[Quick Summary: Bond travels to the Bahamas to stop Largo who is extorting the world with nuclear weapons.]
Have we seen this story before? Why, yes!
It's based on the novel, Thunderball, which was made into two different films by two different sets of producers.* To me, this is clearly the better script of the two.
I find that Bond torture scenes are not too graphic (probably unlike the books) and end with panache and a quip.
How do the writers make that turn in tone believable? I think it's the acknowledgment that he's hurt and is deliberately trying to lighten the moment.
In the scene below:
- Bond is at a health clinic.
- He is lying on a Motorised Traction Table to stretch the spine.
- His hands are above his head in hand grips and his legs strapped down. The motor below the table tightens and loosens the grips.
- He has encountered suspicious man with Piaget watch in the hall.
- Pay particular attention to #59b where I've bolded the turn in tone.
55. WALL CLOCK
Now reading 28 minutes after ten. CAMERA ANGLE WIDENS TO INCLUDE BOND ON COUCH, his eyes closed, the straps operating rhythmically. He hears a sound outside curtains, turns his head toward them, opens his eyes. Slowly a tanned, muscular arm reaches through curtains toward lever near dial.
56. INSERT: HAND DEPRESSING DIAL
On the wrist is the distinctive Piaget watch covering the tattoo. The needle on the dial starts moving up. The hand draws back out of shot.
57. INT. ALCOVE. BOND
Whine of motor builds, the straps tightening and loosening more rapidly and with increasing violence. BOND struggles desperately as his back is racked by powerful wrenches. He tries to shout, but can only manage choked, intermittent gasps.
58. INSERT: DIAL
Needle rises to 200, stays there.
59. INT. ALCOVE. BOND
His features contort agonizedly as the couch seems to go beserk.
59a. EFFECTS SHOT. PATRICIA
The face is coming and going in great jerks and then suddenly the sound ceases.
59b. INT. ALCOVE. BOND. PATRICIA
Her hand comes away from the switch, goes up nervously to her mouth.
PATRICIA: My God....my God....you could've been killed.....
She helps him up. He straightens himself painfully. Then with an effort. [my emphasis]
BOND: I feel like I've grown about six inches.
PATRICIA (very upset): Can't think how it could've happened....and I can tell you it's a miracle I came back when I did...I'd left my watch behind.
She is wiping the sweat off his body with a towel, for he is soaking wet.
BOND: I'll buy you another one tomorrow....solid diamond.
WHAT I'VE LEARNED: It's transitions like this (capturing the tone switch) elevate this script above the other one. Same story, but the level of craft is higher.
Thunderball (1965)(1/19/65 revised)
by Richard Maibaum and John Hopkins
Based on the original story by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, and Ian Fleming
*After the initial success of the Bond franchise with EON Productions, Ian Fleming worked with another producer, Kevin McClory, and writer Jack Whittingham on script. It didn't get made, so Fleming turned it into a novel, Thunderball, under his own name.
McClory sued Fleming for copyright and settled.
Then EON was afraid of competition, so it made a deal with McClory that would allow EON to produce Thunderball, with McClory as producer.
In the 1970s, McClory wanted to bring his version of Thunderball to the screen. This became Never Say Never Again (1983).
In 2013, EON Productions finally settled all the rights to Thunderball with the McClory estate.
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