The Guns of Navarone(1961)

One of those classic war movies that remains an eternal favorite to date. The movie is one of those men on a mission WWII action dramas, which manages to engage on many levels.

The mission here is to destroy 2 massive guns on the Greek island of Navarone, now a German military base, which prove to be an obstacle for the Allied ships trying to rescue 2000 British soldiers stranded on the island of Kheros. And so a team is put together headed by Maj. Roy Franklin( Antony Quayle), and consisting of Capt Keith Mallory( Gregory Peck), an expert mountaineer, Cpl John Miller( David Niven) an explosives expert, Col Andrea Stavros(Anthony Quinn), a Greek resistance fighter, Pvt Butcher Brown( Stanley Baker) ,a communications expert and Sypros Pappadimos(James Darren), another Greek resistance fighter. There are also two Greek resistance fighters who join them later Maria( Irene Papas) and Anna( Gia Scala).

The problem here is that the team has their own ego clashes, Miller is his own man, hates to be ordered around, Andrea believes Mallory was responsible for the death of his family at the hands of the Nazis, Brown is too headed. On top of it, they have to face eavesdropping laundry boys, Nazi attacks, a storm and above all the traitor in their group, who is leaking out the plans.

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The movie has some great action scenes, especially the storm scene, and the team climbing the cliffs in pitch darkness, brilliantly shot. And the tension mainly from the Nazis being hot on their heels, close escapes, with enough twists and turns.

But what really makes this movie a classic, is the constant emotional tussle between the lead characters, especially Mallory vs Miller, and Andrea vs Mallory. These sharp dramatic exchanges really elevate the movie a notch above. Also there is an anti War tone too, with the team just wanting to finish this and go home. Some very poignant scenes too, like the one where the Nazis burn down an entire Greek village, forcing it's residents to move out.

The movie is helmed by some top notch performances by it's 3 leads, Gregory Peck is first rate as usual, as Capt Mallory, who has the unenviable task of leading the team, and dealing with the ego clashes. David Niven is superb as Miller, especially the scene where he admonishes Mallory for being too heartless, and Antony Quinn proves to be the scene stealer, especially the scene where he fools the Nazis into believing he is a poor peasant.

The supporting cast of Irene Papas, Gia Scala, Stanley Baker, James Darren and Antony Quayle is equally good. And a great score by Dmitri Tiomkin.

This is the kind of classic WW2 drama, to hang out with on a weekend, that has just about everything action, drama, intrigue, thrills.