bond Film based on Fleming's Novel
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This is one of the few Bond films that actually adapted a good portion of its story from the Ian Fleming title of the same name. It was always of interest that this novel was based on an original screenplay by Fleming and others. ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE (George Lazenby) and CASINO ROYALE (Daniel Craig) are the only subsequent Bond films to return to Ian Fleming's novels for their basic plots.
This film somehow sums up a feeling of nostalgia and endearment for the way it engulfed audiences, myself included, into the wonderful world of James Bond. Sean Connery did it with such effortless and natural charm and aplomb like no other. He's a tough and resourceful blunt instrument with a level of intelligence sophistication still impressive to this day. The world of THUNDERBALL is elegant where the villains live an opulent style of life which is a veneer for their sinister plans. In a bit of irony James Bond lives in that same world and he is up to the challenge to foil whatever mayhem they concoct.
After a one-film hiatus SPECTRE returns. So has Sean Connery as he was finally groomed to perfection as the definitive screen incarnation of James Bond in GOLDFINGER. Terence Young is also back as director. However, he seems to have been influenced over the fine-tuning that Guy Hamilton brought to the main character and overall tone of GOLDFINGER. Due to that film's success Young seems to be floundering here being diverted from his vision of the character that he helped bring to the screen. Young is 180 degrees from being the auteur he envisioned himself to be.
The film seems loosely constructed and leisurely acted. Adolfo Celi as Emilio Largo looks the part but he never seems a real threat to Bond. In fact he seems to lose every encounter with Bond whether it be at the gambling tables or engaging in idle banter on the merits of women vs. guns. Bond outdoes him in skeet shooting without even looking at the target.
What makes the film very memorable is John Barry's rich score and Lamar Boren's beautiful and colorful underwater photography. The two went hand in hand. I also thought the villains' plot to hijack a Vulcan jet was extremely well filmed and executed. This is a very ambitious film combing elements of the literary James Bond with the refinements made for the cinematic version of Ian Fleming's creation. |
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Thunderball dvd movie.