The Guns of Navarone (1961)

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 a time when the Eastern front was collapsing. The same situation was encountered in WHERE EAGLES DARE and FORCE TEN FROM NAVARONE.

The Plot: In a bid to gain a foothold on the Dodecanese Islands the British landed a force on Kheros. Unfortunately the Germans had other plans and isolated the Allied force while they prepared to retake the island. The British plan to withdraw the lone garrison, but for the firepower of two mighty cannons guarding the channel on nearby Navarone. As the guns are protected in a rock mountain similar to Gibralter and the island heavily garrisoned by German troops, a force of agents is sent to Navarone to knock out the guns before a Royal Navy braves the channel to evacuate Kheros. Along the way the team, led by Gregory Peck, is forced to alter their plans and improvise as their mission is betrayed by a traitor in the midst.

Anthony Quinn, David Niven, Anthony Quayle, and motion picture newcomer James Darren (The Time Tunnel) also star in this action packed military thriller.

The majority of the outdoor scenes were filmed on location in Rhodes with interiors and gun sets completed in England. Overall a well made film with great accompanying soundtrack composed by Dimitri Tiomkin (The Alamo).

It was not until several years ago that I discovered the premise of the film, minus the great guns, was a true story. The Italians had occupied the Dodecanese Islands, including islands near the Turkish coast, since 1912. During the Second World War after Italy surrendered to the Allies in 1943, The Germans rushed in troops to occupy the larger islands (including Rhodes with its three vital airfields) while the British landed on five of the smaller outlying islands. In THE GUNS OF NAVARONE the stranded British troops are reported to be on the fictional Aegean island of "Kheros." In reality one of the actual British occupied islands was "Leros." In a series of airborne and seaborne operations the Germans retook the islands. The Germans bombarded and successfully invaded Leros in Operation Leopard in November 1943. No doubt one of the last German victories of the war. As the Germans had complete air supremecy over the Dodecanese. The British and Italian garrisons were defeated and the Germans remained in control of the Islands until the May 1945 German surrender.

The only thing that was missing was a story about large railway guns installed in a hollowed out mountain.

In comparing THE GUNS OF NAVARONE to actual history you have to begin with the assumption that the Germans either inherited the massive gun battery from the Italians, who previously occupied the island as legally annexed Italian territory, or that the Germans maintained a secret base there. Otherwise it is improbable that the Germans could have hollowed out the mountain and installed two great radar controlled guns in the handful of months following the Italian surrender. A similar continuity logic break occurs in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK where the Germans maintain an established U-Boat pen in the Aegean in the late 1930s.

As noted earlier, the sound and color in the DVD release are an improvement over the prior video tape copies. In the earlier versions the German uniforms appeared as plain brown. Now they are closer to field gray. A similar color restoration took place with the re-released THE DIRTY DOZEN. The DVD also contains several behind the scenes movies shorts of cast and crew on Rhodes during the film's production. August 31, 2008

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. May 29, 2008

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 stabilized. Issuing this as a "Superbit" is a travesty as it leads you to expect superior, near hi-def quality. Instead, it's like watching an un-restored film to VHS transfer. May 19, 2008

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 the war against Germany. Many of these islands were occupied by the Italian Army and when Italy surrendered to the Allies in September 1943, British forces landed on these islands but the Germans reacted swiftly and retook the islands, in the course of which the British sustained over 700 dead and 3200 POWs. The Italians sustained far heavier losses. This operation was a German victory. "Navarone" mentions 2000 British troops stranded on the fictitious island of Keros, which implies the island of Leros. The other island where severe fighting occured was Kos.

Most people are unaware of the defeat of Britain in these islands and they get much of their "historical knowledge" from movies such as "Navarone." An excellent work of this entire operation is "Churchill's Folly: Leros and the Aegean" by Anthony Rogers which includes the operation to retake the islands from the German point of view, using original German sources and participants. The Germans were much more efficient that movies like "Navarone" would suggest.

There are many problems with this movie. Here are only a few. Gregory Peck is not going to fool any German with his fake Greek and German pronunciations with his American accent. Anthony Quinn manages to kill three German mountain troops before they ever return fire. Why do German soldiers have to have a direct order from an officer to open fire when they are being shot at? When the commandos are taken prisoner, why do the Germans not tie their hands behind their backs? Why do the Germans take them all into the same room and not segregate them individually in order to interrogate them? When the German patrol boat confronts the commandos' fishing vessel, why does the German captain not force the leader (Peck) onto his patrol boat, at the same time covering the fishing vessel with machine guns and his 20 mm gun?

I could go on and on but the movie is not worth the celluloid it is printed on. May 11, 2008

The Guns of Navarone (Collector's Edition)

ESSENTIAL MOVIE!!! One of the greatest war movies ever made stars Gregory Peck, David Niven & Anthony Quinn. The Germans have two HUGE guns on the island of Navarone in the Mediterranean. These guns are preventing the British from rescuing two thousand British soldiers who are stranded on another nearby island. The only way to knock out the guns is to send in a crack team of commandos. There's only one side of the island that's not well defended; it's a cliff that goes straight a few hundred feet.

Gregory Peck is a mountain climber, highly skilled at the sort of thing the British are asking him to do. David Niven is a British soldier who's an expert with explosives. Anthony Quinn is a Greek resistance fighter well known to the Germans who will assist in leading the team in & contacting the Greek resistance. The problem between Peck & Quinn though is almost insurmountable; Quinn blames Peck for the death of his wife & children & has sworn to kill Peck as soon as the war is over. But Quinn's hatred of Peck is so intense that no one is sure if he'll wait that long. As the film progresses it becomes apparent that there's a traitor in the midst of the unit. On the way to their objective everything that can go wrong does, including having to leave behind the wounded British officer that is the leader of the commando team. The peril with this is that the officer will be taken by the Germans who will interrogate him to get the exact information they need to stop them.

Loosely based on the Alistair MacLean novel of the same name, the movie is excellent. The movie won the Oscar in 1961 for special effects & nominated for a total of seven. This is a two disc set that has a bunch of bonus features including commentary by director J. Lee Thompson, a documentary on "Forging the bGuns of Navarone", 6 featurettes, a message from screenplay writer Carl Foreman & several more items! February 13, 2008

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