Another roundtable discussing a Bond film in our 30 days of 007 countdown!
Thunderball might be the first, true over-the-top action spectacle of a blockbuster in the James Bond series. Hot on the heels of Goldfinger, Thunderball seeks to up the ante on the entire series. The climax of Goldfinger had a private army fighting the world’s governments, how do we one up that? We do the same thing but under fucking water. No one will ever be able to top it… unless they had like… ninjas invading a volcano or something…
There’s a lot to love in Thunderball, and there’s certainly a reason that it’s the highest grossing of the James Bond films of all time, if you adjust for inflation, anyway. It has SPECTRE at the height of their evil, working hard to pull off their most daring heist yet: stealing nuclear bombs from the British government. Their plan is sound and the only thorn in their side is the inadvertent meddling of everyone’s favorite double-oh agent.
We’re going to have another roundtable chat about it with the other Big Shiny Robot!s and I, Swank, will start.
Swank-mo-tron: First off, lets get the bad out of the way. The dubbing on the villain isn’t as good as the dubbing on Gert Frobe in Goldfinger, and let’s be honest: Number 2 looks more like Chef Boyardee or something than a Bond Villain. And SPECTRE is literally an organization of mustache twirlers. As much as I love the scene where they’re reporting their ill-gotten gains to Number 1, it feels like a bloody cartoon.
Citizen-bot: I think it hurt my perception of that scene because I saw Austin Powers before I saw Thunderball, so I can only think of Will Ferrell as Mustafa in this scene. But in this incarnation Number 1 seems more sociopathic than a genius. I was caught off-guard, as even in the later, more campy Bond movies the villains at least inspired some menace– and I guess you need the gravitas of Donald Pleasance to really pull it off? I mean, I guess stealing nuclear weapons to hold the world hostage is menacing, it just seems a little. . . pedestrian? At least compared to, say, irradiating the world’s gold supply, or unleashing a virus that will wipe out an entire species. And Number 1 was nowhere near as interesting as later Blofeld incarnations.
Swank-mo-tron: I joke that the climax is only a game of one-upsmanship from the last movie, but playing the final battle out completely underwater with SCUBA gear gives it an unsettling feeling. Everything is in slow-motion almost and anyone can die with the most simple knick of an airtube or penetration with a spear gun. Like most, I’ve imagined being terrified by drowning and the climax here is weighted with all of that dread.
Citizen-Bot: Yeah, but it also struck me as sort of hokey. I kept hearing Joel, Tom Servo, and Crow remarking how it was lucky all of the SPECTRE people had standard issue black scuba suits and the British Navy uses orange and blue ones. That being said, there’s a reason this won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects. These underwater action scenes look gorgeous, and if I haven’t mentioned it enough already, you need to see this in hi-def. The Blu Ray transfer of this is spectacular and the crystal-clear Caribbean water never looked so amazing. Speaking of dread, I’m not as scared of drowning as I am of sharks. That scene in the pool gets me every time.
Swank-mo-tron: That scene in the pool is great. Another thing I really like about this film is some of the iconic imagery that just screams James Bond: particularly the moment with the spear gun, where Bond is romancing the girl on the beach and shoots the bad guy with the spear… I can’t think of many moments more badass than that in any Bond film.
More-than-a-sex-machine: While it’s far from my favorite Bond, I have a major soft spot for this one because James is more of a bastard here than usual. Especially when he uses Fiona Volpe as a human shield, and then plunks her down in a chair and says “Do you mind if my friend sits here? She’s just dead”. I mean, what the fuck?! It just adds a whole new dimension to the character’s inherent misogyny and his sociopathic tendencies.
Swank-mo-tron: And who didn’t love Q in a Hawaiian shirt?
Citizen-Bot: No one. And not only that, but I have to point this out if you don’t. Anyone else see the possible nod to the rebreather apparatus Bond uses in Star Wars? I’m not the only one who thinks the things Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan use in Phantom Meance don’t bear a striking resemblance to this bit of gadgetry? If so, that makes two Bond movies possible homages in the Star Wars prequels so far. (the other being from Dr. No).
Swank-mo-tron: I did see that, and we know that Indiana Jones was the Lucas/Spielberg answer to James Bond, so it’s not too far off base, I’m sure.
Swank-mo-tron: As far as a final judgment on this film, I’d go with 3 martinis of 4. It’s upper-tier Connery Bond, but it’s not his best.
Citizen-Bot: Agreed. 3 martinis.
Come back tomorrow for Citizen-Bot’s take on You Only Live Twice… How could they possibly top the underwater army battle?