Thunderball (1965)

Published: June 16, 2019, 8 a.m.

"...Water, water everywhere, Nor any drop to drink." When Coleridge revised his Ancient Mariner in 1834 he couldn't have known he was forecasting Thunderball's controversial "production-bloat to audience-nourishment" ratio... or could he? Were the Romantic Poets the first Bond critics? Hmm, the suggestion holds more water than you might think because here we are, 185 years later, grappling with the paradox of the Thunderball experience. Is Connery's 4th outing sodden, spectacular or somewhere in between? Whatever your impression, $9 million to spend in 1965 spelled "epic" so find your flippers and sharpen your spears, we're diving in! Bond By Numbers takes on Thunderball!