{"id":9205,"date":"2024-11-30T01:25:46","date_gmt":"2024-11-30T06:25:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=9205"},"modified":"2024-11-30T01:26:00","modified_gmt":"2024-11-30T06:26:00","slug":"force-10-from-navarone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/11\/30\/force-10-from-navarone\/","title":{"rendered":"Force 10 from Navarone"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Force 10 from Navarone<\/strong> (1978)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Columbia\/Action-Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 126 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (violence, language, brief nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Guy Hamilton\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Robin Chapman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Ron Goodwin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Christopher Challis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 8, 1978 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Robert Shaw, Harrison Ford, Barbara Bach, Edward Fox, Angus MacInnes, Franco Nero, Carl Weathers, Richard Kiel, Alan Badel, Michael Byrne, Philip Latham, Michael Sheard.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $7.2M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0The belated sequel Force 10 from Navarone<\/strong> is something of a cinematic catch-22. The only way to enjoy it is to not compare it to The Guns of Navarone, but the first thing it does is shows clips from the classic 1961 WWII actioner. There\u2019s something odd about the clips however. There\u2019s not one shot of any of the original actors. When we finally do see somebody, that\u2019s when we learn the roles once played by Gregory Peck and David Niven are now occupied by Robert Shaw (Jaws) and Edward Fox (The Day of the Jackal). That I can accept. After nearly two decades, Peck and Niven were a bit long in the tooth to go on a second mission. What I can\u2019t get past is the convoluted screenplay. It and the characters are all over the place. So it comes down to this. The makers basically want it both ways. They want you to remember The Guns of Navarone, but forget everything that made it great. It\u2019s a tall order, but I\u2019ll try.<\/p>\n

\u00a0A short time after the original mission (it\u2019s still 1943), Major Mallory (Shaw) and explosives expert Sgt. Miller (Fox) are sent back in the field to find and eliminate a German spy, the same traitor that previously betrayed them to the enemy. He now goes by the name Capt. Lescovar (Nero, Django) and is thought to have infiltrated the partisan army in Yugoslavia. To get there, they\u2019ll be catching a ride with Force 10, a special unit led by Col. Barnsby (Ford, Star Wars). Their mission is on a need-to-know basis and the two British officers don\u2019t need to know. Needless to say, Barnsby isn\u2019t thrilled about the extra passengers.<\/p>\n

\u00a0They steal a plane from an airbase only to be shot down over Yugoslavia by a German plane. Only a few manage to parachute to safety- Mallory, Miller, Barnsby, Lt. Reynolds (MacInnes, Atlantic City) and Sgt. Weaver (Weathers, Rocky) who inadvertently joined the mission after escaping MP custody during a fight at the airfield. They set out to achieve their respective objectives and encounter what they believe to be a band of partisans led by hulking Capt. Drazak (Kiel, The Spy Who Loved Me). He and his men turn out to be anything but friendly. They\u2019re German collaborators under the command of Major Schroeder (Byrne, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade). Of course, they\u2019re taken prisoner.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Let\u2019s jump ahead a bit. It\u2019s finally revealed that Force 10\u2019s mission is to blow up a bridge that gives the enemy a strategic advantage. Namely, the Germans can cross it and invade partisan territory. It\u2019s said to be impervious to explosives which is why Mallory comes up with the idea to destroy a nearby dam. The sudden onrush of gallons of water will do their job for them.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I first saw Force 10 from Navarone<\/strong> on HBO in summer \u201983. At that point, I hadn\u2019t yet seen The Guns of Navarone. I couldn\u2019t follow the plot. I thought it was because I didn\u2019t know a lot about WWII, but it turns out that was only part of it. It was mostly because of the confused nature of the film. I figured this out only recently when I decided to give it a second look. It would have been a stronger, better picture had the makers focused on the main plot- i.e. the bridge. Instead, it gets weighed down by an impenetrable subplot involving rebels, loyalists, guerillas, double agents and the movie\u2019s lone female character, Drazak\u2019s mistress Maritza (Bach, The Spy Who Loved Me). It\u2019s a long time before somebody says anything about the bridge. At that point, you\u2019re busy trying to piece everything together.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As it stands, Force 10 from Navarone<\/strong> is a decent but unexceptional actioner. It should have been great given its pedigree. It\u2019s directed by Guy Hamilton whose filmography includes four James Bond adventures (Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever, Live and Let Die and The Man with the Golden Gun), two Agatha Christie adaptations (The Mirror Crack\u2019d and Evil Under the Sun) and the underappreciated Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins. It\u2019s loosely (and I mean loosely<\/em>) adapted from a novel by Alistair MacLean. It\u2019s scored by Ron Goodwin, no stranger to WWII-era actioners with titles like Operation Crossbow, Where Eagles Dare and Battle of Britain to his credit. The action scenes are well done as are the special effects in the climactic sequence. What a great use of miniatures.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Force 10 from Navarone <\/strong>also has a good cast despite the fact it doesn\u2019t measure up to the lineup in the first Navarone film. BTW, this is Shaw\u2019s penultimate film; he died in August \u201978 while filming his last, Avalanche Express. For the most part, the performances are pretty good for the genre. Shaw, Ford and Fox are solid leading men. Kiel hams it up to the skies. Weathers is a total bad ass with serious knife skills. The weak link in this area is Bach. She isn\u2019t believable. I suspect she was cast solely for the gratuitous nude scene.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Okay, I\u2019ll concede that Force 10 from Navarone<\/strong> is entertaining. That is, if you accept that it\u2019s only a pale shadow of its predecessor AND it doesn\u2019t make a lot of sense. Also, it\u2019s a bit on the long side. I opted to watch the longer cut (original RT, 118 minutes) with added footage and some scenes moved around. You\u2019ll forgive me if I can\u2019t tell you in detail what\u2019s different. It\u2019s been 38 years since I watched it and I don\u2019t feel like watching it again right now. It probably doesn\u2019t make much of a difference anyway. As an action flick, it\u2019s a little better than okay.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Force 10 from Navarone (1978)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Columbia\/Action-Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 126 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (violence, language, brief nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Guy Hamilton\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Robin Chapman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Ron Goodwin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Christopher Challis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 8, 1978 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Robert Shaw, Harrison Ford, Barbara Bach, Edward Fox, Angus MacInnes, Franco Nero, Carl Weathers, Richard Kiel, Alan Badel, Michael Byrne, Philip […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9519,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action-adventure","category-sequels-remakes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Force-10-from-Navarone-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9205"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9521,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9205\/revisions\/9521"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}