Review of Thunderball (1965) by Frank M — 31 Jan 2009

This movie is the best of all the James Bond movies. It stars Sean Connery, the best actor to ever play James Bond. The story was written by Ian Fleming and two screen writers. They had intended it to be the first James Bond movie but couldn't raise enough money.

Later it was decided to use Dr. No for the first movie since it could be done with a smaller budget. Thunderball was a big budget movie with lots of classic James Bond gadgets. It had four gorgeous Bond girls with big breasts.

It came out at the height of the James Bond popularity and made more money than any Bond film before or since. They staged the biggest underwater fight scene ever filmed. The theme song was sung by Tom Jones when Tom Jones was at the height of his popularity.

The opening credits had the classic graphics of nude women swimming underwater. The story is about a band of terrorist calling themselves S.P.E.C.T.R.E. stealing two atomic bombs. It's a totally absurd story since the security around real atomic bombs would be too tight for someone to steal.

However at the time the story was written there was a basis in fact. The U.S and probably Great Briton were keeping bombers in the sky armed with atomic bombs twenty-four hours a day seven days a week.

The year after Thunderball came out there was a mid-air collision with a B-52 and a KC-135 off the coast of Spain that resulted in several atomic bombs being dropped into the Mediterranean and a farmer's field.

The next James Bond movie wasn't an Ian Fleming Story. Only one more movie based on an Ian Fleming Story was made but it didn't star Sean Connery. I've got this movie on Laserdisc. I originally saw it on TV but that version was edited.

Some of the more graphic violence in the underwater fight scene was cut out. One of the writers who collaborated on the story with Ian Fleming won a court fight and got to make a remake called "Never Say Never Again".

But that's another story.