The Guns of Navarone

Also nominated for Best Picture in 1961, The Guns of Navarone is a classic example of several tropes in Hollywood. It's a war picture, with faceless Germans the enemy; it's an adventure story, with a clearly delineated journey that must be accomplished by the heroes; and, most vividly, it's perhaps the best example of the mission story, where a small team of disparate people must unite to take down a greater evil.

I don't know if, before yesterday, I had ever seen this film straight through, but I certainly remember seeing pieces of it on the 4:30 movie. It's the kind of movie that inspires scenarios for boys playing with army men or G.I. Joes. During World War II, a band of six soldiers are assigned to sabotage a pair of large guns that block access to a channel through the Aegean Sea. Of course the team is from all nations and types--the British career soldier (Anthony Quayle), the chemistry professor who happens to be an expert in explosives (David Niven), the American mountain-climbing expert (Gregory Peck), the Greek colonel (Anthony Quinn), the technician (Stanley Baker), and the cold-blooded killer (James Darren).

Not only were the characters of certain types, but so were the actors. Peck, Niven, and Quinn were movie stars, but Quayle was a classically trained stage actor, and Darren was a teen idol pop star. The movie seemed designed to have something for everyone, and was a huge hit.

Looking at it yesterday, it isn't all that, at least not anymore. To its credit, it's not all gung-ho--there is a pointed speech by Niven about not caring anymore about the outcome of the war. There will be more wars, he says, why not just let the world blow itself to bits. But it does lean on the ludicrous at times. There's a scene in which they are all captured (dealing with the one German who is given a soul) and escape rather easily. But this type of film doesn't rely on making sense, it's all about last-second escapes and nick-of-time explosions.

On the good side of the ledger, the characters are sharply drawn, and Niven, in particular, is excellent. It might have been this film, or maybe it was The Pink Panther, but when I was in my early teens David Niven was one of my favorite movie stars. I went so far as to read both of his memoirs. What can I say, I was a weird kid. Anyway, there's a gripping scene, late in the film, in which Niven discovers there's a traitor in their midst, and his method of working out who it is is terrific. Credit here must also go to the screenwriter (as well as the producer) Carl Foreman and director J. Lee Thompson.

The film won an Oscar for Best Special Effects, but in this modern era they look a little cheesy. The rear projection is painfully obvious. But that doesn't lessen the overall effect--a scene in which they land the boat on the island of Navarone in a pulsing storm is still well done. But the destruction of the mountaintop housing the guns is really bad--it reminds me of the destruction of the castle in The Bride of Frankenstein, but not as good.