The film builds the kind of old-fashioned excitement and suspense that today is too often sidestepped for blood, guts, pyrotechnics, profanity, and chases.
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Now, let's not have any misunderstanding--I enjoy many of today's war movies. Things like "Saving Private Ryan," "The Thin Red Line," and "Three Kings" brought a gritty realism to the screen, along with a degree of introspection, poetry, and humor. But the classic war movies of yesteryear were hard to beat for their straightforward action and adventure. "The Bridge on the River Kwai," "The Great Escape," and "The Guns of Navarone" combined epic grandeur with unabashed heroism. So having "Navarone" available on DVD in widescreen color and stereo sound is welcome, indeed. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards in 1961, including Best Picture, winning for Special Effects. After all these years, it still holds its own.
Set during World War II, the story line resembles a plot from "Mission Impossible." A pair of enormous, Nazi-controlled cannons positioned high in the cliffs overlooking the sea will not allow the evacuation of allied soldiers from a small Mediterranean island. The weapons are located in a cave surmounted by a fortress too huge to bomb without risking suicide. It's up to a tiny band of intrepid heroes to blow up the big guns and somehow get out alive. Not even their boss thinks they have a chance in hell. Written and produced by Carl Foreman ("Bridge on the River Kwai"), based on a novel by Alistair MacLean ("Where Eagles Dare"), and directed by J. Lee Thompson ("Cape Fear"), the movie offers up unparalleled adventure.
Initially, the filmmakers wanted Cary Grant and Alec Guinness to play two of the three leads, but the actors they settled for are impressive enough: Gregory Peck as Keith Mallory, a mountain-climbing wizard, and David Niven as Professor Miller, a munitions expert. The third leading part went to the man they had wanted all along, Anthony Quinn as Col. Andrea Stavros, a Greek military commando. They are complemented by three other members of the crew, Anthony Quayle as Major Roy Franklin, the group's leader; Stanley Baker as "Butcher" Brown, a machinery technician and good man with a knife; and young pop singer James Darren as Spiro Pappadimos, a trained killer. Together, they make a formidable unit. In addition, a couple of female resistance fighters, Maria and Anna, are played by Irene Pappas and Gia Scala.
The film builds the kind of old-fashioned excitement and suspense that today is too often sidestepped for blood, guts, pyrotechnics, profanity, and chases. "Navarone" starts with the discovery of an eavesdropper at the door of the team's first conference and involves the subsequent question of what to do with him. Then there's a storm at sea and the maneuvering through a rocky coastline to contend with. Next, there's a cliff-climbing segment that will have viewers with a fear of heights looking the other way. Naturally, encounters with German patrols happen almost all the time. A capture and escape are particularly taut and stirring. And the finale is one of the grandest, most hair-raising sequences ever filmed.
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[release]4408[/release]