Review: "Thunderball" takes James Bond under the sea, and I for one am here for it
Movie of the Week #46 celebrates the film's 60th anniversary
Welcome to Movie of the Week, a Wednesday column where we take a look back at a classic, obscure, or otherwise interesting movie, with writing of mine that’s never been published online before. This week, we’re looking at a James Bond classic turning 60 years old this year. Enjoy…
Thunderball
1965, Dir. Terence Young
Originally published in the book 200 Reviews, based on an unpublished piece from 2013
It is hard for me to fathom that Thunderball was the fourth Bond film Eon produced in as many years. Not only is it completely free of any sense of franchise exhaustion, but the film actually pushes Bond into increasingly epic and ambitious territory, weaving a complex mystery on a grand, international stage. As in Goldfinger, one can tell how clearly the James Bond formula has solidified, but the story, characters, and action sequences never feel bound by any structural constraints. Thunderball, like its predecessors, is a unique and surprising experience even fifty years removed from its release, and another highlight in Connery’s sterling Bond resume.
The first Bond film with truly apocalyptic stakes, Thunderball sees SPECTRE stealing two nuclear warheads from NATO to hold the United Kingdom ransom (a story that would be repeated over and over again in the future – it is, in fact, the most common type of set-up for a Bond film, albeit fresh at the time). Agent 007 is sent to locate the bombs, and the most striking element of the film’s narrative is the amount of detective work on display. There is a great deal of fun to be had simply watching Connery partake in actual espionage, looking for clues, chasing down leads, and risking his life for mere scraps of information. The previous three films certainly had some of that, but the stakes of Thunderball push the investigative angle further than before, and like From Russia With Love, the film feels extremely close to the spirit of Fleming’s original work.
Thunderball is most notable, of course, for its extensive underwater scenes – nearly a quarter of the film, in total – which delight some viewers and drive others mad. I fall firmly in the former camp. The series did not necessarily have to innovate its style of action or visuals after just three films, but Thunderball’s willingness to explore radically new terrain is a welcome departure, and the underwater photography and choreography is simply outstanding. Producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman knew that James Bond had to not only be bigger than every other series out there, but that it had to offer audiences sights they could not see anywhere else. I cannot imagine what a logistical nightmare Terence Young went through to shoot massive submerged fight and stealth scenes like these, but the efforts absolutely paid off – this was unprecedented, and that sense of awe and wonder contemporary audiences must have felt remains a part of Thunderball to this day. The underwater action offers some of the most incredible blockbuster spectacles I have ever seen, and it is no surprise the series would go back to this type of set-piece time and again in the future. Constructed with a truly wonderful sense of tension and pace, though, the underwater action of Thunderball would only rarely be surpassed.
It was not merely in the stunts, effects, and budget that Thunderball expanded the scope of the series – visually, the series itself got literally bigger with the move to anamorphic widescreen. Where previous films had been photographed in 1.66:1 – an understandable nod to European cinematography, given the series’ setting – Thunderball blows the image out to 2.40:1, resulting in one of the most visually rapturous experiences in the series. If you ever get the chance to see Thunderball projected theatrically, do so. It is spectacular. The production team is still in place, by and large, but they adjust to the larger scope with ease. Ted Moore’s cinematography takes full advantage of the extra space, carefully constructing each and every shot along a horizontal axis to maximize the amount of visual information conveyed to the audience. Compared to modern widescreen photography – which rarely uses a true anamorphic lens and foolishly photographs in vertical arrangement, which is the purpose of 1.85:1 framing – Thunderball is utterly superior, and the expanded space allows Ken Adam to go absolutely wild with his production design. The new framing sets Adam’s imagination free, and the result is one of the most immaculately conceived, designed, and executed visual palates not just in the James Bond series, but in blockbuster filmmaking period.
On the human side, Thunderball is a little more lacking. Claudine Auger is certainly in the running for most stunningly beautiful Bond girl as Domino Derval, but the actual character is a rather limited presence overall. She has some interesting personality traits and motivations that distinguish her from previous love interests, but nothing revelatory (and her voice, like two of the three Bond girls before her, is still dubbed).
I feel the same way about Adolfo Celi as Largo, SPECTRE #2 and chief antagonist. He’s good, but not overly memorable, especially coming on the heels of Auric Goldfinger. Felix Leiter, meanwhile, is recast for a third consecutive time, now played by a remarkably bland Rik Van Nutter. Leiter is such a wasted opportunity in these early films. It’s a shame, but Connery is, after all, so impossibly strong at the film’s center that any supporting cast flaws are easy to overlook – and this film has particular fun with Desmond Llewelyn’s Q, sent out into the field for the first time, so I cannot complain too fervently.
Thunderball is terrific entertainment, intelligent, taut, suspenseful, and ludicrously fun at every turn. It is hard to imagine any film franchise starting up today and maintaining this level of quality through four films, and easy to understand why Thunderball was such a raging box-office sensation upon release. The Connery era would never be better – From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, and Thunderball are the collective high-point of his run – and 60 years later, the film’s pleasures have not dissipated in the slightest.
Read the book 200 Reviews by Jonathan R. Lack in Paperback or on Kindle
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