Force 10 from Navarone [DVD]

Robert Shaw, Harrison Ford, Edward Fox, Carl Weathers, Franco Nero, Barbara Bach and Richard Kiel star in this belated sequel to The Guns of Navarone with Shaw & Fox taking over the Gregory Peck & David Niven roles of Mallory & Miller immediately after the end of the first film. This time around, the Alistair Maclean plot takes our motley crew of heroes on a mission to blow up a bridge vital to the Nazis....but there is a traitor in their midst....

Big thumbs up to Sony for finally releasing this film in an restored & extended anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen version. This is a big BIG improvement over MGM's Region 1 edition, although it loses the fullscreen American theatrical release version which is about 7/8 minutes shorter, and the original theatrical trailer, both of which were present on the R1. Instead we get trailers for "From Here to Eternity," "The Guns of Navarone," and "The Bridge on the River Kwai."

The picture quality on this new Region 2 release is nothing short of superb, with increased sharpness, noticeable lack of grain, and what appears to be corrected colour & contrast too (especially when compared with the R1's non-anamorphic transfer which was very soft and often distractingly grainy with very poor colour & contrast resulting in orangy complexions and lack of detail in shadows). Sound remains in a dual-channel mono track and is very clear indeed, allowing Ron Goodwin's great hummable score full breathing space.

As said above, this is the restored & extended version, although a few scenes have been removed with some re-edited into different portions of the film. In addition, some dialog has removed and some redubbed. The shorter version has a different studio logo (American International), an unnamed American narrating the introduction, a definitely dubbed British voice saying (to Shaw & Fox when they are pulled out of the water just before the opening credits) "Good to have you aboard; we thought for a minute we left you on Navarone!," and an Eastmancolor credit. This version has a Columbia Pictures logo, a better and more authentic British narration for the pre-credits sequence, no hilariously-dubbed voice talking to Shaw & Fox, and a Technicolor credit.

Force 10 From Navarone is a lazy and (very) belated sequel from the will-this-do? school of filmmaking right at the tail-end of the Alistair MacLean `genre.' After this and the barely released Bear Island, it was straight to video for future adaptations. Not that this bears much resemblance to his novel, or even the original film, with Gregory Peck and David Niven replaced by a slumming it Robert Shaw and Edward Fox, more King Edwaaahhhrrrdddd than the Jackal here. They're sent to Yugoslavia to identify and kill the traitor who `blew them' on Navarone - pretty tricky since he's changed from the rat-like Tutte Lemkow into the I'm-too-sexy-for-my-`tache-and-don't-I-know-it Franco Nero - tagging along with a remarkably stilted and uncomfortable young Harrison Ford as the least convincing colonel in the US army who has been sent there to blow up a bridge with his small force of Rangers (you'll never guess their code number). Naturally they end up doing each others jobs, going through the usual run of captures, escapes, bluffs, double-crosses, traitors within, shooty bang-bangs and big explosions (here a dam rather than big guns), all shot as functionally as possible by a complacent Guy Hamilton to the accompaniment of Ron Goodwin's jolly and catchy score.

Fellow Bond veterans Richard Kiel and Barbara Bach are along for the ride, the latter briefly getting out her jubblies for no good reason other than keeping the dads dragged to see this by their kids happy, though Michael Byrne's bemused Nazi probably makes the biggest impression in the supporting cast. Not a disaster, and possibly one of the few films shot in Yugoslavia that's actually set there (Tito gets a name check in the script for providing the tanks and extras), but it has the feel of an episode of Garrisons Guerrillas with an only slightly higher budget thanks to Hamilton's uninspired use of the resources at his disposal. Still, if you set your expectations low there's still some old-fashioned undemanding fun to be had.

Unlike the US DVD, this doesn't include the shorter US cut (the differences are outlined in Bristol Film Buff's excellent review here) or the theatrical trailer, but offers much better picture quality with a more than acceptable 2.35:1 transfer with a clear mono soundtrack which seems all the more impressive compared to the poor NTSC version, which has so much digital noise and edge enhancement that it frequently looks like it was shot in a sleet storm. (The US Bluray has a better transfer of the uncut version with a teaser trailer stressing all the hit movies the stars and director made but is Region A locked and doesn't include the shorter US cut).

You know, when I first saw this movie many years ago, I was so disappointed - it was such a lame exercise in low quality film making after the superb Guns of Navarone.

However, watching it now, and trying to divorce it from any connection with the original, it really is a much better film than I gave it credit for.

The most obvious difference is that this restored version really does change the whole quality of the transfer, making the scenery stand out the way it should. The widescreen presentation really makes a huge difference over the pan and scan TV version.

But the whole `boys own' adventure nature of the movie is more fun than I remember it too.. and that is the crux of it really - the movie is intended not to be any deep character study, but to capture some of the fun of Maclean's novel. Sure, there is no Gregory Peck and he is keenly missed, but Robert Shaw is great casting as the laconic hero of the novel, and who can forget him delivering that last line as the camera pans back at the end of the movie, when you think all has been accomplished?

Edward Fox is a little grating as a Niven replacement, but really the casting reaches absurdity with Carl Weathers - he might have been popular back in the 80's, but now he looks incredibly out of place in this sort of movie. Harrison Ford looking spookily young, plays his part straight and true, if uninspired, and as if that was not enough we have the always excellent Franco Nero as the ? bad guy, and Barbara Bach as a Partisan member - although it's something of a stretch to believe that they had such beautiful Partisan members getting down and dirty with the fighting while keeping that long hair immaculate, but its all part of the necessary suspension of belief required to get into the spirit of the movie.

No, it's not a classic, but its darn good boys own fun. Well worth a budget purchase for a Saturday afternoon.