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"Don't worry, I'll tell the chef ": Thunderball Appreciation & Discussion

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  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    edited January 2017 Posts: 23,883
    TB firmly sits as my #2 Bond film just behind FRWL. It's been planted there for as long as I can remember and was actually #1 when I was a kid. I recall always putting it on when I was feeling a bit down, or even when the weather outside was gloomy and I wanted something to watch (well.. either TB or Baywatch).

    The dialogue is, as we know, filled with razor sharp wit. The locales scream holiday. The villains are numerous & charismatic, and this is the film with the first (and still the best) femme fatale in the Bond series. The leading lady is sultry yet demure (my kind of girl). John Barry's magnificent score is dreamy & suspenseful, as the occasion demands it. Most of all, Sean Connery as James Bond is definitive here. I have yet to encounter a more assured, confident & complete Bond performance as Young gets out of Connery in TB. He slinks around like a big cat, seduces with authority & delivers his lines like a skilled orator. A template for all 'cool men' to forever aspire to.

    This is a completely engrossing exotic adventure and I'm in the mood for a rewatch soon.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    edited January 2017 Posts: 28,694
    Thunderball has and always will be an absolute favorite of mine, and you can bet top dollar that I will come in on any party celebrating it. It's one of the few Bond films that had ambition without getting crippled by it, and was able to take the best of Bond and formulate it into a perfect package. Why the Young films are so special is evident in TB, as it is in DN and FRWL, as Bond is treated as a deep and engrossing man who is set against it facing forces far beyond his reckoning. The plot is insanely dangerous (nukes!!!), the locations beyond visceral, and the cast of villains one of the all-time greatest ensembles we've had, best incapsulated in Luciana Paluzzi's Fiona, who steals every scene he has and who makes up the best of the film due to her magnetic and explosive interactions with Sean's Bond. This isn't even to mention the underwater photography, of which I have never seen an equal. How people can feel their eyes dropping while watching the rousing deep sea battles is beyond any reason I am capable of weighing on the issue.

    To study all the logistical nightmares the production team overcame to make this film a reality, and to witness how expertly they crafted each section of the film is to understand what it means to think on your toes creatively to produce the kind of crazy adventures Bond is renowned for.


    I recently did a very long, love-filled review of Thunderball that I posted in the review thread of the forums here, where I said all I could ever hope to say at this time about such a Bond masterpiece:

    http://www.mi6community.com/index.php?p=/discussion/3464/thunderball-1965#latest

    I've included the ending section of my review here where I conclude all my thoughts on the film in question, if anyone is enticed to read the rest of the analysis after seeing it. Rest assured, there are few Bond films I can get this excited and blindly passionate about:
    0BradyM0Bondfanatic7 wrote: »
    I don't do quantitative ratings on a 1 to 5 or 1 to 10 scale as a principle of mine, but Thunderball has always had the honor, along with Dr. No, of being high up in my top 10, falling second in line behind only From Russia with Love amongst the classic Connery era films.

    In Thunderball we see the perfect culmination of Terence Young's landmark work with the character of James Bond, which I believe still remains the most iconic take on the character, and he the supreme director. Young's Bond is my Bond, the kind of man I picture in my head when cinematic 007 is on my mind. He was as much a detective as he was a spy, going to great lengths to catch his foes with little traps he set around his hotel rooms, always ahead of the game. This Bond made a conscious effort to check for bugs everywhere, and Young treated us to these kinds of quiet moments in the character's spy work to let us into the man's psyche, to see how he experienced the world around him. We didn't watch this Bond simply deal with threats, we faced them head-on with him, every step of the way, and we always understood the motives behind his choices intensely. It was this kind of twelve-steps-ahead thinking that made Sean's Bond the absolute 007, and because every newly turned corner could reveal yet another gun barrel pointed directly at his heart, this man made a conscious decision to partake in women and drink in equal measures to savor the quiet moments.

    After surviving the dastardly SPECTRE and its best agents twice now, this Bond has faced hell to get to this point, and now knows how the organization plays their twisted spy game, meaning there's not many surprises they can deliver to him. Because of this, the agent feels more capable against the threat than ever before, and Connery oozes this confidence. The boyish portrayal of Bond in Goldfinger has grown into a man, leaking machismo. We also get one of his finest hours as the character-second only to his time with Donald Grant on the Orient Express-as he faces Fiona Volpe head on. Nearly dead to rights, Sean's Bond exudes Fleming's creation as he watches fearfully while he’s swarmed by armed SPECTRE gunmen after spilling out of the Junkanoo parade. Heading to the dance floor he is out of luck, finding Fiona in his path to salvation yet again. The pair share a true dance of death, and, as the band drums reach a percussive rise around him, Bond spots the gun coming from behind the curtain afar. In a last second move, he spins Fiona into the bullet’s path as the instruments disguise the concussive hit of the shot. The camera lingers on Bond dancing with Fiona's corpse as blood runs down the dress and over his fingers, his arms the only thing holding her upright as a look of disgust forms on his face. Her head limp on his shoulder like a sleeping lover, the spectators mistake their shared moment for a romantic dance, while only Bond knows the truth of the dark act he just had to commit for Queen and country-and himself. He puts on a jovial face for a second to drop the villainess into a chair surrounded by relaxing couples before he rips the facade away again and the distaste returns to mark his face. This is Bond!

    Beyond all this, Thunderball is the movie where we get to see SPECTRE forming their plans at home, right inside their very headquarters, and receive a crash course in how dangerous it is to be an agent for the organization. Images of the SPECTRE headquarters and how they operate clash with those of the MI6 staff in their briefing room as Bond and all his fellow 00s are called in on the theft of NATO nukes, an alarming scheme that still remains one of the most dire in Bond history. Seeing Bond saunter on in (late, mind) and watch M give him a talking to is to realize that this time, all bets are off. It is downright thrilling to know that while Bond is in the Bahamas trying every avenue of strategy to locate the nuclear missiles as the clock winds down-from causing an island-wide blackout to crashing Largo's estate and manipulating his mistress-the people of Miami have no idea how close they are coming to being bombed. And even when the film completes and Bond's team stops the SPECTRE scheme from coming to fruition, the denizens of Florida don't know James from Adam, even though he's the only thing that came between them and utter vaporization. Thunderball goes a long way of showing us what a thankless job Bond has when he can walk down the street staring people in the eyes who wouldn't still be around if it weren't for his expertise in spy craft. Bond goes all in for humanity with his every breath, but can never share his feats and gambles with anyone outside the agency on professional principle. His sacrifices must go on unnoticed and unrewarded, cast in shadow, never to see the light.

    To consider all of this in light of just one film more than supports the staggering cinematic accomplishment Thunderball represents as one of the grandest Bond adventures. It’s earnest without being dour, ambitious without melting its wax wings mid-flight, operatic without exhausting itself to ruin through its brashness or maddening scale. For Young and his team to be able to balance just the ambition of the film’s narrative would be one thing, but their collective effort is realized as an absolute miracle as we watch them juggle the staggering logistical challenges posed by it on top of it all. Hundreds of extras had to be prepped and managed across the shooting period and tourists and ardent fans needed to be herded out of shots as “Bondmania” overtook their minds-there were hungry sharks aplenty, too. On top of all this, more than a dozen tons of production equipment had to constantly be operational and ready to move around the Bahamas, and the team had the thankless task of choreographing the single greatest underwater action piece I have ever seen that closes out the picture in near paralytic style.

    All of these elements of splendor combine to produce a movie that’s less a spy thriller, and far more a spy epic. To play the plot of this movie back in your head is to ponder one of 007’s absolute wildest onscreen hours, a true journey film that tests every fiber of his being to make it out alive. Bond's enemies pull no punches to realize their evils, meaning he cannot rest on his laurels, instead forging himself into an immovable object to obstruct SPECTRE’s maniacal force. To quote Tom Jones, “he thinks that the fight is worth it all, so he strikes like Thunderball.”
  • ShardlakeShardlake Leeds, West Yorkshire, England
    Posts: 4,043
    After FRWL my next Connery favourite, very much prefer this to GF.

    Last time Sean looked liked the Bond of the previous films and has some killer one liners.
    After this it's hard to justify him being great in the role but here he's still on fire.

    Also Barry's score is sublime.
  • Some_Kind_Of_HeroSome_Kind_Of_Hero
    edited January 2017 Posts: 6,844
    Thunderball is a massive Bond film. It looks massive in Panavision and feels massive with its plot of stolen warheads and all the 00s being gathered and sent out across the world. SPECTRE finally became huge here as well, and the SPECTRE briefing scene is one of the series' all-time finest moments. The dames are gorgeous. Largo shines in his card-playing and skeet-shooting scenes. Lackeys are fed to sharks. Barry flexes some serious sonic muscles with a score that is both evocative of the film's aquatic setting and that perhaps captures the spirit and character of Bond himself better than any other. Connery delivers his smoothest, most dangerous performance as Bond here. His opening fight with Bouvar is among the top fights of the series for sure, and perfectly represents that spirit of danger, ferociousness, and for want of a better word, just pure "muscle" that characterizes Thunderball. Ask me to provide one word to define Thunderball and that would be my word: Muscle.

    Thunderball also hews closely to Fleming's novel—Volpe being a notable and wisely chosen deviation—and so stands alongside perhaps just three or four others that really feel like a largely faithful full adaptation of their source novel.

    Thunderball is one of two from Connery that make my Top 10, placing just behind You Only Live Twice. I give YOLT the edge for its impossibly gorgeous music, awesome evocation of the 60s, Ken Adam brilliance, and ninja repelling finale, but the two stand virtually side by side as my favorite Connerys. Thunderball will forever reign for me as Connery's biggest and best "Fleming" adventure.
  • BondAficionadoBondAficionado Former IMDBer
    Posts: 1,890
    This is probably my favourite of Connery's Bond films. He looks as suave as ever and he has great on screen chemistry with the ladies imho.

    And those underwater scenes are perfectly shot with a magical score too!
  • barryt007barryt007
    Posts: 19,339
    Its beautiful isnt it ? ..only FRWL is better , but on a good day TB even beats that..
  • BondAficionadoBondAficionado Former IMDBer
    Posts: 1,890
    Yeah, FRWL is fantastic too.
  • barryt007barryt007
    Posts: 19,339
    Easily the best 2 Connery Bond films....so different and so good..
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    Posts: 23,883
    barryt007 wrote: »
    Easily the best 2 Connery Bond films....so different and so good..
    I completely agree.
  • barryt007barryt007
    Posts: 19,339
    I luuuuuurrrrrvve TB...surely the spin around at the Junkanoo and the death of Fiona is enough,as well as the violent neck snapping with the poker over the knee in the PTS ?
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    Fiona is a lot like a candle, in that I'd keep burning myself on her no matter how much it hurt me.
  • barryt007barryt007
    Posts: 19,339
    God yes...some women have power over men....she is one of them...
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    I have seldom ever been more envious than when I first watched Sean getting bitten all up by her in the bed scene. What an animal.
  • barryt007barryt007
    edited March 2017 Posts: 19,339
    She would tear a man apart in bed...she is calculated and clever in all ways.

    As Bond himself said ..."Wild ? You should be locked up in a cage !"
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    edited March 2017 Posts: 28,694
    Her character is even more special when you realize she used Bond for a good time the way he had done in the past. She's a great match to Bond without any of the feminist overtones.

    Fiona less represents, "I am equal to Bond" and more represents, "I could kill Bond."
  • barryt007barryt007
    Posts: 19,339
    I think she is more deadly than any other female in a Bond film,purely because of her totally nastiness,intelligence,bare faced arrogance, dedication to SPECTRE, and the personal mission to kill Bond.

    A controversial comment but i genuinely believe it.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    barryt007 wrote: »
    I think she is more deadly than any other female in a Bond film,purely because of her totally nastiness,intelligence,bare faced arrogance, dedication to SPECTRE, and the personal mission to kill Bond.

    A controversial comment but i genuinely believe it.

    I agree, nobody comes close. Fiona would rip off Xenia's thighs and thump her to death with the stubs.
  • Jazz007Jazz007 Minnesota
    Posts: 257
    My favorite of the Connery Bonds, my favorite Bond film of the 60s and my #2 favorite Bond film overall (after Casino Royale) - it has everything a classic Bond film should and I've always found the underwater scenes beautifully shot and aged well.
  • barryt007barryt007
    Posts: 19,339
    Well said...welcome to the TB Appreciation thread @Jazz007 !!
  • Crazysoul95Crazysoul95
    Posts: 3,336
    Thunderball is awesome. Great bond performance, great bond girls, great score, great title sequence, great dialogue, impressive underwater scenes, and a great villian (Largo is one of my favourites). Im sure i forgot something, but you get my point :)
  • barryt007barryt007
    Posts: 19,339
    Absolutely @Crazysoul95 ...and i love the Shrublands scenes and the Barry score to it...with Count Lippe going too far with his orders and making Bond think something isnt right ...hence SPECTRE kill Lippe,via Fiona..
  • TellyBlofeldTellyBlofeld
    Posts: 489
    I flat-out love this movie.
    The first Bond film I saw with my father, and a sprawling piece of Bond adventure to this day.
    Awesome film.
  • SeanCraigSeanCraig Germany
    Posts: 732
    Love the movie, too. It will remain my personly #2 forever - right after GF.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    It's the best blockbuster of the 60s. It has a balance of a grounded spy plot with all the highs of an action epic, without going overboard like YOLT would. OHMSS is a close second, if not a very near match.
  • suavejmfsuavejmf Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England
    Posts: 5,131
    Sean Connery is at his peak of fame as 007 and his character of Bond works in an excellent way. His portrait of the suave sophisticated super spy is tough, ironical, glamorous and a bit cynical; physically he's in great shape. This is the definitive image of Bond -which entered the movie history (yes it's better than Goldfinger).

    Connery peaked in this film. He was in shape, exuded confidence, and seemed to really be into the Fleming characterisation of the role. The production was magnificent; the plot scary, and the villain, Largo was maybe the best ever. The Bond girls - Domino, Fiona,Patricia, and Paula; were the best in any 007 film. The plot was intricately laid out and very believable.

    The underwater fight scenes and the out of control Disco Volante hydrofoil were cinematic masterpieces that can never be eclipsed. This film had it all - gadgets, wisecracks, sharks and above all, it took itself seriously. Great theme song by Tom Jones amid silhouettes of swimming babes. If you ever see one Bond film, this is the one. Just one thing - that high-pressure water jet coming from the Aston Martin's exhaust? Duh!....Just move out of way SPECTRE idiots.
  • DoctorNoDoctorNo USA-Maryland
    Posts: 755
    bondjames wrote: »
    TB firmly sits as my #2 Bond film just behind FRWL. It's been planted there for as long as I can remember and was actually #1 when I was a kid. I recall always putting it on when I was feeling a bit down, or even when the weather outside was gloomy and I wanted something to watch (well.. either TB or Baywatch).

    The dialogue is, as we know, filled with razor sharp wit. The locales scream holiday. The villains are numerous & charismatic, and this is the film with the first (and still the best) femme fatale in the Bond series. The leading lady is sultry yet demure (my kind of girl). John Barry's magnificent score is dreamy & suspenseful, as the occasion demands it. Most of all, Sean Connery as James Bond is definitive here. I have yet to encounter a more assured, confident & complete Bond performance as Young gets out of Connery in TB. He slinks around like a big cat, seduces with authority & delivers his lines like a skilled orator. A template for all 'cool men' to forever aspire to.

    This is a completely engrossing exotic adventure and I'm in the mood for a rewatch soon.

    Great post. I love TB. It's one of my favorite movies of all time, Bond or not. If I was forced to nitpick, I would want another opening sequence. The jetpack is a little staged and the water canons in the car are laughable. Some of the early underwater/jet fighter scenes could be trimmed down too, I hear that. On the other hand, I love the dreamy music too and those scenes do prolong the movie and since I never want it to end, that's okay by me.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    I wouldn't say Largo is the best ever, but he is definitely undervalued in the Bond series for sure. He was a great character and built well as a short fuse who was very committed to his job, and would kiss his ring after every kill he made for SPECTRE. The implied stuff going on between he and Domino, and how most people think he's her uncle or something, is also very creepy and you can see Bond feel it.

    The Tom Jones song becomes an instant favorite for how it's written. Listening to the lyrics, it's the absolute unmatched anthem for this character, and explains through song just why he's so iconic. It's a very meta song, and wonderful for it. "Nobody Does it Better" would follow a similar suit and become the Bond anthem of the 70s.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    Young is far and away my favorite Bond director. I would have to work damn hard to fault DN, FRWL and TB, especially when you can see him grow creatively throughout each. DN is a detective film, FRWL a spy thriller, and TB is the perfect baby of both of those, the entry where Young took his early work and gave it added epic ambition. It's a fascinating thing to watch him grow in just three films across 3 years. I'm glad he didn't do GF, as he'd have been wasted and TB gave him his chance to really close his Bond work off in an explosive and vibrant way.

    And look at all the trademark moments he gave us. It was the Young films (each one) that showed us Bond doing real spy work while also de-bugging his hotel rooms, and it was his films that showed us like no others since every step of the villain's plan to the point that we really get to know them intensely. Just brilliant, brilliant stuff.
  • DoctorNoDoctorNo USA-Maryland
    Posts: 755
    I wish Young had made more films. I'd be curious to know the reasons (real reasons) why he never returned. Read that he was offered both FYEO and NSNA and turned them down.
  • TellyBlofeldTellyBlofeld
    Posts: 489
    0BradyM0Bondfanatic7 wrote: »
    It's the best blockbuster of the 60s. It has a balance of a grounded spy plot with all the highs of an action epic, without going overboard like YOLT would. OHMSS is a close second, if not a very near match.

    Right there with you.

    Also the underwater stuff was so far ahead of it's time.

    Thunderball truly is a controlled Bond spectacle.

    Love that film.
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