The 1960’s was the decade of the epic (Lawrence of Arabia, The Great Escape, Doctor Zhivago). While David Lean was gaining acclaim and winning awards for his big movies, fellow Briton J. Lee Thompson was having a quieter, though no less impressive rise in his career fortunes. Throughout the late 1950’s, Thompson directed a number of British action/adventure films, featuring expansive outdoor locations, most notably Ice Cold in Alex (1959) and Northwest Frontier (1959).
A last minute replacement for Alexander Mackendrick, Thompson’s directions of The Guns of Navarone would vault him to international fame. Based on the novel by Alistair Maclean, Thompson and producer Carl Foreman (Bridge on the River Kwai) spared little expense to create maximum action. The story concerns 2,000 British soldiers trapped on a Greek island during World War II, where they await rescue by the British Fleet before the Nazis take action. However, in order to reach the troops, the fleet must pass through a channel guarded by two very large German guns on the island of Navarone.
Time is of the essence, as such, the government is forced to mount a dangerous infiltrate-and-destroy mission to neutralize the guns. Led by experienced mountain-climber Keith Mallory (Gregory Peck), the team is made up of men with very specific expertise: Greek resistance-fighter Stavros (Anthony Quinn); demolition-expert Miller (David Niven); sharpshooter Pappadimos (James Darren); knife-man Brown (Stanley Baker); and team-leader Franklin (Anthony Quayle). With the team assembled, the plot wastes no time putting them in harm’s way. An undercover journey via fishing boat results in a near catastrophic landing on Navarone. The team faces chaos after a shipwreck, but they are forced to carry on scaling a cliff-face and then determining how they should best infiltrate the mountain fortress.
The team faces issues at every turn; they face encounters with the Nazi SS—who know that Allied agents have reached the island—and a pair of female resistance fighters (Irene Papas, Gia Scala), who join forces with the men. While The Guns of Navarone shows its age in certain sequences (the weaponry, ships look a bit weak in the pre-CGI era), for the most part, the film is action packed from start to finish. Peck is the stable center of the crew, forced to make a series of difficult decisions that could come back to haunt him. David Niven, as the humanistic Miller, may be a genius when it comes to blowing things up, but he doesn’t have the stomach for the realities of man-on-man combat. Every actor turns in a fine performance, Anthony Quinn as Stavros steals the show. A crafty fellow, he’s not a man on a singular mission. Instead, he’s dedicated his life to killing Nazi’s; he lost his wife and children at the hands of the Germans years earlier. The trio forms both the narrative and thematic core of Navarone, driving the story forward with engaging characters and not just action sequences. Fifty years later, The Guns of Navarone remains an engaging tale.
Presented in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio, this 1080p transfer is quite impressive. It’s important to note that the film has always looked kind of rough on home video, as the film wasn’t properly processed and preserved to begin with. As such, some sequences look a bit rough. However, the film looks much better than it has on any previous release. Colors are largely robust, and blacks are solid. While Navarone isn’t as impressive as some newer titles, Sony deserves credit for doing a fine job with what they had available.
The DTS-HD Master Audio is more impressive then the video. Dimitri Tiomkin’s score sounds as if it could have been recorded, while dialogue is impressively crisp throughout. The battle scenes are fairly explosive, but occasionally a bit muddled in the center channel.
English, English (SDH), Arabic, Chinese (Traditional or Simplified), Dutch, French, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, and Thai subtitles are included.
Special features have primarily been ported over from the previous DVD release:
- Commentary by director J. Lee Thompson: The director shares his memories of making this picture during the film’s production in 1959. He shares some thoughts on working with the actors and shooting different scenes.
- Commentary by film historian Stephen J. Rubin: More instructional than informative. I can’t say after listening to him here I’d actually want to ever take a film class from the guy; he’s not mr. excitement.
- Memories of Navarone (29:34) A retrospective documentary that visits with some of the cast and crew to collect their viewpoints on what it was like to play their specific characters in The Guns Of Navarone. The insights and stories they share are quite interesting and offer a wealth of information about the making of the film.
- A message from Carl Foreman (2:00) A short message from Carl Foreman, thanking all of those involved in the making of the film.
- Original Featurettes: These are four featurettes that were made during the picture’s production—mainly promotional in nature, they show some behind-the-scenes footage of the production at work. One documentary, “no visitors”, details how security was able to be kept on the locations, and shows the locals watching filming. The feaurettes are “No Visitors”, “Great Guns”, “Honeymoon on Rhodes” and “Two Girls On The Town”.
- Forging the Guns of Navarone Documentary (13:59) Entertaining, informative, though it has an EPK feel.
- Ironic Epic of Heroism’ Documentary (24:36) Muchof what’s here is covered in earlier supplements. Feels like filler.
- New Featurettes (A Heroic Score, Epic Restoration) Solid shorts on the films score and restoration process.
- Narration-Free Prologue, Roadshow Intermission (5:45) Neat stuff to watch once.
Exclusive to Blu-ray:
- The Greek Resistance (interactive – select further points of interest)
– The Old School Wizardry of The Guns of Navarone
– World War II and the Greek Islands
– The Real World of Guns of Navarone
– The Navarone Effect
– Military Fact or Fiction
This gives the viewer all new access to detailed information on The Guns of Navarone, the real world history that inspired the film and insights from film and military historians on the continuing effect the film has on popular culture.