Review of Thunderball (1965) by Petros T — 27 Aug 2017
After the phenomenal success of "Goldfinger", James Bond became a pop cultural phenomenon and expectations were held high for the next Bond film. Producers Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli and Harry Saltzman decided to go bigger and better with Bond and thus "Thunderball" was created. (Although this time Kevin McClory produced the film and not Broccoli and Saltzman.).
The story by now is very generic: SPECTRE steals two nuclear warheads from a jet and holds the world ransom. Bond is sent to the exotic Bahamas to investigate the sister of one of the pilots of the stolen jet and comes across Number Two of SPECTRE Emilio Largo played by Adolfo Celi and dubbed by Robert Rietty.
"Thunderball" is well known for its underwater action sequences which were quite revolutionary at the time and still look great. But some scenes especially the ones near the end go on for far too long and are very clunky and dark making it hard to see who's fighting who underwater. But the best sequence in the movie is a suspenseful scene where James Bond is shot in the leg and is running for his life from SPECTERE agents which showed that James Bond was still human and not Superman.
The acting is good. Sean Connery once again steals the show as James Bond and is more confident in the role. The Bond girls are as beautiful as ever. Claudine Auger is alright as Domino but Luciana Paluzzi steals the show as one of the best femme fatals of the series SPECTRE agent Fiona Volpe. Adolfo Celi is good as Largo but not as good as the previous villains in the last three movies.
Terence Young returns as director for the last time in the series and while the direction is solid it doesn't compare to his best Bond film "From Russia With Love". I think this is probably because they were trying to replicate what made "Goldfinger" such a success with audiences. They managed to succeed with this one because "Thunderball" managed to out gross "Goldfinger" and had James Bond all the rage.
Despite some flaws "Thunderball" is an entertaining Bond episode from the Connery era.
This review of Thunderball (1965) was written by Petros T on 27 Aug 2017.
Thunderball has generally received positive reviews.
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