The azure blue of the Bahamian shallows covers the entire screen. Without warning a figure drops from above in a mass of bubbles. Heavy breathing come from the aqualung, he grips the speargun tighter and with a kick of his flippers he swims into the blue gloom.

Many peoples favourite, and one of the most popular of the Bond films - "Thunderball" is one of the highlights of the series. From start to finish the film is a sheer pleasure that takes you on one of the most exciting adventures you can experience on screen. The posters screamed back in 1965 "Lock Up! Look down! Look Out! - this is the biggest Bond of all!" and they are absolutely right. In sheer cinematic pleasure "Thunderball" is unsurpassed, takng us to the natural Bond territory of the Caribbean with it's dazzling beaches, swaying palms and shark-filled depths. Connery has never looked so confident, the villain is piratically evil, the plot ingenious, the girls exciting - and the scale and scope of this massive film is absolutely mindblowing. The sheer spectacle of the film would dwarf any of it's predecessors and set the standard for many years to come.

Somehow the producers had to top the iconic "Goldfinger" which was the biggest grossing Bond to date. They went for a different story and set of villains and wisely did not try and emulate the classic film. "Thunderball" has a momentum, identity and atmosphere all of it's own. And if you have had the pleasure of seeing it on the big screen then it is an experience you will never forget. Alot of it's memorability has to do with the underwater scenes and those exciting battles between Bond and the SPECTRE scuba divers. Extensive underwater photography was carried out in the Bahama's with over sixty separate scuba divers and cameramen working at one time. This is the films main draw card, which with John Barry's eerie music convey's the otherworldliness of life beneath the waves.

It also sticks very closely with Ian Fleming's original novel. The story behind the novel and it's subsequent transition to the big screen has been widely written about but has the stuff of tragedy about it because it resulted in the premature death of Ian Fleming. In the early sixties Fleming worked on a story with Kevin McClory which was the basis of "Thunderball" and SPECTRE. As the films became more successful, McClory claimed the right to "Thunderball" and took Fleming to court. He eventually won the rights to the story but also the famous villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld and SPECTRE which he was to resurrect in 1983 for the godawful 'Never Say Never Again'. But in the sixties the only way he could get his Bond on screen was to team up with the official Bond producers Albert R Broccoli and Harry Saltzman and this he did. His knowledge of underwater locations was well-utilised, and it became one of the biggest and best Bond films. The courtcase, however, had a bad effect on Ian Flemings health and he died the next year.

The film story does not deviate from the novel. Bond is sent to a health farm in Sussex called 'Shrublands' where he gets embroiled in a grudge match with one of the other guests - Count Lippe. Lippe is part of a SPECTRE plot in that part of the world where Derval, a NATO pilot, is killed and swapped with one of SPECTRE's own men - a Mr Angelo. Angelo impersonates Derval and hijacks a NATO Vulcan bomber, kills the crew, and flies off with two atomic bombs. London and Washington go into shock when they receive a message from an organisation called SPECTRE who now claim pocession of those bombs. The two powers have five days to find those bombs before SPECTRE explodes them at a major city in Europe or the United States. The world-wide race is on.

007's only clue goes back to Shrublands, he managed to see the dead body of Derval smuggled back into the Health farm. With this flimsy lead they decide to go after Dervals sister, Domino, who is currently in the Bahama's so 007 flies to Nassau. Domino is the mistress of a wealthy adventurer called Emilio Largo who owns a huge motoryacht - 'The Disco Volante' which is a cover for SPECTRE. Bond spars with Largo around the casino's, beaches and mansions of Nassau, pursued by his assassin Fiona Volpe. A game which is made even more gritty as Bond seduces Domino, making it personal between the two men. Along with Felix Leiter, his CIA contact, he eventually discovers the downed Vulcan in the shallow waters off Grand Bahama. With Domino's help, Bond tails the 'Disco' as it goes to collect the bombs from the hiding place. With the help of US Aquapara's he must stop Largo exploding the bombs off target number one - Miami Beach.

The plot - terrorists getting their hands on nuclear capabilities and using it for extortion - has been done several times especially in recent Hollywood blockbusters. But it is every goverments nightmare and the terror of a lone terrorist destroying London, New York or Paris with a miniature device still holds sway in 2004. This is a Bond film with bite. It also retains the hard-edge of the early films and Flemings novels. All of the fight scenes are very tough, especially the pre-credits fight between Bond and an agent/grieving widow, and the violence is hard-edged. The instance when an incompetent SPECTRE agent is thrown into Largo's shark pool is particularly graphic and so is Largo's near torture of Domino. But at the same time they are countered with some wonderfully romantic scene's especially at the 'Martinique' club where Domino is wined and dined by 007 and begins to fall in love with him. Even better is a later scene which takes place underwater where the two romantically entwine behind a coral reef and a rush of bubbles soars to the surface.

And of course there is Sean Connery. The Bahamian sun, daily swimming and a healthy lifestyle filming in Nassau turned this 007 into the fittest and sexiest yet. We believe it when Patricia Fearing at Shrublands begins her flirtation with him and can see why Domino would begin to regret her life with Largo and yearn to be with 007. But matched with this is a real edge of danger. Sean Connery in "Thunderball" ranks with his debut in "Dr No" or Timothy Dalton in 'The Living Daylights' as the most exciting James Bond to hit the screen. He seems to prowl through the film, as sleek and deadly as a cat . After throttling the widow/agent in the French chateau in the pre-title sequence he throws flowers on the body as a throwaway guesture. It also contains the cruellest Bond, returning to the sardonic loner of the novels. He spits out spite and insults in a move to unnerve his enemies into making mistakes. Dropping the word 'spectre' into the conversation with Largo over the baccarat in Nassau's casino or after an evening of love-making with Fiona Volpe:- "What I did tonight was for king and country. You don't think it gave me any pleasure do you...?"


The Underwater sequences

There is no doubt that what everybody remembers about "Thunderball" are the underwater scenes. The blue glow of the Bahamian depths seems to permeate the entire film and the sea itself becomes a protaganist. Underwater caves, billowing octopi, wave-crashed beaches and of course tiger sharks (called Golden Grotto sharks in the film) all make their presence felt. The underwater photography in "Thunderball" is nothing less then visually stunning and stands up today. At the time it was groundbreaking and exceptionally difficult to do. Filming at sea is difficult enough without getting scuba divers, sharks and seasleds all getting mixed up in the action.

To achieve this the producers turned to one of the best underwater film-maker in the business at the time - Lamar Boren. It was he who came up with an airtight underwater camera which could operate under it's own power. He and the director, Terence Young, capture some absolutely beautiful footage with sixty proffessional divers employed in the Bahamas for five months. Several people have commented that the underwater scenes in "Thunderball" slow the film down and certainly the film seems to have been seduced by the langurous lifestyle of Nassau rather then the frenetic beat of "Goldfinger". In some of the early Bahamas footage when the Vulcan crashes into shallow water and SPECTRE divers retrieve the bombs and cover it with a gigantic net are some of the more sedate in the film. Personally the sight of black scuba divers accompanied by John Barry's eerie music is one of the most atmospheric in the series. Also note the great sweeping shots of the Bahamian shallows and islands as Bond and Leiter search in a helicopter. They open the film out with vast horizons.

The producers never forgot what they had learned on "Thunderball" and returned to the Bahamas for the underwater scene's in 'For Your Eyes Only' and 'The Spy Who Loved Me'.

Adolfo Celi as Emilio Largo

"I have had much pleasure from your body Domino. And if you don't tell me the truth I will be forced to cause you great pain. This for heat. This for cold. Applied scientifically and slowly. Very very slowly....."

And so says the superb Adolfo Celi as SPECTRE's number two, Emilio Largo, as he bends over the captive body of Claudine Auger with lighted cigar and cubes of ice. There is no doubt that he is one of the great James Bond villains and oozes charm, cunning and cruelty from every pore. On the surface he is a Nassau playboy with the biggest yacht in the Bahamas, underneath he is an ice-cold criminal who demands obedience from others in his employ. He is absolutely ruthless, torturing his mistress Domino and throwing small local crooks into his shark pool at Palmyra. His appearance is intimidating as well with cigar clenched between white teeth, bronzed tan contrasting with white hair and a black eye patch adding a piratical look.

Emilio Largo is one of Flemings most successful villians. His face was from "the coins of ancient Rome", "if he had been born two hundred years earlier he would have been a pirate..". He is field commander for SPECTRE and is called 'No 2" and in charge of the whole bomb-stealing operation based on the 'Disco Volante' . Equally at home swimming with wetsuit and speargun or in white dinner jacket as a debonair Nassau millionaire. Largo is one of the most physical of the villains, leading the bomb stealing himself and can handle himself well in the underwater battle at the climax. My most memorable image of Largo is plunging a knife into the belly of an aquapara and waving it through the water so that the blood attracts sharks.

They probably couldn't get anyone better to play him then Adolfo Celi. With his hook nose and glaring eyes he is a natural player of villains. I remember him in the BBC's 'The Borgia's' climbing his way up with murder and plotting to become Pope Alexander VI. And when Celi fixes you with a murderous eye then it catches the entire screen. Here, he is the field operative for SPECTRE, the real mastermind for stealing the atomic bombs is Ernst Stavro Blofeld who is hidden away in his HQ in Paris. But Largo is the real villain here, and is more then a match for Sean Connery's 007, when the two grapple at the end of the underwater battle - it is Largo who wins. James Bond has finally met his match.

Luciana Paluzzi as Fiona Volpe

"Oh I forgot your ego Mr Bond. James Bond, who only has to make love to a woman and she starts to hear heavenly choirs singing. She repents and immediately returns to the side of right and virtue. Well not this one! What a blow it must be to have a failure..?"

The producers had a problem after "Goldfinger". How were they going to top Oddjob? Wisely, they didn't even try and went for the complete opposite of the Korean manservant - an Italian spitfire and SPECTRE's best assassin - the sexually bloodthirsty Fiona Volpe. She is definitely one of the highlights of the entire film being Largo's land-bound lieutenant and chief executioner for SPECTRE. With her blazing red hair, stylish clothes and brazen sexuality she prowls through the film like a 'black widow spider' and is more then a match for James Bond. In fact the cinematic sparks between her and Connery on screen are sizzling. After she is killed the film loses something such is her presence. She is definitely the best femme fatale in forty years of the series.

They needed an actress who could portray catlike sexual aggression and they found one in the Italian Luciana Paluzzi. As well as being ravishingly beautiful Ms Paluzzi can really act and is the right age to go against Sean Connery. When she cuts in when Bond is evading her and her thugs on the dancefloor of the 'Kiss Kiss' cabana club, it is as Bonds equal not just his enemy. She is the female equivalent of James Bond, including using him for kicks just as he does her, everything is done on her terms. Her verbal interplay with the secret agent is highly amusing especially when she picks 007 up when he is washed up on a beach one night and then decides to unerve him by driving her sports car super fast. And of course she is an executioner for SPECTRE - doing any dirty jobs herself such as blasting an unproffessional agent off the road for failure (Count Lippe) or chasing 007 through the Junkanoo parade.

James Bond films are often accused of being sexist. But I find the female characters to be just as clever, resourceful and deadly as 007 himself. Fiona Volpe is the best example of this.


Palmyra and the 'Disco Volante'

One of the best aspects of "Thunderball" is the production design. The stars of the film are still the actors and underwater scenes, but just as scene stealing are the gadgets and vehicles used to carry out SPECTRE's dangerous plan. Foremost of these is the motoryacht 'Disco Volante' (Italian for flying saucer) which is the pivot for the entire movie. These days where special effects and cgi dominate it is hard to get excited about a simple villains luxury yacht - but they use it so well. Ken Adam, the production designer, went to Puerto Rico to purchase a hydrofoil. It was overhauled, painted creamy white and attached with a fifty foot long cocoon. The cocoon comes into play when Largo is trying to escape at the climax with the atomic bombs and is detatched from the speeding hydrofoil. It was equipped as a floating arsenal with machine-guns and armour plating and it is quite a thrill to watch the hydrofoil whoosh away and start to build up speed.

Other vehicles include Largo's underwater sleds which are used to move and protect the bombs as they travel from the Vulcan to the underwater hiding place. The chariots and underwater sleds have something of a mysterious quality as they zoom through the underwater depths, and Adam also devised the CO2 spearguns and tridents that the SPECTRE scuba-divers carry as weapons.

Largo's land-based HQ was the luxury mansion of Palmyra. Back in 1965 they found a suitable estate belonging to the fabulously rich Nicholas Sullivans of Philadelphia. Their swimming pool was extended and filled with tiger sharks. The scene where the guard and 007 grapple, then topple into the pool was filmed for real. As were the sharks inhabiting the pool. They paid Sean Connery an awful lot of money to enter the pool as the close up shots mean' that doubles could not be used. The beauty of the Broccoli Bond films is that they went for authenticity, if it couldn't be done for real then it wasn't attempted.

Claudine Auger as Domino Derval

"You've heard the wrong things Mr Bond..."
"About conch chowder..?"
"Yes, being an aphrodisiac..."

Despite what some critics might say Ian Fleming wrote very good characters for women. Domino Vitali, or Derval as she is in the film, is a case in point. In the book she is the mistress of Emilio Largo but a "free spirit", a "rich brat" with a "devil take you attitude to life". A woman who who loves and hates to the hilt. A woman with a sensuous nature matching that of Largo's. Fiona Volpe fits that description in this film, so Domino has the more emotional role. She is the pivot that the plot revolves around, and the key to 007 finding the stolen atomic bombs.

She is played by the former Miss France, Claudine Auger. Ms Auger may well be the most beautiful woman ever to grace a Bond film and she has the style and elegance to fit Flemings heroine who was educated at Cheltenham Ladies College and is at home with the rich at Nassau's casinos and restaurant's. For this was the key to the character, a woman who is enjoying the 'good life' but at the same time chaffeing against it. Largo keeps her on a very short leash, having her watched at all times, and in reality she is tired of this and longs for some excitement which comes in the form of James Bond.

But she is also the weak link in the chain ,as the pilot killed then replaced by SPECTRE, is her brother - Francois Derval. How this comes about is never explained. Perhaps Largo noticed her whilst scouting for the appropriate NATO pilot? Or it may be a million to one coincidence?Whatever it is it is very convenient for James Bond who uses her brothers death to win Domino over to his side and persuades her to spy on Largo. The scene where this happens on Coral beach (see below) is the most powerful in the film and Connery and Auger give good performances. Auger is particularly effective as tears pour down her cheeks for her dead brother.

Interestingly, Faye Dunaway, Raquel Welch and Julie Christie were all considered for the role of Domino Derval. But none quite had the attributes of Claudine Auger. Ms Auger does look exceptionally good in a bikini.

The underwater battle

Many of the early films featured the clash between two main armies at the climax. This one was a little bit different as it happened underwater with the orange US aquapara's and SPECTRE's black scuba-divers. The director can have alot of fun with this and they duly do with a bloody and confusing battle as James Bond stops Largo and his men as they deliver the atomic bomb to the detonation point. The producers through every piece of marine equipment into the fray with the SPECTRE chariot, seasleds and scores of CO2 spearguns which shot a rain of spears into the fighting ranks. Once the spearguns had been fired the two armies fought each other hand to hand in a desperate and bloody battle where seacreatures got caught up in the mix.

It was extensively rehearsed in a carpark in Nassau as once the scuba-divers were underwater communication was difficult. Airhoses were sliced creating lots of bubbles as the scuba-divers swam for the surface, masks were ripped off and sharks swam in to take advantage of the battle. Some parts are exceptionally violent - spears are rammed through facemasks, CO2 spears thud into bellies and through arms leaving deadly trails of blood in the water. Along with John Barry's pounding score the battle is the highlight of "Thunderball" and very few films in the series matched the excitement of this sequence.

Classic scene: The beach killing of Vargas

The early Bonds had a reputation for style and wit. Before 007 the violence at the movies was done without irony or flippancy. Many thought that the marked casualness that Bond despatched his enemies repellant but for many it was part of the Bond experience. His enemies were finished off with the same sardonic humour that Bond looked at life.

One of the best of these scenes happens in the last quarter of the film when he and Domino are resting at Coral beach. It's almost a perfect Bondian scene set beneath the palms with the bright sunshine and lapping waves. In this paradise nothing evil can ever happen? But Fleming turned the gorgeous Caribbean into a dangerous playground and Domino and 007 are watched by Largos' slimy henchman Vargas (Phillip Locke). 007 is swaying Domino into betraying Largo by telling her of her brothers murder at SPECTRE's hands. Through a veil of tears she spots Vargas a few yards away screwing on the silencer to his pistol. She quietly warns 007 who casually reaches for his speargun lying next to them.

James Bond is first to fire, and Vargas is pinned to a tree with a spear in his belly.

Sean Connery says with nonchalance.

"I think he got the point......."



Does the film have any faults?

Some, but not many. The underwater storytelling requires concentration particularly when Largo is collecting the atomic bombs from the underwater cave hiding place. The lack of music here where the action is only complimented by bubbles from aqualungs can be a little slow, and when the critics point to the slowness of "Thunderball" this may be what they mean. Of course the huge shooting schedules of the Bond films mean there are continuity problems as well. In the underwater battle when Bond wrenches a mask from a SPECTRE scuba diver and puts it on his face it is black, in the next shot it is blue. But the furious pace of these films means the audience only really questions the faults as it leaves the cinema. If I have one major problem with "Thunderball" it is that, for the uninitiated, the principal actresses look very similar. Claudine Auger and Luciana Paluzzi both are auburn, are generally the same size, and have their hair piled onto their heads. Unless you are paying extreme attention the two can get confused, especially in the early scene's where Fiona Volpe is setting up Angelo to replace the NATO pilot.

But one of the major pluses is John Barry's music. He uses a full orchestra to compliment the underwater scenes, and learn't not to slow up the action by using fast music. His music is slow and melodic enhancing the alien nature of the world beneath the sea. Tom Jones belts out the theme tune in song which is just as bold and brassy as the classic "Goldfinger" and this is incorporated into several of the romantic scene's in the film. It also marks the return of the pounding "007" theme last heard in "From Russia With Love" which moves the Junkanoo parade along. Lastly is the song "Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" which was the Italian name for 007. This is not heard in the film except for an orchestral version at the casino but is included on the soundtrack albums. Dionne Warwick hits the high notes with this with wonderfully camp lyrics such as "He is tall and he is dark.... and like the shark he looks for trouble....that's why the zero's double....Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.."

So with "Thunderball" we have James Bond at the top of his popularity. It became a world-wide hit and the biggest Bond film in grosses ever made. Bondmania really took off with "Thunderball" and was to run for another forty years with no sign of slacking. As a film it may not win any Oscars but amongst all the underwater battles and explosions there is rather a violent core harking back to Flemings novel and a story that is relevant today. John Barry's music and Terence Young's direction give it a classy sheen and Sean Connery is on top form here. Soon he would get bored, but now he looks as fit, sexy, suntanned and dangerous.

In the words of Fiona Volpe:-

"Our Mr Bond must have a very high opinion of himself..."

And can you blame him after this....?





Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: None of the Above
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up Ages 8