The film builds the kind of old-fashioned excitement and suspense that today is too often sidestepped for blood, guts, pyrotechnics, profanity, and chases.
Further tension is provided by Stavros holding Mallory responsible for the deaths of his wife and children the year before and vowing to kill him when the war is over, if not sooner. This film has just about everything.
Video:
I wish I could write just one review without using the word "but." But I can't. On the plus side, Columbia TriStar have transferred the film in a very wide 2.21:1 ratio that is close to its original CinemaScope release size. Colors are crisply rendered, but on the debit side they are not so deep as one would like, and there is some grain and age marking observable throughout. Also, the anamorphic widescreen picture in a few instances appears not quite to decode properly, resulting in some minor image distortions.
Audio:
The audio options are the film's original two-channel stereo or a new Dolby Digital 5.1 remix. In DD 5.1 the sound is bright, lean, and metallic in the manner of early stereo. It is, however, ultra clean and clear, with a tremendous dynamic range. It's quite wide across the front speakers but seldom puts a lot of information into the rear. When it does, like during the storm or an airplane attack, it produces effectively dramatic results.
Extras:
Among the disc's extras are a director's commentary with J. Lee Thompson supplying a wealth of recollections and a thirty-minute documentary, "Memories of Navarone," featuring recent interviews with Thompson, Peck, and Quinn reminiscing about the movie's filming. Then there are talent files, five short featurettes, one called "A Message from Carl Foreman" and four others made at the time of production, plus twenty-eight scene selections, and a theatrical trailer. Spoken language choices are English, French, and Spanish; and, as always, Columbia give us the widest selection of subtitles in the business, this time English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, and Thai.
Parting Thoughts:
It's surprising how many people I've talked to over the years who hold this film and "Bridge on the River Kwai" as their favorite adventure movies of all time. I'm acquainted with folks who watch these things over and over again. They could do worse. "The Guns of Navarone" is a bona fide classic.
Video:
I wish I could write just one review without using the word "but." But I can't. On the plus side, Columbia TriStar have transferred the film in a very wide 2.21:1 ratio that is close to its original CinemaScope release size. Colors are crisply rendered, but on the debit side they are not so deep as one would like, and there is some grain and age marking observable throughout. Also, the anamorphic widescreen picture in a few instances appears not quite to decode properly, resulting in some minor image distortions.
Audio:
The audio options are the film's original two-channel stereo or a new Dolby Digital 5.1 remix. In DD 5.1 the sound is bright, lean, and metallic in the manner of early stereo. It is, however, ultra clean and clear, with a tremendous dynamic range. It's quite wide across the front speakers but seldom puts a lot of information into the rear. When it does, like during the storm or an airplane attack, it produces effectively dramatic results.
Extras:
Among the disc's extras are a director's commentary with J. Lee Thompson supplying a wealth of recollections and a thirty-minute documentary, "Memories of Navarone," featuring recent interviews with Thompson, Peck, and Quinn reminiscing about the movie's filming. Then there are talent files, five short featurettes, one called "A Message from Carl Foreman" and four others made at the time of production, plus twenty-eight scene selections, and a theatrical trailer. Spoken language choices are English, French, and Spanish; and, as always, Columbia give us the widest selection of subtitles in the business, this time English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, and Thai.
Parting Thoughts:
It's surprising how many people I've talked to over the years who hold this film and "Bridge on the River Kwai" as their favorite adventure movies of all time. I'm acquainted with folks who watch these things over and over again. They could do worse. "The Guns of Navarone" is a bona fide classic.
Average user rating (1-5):
[release]4408[/release]