Welcome to Part 6 of In Conclusion:The James Bond Series. Last time we found out that Diamond Aren’t Forever and that while sometimes things may turn into excitement whenever Bond touches them that Goldfinger isn’t a case sample of it. The next two on the countdown will likely cause some controversy as they’re both considered “classics” of the Connery era. So now I bring you #12 and #11.
12.
The poster is a classic example of 60’s art. You have flashy colors and images of beautiful women along with Sean Connery’s Bond giving a pretty sweet pose. It’s simplistic and yet you get the total Bond vibe to it. The art renditions are very nicely drawn and colored and truly capture the looks of Sean Connery, Ursula Andress, Eunice Grayson (Sylvia Trench) and Zena Marshall (Miss Taro) incredibly well (correct me if I’m wrong on who the people depicted are). A great poster all around and one I’d love to put on my “Wall of Fame” one day.
It’s a start, a pretty good one, but simply just a start. No one really knew how Bond would translate as a feature film. It was almost experimental at the time and you can tell they’re just simply experimenting in this movie. Sean Connery makes his debut as Bond and he plays a pretty close Novel Bond and shows little to no mercy to any of the villains in this story. Joseph Wiseman plays the titular Dr. No and he does a pretty good job as a starting villain for Bond.
Dr. No is ruthless, dangerous, and does better against Bond than most of the people who’s ever tried their luck with him yet in the end starts the trend of mistakes that other villains following him would make. The Bond girl is Honey Ryder, played by Ursula Andress. She’s pretty much the prototypical Bond girl that most try and follow. She’s gorgeous and useful, so she’s almost perfect for the film. The action scenes in this are rare but the ending sequence in Dr. No’s lair has great action.
The film mainly takes place in the Caribbean, Jamaica or so to be exact. The Caribbean is still pretty exotic by today’s standards and looks fantastic in this movie. There is not a title song or a pre title sequence. The theme is the “James Bond Theme” by Monty Norman that would be used throughout as the series went on. Some of my issues with this movie stem from the fact it comes off as odd at places.
The Bond theme, normally in action sequences seems to play every few minutes with Bond doing menial things like walking, eating, etc. Another thing is I find the movie to drag on a bit at places and I think that’s because they’re following the Novel (although there are some changes) . Bond, Dr. No, and Ryder are great in this film, the story is alright for a starting point, and SPECTRE is established but other than that its just a start, an alright one at that.
11.
The poster is similar to Goldfinger but more drawn out on terms of artwork. I consider this one to be one of the better posters made in the series. I like the clever use of “007” in the word “Look” and the use of scenes from the movie in art form (the jet pack scene in the Pre-Title sequence and the underwater scene from late in the movie). The artwork is incredibly rich and looks like they put a lot of effort into it. Overall, a job very well done and it makes me miss the days of drawn posters rather than just photo shopped work.
Connery plays Bond again and he gives a good performance. This is the 2nd film to go with the “triangle of evil” villain format created in From Russia with Love. To me, the primary antagonist is Blofeld, like he was in that movie. Once again he is unseen(except from behind) and is still very sinister and evil.
Blofeld:Alright, our plan will be to send different people, two bald men, one with a deformed eye, and one with silver hair. Each will call themselves, “Blofeld” but we know there is only one!
The secondary antagonist is Emilio Largo, who is assigned by Blofeld to steal two atomic bombs. Largo is a pretty sadistic villain even killing his own men. Other than that, he’s just a figurehead for Blofeld in this scheme, sort of like a Coordinator to a Coach of a sports team. However, he’s very effective in this role and thus makes for a good villain. The henchwoman of the triangle is Fiona Volpe played by Luciana Paluzzi.
She’s pretty dangerous and in her own way somewhat of a model for the Famke Janneson’s character in Goldeneye. She’s lethal to Bond both physically and sexually and matches up very well against him. Claudine Auger plays Domino, the main Bond girl of the story. She is originally Largo’s mistress but as Bond normally does, he sweeps her off her feet. Like many of the early Bond girls she serves a purpose in the film and comes in handy to him in the very end. The action sequences in this movie were very nicely done and the underwater sequences were remarkable. Location wise I liked the set in the Bahamas, it looked nice as usual.
Tom Jones’ “Thunderball” is a sentiment to Connery’s Bond. The energy Jones puts in the song coupled with Barry’s music is just classic. I also enjoyed the alternate theme by Johnny Cash. Although it doesn’t work in the context of the film(the song plays out more like a Western theme than anything else), its a great piece and I recommend you listen to it if you haven’t heard it before. The film tends to be boring at spots. Its a rare case where they do all major parts of the movie right (characters and plot) but I still think its not that great of a film because it just drags at places.
I probably need to go over it again. Its hard to tell with these films. I’m not saying Thunderball is bad, I’m just saying its not that great. I may post another review one day after I go over it again. Though I will admit I like it better than I used to. Perhaps it’s a movie that gets better as the viewer ages.
That is all for this week. Next week is somewhat iffy. I’m currently working on another article, so there is a chance we’ll be taking a break soon (albeit a short one).