Thunderball (1965)

Starring: Sean Connery, Claudine Auger, Adolfo Celi, Luciana Paluzzi, Rik Van Nutter, Desmond Llewelyn, Bernard Lee

Director: Terence Young

Genre: Action, Adventure, Thriller

Rating: B

I think the problem with going back and watching the James Bond movies is that while some of the tropes that they used in the series weren’t necessarily old and clichéd at the time they certainly are now.  Some of the situations that Bond gets into kind of seem a bit ridiculous and over the top – more fodder for an Austin Powers movie than an actual serious action flick.  There is no single part of Thunderball that really stands out as great, although there are a few that kind of stand out as corny – notably the jetpack, the underwater jet pack, the sharks, and the underwater sex.  I realize that sex is necessary in a Bond film, I’m just saying that this sex was particularly lame.

Thunderball sees the return of SPECTRE.  The terrorist organization has succeeded in apprehending two atomic bonds, for which they are demanding a £100 million ransom – if their demands are not met then a major city in either the United Kingdom or the United States will be destroyed.  Everyone’s favourite MI6 agent, Bond (Connery), takes up the task of finding the bombs without having to pay the ransom.  Bond decides to follow Domino (Auger), the sister of the now dead French NATO pilot who had been responsible for the bombs, and discovers that she is the mistress of SPECTRE No. 2, Emilio Largo (Celi).  It’s only a matter of time before Bond succeeds in seducing Domino and defeating Largo.

Despite the fact that there’s nothing out- standing about this film and the fact that there are more than a few corny bits, I actually kind of enjoyed Thunderball.  It’s lame, but it’s fun, and that’s everything that I expect from an action movie.  They’re not supposed to be deep, introspective films, they’re  supposed to be fun and escapist.  There is nothing about Thunderball that is remotely believable and the special effects are ridiculously lame – although forgivable given that it was filmed in the 60s – but that’s okay.  In my  opinion there are two Sean Connery images that should go down in everyone’s memory as the epitome of good actors making the best of a movie – one is the rather infamous image of him in Zardoz and the other is the image of him in the jet pack in Thunderball.  Seriously – I don’t usually use screenshots, but I had to for this.

 

The film does take a long time to get started, but I’ve kind of been feeling that in general with these movies.  The underwater sequences weren’t the best… but underwater sequences are never the best.  They did have sharks, but at least they didn’t have lasers on their heads.  I think that might actually be the reason why I liked this movie – it wasn’t all that great, but at least it wasn’t Austin Powers.  I’m now going to re-evaluate my enjoyment of Thunderball.

From Russia with Love (1963)

Starring: Sean Connery, Daniela Bianchi, Lotte Lenya, Robert Shaw, Pedro Armendáriz

Director: Terence Young

Genre: Action, Adventure, Thriller

Rating: B+

I enjoyed the second instalment in the James Bond franchise more than the first one. It's still a bit simple, but there's an improvement on the bad guys in general.  It's definitely still misogynist, but the fact that the women in this film are at least semi-villainous as well as sex interests makes the way that they're treated somehow acceptable.  Somehow, Bond (Connery) is less of a dick in this movie, fully embracing the awesomeness that is 007.

Following the death of Dr. No SPECTRE decides that it wants to extract revenge on Bond.   Chief Planning Officer Kronsteen (Vladek Sheybal) devices a plan to steal a Lektor cryptographic device from the Soviets, sell it back to them, and get Bond killed.  Ex-SMERSH operative and current SPECTRE operative Number 3 Rosa Klebb (Lenya) is put in charge of the operation and recruits Red Grant (Shaw) to assassinate Bond and Tatiana Romanova (Bianchi) to lure Bond into the trap.

I think a big part of the reason why I liked From Russia with Love more than Dr. No was because the plot was more readily defined.  Right at the start we were told what was going on and why - we saw Number 1 (voiced by Eric Pohlmann), who from my understanding becomes the great villain of the series.  SPECTRE became something that was real instead of something that seemed like little more than the idea of some lunatic villain.  It all became more defined and real.

My favourite part of this movie, however, had to be the fact that I wasn't able to predict where it would go.  Sure, I knew that Bond was going to survive - it's hard to not know that when you realize that there's another 21 movies left in the series - but I didn't know the how.  I enjoyed the journey that brought me to the how.  I'm not really sure what more to say; it's been a long week so far, and I think my brain might be a little fried.

Dr. No (1962)

Starring: Sean Connery, Joseph Wiseman, Ursula Andress, Jack Lord, John Kitzmiller

Director: Terence Young

Genre: Action, Adventure, Thriller

Rating: B

Prior to last night I had never actually watched a single James Bond movie.  I’d seen bits and pieces growing up – my dad was a fan – but I’d never watched an episode from start to finish.  Having now done so I’m not entirely sure what to think.  I wouldn’t say that Dr. No is a bad movie, but it’s definitely not what I expect when I think of an action movie – although a huge part of that would be the result of cultural differences that have developed since the 60s.

Another thing that may be an element of its time is the sheer simplicity of the plot: a British intelligence agent, John Strangeways (Timothy Moxon), is ambushed and killed in Jamaica.  The result is that MI6 agent James Bond (Connery) is tasked with going to Jamaica and investigating the death – and determining whether or not it’s related to a cooperation with the CIA on a case involving the disruption of rocket launches.  While in Jamaica Bond liaises with CIA operative Felix Leiter (Lord) and Strangeway’s employee Quarrel (Kitzmiller) and sleeps with the film’s Bond girls.  He also learns about the reclusive Dr. No (Wiseman), who owns the island of Crab Key – which is reportedly guarded by dragons.

I have to say I enjoyed the simplicity of the plot.  It’s something that you really don’t see a lot of these days, especially in action movies.  There’s always some sort of twist – or at least an attempt at one – as the screenwriters and directors try to keep their audiences guessing.  I did find Dr. No to be a bit predictable, but I’m not entirely sure how much of that is a consequence of my being very familiar with post-Bond action movies – many of which utilize similar tropes that I expect would not have been as over used at the time – and how much of it is simply that the film is predictable.   I really liked how all the things that you associate with a James Bond film were already present in Dr. No, despite it being the first of the series – there’s the “Bond, James Bond,” line, the martinis, the Bond Girls, and the theme song that instantly makes you think of Bond.  I’m sure there were other elements that are very thematic of the series but not necessarily as well known as well, and I’m looking forward to picking up on them as I continue with the series.

I did really enjoy Connery as Bond, although I have to say he wasn’t exactly the most charming of heroic characters.  I’m used to my action heroes going through a girl (or two) a movie, I’m just not used to them being so… well, for lack of a better word, Bond is rather chauvinistic.  You can see a bit of TonyStark in him (or perhaps you can see a bit of Bond in Stark?), but something about the straightforwardness of the character makes it really unappealing.  You can also see this in the fact that his sidekick is a plucky black guy who seems to do as much of the work as Bond – if not more – but neither gets credit nor girl.  The girl was similarly portrayed; she struggled between being a damsel in distress and a distressed damsel, but either way she was there so that Bond could save and woo her.  Really rather one sided – but then, I think the only character that had development in this movie was Bond himself.  It was a fun and simple journey, but I don’t think it was an overly developed one.  Once again, though, that could just be an element of the genre and the time.  Random Bond fact: while Ursula Andress portrays Bond Girl Honey Ryder two other actresses (Nikki van der Zyl and Diana Coupland) voiced her, one for her speaking and the other her singing.  Neither of them were mentioned in the film's credits.  Joseph Wiseman, however, was the only early Bond villain to not have his voice dubbed by another actor.