8mm Forum: Never Say Never Again 1983

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Topic: Never Say Never Again 1983

Lee Mannering
Film God

Posts: 3216
From: The Projection Box
Registered: Nov 2006

posted June 25, 2013 06:52 AM

NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN 1983
Starring Sean Connery, Kim ‘corr’ Basinger, Klaus Brandauer and Barbara Carerra

Well where to start… This particular film has quite a history attached to it as Sean Connery returned for the last time to play James Bond 007 mainly through a legal loophole. I can remember going to see this at my local cinema and was blown away by it and also Kim Basinger, particularly as I was only in my 20’s. Another point of interest was that when I left the cinema I then went to see Octopussy with Roger Moore as 007 which was also very enjoyable and surprising to see two 007 products ran at pretty much the same time although Sean was much more interesting in his Bond return role I found. The new Roger Moore and Sean Connery films were also reported and got to be known as 'battle of the Bonds' for obvious reasons. Max Von Sydow steps into the role as head of the dreaded SPECTRE and what a beastly chap he turns out to be in this remake of Thunderball. The story runs that Bond is out of shape so M proposes he goes to a spa to get himself back together effectively. 007 soon unearths a plot finding the two nuclear weapons are going to be snatched so he follows this up with some memorable action sequences, love scenes including and a sprinkling of comedy from our Rowan Atkinson. In the past a couple of the special effects have been criticised as being a bit fake looking, but I have to say that when watching the film on the big scope screen it looks pretty amazing and good enough for its day. The British all powerful censors had a field day with this film making a number cuts including the horse jump into the sea sequence which was deemed far to shocking for the UK audiences.

In 1983 Never Say Never Again could be seen in 70mm with 6 track sound and also 35mm film. The film cost something like $36,000,000 to make and a much bigger budget than Octopussy which is interesting. In 1987 Derann Films printed news that Bond would be back, this time on Super 8 Scope and would only be for sale in the U.K. Derann eventually released a 2 X 600ft edited version of the film which ran very well keeping the key scenes and the story intact which was some feat for a film over two hours long in the first place. The print quality was excellent with vibrant colour and a bench mark print. I’m guessing they toyed with a full feature release as well but perhaps licensing or sheer cost prohibited it who knows.

The music was composed by Michel Legrand and it flows through the film nicely once again for a 1980’s movie. Another little point of interest is that the CD sound track contains additional music cut from the film and it makes for a good play particularly in your home cinema as people arrive. Strangely the CD often sells for quite a price now being well out of print but it is worth keeping an eye open for.

This 2X600ft makes for a very enjoyable hour in sprawling scope particularly the motorcycle sequence and the gals spreading out across the screen on sunny sandy beaches no less.

So, Sean Connery came back for the last time as 007 James Bond although we should Never Say never Again should we.

Print A+ Sound A+
Price in 1987 was £125.99
Posting to you was £1.75

Rare lobby card

Infamous horse jump!