Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn and David Niven are Allied saboteurs assigned an impossible mission: infiltrate an impregnable Nazi-held island and destroy the two enormous long-range field guns that prevent the rescue of 2,000 trapped British soldiers. Blacklisted screenwriter Carl Foreman (High Noon,The Bridge on the River Kwai) was determined to re-establish both his name and credibility after spending most of the 50's working in anonymity. To accomplish this, he decided to bring Alistair MacLean's best-selling novel, The Guns of Navarone, to the screen. Supported by an all-star cast and produced on a grand scale, the film was an enormous success, receiving seven 1961 Academy Award® nominations (including Best Picture) and winning for Best Special Effects. Although Foreman achieved his goal, it was MacLean who would wind up the true beneficiary; his novels became the source for many high adventure screen epics, including Ice Station Zebra and Where Eagles Dare. However, it is The Guns of Navarone that remains not only the best of the MacLean adaptations, but one of the greatest action/adventure spectacles ever produced.
This rousing, explosive 1961 WWII adventure, based on Alistair MacLean's thrilling novel, turns the war thriller into a deadly caper film. Gregory Peck heads a star-studded cast charged with a near impossible mission: destroy a pair of German guns nestled in a protective cave on the strategic Mediterranean island of Navarone, from where they can control a vital sea passage. As world famous mountain climber turned British army Captain Mallory, Peck leads a guerrilla force composed of the humanistic explosives expert, Miller (David Niven), the ruthless Greek patriot with a grudge, Stavros (Anthony Quinn), veteran special forces soldier Brown (Stanley Baker), and the cool, quiet young marksman Pappadimos (James Darren). This disparate collection of classic types must overcome internal conflicts, enemy attacks, betrayal, and capture to complete their mission. Director J. Lee Thompson sets a driving pace for this exciting (if familiar) military operation, a succession of close calls, pitched battles, and last-minute escapes as our heroes infiltrate the garrisoned town with the help of resistance leader Maria (Irene Papas) and plot their entry into the heavily guarded mountain fort. Carl Foreman's screenplay embraces MacLean's role call of clichés and delivers them with style, creating one of the liveliest mixes of espionage, combat, and good old-fashioned military derring-do put on film. In 1978, the sequel Force 10 from Navarone was released, but MacLean fans will prefer to check out the action-packed thriller Where Eagles Dare. --Sean Axmaker
Stills from The Guns of Navarone(click for larger image)
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Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
Remastered Classic:
The reissued DVD version of THE GUNS OF NAVARONE is a great improvement over my tired old VHS copy. Not only is the film in widescreen presentation, the color and sound is superior to the tape version. As with most Alistair MacLean inspired movies we find a story with a handful of commandos, plan gone awry with double agents in their midst, battling a large contingent of the Wehrmacht. One wonders what the Germans were doing with all that substantial air power, armor, and artillery on a small island at... more info
An Average WWII Movie:
This is a pretty good film overall, but Peck doesn't seem to have his heart in it most of the time. I honestly prefer Force 10 from Navarone much more than this film.
Reeeeeally bad transfer!:
Great movie. AWFUL TRANSFER! The sound quality is pretty good but the picture quality is deplorable. The colors and shading actually pulse! Some scenes are obviously un-restored and are full of visual noise/artifacts. Worse still is that this wasn't a schlock transfer from "Bob's VHS to DVD and Storm Door Company". Noooooo. This was a vaunted Superbit transfer carried out by Sony. This ripping yarn deserved much, MUCH better treatment. The clarity is not there and at the least, the images should have been... more info
British Fiction:
"The Guns of Navarone" is tied in first place with "Where Eagles Dare" as the worst war movie ever produced and it is no coincidence that the same author, Alistair MacLean, wrote both books of the same titles from which the scripts for these films were taken. The only similarity with actual history and "Navarone" is the failed operation of British forces to take, occupy and retain the Aegean islands, known as the Dodecanese, west of Turkey. Churchill wanted these islands taken in order to bring Turkey into... more info
