Never Say Never Again, Collector’s Edition (1983)
Starring: Sean Connery, Kim Basinger, Barbara Carrera, Klaus Maria Brandauer
Studio: Fox (also avail. on Blu-ray)
Video: 2.35:1 anamorphic/enhanced for 16:9 color
Audio: English DD 5.1 & DD Surround, Spanish & French mono
Subtitles: English, Spanish, Captioned
Extras: Commentary track by Director Irvin Kershner and Bond historian Steven Jay Rubin, “The Big Gamble” featurette, “Sean Is Back” featurette, “The Girls of Never Say Never Again” featurette, Theatrical trailer, Still photo gallery
Length: 134 minutes
Rating: ****
This was Sean Connery’s final appearance as James Bond – a dozen years after his previous Bond film – in an independent feature which recycled the earlier Bond film Thunderball. The production had a lengthy legal hassle with author Ian Fleming and the Broccolis, and the script went thru even more changes than the average movie. It came out the same year as a new Roger Moore Bond film, Octopussy, and was way superior though it has faults. He plays an older 007 (60!) being phased out by the British secret service until a worldwide threat causes his services to be suddenly of utmost value. The baddies, part of SPECTRE, have hijacked a couple of nuclear warheads and Bond has to get them back to save the world. According to Director Kershner’s statement in the extras, the only way the film finally got finished was thru the dedication and participation of Connery. (Although his decisions weren’t always winners – he insisted on Michel Legrand for the score and this is certainly not one of Legrand’s best film scores.)
There is a refreshing sense of humor in the film, different from other Bond films. M is trying to get 007 back in shape by sending him to a health spa. We see Bond opening a suitcase that looks like it has a big video screen and some spy gear in it, but later when he has a woman in his room it is revealed that it is his stowed-away vodka, caviar, foie de gras and other goodies. Another hilarious scene has Bond sneaking into another spa to give the Kim Basinger character a massage while getting some needed information out of her. When he holds up the sheet so she can turn over he doesn’t use it to shield his eyes but looks down in front of it with interest. The choice of other actors runs both interesting and ill-advised. Basinger is beautiful but somehow doesn’t pass muster as a Bond girl. However, Barbara Carrera is gangbusters as one of the villains, along with Max Von Sydow (would you believe!) and Klaus Maria Brandauer. The worst choices are Edward Fox for M (we instantly want Dame Dench) and Rowan Atkinson – way out of his comedy element as a nervous British secret service clerk in Bermuda. However, Connery is at the center of this film, and it’s great to see him looking so good and offering a contrast to the very different Bond we see in current features.
The director speaks about it not being appropriate for Connery to be hanging in space by one arm or other feats more suitable to a younger Bond. Yet there are several feats that surely had the assistance of stuntmen. The features of the various gadgets that were developed for 007 are the usual part of the plot. But my favorite is the small case that Bond puts in the hand of a bouncer he wants off his back while he infiltrates an event. He puts the man in a closet and tells him the case is a powerful bomb which will go off unless he holds it level and motionless. After getting the information he wanted at the event, Bond returns to the closet, grabs the case – moving it all around without incident – causing the man to faint. Later Bond is seen opening the case and it contains his cigarillos. The director also decries the ending of the film, which is not as spectacular as the underwater fight in Thunderball. He mentions the difficulties of shooting underwater – how everyone must move so slowly that it’s not as dramatic.
The image transfer is fine, it didn’t look dated at all. The Dolby 5.1 track was about usual for earlier films that didn’t make that much use of the surrounds anyway. The underwater scenes were aided by excellent subsonic underwater sounds. The three featurettes are fun, though I’ve never understood why they don’t vary the clips that they use from the film so you’re not seeing the same scene over and over.
– John Sunier
