Movies - The Guns of Navarone

Home > Listing Index > Movies > The Guns of Navarone

	Movies - The Guns of Navarone

The Guns of Navarone is a 1957 novel about World War II by British thriller writer Alistair MacLean that was made into a film in 1961. The book and the film share the same basic plot: the efforts of an Allied commando team to destroy a seemingly impregnable German fortress that threatens Allied naval ships in the Aegean Sea, and prevents 2,000 British prisoners from being rescued.

Novel

The book brought together elements that would characterize much of MacLean's subsequent work: tough, competent, worldly men as main characters; frequent but non-graphic violence; betrayal of the hero(es) by a trusted associate; and extensive use of the sea and other dangerous environments as settings. Its three principal characters (New Zealand mountaineer-turned-commando Keith Mallory, American demolitions expert "Dusty" Miller, and Greek resistance fighter Andrea) are among the most fully drawn in all of MacLean's work.

Film

The film version of The Guns of Navarone was part of a cycle of big-budget World War II adventures that included The Longest Day
(1962) and The Great Escape
(1963). The screenplay, adapted by producer Carl Foreman, made significant changes in virtually all of the major characters. A new character, Major Franklin, initially leads the expedition; Dusty Miller, a tough rough-edged Anglo-American/Polish explosives expert becomes a dapper Professor of Chemsistry, Casey Brown, a Scottish engineer and communications expert becomes a bearded knife-wielding killer and Lt. Stevens, a Greek-speaking navigation expert vanishes from the team.

The film also introduced female characters, romance, and a subplot that radically altered the relationship between Mallory and Andrea.

Principal cast

Gregory Peck
: Capt. Keith Mallory
David Niven
: Cpl. John Anthony Miller
Anthony Quinn
: Col. Andrea Stavrou
Stanley Baker
: Pvt. 'Butcher' Brown
Anthony Quayle
: Maj. Roy Franklin
James Darren
: Pvt. Spyros Pappadimos
Irene Papas
: Maria Pappadimos
Gia Scala
: Anna
James Robertson Justice
: Commodore Jensen/Prologue Narrator
Richard Harris
: Squadron Leader Howard Barnsby RAAF

The film was directed by J. Lee Thompson after original director Alexander Mackendrick (best-known for the small, quirky comedies he directed for Ealing Studios) was fired by Carl Foreman due to "creative differences." The Greek island of Rhodes provided locations, and Quinn was so taken with the area that he bought land there in an area still called Anthony Quinn Bay.

The film was a major box office success and the top grossing film of 1961. As a result, MacLean reunited Mallory, Miller, and Andrea in Force 10 From Navarone, the only sequel of his long writing career, in 1968. It was filmed in 1978 by UK director Guy Hamilton, a veteran of several James Bond adventures. Despite a cast that included Robert Shaw, Edward Fox, and Harrison Ford, it was a critical and commercial failure.

Awards

Award wins:

Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Drama
Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score - Motion Picture (Dimitri Tiomkin)
Academy Award Best Effects, Special Effects (Bill Warrington & Chris Greenham)

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for The Guns of Navarone ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article The Guns of Navarone; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Searches on eBay