But with so many memorable films, another cinematic nugget of some distinction often goes overlooked from that year: the fact that not one but two James Bond films, featuring two different leading actors, were released just four months apart by competing studios.
It's obviously not unheard of for two studios to release separate films featuring the same character(Tombstone/Wyatt Earp, Prefontaine/Without Limits) but this was the first and only time another producer looked to insert their own non-satirical entry into an ongoing, established series. It was akin to someone deciding to sidestep George Lucas and release their own Star Wars or Indiana Jones film.
Octopussy arrived first in June and was the “official” Bond entry for 1983, loosely based on the Ian Fleming short story of the same name and produced by Albert Broccoli’s Eon Productions, the company responsible for the 12 previous 007 films. As usual, MGM/UA handled distribution.
Directed by series vet John Glen, it featured resident Bond Roger Moore in his sixth consecutive appearance as the British secret agent and centered around a rogue Soviet general bent on starting World War III by smuggling a nuclear device onto a U.S. airbase in West Germany, via the exotic and mysterious Octopussy (Maud Adams) and her traveling circus.
Never Say Never Again followed in October and was a remake of the 1965 Eon-produced Bond film Thunderball. Producer Kevin McClory owned the screen rights to that film (he and Ian Fleming had developed its original screenplay together) and had been interested in remaking the film independently since 1975. Producer Jack Schwartzman’s Taliafilm (actress Talia Shire was Schwartzman's wife) provided financing, with Warner Brothers handling distribution.
Directed by Irvin Kershner (The Empire Strikes Back), the film featured the much-publicized return of original Bond Sean Connery, absent from the series for 12 years, and follows an aging 007 as he attempts to retrieve stolen nuclear warheads from SPECTRE and the maniacal Maximilian Largo (Klaus Maria Brandauer). The film's title refers to Connery's assertion that he'd "never" play Bond again.
Both films were hits at the box office, with Octopussy taking in about $24 million more than Never Say Never Again's $160 million haul. (Never Say Never, however, made more on its opening weekend, no doubt fueled by curiosity over Connery's return.)
Which film is better? Well, each features all the required Bond prerequisites: playful humor, exotic locales, breathless action and beautiful girls. I have equally fond memories of catching both as Saturday matinees during their initial runs and still consider the pair two of my more favorite entries in the series.
Opinions vary, however. Even though MGM now owns the rights to every Bond film ever made, when the studio released its massive franchise-spanning Bond 50 collection on Blu-ray last year, Never Say Never Again was nowhere to be found.
