The Guns of Navarone
Published February 9, 2025
Film info
- Title The Guns of Navarone
- Director J. Lee Thompson
- Year 1961
- Run time 2hrs 20m
- Genres Adventure, Action, Thriller, War
- Tagline The greatest high adventure ever filmed!
A team of allied saboteurs are assigned an impossible mission: infiltrate an impregnable Nazi-held island and destroy the two enormous long-range field guns that prevent the rescue of 2,000 trapped British soldiers.
Live blog
| Time | Comment |
|---|---|
| 4:33 | Always difficult with films like this to know what is true and what is fiction. Lots of homework required afterwards to check it all out! |
| 6:42 | Gregory Peck is painfully good looking, isn’t he? |
| 16:01 | I love the different ways of getting an audience to know all the team members. |
| 24:03 | “You’re entitled to your opinion, but I just saved your life.” |
| 43:39 | I do feel bad for actors who have to portray living through a sea storm. |
| 1:06:26 | He’s taking on all those people by himself? |
| 1:11:27 | SLAP. “To remind you to write letters occasionally.” Ha, she’s great. |
| 1:26:25 | Musical interlude. |
| 1:42:58 | “Let the whole world blow itself to pieces, that’s what it deserves.” |
| 1:53:06 | They’re all grumpy with him but hard decisions had to be made, and it worked. |
| 2:04:30 | Don’t upset the man with the gun. |
| 2:18:34 | Bet they regret having such secure doors now they’re on the other side of them. |
| 2:26:37 | Even if you have disabled it, don’t be throwing the explosives around. |
| 2:31:41 | I’ll be honest, the explosion has the feeling of Thunderbirds about it, but yay! |
Thoughts
I’ve seen this before, a long time ago, and I remember liking it. It’s in the same category as The Great Escape - a huge war adventure with super famous names doing very heroic things. This one involves climbing up a big mountain, escaping the Germans a couple of times, plotting and double crossing, and eventually big explosions. Hooray!
It’s great, the cast are brilliant, particularly David Niven who always shines in roles like this. The only downside is sometimes the escapes from the various scrapes felt a little bit too easy… although always happy for the plot to keep rolling on. It’s a long film so we didn’t need it to be any longer! Good twists and turns, and a satisfying ending. Top work.
Rating: 4 / 5
