Thunderball (1965) ....... And here it was, after a year of putting the entire planet into a state of frenzied anticipation after the runaway success of "Goldfinger"......
......a year that didn't go by fast enough to give us the movie that promised to be the biggest, most spectacular Bond film ever.
A film that was forced to be made while accompanied by literally armies of reporters and photographers, salivating for any nugget of advance news.
A film that opened in theaters that would schedule shows around the clock, 24/7.......so you could gorge on Bond's latest adventure at 4 in the morning to satisfy your craving.
And what of the film itself as it finally appeared?
It many ways, it fulfilled all our expectations. And in some ways, let us down. Even with its lavish budget and special effects, the film showed signs of having been created hastily in order to present it to us as a 1965 Christmas gift.
The pacing dragged somewhat (something a Bond film had never been guilty of) and the camera under-cranking to speed up those long, long underwater scenes looked a bit silly. Continuity errors abounded, as if the script girl checking such things had taken a vacation during production.
And after the larger than life, grotesque villains of Dr. No, From Russia With Love and Goldfinger, "Thunderball"s baddie, Emilio Largo was just a chunky guy with an eye patch......looking like he'd make a more suitable, run-of-the-mill villain for an episode of Roger Moore's "The Saint" TV show.
But to hell with the flaws......Sean Connery was there in all his Bondian glory.....impossibly cool, seductive, lethal and at all the exact moments, damn funny. One glance at him striding through the film with the confidence of a tiger in the wild and we could forgive the movie all its many imperfections.....
If "Goldfinger" was the foreplay, then "Thunderball" is where we, the world wide audience of Bond fans, climaxed. And yes......the earth moved, it was good for us and all the requisite phrases.
Bond films would continue, of course. So would everyone's ongoing affection for them, of course.....
But never quite with the blazing passion that "Thunderball" generated. James Bond had settled into becoming a permanent part of our pop culture landscape.......and that comfortable familiarity served to change us all......from Bond's obsessed rabid stalkers to his best friends.......4 stars (****).
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