Chiasmus cult cinema trailers - "Never say never again" (1983). *These will be ongoing posts, courtesy of the A.Glass DVD collection. As I offer via Chiasmus Cult trailers, my summarized overviews*

 

"Never say Never Again" (1983) was the late Sean Connery comeback movie, after he ceased playing the character "James Bond" in 1971 ("Diamonds are Forever"), which did not evaluate into a comeback in reprising his role as the original Bond.  So, it stands alone as a one off, between the late Roger Moore's James Bond run, while ensuing the cult appeal of Never Say Never Again, with its slight variations of the James bond lore, particular in its representation of the franchise, beginning with the iconic gun barrel introduction, which was replaced with a 1980s esque motif of rows of "007's".  Essentially a reboot of "Thunderball" (1965), with its convoluted copyright and legal history in tow, involving screenwriters bickering, writer guild restrictions, of who owns the names of villains, sequences, soundtracks etc.  The late Irvin Kershner was hired as its director, and there is no doubt that he inscribed an 1980s hedonism into the movie, with an aging Sean Connery, he was 52 at the time, proving that he could still bed the many actresses within its one hour and thirty three minutes, Four in total, with a degree of explicitness not seen in a Bond movie (and hasn't be rivaled since, in my opinion), whilst killing all the bad guys (and one woman)  

The movie, with its reboot of "Thunderball" written all over it, and if you know your James Bond movie history, involved SPECTRA, the antithesis of the James Bond's mythical 000's as a clandestine organization looking to bring disorder into the world, which happens to filled with various colorful villains all with a pendency to psychopathy, with layers of neurotic, and unstable behaviour.   Which, Bond ends up in new and inventive ways, of killing them all, of course before they can kill him.  With the incredibly talented German actor Klaus Maria Brandauer, playing "Maximillian Largo", Bond's main nemesis, who has been able to hijack, from mid flight, two cruise missiles, whilst using a patsy within a American air force base in England, to switch dummy nuke warheads for the real ones. To be used by SPECTRA as ransom, otherwise they will be denoted, one beneath Washington, the other within the sea oil fields of the Middle East, which appears to be Iran (look for the "Sassanid" statues at the climactic scenes at the end of the movie), rather than North Africa as the movie depicts.  A retired, in the movie, James Bond, is thus returned to duty as 007 to save the day and get the girl, in this case a young Kim Basinger, who plays "Domino Petachi", the sister of the patsy who switched the nukes, and was later eliminated by one of the best Femme Fatale Bond female characters ever, "Fatimah Blush" played with a nervous, yet enthralling psychopathic charm by Nicaraguan born American actress Barbara Carrera.

"Never Say Never Again" has dated very well, and as mentioned, it does stand alone very much to be that early 1980s hedonistic, sex fuelled charged, with it kind of thumbing its nose at the James Bond franchise of the time, while offering to the very young Gen X'ers, who went and saw the movie in 1983, that the 1970s sexual liberation our Baby Boomer parents were enjoying, via its reflection from Hollywood, be it with their tanned bodies, bikinis, cocktails, cigarettes, sex, explosions, and violence ended around about 1989, sans the explosions, and violence, which continued on.

Sean Connery refused to do another Bond movie after his comeback with "Never Say Never Again", leaving the character for good in 1983, when he famously said "Never Again" in 1971, to which his wife at the time suggested that his comeback movie, which was not a comeback movie, be titled as "Never Say Never Again" hence the title.    Therefore, enjoy Never Say Never Again, as an addition to an early 80s movie night, so make yourself a Vodka Martini, sit back and enjoy. 

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(A.Glass 2025)

All CHIAMUS Cult Cinema trailers/commentary to date: chiasmusmagazine.blogspot.com/search/label/Chiasmus%20cult%20cinema