Yar, you be here: Force 10 from Navarone > Customer Reviews

Force 10 from Navarone Customer Reviews (1 - 3 of 26 Reviews)

One of Harrison Ford's Worst Movies
One of the biggest abortions, in terms of both quality and box office receipts, that Harrison Ford has ever starred in was 1978's Force 10 from Navarone.

This movie was the first big budget production that Ford was in after the success of "Star Wars." It was also the sequel to the popular 1961 flick "The Guns of Navarone." Both movies were based on the novels of the same name by popular action adventure writer Alistair MacLean. However, while "The Guns of Navarone" for the most part followed the original novel, the producers of the sequel decided to trash the novel that it was ostensibly based on and the end result was an ungodly mess.

From beginning to end, Force 10 from Navarone is a series of highly contrived events that are strung together in the mistaken belief that dreck can turn into gold. For instance, instead of just simply sending Force 10 on its mission to Yugoslavia in 1943, the producers of this movie would have you believe that Allied commandos would have to break into an Allied air base and steal an airplane to carry out their mission. Whilst doing so, the commandos pick up a black sergeant (Carl Weathers) who was somehow at the whites-only air base. This proves a problem for Force 10 since special forces need to blend in the countryside and local folks in order to fulfill their mission and having a black guy along for the ride does not help matters any.

Upon arriving in Yugoslavia, the commandos go through a series of improbable events that severely strain the audience's suspension of disbelief. Among other things, this movie made the huge historical error of making the Chetniks supporters of the Nazis. In real life, the Chetniks were the toughest opponents that the Nazis had to fight in Yugoslavia. At the time, the Soviet Union and Communists all over the world carried on propaganda campaigns to the effect that the Chetniks were really on the side of the enemy and that the Partisans of Marshal Tito were the only truly anti-Nazi group of Yugoslavian resistance fighters. Although Allied intelligence always recognized that the Chetniks were on our side, the Communists eventually succeeded in getting Allied politicians to drop support for the Chetniks and unreservedly support the Communist Partisans. In the years since World War II, historians have come to realize that the Chetniks were smeared as being pro-Nazis. Unfortunately, Force 10 from Navarone repeats that smear.

The movie winds up with one of the most ridiculous about-faces in movie history. The commandos decided that they did not have enough explosives to blow up the targeted bridge. Then, they decide that since there's a dam up the river, why not blow it up and cause the bridge to fall over. Only problem is that the dam is much bigger than the bridge, but the producers ignored that little problem. The producers also provided the dam with little German security with the result that the commandos had a ridiculously easy time gaining entry to plant their bombs.

All this is in direct contradiction of the novel. In the book, the mission was from the get go to destroy the bridge by blowing up the dam. Force 10 received supplies dropped from Allied planes and the Allied air forces bombed German forces to distract enemy attention from what Force 10 was up to. Also, the intrepid Greek hero from "The Guns of Navarone," Andrea, was in the novel but he is not in this movie. There is no legitimate reason why the movie could not have followed the book.

Force 10 from Navarone is pure drivel. Watch it only if you enjoy ridiculing stupid movies.

Navarone Part II
I thought I saw this movie from the very beginning. Evidently, I missed the introduction tying "Force 10" back to "The Guns of Navarone." Somewhat strange to have a sequel with none of the actors from the first movie. It should be noted that this movie is not dependent on the plot from the first film. The storyline is mostly independent from the original "Navarone" and there does not appear to be any favoring of one character over the other when it comes to screen time; therefore, no definitive hero in this story.

Force 10 already has their mission behind enemy lines in order to help the rebellion against the German advance. Robert Shaw's character is tacked on as an afterthought in order to fulfill his own objective from the Allied Command. Changes in events lead to everyone having to work together while still trying to complete the objectives of both Force 10 and Maj. Mallory with a new twist than that of the intended plan. As stated before you don't need to have really seen "The Guns of Navarone" in order to see (and enjoy) this film. A great story with many suspenseful scenes that you can enjoy with your family if you would like to.

This is an errata corrige to the [...] specs
Be advised that the described DVD is not 93 minutes in length, but rather 118 minutes for the Full Screen version, and 126 minutes for the Theatrical (Widescreen) version.

Yes, this is a two-sided DVD, with an edited (chastised) TV version (118 min.), and the full version as it was seen in Movie Theaters.

While picture resolution is quite reasonable, although not perfect by far (perhaps the HD version to be released in a not too distant future will correct this), the sound is a plain 2.0 Mono.

I know for a fact that the movie, as many others recently re-released under the MGM/UA label, was at least in 2.0 Stereo.

Where the original stereo soundtrack went, only they can know.

Universal and the MGM/UA labels have re-released many titles in Mono and this is strange, since in many cases pristine copies in at least plain Stereo do exist.

Although I know that to transform a plain 2 track stereo into a full-fledged 5.1 surround ones can be very expensive, one could at least expect a 3.1 transfer.

Titles also affected by such a practice were "Midway", "Battle of Britain" and "MacArthur".

Also I want to criticize the practice that seems to force studios to re-release the same movie over and over again in various increments of completeness.

Look at "The Longest Day", "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and "Patton" re-released by Fox.

All three were already THX certified (although THX today, doesn't mean much anymore, since many products being certified turned out to be duds).

They were reasonably transferred with good sound effects in surround.

"Patton" was released in 5.1 and now is being re-released in 4.0, while "Tora! Tora! Tora!" is the very same release in Dolby Digital 4.1.

All that changes is that from a single disc, they are now released in 2-disc versions.
Thank you very much!

Another problem are the "rushed" releases, like "Castle Keep" and "The Iron Cross", which for a long time were only available in a Full Screen format and since there were no Widescreen ones around, many chose to jump at the occasion to buy the DVD as it was.

Now, suddenly we get to have them in Widescreen.

Why all of a sudden?

This can only mean that the producing company had them already in store, but was sitting on them, waiting.

Everybody involved in buying a DVD, obviously wants the "full version" of a movie (the theatrical one - as it was shown in movie theaters) and not the reviewed videotape version.

Why then are there still so many Full Screen versions around?

As mentioned before, "Force 10 From Navarone", as many other movies around, has been released in both Widescreen and Full Screen versions on a 2-sided DVD.

Why couldn't "Castle Keep" and "The Iron Cross" be released the same way?

I don't know if I am a lonely voice in the desert, crying out for some normality, but I can only guess that there are others, like me, who are tired of such practices to "milk the cow".

Many of us are prepared to pay a little more for the "complete, uncut, polished and well remastered" version.

There is no problem with that. The problem is rather that there are some individuals out there that always see a chance to con people like us into buying more and more crap, until they are ready to satisfy our true needs.

This is a mobsters attitude and ethically it has to be condemned.

But who, out there, is willing to hold up ethics in the face of such individuals?

There's no end to these practices and this is where the industry is going fatefully wrong.

To end this "J'accuse" I can only recommend buyers to read the reviews of other customers carefully and make up their own minds.

Don't rush up things. That's the way the industry wants you to be put under pressure.

While considering a buy, think and think hard - "do I really want this product, or do I want to wait and watch what is still in store?".

At one point the correct product, in this case, the right DVD will pop up and then you may decide to grab it.

I have three versions of "Force 10 from Navarone".
A VHS tape dating 1980, a Laserdisc bought in 1993 and this latest DVD release.

Of the three, the best is still the Laserdisc version, although it only has the Widescreen version of the movie on it.

The sound though is in Stereo, not MONO.

How come then that the DVD is in Mono and this on both versions of the movie?

I gave it three stars, since it cannot stand in comparison to the original "Guns of Navarone".

Although the cast is composed of talented actors such as Robert Shaw, Harrison Ford and Edward Fox, the rest of the cast is a joke.
Names like Barbara Bach, Richard Kiel and Franco Nero cannot stand up to the above mentioned major league names.

I don't know what the producers thought of at the time of casting, but the mixture is very poor.

The script is weak in comparison to the original novel by Alistair MacLean. Guy Hamilton tried his best with what he was handed to direct, but the pace of the movie suffers terribly through a script adaptation that is not even coming close to the original novel.

The only real good thing of this movie is the score by Ron Goodwin (composer of such memorable pieces like "633 Squadron" and "Where Eagles Dare").

But this too is not fully enjoyable, due to its monaural rendition.

All in all, if you are a fan of war movies and want to complete your collection, you may feel free to buy it, but if you are a real connaisseur of the Digital revolution or simply have a very limited budget at your disposal, you may want to wait until a better version, a FULLER (perfect picture and sound transfer) version will finally be released.

Considering that every other year, Movie Companies decide to rehash the very same movies, instead of opting to fix a final standard for these, once and for all, and move on onto the many others that have never been released on DVD to this day, if I were you, and I am not, I would hang on to my money and watch future developments.

At one point, companies will stop dishing out the very same product over and over again, with one, two or three extra bonus DVDs as it may be, and will ultimately graciously decide to release the FINAL version of the movie.

This is the version everyone will want to own.

End of chapter.

Ready to move on into other titles.

Be on your guards until then...

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Next Page