Title: Thunderball
Year: 1965
Director: Terence Young
Country: UK
Language: English
The mid 1960's were a difficult time in Western politics - the Cold War permeated pop culture as the atomic threat felt more inevitable with each passing day. Thunderball (1965) leans into this anxiety; the SPECTRE villain is determined to hold the world ransom when he steals two nuclear warheads & threatens nuclear annihilation.
James Bond (Sean Connery) heads to the Bahamas to recover two nuclear warheads stolen by S.P.E.C.T.R.E. Agent Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi) in an international extortion scheme.
Around the time Thunderball was being made, surf culture made a huge splash among the general public. Surf rock (ex. Beach Boys) and films featuring prominent tropical destinations (ex. Elvis' Blue Hawaii) were guaranteed money-makers. Therefore this entry had to cash-in on the crazy & prominently feature diving, surfing and lots of aquatics.
Unfortunately, this means that Thunderball is weighed down by a lot of meandering underwater scenes. There's an underwater action scene that is laughably slow in an almost comical way. The attempt at balancing serious cold war attitudes with goofy surf culture give the film an odd tone. The dramatic and comedic elements don't quite balance each other out.
This is a shame because Thunderball is a visual spectacle. The cinematography is remarkable, the on-location shooting is gorgeous, and the score is upbeat and fun. The villain, Emilio Largo, is iconic and menacing. The Femme Fatale, played by Luciana Paluzzi, has a great amount of charisma. There are so many elements of Thunderball that work terrifically.
There is a lot to appreciate about this 007 entry, even though the sum of its parts doesn't quite work out. I enjoy surf movies (see: Ghost in the Invisible Bikini) but too much of Thunderball takes place underwater, which makes the pace sometimes agonizingly slow. Nobody likes underwater levels.
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