By Doug Oswald
Robert
Shaw, Harrison Ford and Edward Fox lead “Force 10 from Navarone,” available on
Blu-ray from Kino Lorber. Based on the 1968 Alistair MacLean novel of the same
name, it was initially announced a movie was to follow. After the huge success
of “The Guns of Navarone,” a sequel was a no-brainer. The classic “The Guns of
Navarone” is among the greatest adventure movies ever made and serves as the
template for every “Men on an Impossible Mission” movie that followed. There
were other similar movies that preceded it, but MacLean nailed the formula with
a mix of action, adventure, suspense with a dash of spy thriller tossed in for
good measure. However, the sequel would wait nearly two decades until its release
in 1978.
The
plot of the sequel, like the previous movie, involves sabotage behind enemy
lines with Mallory, Robert Shaw replacing Gregory Peck, Edward Fox covering for
David Niven as Miller and joined by fresh-faced Harrison Ford as Barnsby, who
is presumably the stand in for Anthony Quinn’s Andrea Stavrou. Ford leads Force
10 on a mission to Yugoslavia to meet up with local partisans in order to
locate a traitor from Navarone. This being a movie based on an Alistair MacLean
novel, the story also involves double crosses, blowing up a dam and uncovering a
traitor.
As
I alluded to earlier, the sequel was going to be made in 1967 with Carl
Foreman, MacLean and the three leads from the previous film (Peck, Niven and
Quinn) reprising their roles. MacLean completed a screenplay which he adapted
into the novel, “Force 10 From Navarone” which was released in 1968. MacLean
would do the same thing with “Where Eagles Dare” writing the screenplay and
then adapting it as a novel before the movie. Readers of the novel “Force 10
From Navarone” will note this movie has little resemblance to the 1968 novel or
the original screenplay written in 1967. This change and the long wait for the
sequel probably contributed to a less-than-thrilling box office take.
“Force
10 from Navarone” isn’t a bad film, but it was misguided in the approach taken
to bring it to the big screen. While the movie has aged rather well, in
hindsight it would have been better had the filmmakers stuck with the original treatment
including all the original characters. I remember seeing “Force 10 from
Navarone” in the theater on its original release with great anticipation, and
while it’s not quite up to the classic status of “The Guns of Navarone,” it was
a pretty good effort. The movie opens with some of the climactic footage from
“The Guns of Navarone” as a pre-credits scene, but it just reminds viewers of
the missed opportunity if the movie would have been made back in 1967.
The
film adds great production value with location shooting in Yugoslavia and the
bevy of great supporting players. The movie was directed by James Bond veteran veteran
Guy Hamilton and boasts a bit of a 007 past and future cast and crew reunion.
Shaw, as I’m sure readers recall, was Red Grant in “From Russia with Love.” The
film also includes “The Spy Who Loved Me” alumni Barbara Bach and Richard Kiel
as partisans, and Edward Fox, who would play “M” in “Never Say Never Again.” The
movie also features Carl Weathers as Weaver, an American soldier who joins the
Force 10 team, Franco Nero as the leader of the partisans, Philip Latham as
Jenson (replacing James Robertson Justice), and Alan Badel as Petrovich. Sharp-eyed
viewers will catch Wolf Kahler and Michael Byrne as Nazis a few years prior to
appearing again as Nazis in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “Indiana Jones and
the Last Crusade,” respectively. “Star Wars” fans should also watch for several
actors who appeared in one or more of the original trilogy films, and of course
Harrison Ford was Han Solo and Indiana Jones. There’s a great party game here ala,
“Spot the connections to Bond, Star Wars and Indiana Jones.”
The
movie clocks in at 126 minutes and looks and sounds terrific on this Blu-ray
release by Kino Lorber. The music by Ron Goodwin is good, if a bit too jolly at
times. The extras include an outstanding audio commentary by Steve Mitchell and
Steven Jay Rubin as well as the trailers for this and other Alistair MacLean
releases. There is also reversible sleeve artwork. I highly recommend this Blu-ray release.
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