NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN (1983)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological,sociological*

I've not been in any great hurry to review the last Sean Connery Bond-flick, having remembered it largely as fairly dull with snatches of dopey "camp" humor, possibly courtesy of screenplay writer Lorenzo (BATMAN) Semple Jr. But today I took the plunge.

I'll get two of my category-concerns out of the way first. Both the Fleming novel and the 1965 film fall into the domain of the uncanny, largely for the idea of a "bizarre crime" involving nuclear blackmail. However, one spotlighted Bond-gadget in NEVER-- a laser-ray watch-- is so removed from contemporary technology of the era that it conveys a marvelous phenomenality on the film, much as the attack-laser in the GOLDFINGER movie did for that film. I might argue that the miniature explosive dart that kills Fatima might also be outside the bounds of the uncanny as well. The "bizarre crime" is also the main reason I assign NEVER a "fair" mythicity: not that the makers of the film executed the important nuclear-blackmail trope all that well, but because they at least channeled some of the sociological ramifications of the threat.

NEVER came about because producer Kevin McClory acquired the rights to adapt the THUNDERBALL story, on which he unofficially collaborated with Fleming. Thus NEVER is a one-off independent of the Bond franchise that was managed, up to a certain point, by Eon Productions. McClory and his collaborators had rights only to work with what elements were in the THUNDERBALL novel as such-- though strangely, this didn't prevent them from inventing an evil henchwoman for NEVER, in clear emulation of the henchwoman Fiona Volpe, who had no precedents in the novel.

I haven't re-screened THUNDERBALL for a long time. so I won't comment on the plot-differences between NEVER and its sources. The only thing worth noting in the early scenes is that while Bond (a 52-year-old Sean Connery) discover a vital clue to SPECTRE's nuclear plot at a mundane health spa, his enemies don't find out that Bond is on their trail right away. In fact, Fatima, who is SPECTRE's contact person for an agent undergoing recovery from an operation, recognizes Bond through a window. Convenient, yes?

This contingency allows the script to have the villains make periodic attacks on the hero, but it takes away a lot of the suspense potential. Bond finds his way to the Bahamas, and to Maximillion Largo (Klaus-Maria Brandauer) the SPECTRE agent in charge of placing the stolen bombs in strategic places. 

Now, Fleming utilized a certain amount of coincidence too. In the original book, Largo does not know that his mistress Domino Vitali is actually the sister of the man SPECTRE engaged to help steal the bombs, because the brother goes by another last name. Bond, however, finds out about the family relationship, and he goes out of his way to make contact with the "Domino Petachi" (Kim Basinger) of NEVER, so that he can use Domino against Largo. But this strategy makes less sense if Bond's enemies know who he is and could put a bullet in his head at any time. The fact that Bond also comes on to Largo's mistress also ought to shorten his lifespan, but Fatima Blush keeps bungling her assignments. She does finally get Bond at gunpoint, threatening to shoot off his nuts as a prelude to killing him. This is played so over-the-top that it merely becomes ridiculous, like most of the other "humorous" moments of the movie. Kerschner apparently did not favor a light touch.

One of the most egregious scenes involves Bond informing Domino of her brother's murder by her lover Largo. There's a similar scene in THUNDERBALL the movie, but the dance-scene in NEVER is a big splashy scene that makes the revelation utterly idiotic. Speaking of Domino, for most of the film she's a doe-eyed damsel, and though Basinger does decently with the unrewarding role, her Domino pales in comparison with both of the earlier incarnations. I also preferred Adolfo Celi's version of Largo, who seems like a dyed-in-the-wool Mafioso, while Brandauer seems more like a frustrated child-- particularly when he and Bond duel playing a 1980s video game of Largo's design. What is a SPECTRE agent doing designing video games?

Despite a fair quantity of big action scenes, many of them lack musical accompaniment, and those scored by composer Michel Legrand are entirely disappointing. The only spectacle that works fairly well takes place in Palmyra, where Largo takes the captive agent and his turncoat lover. Bond is put in one of those "traps that will kill you while I'm conveniently busy elsewhere," and so 007 gets free and saves Domino from being sold to Arab slavers. The pursuit of the heroes by the slavers through an ancient Mediterranean fortress is stronger than any of Kerschner's other set-pieces, and free of stupid humor. Later, at the climax Largo attempts to detonate the final bomb in his possession, so Domino, as in her two previous incarnations, gets to end his evil career with a well-placed spear. But this last minute "action-girl" moment doesn't dispel Basinger's damsel image, though she does make one of the most delectable Bond girls.

Finally, though Sean Connery looks very fit for his last outing as 007, he's a washout with the material as well. Connery-Bond in the sixties was not by any means a nice guy, but occasionally he showed passion to save women from dastardly fates when he didn't have to do so. There was a certain knight-like nobility in Connery-Bond that was probably translated from the books, but in NEVER Bond just seems smug and ironically distanced. The movie ends with the false intimation of further entries of this Bond-incarnation, which the producers knew was not going to happen in a million years. So the title NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN was doubly ironic, because Kevin McClory would "never again" get any further chances to take part in the phenomena of the Bond franchise.