Plot: What’s it about?
It’s the 1960s and the cinematic world cries out for more of the supercool British secret agent James Bond. After the big success of Goldfinger, it is reported that the next film on tap is On Her Majesty’s Secret Service but when those plans fell apart, a screenplay that was originally scheduled to be the first Bond movie seems ripe and ready for the big screen. After the big agent that is Sean Connery, this film promised bigger and better on everything. It’s one mission that is seen through few eyes, it is Operation Thunderball.
After a scuttle with an associate believed to be dead, Agent James Bond (Sean Connery) is subject to a recovery center and notices a most unusual insignia on a fellow patient’s arm. Little does he realize that a few patients there are embroiled in a plot devised by SPECTRE to steal two nuclear devices and hold the world for ransom and the search for the location of the bombs takes Bond to exotic places, dangerous lairs, and the world underwater.
When the ads said a bigger and better Bond they meant it as the film has a grand look, a new aspect ratio and a more cinematic adventure for James Bond as the colors and the look of the film are dazzling as well as the situations that Agent 007 brings himself into. From the high flying opening sequence to the out of control climax (and I do mean that literally) Thunderball makes the viewer gasp for more air than the divers involved in this film.
Most of this film was a model for the first Austin Powers film to parody (as well as other secret agent films) and this is where it all started from the rarely seen master to the torture chairs. Amongst it all, there is the ruthless second in command that is the films villain (played wonderfully by Adolfo Celi, who this viewer swears used his voice in the beginning of For Your Eyes Only), the beautiful girls this time getting a little spin as the audience gets a taste of the good and the bad women. It’s also refreshing to see Bond get a little bit of punishment every now and then too.
I can’t compliment this movie enough without acknowledging the elaborate set design work of Ken Adam. The sets are huge in this movie and the look has a grand effect bigger than the previous three Bond pictures. The conference room was only viewed in this film and how big can you imagine all the double 0 agents in those big chairs. There are also constant parallels to the British Secret Service and SPECTRE in their actions with some differences but in the end, when Bond strikes like Thunderball in the end, he succeeds.
Video: How does it look?
Thunderball is the first 007 film given the 2.35:1 treatment and it’s well represented anamorphically on this DVD and the results are better than average. With a few exceptions of occasional grain spots, the overall look of the film is amazing and the remastering job of the print cannot be beat as the opening credits and the exotic locales never looked better. The overall use of color is quite much in the film and the transfer retains it’s beauty without succumbing to oversaturation or bleeding. A super job.
Audio: How does it sound?
The Dolby Digital 5.1 track on the Thunderball DVD is quite impressive balancing the sound effects and dialogue mixed in with John Barry’s solid score. Previous video releases gave the audio of this film the most inferior track and this viewer is proud to say that this DVD is leaps and bounds an improvement in that field. All channels hum with the underwater effects as well as the score but with a slight muteness. This is apparent through a fraction of the film. Despite this, the overall audio effect of the film is extremely well done and better beyond expectation,
Supplements: What are the extras?
The Thunderball Special Edition DVD opens up with 2 audio commentaries. The first is another track with interviews with director Terence Young and various cast and crew. It’s nicely balanced keeping a nice audio journal on the making of the film. The second is with editor Peter Hunt (who did a great job with On Her Majesty’s Secret Service) and writer John Hopkins and their comments are a refreshing change being that they commenting along selected portions of the film as they go along.
What’s also special about this particular track is that the alternate song of the film can be heard in it’s entirety during the traditional Maurice Binder opening credits. There are also some other audio goodies including Bond in different languages and some ads during this track to promote the film. All in all both tracks vary a bevy of information as well as some nice rarities of the audio kind.
Next there are two documentaries. The first, The Making of Thunderball, is an exceptional piece about behind the scenes of the picture as told by the cast and crew as well as the director in spots. The other, The Thunderball Phenomenon, goes into the popularity of Bond and this particular chapter in the Bond series. It also had a nice piece that was from a TV Special entitled The Secret World of James Bond. If only the entire special was included on here, that would’ve been perfect. Nevertheless, it covers similar info as well as the other half of what went on during the picture. They both are nice companion pieces to each other.
Also there is a featurette called Inside Thunderball. For the future Bond chapters, the “Inside” referred to the total package documentary about the making of one of the chapters. In this case it’s a short piece covering the different versions of Thunderball and what has been removed and what was changed from previous releases of the film in the many formats. There are others some friends tell me so it’s interesting but this viewer knows there is a few more.
Also there is a nice photo gallery, three trailers (one of them covering a double feature), 10 radio spots, 5 tv spots (3 of them being double features).
Overall, one of the big 007 films for Sean Connery and one of the overall grander chapters in the world of 007, Thunderball makes a very nice splash onto DVD.
