When I began to delve deeply into the world of James Bond in my childhood, I found Thunderball extremely boring and uninteresting. Twenty years ago, while I was waiting for The World Is Not Enough to premiere in my country in December, I began to rent or buy all of the old Bond movies in VHS, watching them with my dad. I began with Roger Moore: The Man With The Golden Gun, Live And Let Die and Moonraker in that order, followed by The Living Daylights.
My nine-year-old self popped up the rented videotape of Thunderball one day and, as I said before, I was bored. I barely understood it nor I remembered the characters. The underwater scenes were underwhelming: everything was dark, slow, and all I know Bond was among the frogmen dressed in orange and Largo among those dressed in black, but which was which?
Thankfully, things have changed and as I got into my teens I began to appreciate it. Nowadays, I loved it. I confirmed this yesterday when I rewatched it on BluRay, which I guess it's no match for the big screen, but still a fascinating spectacle. The movie has been done with love and passion and the things one can name as "flaws", as the noticeable front projection on many scenes, can be forgiven and even appreciated by me.
The movie came out in 1965 and by that time, of course, we didn't have the technology we have now. Also, people couldn't "own" movies since home video didn't exist and I guess that's why there are a few voiceover mistakes and small bloopers they weren't careful about, but all of that makes the film more loveable because it's still a super-production. While Daniel Kleinman offered overdeveloped and complex elements on the main title design for the Bond films since 1995, all Maurice Binder did for Thunderball was shooting a couple of naked girls in black and white swimming on a water tank at Pinewood Studios, shots he later coloured with intense greens, reds, blues and purple as these women evaded frogmen firing harpoon guns. Playing beautifully to Tom Jones magnificent title song, the sequence is mind-blowing when watching with the lights off and the speakers on full volume.
John Barry's soundtrack is magnificent, I adore every track of the score and particularly his variations of "Thunderball" and "Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang", the theme that was originally going to play during the main titles. That "Thunderball" instrumental played as Bond arrives at the Nassau casino in black tux reflects the finesse of the moment, the luxury world as envisioned by Ian Fleming himself. The same can be said about Ted Moore's cinematography, offered on 2.35:1 format for the first time, which makes the viewer feel as if the Bahamas were right there in front of you!
The film has an outstanding visual impact, and an important part of it are the impossibly gorgeous four leading girls: the stunning ginger Luciana Paluzzi, the lovely brunettes Claudine Auger and Martine Beswicke and the honey blonde Molly Peters. I also find Adolfo Celi's Emilio Largo a fascinating villain: stone-faced, imposing, threatening, powerful... characteristics the Bond villains have been lacking for a while now. If anyone working on No Time To Die is reading this, please have Rami Malek dispatching someone who has failed him as Largo did with Quist by feeding him to the sharks!
Terence Young was a sublime director, sadly he didn't do more Bond films, but he was definitely one of the fathers of the cinematic 007: the action scenes are pumping, fast, violent (not nearly as violent as in today's movies, Bond and beyond). The battle between our hero and Colonel Bouvar remains one of my favourite onscreen fights of all time, with the inimitable Sean Connery throwing some flowers to his dead body seconds before evading his enemy's bodyguards.
Thunderball is all about adventure, exoticism, passion and elegance. It has the downside, maybe, of being a bit slow for today's audiences. I doubt that my 21-year-old cousin would sit to watch it and be able to sit through the entire Vulcan hijacking scene, but I guess for a teenager in 1965 watching that scene on the big screen must have been spectacular since audiences were not ready for that kind of spectacularity on a movie. Today, all of that can be done with CGI and seen on a video game or in a Netflix production.
I daresay it's better than Goldfinger to me. I can't deny the latter is a fantastic movie and the one that catapulted Bond to success, but I still feel that Thunderball was bigger and better in every aspect, more gorgeous in terms of visual impact and exoticism. It may be my favourite of the Connery era next to From Russia With Love and Dr No.
My advice: set your mind into the 1960s, turn off the lights, put the speakers in full volume and log out of every social network before watching it. One has to learn to appreciate Thunderball at some point in his life.
Thankfully, things have changed and as I got into my teens I began to appreciate it. Nowadays, I loved it. I confirmed this yesterday when I rewatched it on BluRay, which I guess it's no match for the big screen, but still a fascinating spectacle. The movie has been done with love and passion and the things one can name as "flaws", as the noticeable front projection on many scenes, can be forgiven and even appreciated by me.
The movie came out in 1965 and by that time, of course, we didn't have the technology we have now. Also, people couldn't "own" movies since home video didn't exist and I guess that's why there are a few voiceover mistakes and small bloopers they weren't careful about, but all of that makes the film more loveable because it's still a super-production. While Daniel Kleinman offered overdeveloped and complex elements on the main title design for the Bond films since 1995, all Maurice Binder did for Thunderball was shooting a couple of naked girls in black and white swimming on a water tank at Pinewood Studios, shots he later coloured with intense greens, reds, blues and purple as these women evaded frogmen firing harpoon guns. Playing beautifully to Tom Jones magnificent title song, the sequence is mind-blowing when watching with the lights off and the speakers on full volume.
John Barry's soundtrack is magnificent, I adore every track of the score and particularly his variations of "Thunderball" and "Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang", the theme that was originally going to play during the main titles. That "Thunderball" instrumental played as Bond arrives at the Nassau casino in black tux reflects the finesse of the moment, the luxury world as envisioned by Ian Fleming himself. The same can be said about Ted Moore's cinematography, offered on 2.35:1 format for the first time, which makes the viewer feel as if the Bahamas were right there in front of you!
The film has an outstanding visual impact, and an important part of it are the impossibly gorgeous four leading girls: the stunning ginger Luciana Paluzzi, the lovely brunettes Claudine Auger and Martine Beswicke and the honey blonde Molly Peters. I also find Adolfo Celi's Emilio Largo a fascinating villain: stone-faced, imposing, threatening, powerful... characteristics the Bond villains have been lacking for a while now. If anyone working on No Time To Die is reading this, please have Rami Malek dispatching someone who has failed him as Largo did with Quist by feeding him to the sharks!
Terence Young was a sublime director, sadly he didn't do more Bond films, but he was definitely one of the fathers of the cinematic 007: the action scenes are pumping, fast, violent (not nearly as violent as in today's movies, Bond and beyond). The battle between our hero and Colonel Bouvar remains one of my favourite onscreen fights of all time, with the inimitable Sean Connery throwing some flowers to his dead body seconds before evading his enemy's bodyguards.
Thunderball is all about adventure, exoticism, passion and elegance. It has the downside, maybe, of being a bit slow for today's audiences. I doubt that my 21-year-old cousin would sit to watch it and be able to sit through the entire Vulcan hijacking scene, but I guess for a teenager in 1965 watching that scene on the big screen must have been spectacular since audiences were not ready for that kind of spectacularity on a movie. Today, all of that can be done with CGI and seen on a video game or in a Netflix production.
I daresay it's better than Goldfinger to me. I can't deny the latter is a fantastic movie and the one that catapulted Bond to success, but I still feel that Thunderball was bigger and better in every aspect, more gorgeous in terms of visual impact and exoticism. It may be my favourite of the Connery era next to From Russia With Love and Dr No.
My advice: set your mind into the 1960s, turn off the lights, put the speakers in full volume and log out of every social network before watching it. One has to learn to appreciate Thunderball at some point in his life.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario