As I wrote recently I’m really digging some of the fan edits that I discovered at Fanedit.org. One of the first ones I picked out for viewing was a “special Eon Productions edition” (by “Blofeld’s Cat”) of the unofficial James Bond film from 1983 Never Say Never Again. As yesterday was Sir Sean’s birthday, I thought I’d post my thoughts on this version of his last James Bond film.
I watched NSNA a LOT when I was younger… I don’t know why, but this and that year’s other “official” Bond flick Octopussy was on constant rotation in my VCR in my junior year of high school. The story behind NSNA was that the coproducer and cowriter of Thunderball Kevin McClory retained the rights to the basic story and the characters in the original film (after some litigation in the sixties), and he decided to “remake” it with Connery reprising his role after a ten-year absence.
The thing is, they producers could not use any of the staples of the original series – no gun-barrel logo, no Monty Norman James Bond theme, the same supporting cast, etc. So you got a Bond film that felt a little… off.
Well, this fan edit corrects that, by adding back in all of those official trappings (except, of course, the supporting cast), as well as replacing the entire musical score with music from various James Bond films (mostly from John Barry’s scores). There are also some slight edits that trim some of the sillier content (a large chunk of Rowan Atkinson’s performance is now gone, thankfully).
What you end up with is a better movie, but not much better (I think the original was pretty good). The main gripe I have with it is the musical choices. Some of the decisions by the editor are inspired, like using the Pretenders song from The Living Daylights on a car radio, or creating a brand-new title sequence a la Thunderball with Shirley Bassey and the Propellerheads “History Repeating” as the title theme (get it?). But others… well, the dramatic score is a “mashup” from different films and composers, and the style varies wildly – which is distracting. And putting music behind the Bond/bad guy fight in the first hour was VERY distracting, as the original scene evoked similar fight sequences in Connery’s early Bond films.
But all in all, if you are a Bond fan, you HAVE to see this one, as it finally makes Never Say Never Again “fit in” with all the official films. Recommended.