Never Say Never Again is a charming and considerably more entertaining film than its unusual production circumstances might have suggested, a non-EON Bond film of quality and real entertainment value that gives Sean Connery one final opportunity to play the character he defined with a relaxed self-awareness and an evident pleasure that makes the experience consistently pleasurable. Irvin Kershner's 1983 film lacks the franchise's characteristic visual language and accumulated mythology, but it is an authentic Sean Connery Bond film, and in that most important respect it delivers everything its central proposition promises.
At a Glance
Director: Irvin Kershner
Runtime: 134 minutes
Starring: Sean Connery, Kim Basinger, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Max von Sydow, Barbara Carrera
Release: 1983
Critics Rating: ★★★ (3/5 stars, a charming and entertaining unofficial Bond)
Audience Rating: ★★★ (3/5 stars, enjoyable)
Review Breakdown
Plot
A reworking of the Thunderball storyline, with SPECTRE again stealing nuclear warheads and Bond dispatched to recover them. The video game sequence between Bond and Largo is the film's most inventive individual moment, a piece of creative wit that the more conventionally staged action sequences of the official series did not always attempt. The plot's familiarity is its most significant limitation, and those who know Thunderball well will find the structural parallels occasionally distracting, but the film's warmer and more character-driven register compensates for the lack of narrative originality.
Characters
Connery's Bond is the film's indispensable element, a portrayal of complete self-awareness and visible relish that makes this the most relaxed and personally engaging of his Bond performances. The title's wry acknowledgement of his famous declaration that he would never play Bond again gives his performance an additional layer of charm that the official series could not have replicated. Klaus Maria Brandauer's Largo is one of the most psychologically complex villains in the broader Bond canon, a figure of sharp intelligence and personal menace whose video game obsession gives the character a depth the more theatrically excessive official series villains did not always achieve. Kim Basinger's Domino is one of the era's most glamorous and dramatically engaging Bond girls, and Barbara Carrera's Fatima Blush is one of the film's most purely entertaining antagonists, a SPECTRE assassin of menace and comic energy.
Tone
Kershner pitches the film at a register of relaxed entertainment and adequate espionage tension, giving it a tonal warmth and a comic confidence the more professionally obligated later official entries did not always achieve. The film's self-awareness about its own unusual position in the Bond canon gives it a charm and a wit that distinguishes it from both the official series and the more generic action films of its era.
Meaning / Themes
Age and capability run through the film as a quiet preoccupation: Bond's evident seniority set against the suggestion that experience and intelligence can compensate for the physical advantages of youth. Connery's performance gives the theme a personal authenticity that makes it feel resonant, and the film's treatment of Bond as a man who has earned his authority rather than merely asserting it gives the character a dimension the more action-focused official entries of the period did not always provide.
Direction
Kershner's direction is technically accomplished and tonally assured, with a command of character and atmosphere that gives the film a human texture the more anonymously directed official entries of the period do not always achieve. The video game duel is the film's directorial highlight, an inventive piece of action filmmaking that demonstrates Kershner's willingness to find new approaches to the franchise's familiar dramatic situations. Lani Hall's title song gives the film a distinctive sonic identity separate from the official Bond series.
Cultural Reception
Never Say Never Again was a commercial success on its release, benefiting from the novelty of Connery's return and the curiosity generated by its unusual production circumstances. Its release in the same year as Octopussy created one of cinema's most unusual simultaneous franchise rivalries, with both films performing well at the box office. Where critical opinion has largely acknowledged its entertainment value and Connery's performance while noting its limitations as a non-EON production, audiences have proved consistently warmer, and the film endures as a fascinating footnote in franchise history and as evidence that Connery's Bond retained its appeal well into the actor's fifties.
Who Should Watch
A natural watch for Connery completists and a rewarding film for general audiences who approach it as a charming unofficial Bond. Those who enjoyed Thunderball will find a warmer and more character-driven version of the same story.
Final Verdict: A warmer and more character-driven Bond than the official series managed in this period, and a more affecting one than its unusual origins might have predicted. Connery's relaxed self-awareness gives the film an intelligence the official entries rarely matched, Brandauer's Largo stands as one of the most psychologically complex villains in the broader Bond canon, and Kershner's direction makes Never Say Never Again one of the more rewarding entries in the series' wider history.
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