I found a movie called Force 10 from Navarone and the cast list looked pretty good. Then I found out that it is a sequel to:
The Guns of Navarone (1961), which I hadn't seen, so I sat down and watched it. Can't start with the sequel after all.
This WWII epic is based on a novel by Alistair MacLean and is directed by J. Lee Thompson. In a nutshell the story is this:
2000 British soldiers are trapped on a Mediterranean island, and Germany intends to wipe them out in order to intimidate Turkey into joining the Axis. The Royal Navy could easily get them to safety but for a heavily fortified artillery emplacement on the (fictional) island of Navarone. The RAF has tried to bomb the artillery, but to no avail, so it falls to a small commando group to destroy it. The group is led by Major Franklin (Anthony Quayle) with Captain Mallory (Gregory Peck), Greek Colonel Stavros ( Anthony Quinn), Corporal Miller (David Niven) who is also a professor of chemistry and an explosives expert. The rest of the team is less well known today but all solid actors as well.
First off, The Guns of Navarone is 2 hours and 38 minutes long, which is on the extreme end of a movie that is comfortable to watch in one sitting. The reason for this length is that it shows pretty much every step of the way. Early planning, later planning, travel, rock climbing, hiding from the Germans, sneaking into town... etc etc.
The benefit of this is that you get to know the characters very well, and that you don't always see things coming, but it also drags the movie a lot. A lesser director with a worse script would have made a movie that is impossible to sit through. As it is, The Guns of Navarone is something of a masterpiece so it works, but only barely.
Naturally I won't spoil anything, so I won't go into any detail as such, but a lot of the story is easy to guess from the start. After all, no one makes a movie where the Nazis win, let alone back in 1961. Things turn out alright, but of course, at a price. The excitement comes from seeing who makes it and who doesn't. But enough about that.
The Guns of Navarone is the kind of movie that they don't really make anymore, it's just too expensive. It cost $2.000.000 back then and even though it made a hefty profit, I shudder at what it would cost today.
Fun trivia time!
Gregory Peck portrays a British officer, even though he refused to do a British accent. He also felt he was miscast for the role.
This is the only war movie David Niven ever did where he didn't play an officer, which he was in real life.
Niven caught a nasty infection and was hospitalized for a month. This set production back so badly they considered re-shooting all his scenes with another person. He went AWOL from the hospital, finished his scenes, but relapsed and spent seven more weeks in hospital.
The story is loosely based on the real Battle of Leros.
All the German tanks were actually American and the Royal Navy destroyers were Greek, as are all the German extras.
The artillery set was refurbished and reused as cable car terminus in Where Eagles Dare, also written by Alistair MacLean.
So, do I recommend this movie? Absolutely! Any fan of war film that hasn't seen it should see it. Even those who don't care much for war could find this fascinating. There are no big battles, no, but it is no less hard hitting for that. All the acting is superb and it is extremely well done. There are tons of day shots with a night filter, which is annoying after a while, but that is how it was done back in the day. This is an old school epic in the best sense of the word. Well worth it despite the length.
That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great week!
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