GurlyIamBeach Instant Favorite.

MonsterPerfect Good idea lost in the noise

Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Patience Watson One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

evanston_dad Hot damn, what a good movie "The Guns of Navarone" is. What took me so long to watch it?Was anyone else struck by how similar this movie is to the recent "Star Wars" movie "Rogue One?" At times the similarities were so great that I had to believe the creators of "Rogue One" were directly influenced by this film.A classic men-on-a-mission movie, "The Guns of Navarone" is mostly a straight up combat film, but a terrific screenplay by Carl Foreman and equally terrific performances by Gregory Peck and David Niven introduce some intelligent insights into the moral ambiguity of what it means to get the job done when that job is killing other men, the entire business of war. The special effects in "The Guns of Navarone," including a ship wreck and an exploding mountain top, garnered the film an Oscar for Best Visual Effects. It was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Dramatic or Comedy Score (a typically magnificent one by Dimitri Tiomkin), and Best Sound.Grade: A

vincentlynch-moonoi The first question is whether or not it's worth upgrading from the DVD version to the Blu-Ray version. In my opinion, that's a firm no.I've long (well, I guess for over 50 years) felt this was one of the great war movies. I'm not so sure now, although to be fair, I'm rarely in the mood for a war movie. But I remembered this one fondly...but I guess absence makes the heart grow less fond. Nevertheless, it's a good story with a stellar cast.There were 2 places where the special effects were terrible. One was when Peck and Niven close the huge iron doors to lock the Germans out of their huge gun complex. The way their shadows fall, it is so very obvious they're in front of a painting, not in front of iron rails. And a few minutes later, looking out toward the sea from the guns...wow, how cheap looking.The big problem with this film, however, is the running length. There are times when things drag, and no wonder...the film lasts 2 hours and 38 minutes. It didn't need to. They could have easily cut 15-20 minutes. But my sense is that they kept it long to make it seem like it was a "bigger" movie than it really was.I have to admit that while Gregory Peck is not one of my very favorite actors, I also believe that Peck can do no wrong. I don't remember a film where he was any less than wonderful. Enough said.On the other hand we have David Niven. Over the years my like for Niven has declined considerably, and it seems to me that -- as in this film -- the main reason that he could be very pompous, and there were several scenes in this film where that was called for. But, looking at the film now, I feel he was more of a negative than a positive.Anthony Quinn was near the beginning of his period of true stardom when this film was made. Quinn always had an earthy quality about him, and that worked very well here.Anthony Quayle is excellent here, although we don't see much of him after about halfway through the film.I feel sorry for James Darren. Despite being in the film from the beginning until almost the very end, he had only a handful of sentences of dialog. I guess he was there because he was young and handsome.Irene Papas and Gia Scala...okay, but nothing special here.I guess I sound pretty negative here, but I do think this is a decent film. But not as great a film as I remember it being. Gia Scala as Anna

Lucas Versantvoort The Guns of Navarone is one of those films that has clearly aged in a lot of aspects and still offers a lot of replay value even 50 years down the line. Directed by action/adventure expert J. Lee Thompson and written by High Noon scriptwriter Carl Foreman, this film is a peculiar example of the adventure genre done right.The film presents a straightforward goal: WWII is raging on and two enormous German cannons are placed in a cave on the Greek island of Navarone, sinking all ships that enter its firing range. Rather than attempting a frontal assault, a small team of six Brits and Greeks are ordered to infiltrate the island by boat and blow up the cannons. We follow them as they narrowly survive mother nature and encounters with Germans and along the way their dispositions toward the mission and each other change.Like I said, this film has aged…mostly well. There are a lot of things that you can't really watch with a straight face. Peck's acting is a bit hammy at times and the way the tension between Peck and Quinn's characters is resolved is as symbolic as me shouting in your ear is subtle, but overall, this film manages to excel in terms of action without disregarding character development as so many modern-day action flicks tend to do.According to the trivia section on IMDb, Gregory Peck was disappointed by how many viewers failed to properly identify Navarone as anti-war and though I can understand his frustration, I think this has more to do with the style of the film than the intended message. When I think 'anti-war', I think of films like Kubrick's Paths of Glory with its clearly delineated anti-war morals. Navarone however, is first and foremost a bundle of (exciting) action set pieces. Of course there is drama, some of it still really effective, but the film's many action sequences are crucial as they define the film as just that – an action film – because these scenes tend to lack some sense of symbolism, underlying the futility of war, etc. In other words, there's anti-war stuff to be found here, but it's overshadowed by the amount of Hollywood spectacle.In the end, not every war film needs to be an in-your-face anti-war ad. The Guns of Navarone is first and foremost an exciting adventure film, excelling at many of the tropes that have made the genre popular. Even 50 years later, Navarone has a lot of replay value and (though occasionally campy) is still fun to watch and genuinely exciting.

AaronCapenBanner Based on Alistair MacLean's novel, film details a group of Allied soldiers on a secret mission to destroy two massive German guns outside the sea of a Greek Island, in order to make an Allied troop evacuation possible, and also freeing up those waters to further the Allied war effort. Gregory Peck, David Niven, Anthony Quinn, and James Darren among others round out the cast.Grand adventure film takes many interesting twists and turns, and also becomes philosophical at times(Peck has a memorable speech to Niven about responsibility, for one.) Director J. Lee Thompson stages the action scenes impressively, leading to an exciting climax in the gun's fortress. Pace occasionally slackens, but overall a solid and entertaining film.