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 genuine quality and genuine entertainment value that gives Sean Connery one final opportunity to play the character he defined with a relaxed self-awareness and a genuine enjoyment that makes the experience consistently pleasurable. Irvin Kershner's 1983 film is not an EON Bond. It lacks the franchise's characteristic visual language, its established supporting cast, and the accumulated mythology that gives the official series its distinctive identity. But it is a genuine 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, genuinely enjoyable)
Review Breakdown
Plot
A reworking of the Thunderball storyline, with SPECTRE again stealing nuclear warheads and Bond dispatched to recover them. The plot is constructed with adequate dramatic intelligence and genuine entertainment economy, establishing its Bahamas and French Riviera settings and its spectacular set-pieces with enough clarity to make the experience consistently entertaining. The video game sequence between Bond and Largo is the film's most purely inventive individual moment, a demonstration of genuine creative wit that the more conventionally staged action sequences of the official series did not always attempt.
Characters
Connery's Bond is the film's indispensable element, a portrayal of complete self-awareness and genuine enjoyment that makes this the most relaxed and the most personally engaging of his Bond performances. The actor's evident pleasure in revisiting the character on his own terms gives the film a warmth and a wit that the more professionally obligatory later official entries did not always achieve. Klaus Maria Brandauer's Largo is the franchise's most psychologically complex villain, a man of genuine intelligence and genuine personal menace whose video game obsession and his relationship with Domino give the character a dramatic depth that the more theatrically excessive official series villains did not always achieve. Kim Basinger's Domino is one of the era's most glamorous and most dramatically engaging Bond girls, a woman of genuine warmth and genuine dramatic complexity whose eventual alliance with Bond gives the film its most emotionally satisfying individual development.
Tone
Kershner pitches the film at a register of relaxed entertainment and adequate espionage tension, a decision that suits Connery's self-aware return and gives the film a tonal warmth and a comic confidence the more professionally obligatory later official entries did not always achieve. Never Say Never Again has a charm and a personal quality that the more impersonally spectacular official series entries of the same era entirely lacked.
Meaning / Themes
The film's central concern is the relationship between age and capability, between Bond's evident seniority and the suggestion that experience and intelligence can compensate for the physical advantages of youth. This is handled with enough wit and enough dramatic intelligence to give the film a genuine thematic dimension beyond its entertainment mechanics, and Connery's performance gives the theme a personal authenticity that makes it feel genuinely resonant rather than merely convenient.
Casting
Connery is the film's indispensable element, and his relaxed self-awareness gives the film a warmth and a wit that makes the experience consistently pleasurable. Brandauer is the film's most dramatically interesting new addition, and his Largo is the franchise's most psychologically complex villain. Basinger is the film's most glamorous and most dramatically engaging Bond girl.
Direction
Kershner's direction is technically accomplished and tonally assured, with a command of the Bahamas and French Riviera locations and a genuine sense of the spy action formula's entertainment possibilities. The video game sequence is the film's directorial highlight, a demonstration of genuine creative wit that gives the film its most purely inventive individual moment. Lani Hall's title song gives the film a distinctive sonic identity separate from the official Bond series.
Who Should Watch
Essential viewing for Connery completists and a rewarding film for general audiences who approach it as a charming and entertaining unofficial Bond rather than an official franchise entry. Those who approach it expecting the visual language and the accumulated mythology of the EON series will find a film of considerably different character. Those who approach it as a final Sean Connery Bond film will find exactly what they came for.
Final Verdict: A charming and considerably more entertaining film than its unusual production circumstances might have suggested. Sean Connery's relaxed self-awareness gives the film a warmth and a wit the more professionally obligatory later official entries lacked, Klaus Maria Brandauer's Largo is the franchise's most psychologically complex villain, and Irvin Kershner's direction gives the material a tonal warmth and a personal quality that makes Never Say Never Again one of the most genuinely enjoyable Bond films of its era despite its unofficial status.
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