Thunderball (1965)

Here’s the thing about Thunderball:  it’s not Goldfinger.  I know it’s unfair to compare Sean Connery’s fourth outing as James Bond to his third, widely regarded as his and the series’ best (and, for my money, a perfect movie).  But watching the two virtually back to back means that something about the movie doesn’t quite hit it.

Thunderball is a different kind of movie, for one.  Where Goldfinger was an insular and personal battle of wits between super spy and bullion baron, Thunderball ups the scale when the shadowy organization SPECTRE holds the world for ransom after stealing two atomic bombs.  On a hunch and inspired by a photograph of the beautiful Domino Derval (Claudine Auger), James Bond (Connery) flies to Nassau, where the bombs are being guarded by SPECTRE second-in-command Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi).

There are elements of Thunderball that work quite well.  The pre-credits sequence is brilliant, beginning at a funeral where Bond pieces together an important clue about one of the mourners before making his escape in the series’ most fantastic gadget yet – a jetpack strapped over 007’s shoulders.  The momentum continues with Tom Jones’s soulful vocals over the title track, a worthy successor to Shirley Bassey’s “Goldfinger.”

And of note here, more than in any other Bond movie, a good deal of the film takes place underwater (Wikipedia tells me it’s roughly a quarter of the movie).  To director Terence Young’s credit, these scenes are actually quite exciting; though mostly silent and filmed without speeding up the natural drag caused by swimming at the bottom of the ocean, the underwater sequences both distinguish Thunderball from the rest of the franchise while also finding a new and creative way to introduce action scenes into the narrative while preserving the scenic specificity of Nassau (something Dr. No, set on an island, did not quite do).  The only complaint about these scenes is that it is sometimes difficult to make out which swimmer is Bond and which is Largo – and which is no one at all.

What’s missing from Thunderball is the sense of mystery that made Goldfinger such a hit.  As in From Russia with Love, we’re let in on the villain’s scheme almost from the beginning; here we finally get our best look at SPECTRE and how it operates (something the rest of the Connery-era films will continue to pay off), and we know before MI6 does that Largo has the bombs.  Consequently there isn’t much of a sense of intrigue about the movie, and the question is more how Bond will save the world and not why it needs saving.

After Pussy Galore provided a challenge to the “Bond Girl” stereotype emerging from Honey Rider and Tatiana Romanova, Domino Derval is somewhere in the middle.  She doesn’t do much for the bulk of the film, providing Bond’s incentive to visit Nassau and giving the audience a concrete link between Largo and the bomb plot (Domino’s brother had been flying the bombs for NATO... or did he?).  Consequently, she spends most of the movie wearing bathing suits and resisting Bond’s advances.  She does, however, get some wonderful scenes after Bond decides to trust her with his suspicions about Largo, and her role in the film’s climax is a welcome surprise.

All told, with Thunderball the franchise is back to Dr. No levels; it’s not an instant classic in the way that the perfect Goldfinger was, but it does some impressive things within its two hours that make it enjoyable enough for Bond aficionados.

Thunderball is rated PG.  This film, like the other early Bond films, is quite tame by today’s standards; Bond interrupts a woman in a bathtub, who shows bare back and shoulders.  Since the film takes place mostly on an island, many men and women are seen in swimsuits which are somewhat revealing.  There is blood in several scenes involving sharks and gunfire, several more scenes of exaggerated action violence, and one impalement (played almost for laughs)

James Bond and The Cinema King will return in a review of You Only Live Twice (1967) on May 7, 2013!