[00:00:00] Clip: These gentlemen have a special interest in Navarone. We picked you up on radio of course, but perhaps you could be a little more specific. Now. I'll be specific. As you can plainly see, it was bloody awful. Squadron Leader Barnsby is Australian. You are in it now up to your neck. [00:00:34] Matthew: Hello and welcome once again to an episode of the IMMP podcast from the Inter Millennium Media Project. My name is Matthew Porter. And [00:00:43] Ian: I'm Ian Porter. [00:00:44] Matthew: I'm his dad. He's my son. And October is over. We're moving into November. So we've got more movies and a different theme. [00:00:55] Ian: Yeah, a theme. I don't know what to expect. Anything of this is, this is an interesting theme 'cause I don't know what it means. [00:01:06] Matthew: We are gonna be watching some war movies. [00:01:09] Ian: Yeah. [00:01:10] Matthew: And that's something we really haven't done. I can't think of any. Well, I mean, there are movies in which there were wars. I don't know that KRULL counts though, even though I tried to convince you that was history. [00:01:21] Ian: I love you. That was brilliant. [00:01:24] Matthew: So we haven't really watched any, war movies set in the, most recent centuries have we. [00:01:30] Ian: I don't think so. We did Ice Station Zebra [00:01:34] Matthew: Yeah. A while ago. Yeah, definitely. That one [00:01:36] Ian: kind of is in the same, [00:01:38] Matthew: very much a Cold War movie [00:01:40] Ian: field. [00:01:41] Matthew: And Interesting. You should mention Ice Station Zebra, because Ice Station Zebra was based on a novel by Alistair MacLean [00:01:50] Ian: Okay. [00:01:50] Matthew: The, king of 20th century or late 20th century action, adventure and war novels. And we watched another movie based on a novel by Alistair McLean. [00:02:02] Ian: Yep. [00:02:02] Matthew: Since I showed you the Guns of Navarone, [00:02:06] Ian: the Guns of Navarone, I had never heard of this. [00:02:10] Matthew: Wow. It, it is a weird, no pun intended. It's a movie that kind of flies under the radar for some people because it's not a giant, you know, it's, it's not a. A Central war movie because it's not about the war. It's about a very specific mission taking place in World War ii. [00:02:31] Ian: And that's the thing, it is a war movie, but it is not a, I'll say this right now. It's a war movie where, the allies succeed and the axis , is whooped, but it is not about that war as much as I expected. It is more a war of weariness story. [00:02:56] Matthew: Yes. It's about a, a, a commando sabotage mission that has to go behind enemy lines in a very specific place for a very specific reason, with a very specific timeline because it's not about, yes, this is going to change, turn the tide of the war. It's about, there are 2000 soldiers trapped on an island in Greece and Germany has persuaded Turkey to come into the war on their side, and this island is going to be invaded in a week, and there's no way we can get ships to evacuate those men because the seaway to that island is completely controlled by this pair of giant guns placed in a, rocky fortress in a mountain on another island at the island of Navarone. [00:03:49] Ian: So we've got a, a fictional extra island in the Grecian Peninsula that, that becomes this central point of defense. And so the mission is just getting. Onto that island and across that island to destroy the guns. 'cause of course they have to approach from the opposite side of the island, lest the guns shoot them down. And there's all these specific little things getting in the way, but it's very much, I, here's your team of agents and their mission to get through to the other side. [00:04:32] Matthew: And they do a good job of, of setting things up very, very clearly. At the beginning they kind of lay out everything we just talked about. They even lay out the fact that there were previous attempts to take out these guns by air. And just the way that they're placed in this giant cave, inside this giant mountain with an overhang. There's no way for, uh, aerial attack to get at these guns and destroy them. And the only option left is this small group who, as you say, has to, has to approach from a different side. The, the only part of this that is not really being com always constantly patrolled by the Germans, is the sheer cliff face on one side of the mountain, because of course, nobody can get up there. Why would we waste people, uh, patrolling that? So they bring in Mallory, who is who, along with his, his military credentials. He is also a mountaineer, an expert climber, and he needs to lead and train and bring a team up. This, the face of this mountain to get to the guns. And, uh, one of the team is going to be an explosives expert who can then destroy them. [00:05:47] Ian: And so our main character there is played by Gregory Peck. [00:05:51] Matthew: Yes. He is playing Keith Mallory. [00:05:54] Ian: Yes. And he is, he is giving a strong strong performance in this, I'd say [00:06:01] Matthew: He is. He is, um, he's kind of pulled into this mission. He thought he was going on leave, but instead they were secretly bringing him to this, and he,he's one of these, these military leaders in movies who doesn't wanna be there, but, but he's there and he knows he has to be there and wants to get this job done and essentially will, lead in whatever way, he needs to. And he's actually not technically the, the head of this mission because one of the people he's been brought in is a major, major Roy Franklin. Who's, who he knows is a friend of his, and he knew that Mallory was the best person to technically get this mission done. [00:06:41] Ian: But yeah, I, I would say that this is a, this is an ensemble cast. This is this, this team sent on this mission, but there's a lot more of each of those people are being reflected off of, Mallory here off of Gregory Peck's character instead of off of each other. [00:07:00] Matthew: Mm-hmm. [00:07:00] Ian: So he becomes kind of the foil to everyone. [00:07:03] Matthew: Yes. We, we quickly learned that we're, we are assessing other characters based upon their interactions with this character. [00:07:11] Ian: Yes. [00:07:11] Matthew: And we're assessing the situation based upon how he is responding to it. Very much the lead character. As you say though, it's one of these ensemble movies that in the. In the sixties, they liked even into the seventies, they liked these big movies with casts full of recognizable actors and they put 'em, put all their names on the posters poster for this one has Gregory Peck and David Niven and Anthony Quinn in big letters. And then they find room for a whole bunch of other names as well because it was the movie stars who were part helping to sell the movie. [00:07:41] Ian: The, the movie stars were used the way CGI and special effects are nowadays, let's say. [00:07:47] Matthew: Oh, interesting. Yeah. [00:07:49] Ian: The people were the spectacle in that sense. [00:07:51] Matthew: Mm-hmm. [00:07:54] Ian: Um, I will say though, there are two posters for this film. [00:07:57] Matthew: Oh, [00:07:58] Ian: there is the classic poster and there's the modern poster. And I'm going to pause for a moment and just say, if you look up this film. The thing you get is the strangest Photoshop mess. You can imagine. I don't, I think it's been around longer than ai, but it looks AI generated. 'cause it's such a mess of a poster. [00:08:20] Matthew: It is. [00:08:20] Ian: It's this weird green thing. Do yourself a favor. Look up the original one, the one with the, the blocky carved font, which is such a better representation of this film. [00:08:36] Matthew: Right. The whole thing is said in Greece, so they use these pseudo Grecian fonts on the poster, whereas the other one you're talking about, and, and by the way, if you're watching this in video, you'll see that on, on screen. I've got the, the classic poster. But yeah, this other poster, it's just somebody was thinking, okay, war movie poster. We've got this particular pseudo military font. We've got a lot of green, there's guns on an island, so we'll put a mountain on an island with guns, even though the guns are like twice the size of the. Of the island, and they are not in a cave. [00:09:10] Ian: And, and, and they've got pictures of Anthony Quinn and David Niven out of this movie, they've pulled a picture of Gregory Peck from a different movie. [00:09:20] Matthew: Oh, have they? [00:09:22] Ian: Because he's a younger Gregory Peck on this one. I believe it's the weirdest thing. This is a complete side note, but trying to find this movie. Pull it up. Look at it, it feels wrong. It's, it's the long, it's the wrong item. [00:09:39] Matthew: He's not wearing the Atticus Finch eyeglasses from, uh, to Kill a Mockingbird, is he? [00:09:44] Ian: No, but it almost feels like he might be [00:09:46] Matthew: imagining Atticus Finch leading the, it [00:09:48] Ian: they could have [00:09:49] Matthew: the assault on Navarone now. [00:09:51] Ian: Oh goodness. [00:09:54] Matthew: And there's something about the way these movies begin with this kind of briefing. That's something a war movie lets you do the, the structure of military operations is that. Whoever knows things is going to clearly and plainly tell the other people who need to know. And we as the audience get to hear that there's no, it's it in, in other contexts it would seem just like a clumsy info dump In this military context, of course, that's what's happening. The people who just saw what, what the situation was are going to tell others what the situation is. The people who are coming up with a plan are going to explain that plan clearly. So we, as the audience know what we're getting into. There are other, I guess they would count as war movies that adopted this and used it very well. I see briefings like the one at the beginning of the guns of Navarone and I think Star Wars. I think the briefing explaining the assault on the death star, and it's so similar in the way that it they lay out the situation. We've got one possible way to take this out. Here it is. Here's what your guys' jobs are in that plan. [00:11:06] Ian: This is a fine example of that in, in so many ways and, and even be later, the, the way the structure of this war film format works, building up and breaking down the team. This is a fine example of it because we've got our, our group here, all established in that opening. But by establishing the plan, the movie has an opportunity to let the plan go awry, and it doesn't have to spend time during it going awry. Explaining what's gone wrong, you got that when you were introduced to this person. So when they get hurt, when they fail the task they were given. When something goes bad, that tension was built into the character and it lets the momentum continue without stopping to re-explain the setting. [00:12:06] Matthew: Right? Because, as you can imagine, things don't go cleanly. The the plan does not go as hoped. If everything went as as hoped, they would take a boat to the island. They would meet up with some Greek resistance fighters who would help supply them and guide them to the place. They would climb up this sheer cliff, plant some explosives and destroy the guns. [00:12:28] Ian: Yep. [00:12:29] Matthew: And instead they, they are hit with a storm on their way to the island in this rickety fishing boat they were using in order to, to disguise their movements. They lose their food and a lot of the rest of their equipment and have to climb just to get onto the island, have to climb a sheer cliff to to get off the beach and eventually move in inland where they can, meet up with the resistance. [00:12:56] Ian: There was plans for that climb already, I believe. [00:12:59] Matthew: I guess so. I don't know if that's where they expected to get onto the island, but that wasn't the big climb to the guns that they were expecting. [00:13:07] Ian: Yeah, [00:13:08] Matthew: but they, fortunately, they did have Mallory, they did have climbing equipment. They were able to do this, but not without problems because not everybody in this team is a mountaineer. The commander of this team major Franklin, he is injured in the climb. [00:13:23] Ian: Yes. He slides and breaks his leg rather, rather severely, but I wouldn't say Gruesomely on camera. [00:13:31] Matthew: No. This is one of those movies. There's not, there's not a lot of gore. There's not, for all the deaths that we see in this movie and all the injuries, there's not a lot of of graphic results of violence. Let's say there's an explosion and people fall to the side. We see a lot of acting to convey what a bad injury this is without having to show us the injury. [00:13:54] Ian: So, our commanding officer is injured now. And that's of course when Mallory has to take over. He becomes the leader, kind of takes the leadership by force in some ways, [00:14:08] Matthew: sort of, I mean, [00:14:09] Ian: he, not force of threat, but force of personality. [00:14:12] Matthew: He is the next highest ranking officer. So it makes sense. But though even he is questioned because there are existing relationships among these characters. Mallory for example, he has an existing relationship with Andrea Stavos, who is played by Anthony Quinn. He's a Greek resistance fighter who uh, Mallory has worked with before, but who has a death vendetta against Mallory. [00:14:39] Ian: Yeah. [00:14:39] Matthew: And we learn later, you know, we learn why, why he has this, but. They are working together, and Anthony Quinn has this, this great way of playing somebody who has danger, simmering just underneath the surface. And who is deciding to put it aside for now, [00:14:56] Ian: it's excellently done. [00:14:59] Matthew: Mallory explains this to Franklin in an earlier scene at one point earlier in the war, Mallory made the decision to allow safe passage for a German ship filled with German casualties. So these casualties, these soldiers could get medical attention , but the Germans did not do that. Once they got this safe passage, they shot their own casualties and the rest of this German group attacked the town where Andreas's home and family were, and burned his home and killed his family. So Andreas is, uh, has, has vowed once this war is over, I am going to kill you, Mallory. I'm gonna wait till the war is over. [00:15:41] Ian: Yeah. [00:15:41] Matthew: But when the war is over, I have to do that. [00:15:44] Ian: Yep. I gotta, I gotta finish this mission. Finish what we're doing here, and then you're gone. [00:15:51] Matthew: And the other relationship is between Major Franklin and, Miller. Corporal Miller played by David Niven, and he is the explosives expert. He was a chemistry professor before the war. He joined the war. He is a, a, an explosives genius, and he's somebody, they mentioned the fact that they keep trying to make him an officer and he refuses. He just wants nothing to do with that. He'll stay around, he'll do his job. He doesn't wanna be an officer. He doesn't really wanna be in the Army. He just, he knows his skills are needed, but he has this flippant. Attitude and this disregard for, for authority. So one of the reasons he doesn't wanna be in authority, and he's the one who challenges uh, Mallory, when Mallory assumes command of the group, because he already had this close friendship with, , major Franklin and Franklin described, him as probably my best friend in this part of the world. [00:16:50] Ian: And so that gives you this kind of setup where you've got Anthony Quail as, as Franklin now on a stretcher and injured, but coming in and outta consciousness to kind of reestablish the mission and represent Peck's character Mallory, dealing with the authority and the commanding officers. Uh, we've got David Niven wandering around with his mustache being kind of nervous and not wanting to be here, but trying to make bad jokes and keep the spirits up. And you've got Anthony Quinn wandering around looking serious and dangerous and constantly smoking his pipe and tapping it out on things. It's like these, these are the three entities orbiting. Gregory Peck's Mallory in a terrifying little atomic structure. [00:17:47] Matthew: it did make me think that, uh, as they were, they, of course, they now need to find another way across this island to the places they need to, to be and to get to the, the guns. And it made me think of the Germans paid attention. They could just follow the trail of pipe tobacco, because in, in every scene Anthony Quinn is tapping his pipe out on whatever's handy, leaving a little pile , of pipe coals. [00:18:10] Ian: That is such a, a brilliant use of, prop based acting. [00:18:15] Matthew: Yes. [00:18:16] Ian: He, he gets so much personality out of that pipe. [00:18:20] Matthew: Yep. Made me miss smoking a pipe because that guy, [00:18:24] Ian: he's, [00:18:24] Matthew: he's enjoying that. Yeah. [00:18:29] Ian: He, he made it look cool. Remember, smoking can be dangerous to your lungs. He made it look cool. [00:18:35] Matthew: That's right. And, you know, just smoking. This is a, a war movie made in the early sixties. Everybody is smoking all the time. The only thing different about, uh, Quinn's character is that he's smoking a pipe. Everybody else in the world is smoking cigarettes constantly. [00:18:52] Ian: Yes. Oh my goodness. Count the cigarettes would be a dangerous drinking games with guns of Navarone. [00:19:00] Matthew: Yes, indeed. You've just finished, a 200 foot sheer climb, risking your life. Relax now with a cigarette. [00:19:08] Ian: Uh, the, the injured man has, has, uh, woken up from unconsciousness. You're told his legs in bad shape and he might have internal bleeding. You know what's great for those internals? Give him a cigarette. Yes. Like, oh God. I'm like, are you just checking for punctures? If the smoke comes out anywhere by his mouth, we know what's happened. [00:19:31] Matthew: Interesting field diagnostic technique. [00:19:34] Ian: Exactly. Oh goodness. [00:19:39] Matthew: This sort of turns Franklin into an anti McGuffin in that they have to figure out now that we've got him and he's injured, what do we do? We've made a stretcher. We can bring him with us. But he's so injured. If he doesn't get medical attention soon, he's gone. We can't just leave him here. The Germans will find him. And yes, they may give him medical attention, but they will also either drug or torture him to get information and he knows all about our plan. So, we can't risk that either. And then there's some talk about option three. We don't leave him anywhere, so to speak, and interesting tense scenes where Mallory is, seems to be considering that. And you also get the impression that if Mallory tries to act on that Miller is going to kill Mallory rather than let him kill Franklin. This is a lot of tension among this team. [00:20:34] Ian: Yes, the mission still has to go through and we've already had it go awry, but that means they do an excellent job of keeping that clock going. Every new location is set up with the day and the time. It reminded me a little of playing, the Legend of Zelda Majora's mask, Dawn of the third day. [00:21:01] Matthew: That would be an interesting, uh, intercut there. [00:21:04] Ian: Absolutely. [00:21:06] Matthew: Oh, and, and on to top it off, they also learn because they do have a radio with them. They learn that they have one day less than they thought they did. The invasion of the island where the soldiers are stranded is moved up a day. [00:21:23] Ian: So they get there down a man down a lot of supplies and a down an entire day. [00:21:30] Matthew: There are some scenes of this trek that they now have because they still wanna meet up with the Greek resistance, who's going to help them on the island and guide them to where they need to be. They meet up with some, but in an odd way, they eventually find some Greek ruins in which they hole up for the night. [00:21:47] Ian: But when they see someone sneaking towards them, they attack them. [00:21:52] Matthew: And on that, on the way there, they also have some other scenes where we get to get to see a little more character in action. Where there are, there's a German patrol that see that, that spots them. And Anthony Quinn's character separates from the rest of the group and starts shooting at the Germans to draw fire away so the rest of the group can get away. So he is fearless. He's also clever. He knows how to navigate on these islands. And when they get to these ruins, he's there before anybody else's after having helped. Yeah, save them from the German patrol. [00:22:29] Ian: I, I'm trying to figure out the order in which to talk about the, the other members of the team that have come in, or the other members in general. [00:22:37] Matthew: Yeah. [00:22:38] Ian: We've kind of got this secondary crew of, you know, Casey, the Butcher, brown Spiros, and then Maria and Anna join in. [00:22:51] Matthew: Yeah, yeah. Casey is a, he, uh, he's been killing fascists since the, uh, the Spanish Civil War. Mm-hmm. And, uh, and, uh, Spiros played by James Darin is, um, he is a, a Greek resistance fighter who's joined the army. And yeah, they, they, while they're holed up in these for the night in these ruins, these two figures invade , their location. And it turns out it's two women who are from the Greek resistance that they're meeting up with. [00:23:28] Ian: I'm trying to figure out where I recognize James Darren from [00:23:32] Matthew: James, Darren. He was in so much, but what have we seen that he was in, [00:23:40] Ian: Voyage to the bottom of the Sea? He was in episode, I think. [00:23:42] Matthew: Okay, that makes sense. [00:23:45] Ian: He's just, I guess, got one of those faces that's recognizable to me. He gets to play the, uh, the, the young handsome man who's probably in over his head. [00:23:58] Matthew: He had a, a fun, it was, it was in some it nineties or, syndicated TV show in which he played a character. [00:24:10] Ian: Yeah, something like [00:24:11] Matthew: that. He played a singer who, uh, who appeared occasionally. [00:24:16] Ian: Yeah, that makes sense. He does get to sing in this film, which is fun. [00:24:19] Matthew: Yes, [00:24:21] Ian: they have, they have a lot of fun because they're, they're sneaking across this island and everyone's skills get put to use at different points. We've got, our explosive expert in radio work and everything else, but we also get, Spiros being kind of their, their Greek translator along with Maria. His, his sister actually. [00:24:41] Matthew: Yes. [00:24:41] Ian: Who's their resistance contact. I did love the moment of your brother and sister meet up again and her responses slap. Why didn't you write letters? It's a war before that. [00:24:54] Matthew: Yeah. That's the first reaction. When she sees it's her brothers to slap him later, she hugs him, but first she slaps him. [00:25:00] Ian: Yeah. [00:25:02] Matthew: And the other woman that that is with her is Anna, who, who does not speak. And Maria explains that she had been captured by the Germans and she was tortured, didn't, didn't give any information, but she was horribly traumatized. She's, uh, terribly scarred, but won't let anybody see these scars on her back. And I'm not entirely sure what she is doing. She doesn't seem to be helping Maria very much, but Maria has this connection to her. So it brought her along and she's yeah. Gonna be helping guide them to where they need to be. [00:25:36] Ian: She's kind of implied to be like a local. Geography guide in [00:25:42] Matthew: that sense, I guess that makes sense [00:25:43] Ian: that she might know the land [00:25:44] Matthew: because they do help them navigate in that the Germans now know that they are on the island and are looking for them. And [00:25:51] Ian: yes, [00:25:52] Matthew: the patrols get closer and closer and there's a point in which they've gotta make it make their way through a ravine to a tunnel where they can pass safely to another part of the island. And it's only with the help of these locals that they know that. And that's kind of a tense scene where we have the first, the scout planes finding them, and then we have attack planes coming in and and using bombs and machine guns and their, the race to the, the mouth of the tunnel. Now, do the Germans know so little of the island, they can't either find the other end of the tunnel or the like, but. [00:26:23] Ian: Yeah, there, there does seem to be a decent amount of resistance here on the island of Navarone though, the sort of thing where, you know, when the Germans demands that people move aside, people are letting them through on the street because they don't wanna get shot. But if you start demanding where the end of tunnel is, you might get pointed over to, oh, somewhere that way, or, I don't know. And there, there might be obfuscation and delay there because people are pushing back in the way they can. [00:26:52] Matthew: Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's clearly an occupied place with an occupied populace, but a strong resistance. So people are still going on with their lives. They're having weddings. They are, they're living their lives in these towns, but they are under the control of the Germans who have taken over the island. [00:27:09] Ian: Yeah. They do some interesting camera work, I will say. [00:27:14] Matthew: Yeah, [00:27:14] Ian: because we get a lot of what I'd call classic sixties, early sixties, especially movie camera work in terms of like positioning and panning and everything else. But I was so surprised to see the plane camera work that we got when the, the scout planes go over them. We get these beautiful aerial shots of them crossing a river from the perspective of the planes watching them. We get these beautiful wide shots and these interesting angles. I didn't, I didn't expect to see, which helps with the fact that they are going over rough, rocky terrain when they're in an open area. They show a lot of background, but when they're in a cave, it's tight, it's close. The, the camera is limited by the walls, [00:27:58] Matthew: and , this did have very high production values. They didn't overuse things like that. They used them where they had impact. And I think this movie cost about $6 million, which made it one of the most expensive movies ever in 1961. [00:28:13] Ian: Yeah. [00:28:13] Matthew: And you can see most of that on the screen. Although it was interesting to see, some things like there are German tanks on Navarone and the German tanks were being played by American tanks. [00:28:27] Ian: Yeah. Most of the Germans were played by Americans. [00:28:30] Matthew: Yes. [00:28:33] Ian: The accents are a whole thing. Oh, that's interesting to note. The cinematographer for this film [00:28:40] Matthew: Yeah. [00:28:41] Ian: Is also the cinematographer that did the Man with the Golden Gun. [00:28:46] Matthew: Hmm. [00:28:49] Ian: And, and the great Muppet caper. [00:28:53] Matthew: I was gonna say, I can see, and maybe I can see some similarity in camera work between Man with the Golden Gun and Guns of Navarone. I don't know about the Great Muppet caper. [00:29:03] Ian: Also, honestly, the m the Muppets feel like a group that would do a Guns of Navarone parody. But still it's that there's something about that camera work that has that flair and it makes it work here. And, the cast is all doing their best with the costuming and everything else. But it, I think the environment is where a lot of that budget went, I'd say. [00:29:24] Matthew: And there are, there are a few things that are so noticeable today because of changes in film editing that were just accepted as part of movies. I think at the time where you have a car drives up someplace and you can see the tiny jump cut. When it switches to the version of the car that's going to blow up because they've got a pyrotechnic scene and they had to, once the car drove up, they had to take time to set it up for the explosion. [00:29:49] Ian: And at the same time though, they're blowing up a lot of things. [00:29:55] Matthew: They are [00:29:57] Ian: the explosions, the grenades in this film. There's something, note this for later. There's something very video gamey about some of the action scenes in this. Yeah. Where throw a grenade and all of the soldiers on the opposite field fall down and one well-placed explosive takes out a vehicle. So entirely. [00:30:20] Matthew: Yeah. They're definitely, it's uneven in terms of some of those pyrotechnic effects. Some of them are very impressive. Where there's this giant explosion and the. Whole truck goes up and burns for a while and all of this, and then we've got the fight later on in the movie when things are getting so tense, someone throws a grenade. The explosion of the grenade is just kind of this little puff of black smoke and everybody within 80 yards falls over. [00:30:45] Ian: I didn't expect to make this comparison, but the Guns of Navarone has a bit of a Power Rangers problem with like the bad guys in the area and the explosions and everything. There's something very Power Rangers fight in the quarry about some of its action scenes, but those can be awesome. You just need to know that's what you're gonna get so it doesn't pull you the moment. [00:31:07] Matthew: Interesting. You put masks on some of these characters. You sort of have a Power Ranger story. [00:31:14] Ian: Rangers, Lord Z has put very large guns on the other side of an island [00:31:22] Matthew: and they, they eventually do make it to a populated town where they, they are able to change clothes, they're able to get some food. , but they're still one step ahead of the Germans and the Germans that are there in the town looking for them. Yes. And we get that sing along that you mentioned where we also get, a musical number from James Darren. [00:31:42] Ian: Yeah. They're trying to blend in, join in a wedding, hide there. But the Germans are always right at their back. They are following them very closely and they're having our main characters having such a hard time shaking them. [00:31:58] Matthew: They also had to split up at this point while a couple of people bring Franklin to the doctor to get his leg treated. And it turns out the Germans are there waiting for him. Somebody tipped them off. [00:32:11] Ian: Yeah. [00:32:12] Matthew: And the others, including Mallory and including Miller, have gone with Anna to an apartment where they can reequip and, and the Germans find them, and Anna helps them escape out the window and lose themselves in this wedding. That doesn't last too long, though. The Germans find them there and take them into custody. [00:32:34] Ian: Yes. So our, our heroes are captured. [00:32:39] Matthew: And finally there is this now confrontation directly between our team and the German occupiers on the island. [00:32:46] Ian: , which turns into the most amazing acting sequence from Anthony Quinn ever. He's playing this brilliant agent playing a character where he is like, oh, no, no, I'm just a fisherman. They pulled me in. Oh, please believe me, please. He creates such a fuss that he creates an opening it, but it is a, it is a brilliant, almost soliloquy moment of him begging and pleading and causing this chaos. [00:33:20] Matthew: I'm just a poor fisherman from Cyprus. They've, they've stalled my boat and forced me to take them here. Why were you wearing a gun? Uh, they forced me to wear the gun, so I'd looked like one of them. [00:33:32] Ian: They made it into a joke. [00:33:33] Matthew: Yes. [00:33:34] Ian: I don't even know how to use it. [00:33:38] Matthew: And this whole confrontation and also brings up another one of the kind of a sub theme of this movie, which is the idea of honorable warfare and is there such a thing? Yes. Because there was the story earlier about how, Mallory gave the enemy the freedom to have their wounded treated and that backfired and the enemy was dishonorable and killed their own wounded and killed civilians. And here we see there are different German officers. There's the German officer who's like the head of this occupation, but there's also an SS officer who's in, who's in charge of security and of interrogation and getting information. The SS officer is the evil guy. He is willing to, yes, to torture the injured Franklin. To get information out of him. And this appalls the other German officer who is serious about what he needs to do. But there are honorable ways to do this, and there's this conflict between the SS and the Army. And there's also when, thanks to Anthony Quinn, they are able to turn the tables. There is this sort of understanding between Mallory and the Army officer. [00:34:56] Ian: Yeah. He is there. There's this weird, you know, I, I, I love the parallel there with the, uh, you know, tell us the information. I will not, when it flips around, tell me the information. I will not, and there's this little nod. Okay. [00:35:12] Matthew: Yeah. Um, Mallory wants to know where, where's the communication room so we can use the radio? And the officer says, I won't tell you that Mallory threatens to kill him. You can kill me. I still won't tell you that. And you know that, and I know you won't kill me for no reason. And he's right. [00:35:28] Ian: And yeah, he's right that, that's respected, which is an interesting way to do it. [00:35:35] Matthew: And that is the, the one, the one German character. And the one moment where there is even that glimmer and, and it's not, there is never the sense where, well, everybody on each side is just sort of caught up in this. They, they seem to highlight that one German officer as an exception because the rest of the, all the German forces are clearly. Disposable bad guys. They, they're, they exist to be obstacles and to be destroyed. And that's even something that the characters have to come to grips with because there is this fight early on when Germans try to uh, way lay their, their boat on the way, and there's a fight on the boat. One of the characters, the character who's, he's, he's part of this, he's nickname is the butcher. He's part of this because he is a, a natural killer and we need someone like this on this team, he hesitates and fails to take out his mark, and that almost ruins the mission when the person he was supposed to have killed is still alive and someone else has to take him out. He has this conversation with, with Mallory and Mallory tells him, you have, you have a job to do. Your job is to kill enemy soldiers. You can't do that job. You let me know. So there's no question about, well, we need to have some sympathy for people who are or opposing us. No, no, no. I might in a conversation with this officer, recognize what this officer is thinking. But that doesn't change the fact that our job is to kill enemy soldiers on and route to destroying these guns. [00:37:08] Ian: That's where it's part of the, like the weariness in this story I'd say, because, I mean, this is set in 1943. World War II has been going on for four years and will go on for another two after, but those four years have worn down of the people. Mm-hmm. Every single one of the people on this mission has some sort of preexisting trauma from how long the war is going and it is affecting them and they are fighting off as much there. Their own responses to what they've dealt with and done as they are the enemy. And there's this, that tiny moment where it's like, oh, the other side's weary too, and yet it persists. [00:38:02] Matthew: Yep. [00:38:03] Ian: And that says something. And there's that moment of we are going to be as bad as they are or, and or are we going to wake up and find ourselves or find our, that we're worse? [00:38:11] Matthew: Yeah. [00:38:11] Ian: Is this moment, it's, that's where I'm like, it's a war of weariness because they s they, they see the moment of humanity, but that moment of humanity just makes the fact that the fighting is there more sad because it means that the fight is overwhelming. The re the potential that there's good in that sense. Yeah. And it's not redeeming, it's tragic. [00:38:42] Matthew: Yeah. Because there, there is that sub theme of how does war change people. And we've got early on, Mallory talking to Franklin as you're saying that, you know, we, I've, I've learned that the way, only way to win a war is to be just as, as as ruthless as your enemy. And I'm worried that we're gonna wake up and find that we are more so. And also there is David Nivens character Miller, who refuses to be an officer. And there's a confrontation later between Mallory and and Miller in which, Mallory is, is expressing the judgment that Miller is just trying to dodge responsibility. He finds himself part of this. He's good at blowing things up, so he wants to blow things up. But he doesn't want any responsibility. He does not wanna make any decisions. He does not want to feel like he's the one deciding what has to be blown up, who has to die, who has to risk their lives. And Mallory points out what an irresponsible. Approach that is, if you have the ability to, to act in this way, you're just kind of, you're trying to just be here for the ride where everyone else is risking not only their lives, but also something deeper about themselves by having to make these decisions. [00:39:51] Ian: Yeah. You're up to your neck in it now that that's a, a brilliant speech moment. [00:40:00] Matthew: Yeah, and it's interesting how war movies changed as we got into the sixties, as we got a little farther away from war. As we started to get into, we'd been through Korea, started to get into other wars like Vietnam, using World War II movies as a way to look at and examine war in general, became more and more viable. Now as part of the journey that they have as they're trying to get to where they need to go. We also get, I'm surprised to say that in this movie, the cutest couple in the Guns of Navarone, yeah. [00:40:38] Ian: Yes. Yes. [00:40:41] Matthew: Because Maria is driving them around in a stolen German truck. And yeah, everybody's in the back except for Mallory and, Andreas and, and Maria who's driving, they're in the cab. And Maria just starts asking these very straightforward questions. Andreas tell me about yourself. So he tells her a couple of things. Are you married? Oh, I was, my wife and my child are gone. Okay. They have a little conversation and she says, I like you. He says, I like you too. And that's the beginning of this relationship. [00:41:17] Ian: I love that. Gregory Pecks literally just stuck in the middle seat of this car, kind of watching this go back and forth on either side of him. And from that on the two of them were like, you know, we're both people focused on the mission, but both forward enough and, you know, do what we need to people that, you know, we're interested in each other. That's a thing. [00:41:44] Matthew: Yeah, there's this sense that they are, they're older, they're mature, they are tired, and they're in the middle of a war. But they're still also humans, so they're just not gonna waste time. If they feel a way that they're gonna, they're going to tell someone. And it's, it's cool to see, and it, it gives a different perspective to all of this that's going on and why this war is being fought and so on. [00:42:06] Ian: And it does lead to some fun little moments of levity, but it's, when one of them does something that's a cool action moment. We get this little cutaway to the other one's reaction of like, oh yeah, oh yeah, they're fun. [00:42:21] Matthew: So there's more of the cat and mouse across the island as as the team is getting closer and closer to where the guns are. And yet there's a change to their plan because now the Germans know. They are there and the Germans have now captured Franklin, they were not able to bring Franklin with them when they escaped from the Germans. [00:42:42] Ian: Yes. [00:42:44] Matthew: And that begins the, the big conflict between Miller and Mallory because Miller knows that the Germans there at, at the best case scenarios, the Germans will drug Franklin and get information out of him. The worst case is they'll torture and kill him to get information out of him. [00:43:03] Ian: Yes. That's definitely the, the worry and the note. [00:43:10] Matthew: And yet Mallory sort of planned for this eventuality early on right after the initial climb off the beach because when Franklin was trying to persuade him that you, you, I am slowing you down, the mission is too important. You've gotta just leave me here. And, uh. I will take care of the rest so that the Germans can't get any information from me. And what, what Mallory tells Franklin is, no, you don't have to worry about it. We got word on the radio. The mission has changed. It's been scrubbed. We are not necessary anymore. There's going to be a full on assault on the other side of the island to deal with the Germans and with the guns so that the, the soldiers in the other island can be rescued. So we, we can just relax and we can now take our time, bring you to where you need to be for, for help. Uh, no worries. So he's planted this information with Franklin and that's what Franklin believes. Yeah. Is the now the case? [00:44:10] Ian: We're gonna run around and cause distractions, but , the invasion on the Turkish side is what's going to actually open up the path and they'll go around the long way. [00:44:23] Matthew: So he is counting on the fact that if the Germans get any information out of, of, uh, Franklin. It's going to be this misinformation, which doesn't assuage Miller's concerns about Franklin at all. They're gonna torture him and get misinformation. That means they're still gonna torture him. And yet that also means that they don't have to follow the original plan of climbing up the sheer face of the one side of the mountain to get to the guns. They've stolen German uniforms, they've got transport. They can essentially walk right in because they've created this diversion where everybody is going to be focused on this other side of the island. And that kind of works. [00:45:04] Ian: It kind of does, and it also causes a lot of de dissent in the group because your plan is to give our man false information and then let him be captured. So he leaks that your, you are trusting the, the Germans to. To not just kill him outright and you're lying to someone else and using him up, you know, he, he is, he's become a tool no longer a person to you. [00:45:37] Matthew: And that absolutely appalls Miller and it's the kind of decision, which is why Miller never wanted to be , an officer. [00:45:44] Ian: But it's, it's there, it's part of what's happening. So, [00:45:51] Matthew: so their plan now is for Mallory and Miller to go in and, breach the gun emplacement and destroy the guns while the others. Create diversions and havoc nearby to distract the Germans who might not be already distracted by , the supposed amphibious landing on the other side of the island. But there's a problem. Just before they all split up, Miller realizes that all of his explosives equipment has been sabotaged. Is this [00:46:26] Ian: all of it? [00:46:27] Matthew: Timer has been broken. His igniters have been, been destroyed or emptied. He's, there's no way he's still got his, his, , plastic explosives, but he has no reasonable or safe way in which to detonate them. As David Niven points out, it's one point, it's easy to make things blow up. The hard part is to not be there when they blow up. [00:46:49] Ian: Yes. I love that. [00:46:51] Matthew: He and Mallory are trying to figure out how to make this work. And Mallory is threatening Miller, you better figure out how to make this work. You're supposed to be a genius. Prove it while the others are off, you know, shooting Germans and, and throwing their weirdly effective hand grenades [00:47:10] Ian: Yep. causing vehicles to jump. Cut just a little. [00:47:14] Matthew: And it seems like the only ones left at the gun are the crews for the guns, which include the firing crews, also the radar operators. 'cause these are, are radar controlled guns or radar guided guns, which is why they can be so accurate and, and command this, uh, this seaway so well and the officers who are, are commanding these men and the few security guards. Otherwise it's kind of a ghost town. They managed to make their way in by taking out a few sentries and locking the doors behind them when they make their way into the gun complex, [00:47:51] Ian: which I do love. That kind of, you know, that infiltration, the lock the door thing, it's, it's very silly, but it's also extremely effective. [00:48:01] Matthew: Yeah. I mean, it's, it's great. You wanna protect these guns. You put giant vault doors as the only way in, but if, if your enemy gets in there and closes those doors, there's not much you can do. [00:48:12] Ian: Yeah. [00:48:13] Matthew: eventually word of what's happening at the guns gets back to the commanding officer in the island who is with the forces that are awaiting this amphibious landing. To repellent. I like the, somebody gets a message on the radio, brings that to the, uh, the German general, and then disappears really quick before the general gets to read it. It's like, I know what this says and I don't wanna be here when you read it. [00:48:37] Ian: Yeah. He just books it. [00:48:39] Matthew: Yeah. So the general goes back to the guns. He leaves most of the forces there, facing the beach because he thinks this amphibious landing still might happen, but they do have people trying to get into the guns where Mallory and Miller are, [00:48:54] Ian: I, I do like the way he responds of like, he gets that letter, the general looks at it and just gets in, like says a small sentence and gets in the car. There's no freak out, there's no anger, there's just a crud kind of, you know, ah dang it. Moment. [00:49:12] Matthew: I do, like you mentioned, the German officer talking to some of his men before he gets back in the car. I do kind of like the fact that at least in the version of this movie that we saw, there were no subtitles. [00:49:24] Ian: Yes. [00:49:25] Matthew: There's a lot of scenes in which people are speaking Greek and in which people are speaking German, and they rely on the context and the acting to convey the meaning. And I like that. It it, it was more immersive. It wasn't the, i, I don't mind subtitles, but when subtitles suddenly appear because there's a non-English language in the movie, it's Oh, that's right. I'm watching a movie. I liked this. [00:49:49] Ian: Yeah. [00:49:49] Matthew: Even if it meant we didn't understand every word that somebody was saying, we could still get what was going on thanks to the acting and the scene. [00:49:56] Ian: Yes. A lot of work done by the acting itself and. It feels like there's a depth to that. The movie that I didn't get to have, because I didn't understand every line, but it also made that tension stronger. You know, I'm here not knowing, it's like being on the team, but not having the language skill part. That's not your specialty. [00:50:21] Matthew: Yeah. There were times where you had to wait a little bit maybe to the next scene to really understand what was being said previously, though. Nice. That it was one of the, one of the reasons why Mallory was chosen to, for this mission was the fact that he was multilingual, in addition to being, and they kind of set him up. He's sort of the superhero of the group. He's a, an accomplished officer and he has speaks multiple languages, including speaking German, like a native. He, and he's a mountain climber. It's like, oh, we've got some, we've designed a mission, now we've got somebody who's perfect for this mission. [00:50:55] Ian: It also adds to the frustration of like, I was gonna go on a break. I'm perfect for the mission and I have to acknowledge that. [00:51:02] Matthew: Yep. Yeah. The risk of being good at what you do, huh? [00:51:07] Ian: Yeah. [00:51:08] Matthew: And during this last act of the movie, some of the members of the team who are off creating the diversions, they do not survive. Casey Butcher Brown he dies when he is helping commandeer a boat that is gonna be needed for the eventual rescue. James Darren's character is off with with Andrea Stavos, um, Anthony Quinn's character shooting Germans and throwing grenades, and eventually has this weird scene that seems like it's out of a Western, where they've taken out the rest of this German patrol and he just sort of faces off with a German officer until they both, as they step closer to one another until they both just shoot each other. It's a weird little scene. Yeah. A strange end for James Darren's character. [00:51:57] Ian: Yeah. He kind of, he It's a very weird one. [00:52:00] Matthew: Yes. Oh, and although we even skipped before this, we do find out who the saboteur was who destroyed [00:52:11] Ian: Yep. Spoiler alert. [00:52:12] Matthew: the explosives. [00:52:13] Ian: Which honestly I was kind of surprised by. It caught me a little. Yeah. [00:52:18] Matthew: It is a good twist. Was there anybody you were expecting was the, the saboteur or the traitor? [00:52:23] Ian: I honestly thought it might be the butcher. [00:52:25] Matthew: Oh yeah. [00:52:27] Ian: I thought it might be him at first. [00:52:29] Matthew: I think they were setting up that as a diversion with the way he was, seemed hesitant to kill Germans and such. Mm-hmm. [00:52:36] Ian: But no, it's Anna. [00:52:38] Matthew: Yes. She wasn't really tortured by the Germans. She was threatened by the Germans and agreed to, to go to work for them. [00:52:47] Ian: But she wasn't tortured. [00:52:49] Matthew: No. So she, she infiltrated this group with Maria, uh, without Maria's knowledge in order to sabotage it. But [00:52:58] Ian: she's been the one sending messages and alerting them as to everything that's going on. [00:53:02] Matthew: Yeah. [00:53:04] Ian: Ooh. Painful moment. [00:53:07] Matthew: I have to say, Gia Scala as Anna, she has a terrific sixties take on a forties hairdo. Looks great. [00:53:17] Ian: Yeah. It, it's, it's an interesting look. But now we've got , the big moment we've gotten Mallory and Miller are in the bunker, setting up the guns while a boat for the escape is being grabbed. And the solution to how to blow up the guns is such a clever one. The elevator set up. [00:53:40] Matthew: It does show how Miller is innovative. He's creative and he comes up with a few different possible ways to, to blow up these guns. One of them, he sets up, uh, charges on one of the guns itself, such that when that gun fires, it will then blow up, blow up the guns, so they'll get one shot and that's it. But then he also sets up what he considers plan A, the ones he's really counting on with the elevator. [00:54:10] Ian: Yes. Where he, he cuts a section out and puts wires so that when the elevator goes all the way down, it'll make contact and it'll blow up a large portion of explosives right near the ammunition stores. [00:54:27] Matthew: When something blows up in this cave, the whole cave goes because it's filled with, uh, with munitions. [00:54:33] Ian: And that leads to such brilliant drama with the group of, soldiers moving about and you're just watching this elevator. They're getting a close angle. As you watch the wheel almost make contact and almost make contact. It's an excellent tension mechanism [00:54:53] Matthew: because after they set all of this up, Miller and, and Mallory do manage to get out by climbing down the, the cliff's face on, on a rope and diving into the sea. And they've already already established that Miller does not swim. He's made that very clear to Mallory. But the others have gotten this boat to, to pick them up and. Just, uh, just after or just as they were escaping, the Germans get back into the gun chamber and are able to start using it to shoot at the British destroyers that are on their way to rescue those 2000 soldiers. Not until after they examine the whole place looking for the explosives that they knew these, uh, these English commandos must have left. Which leads to, which leads to that great supporting role by a rat. Yes. Oh, good. [00:55:45] Ian: That's the weirdest moment. [00:55:48] Matthew: There's this weird bit when, when Miller is setting things up, you see him setting charges, and then you also see him placing a dead rat, like behind one of the wheels of one of the guns. Like, what is he doing? And then we learn. [00:56:01] Ian: Because the German officers explore the place, they find this dead rat. They pick it up and as he lifts it, a sparkler goes off inside it and it bursts into flame. Just creates a wild distraction. [00:56:15] Matthew: Yeah. It, it buys him another 20 seconds or so. And it, it is odd. They, they obviously know something is weird about this 'cause they're holding this rat so gingerly and they've got using tongs and keeping it away from them and suddenly it lights up the weirdest little detail. But I love it. [00:56:30] Ian: Yeah. [00:56:33] Matthew: And the Germans very proudly find the charges that were set on the gun and, uh, and disable those. [00:56:40] Ian: Mm-hmm. [00:56:40] Matthew: So then they think, oh, it's safe to fire. And they start using the guns [00:56:43] Ian: and they start using it. they get a couple of shots off. Bracketing the first in the line of destroyers. [00:56:52] Matthew: They're dialing in the range. They're almost there and we see the hoist that they're using to bring people and shells up and down, the one that's been booby trapped by Miller. Yeah. We see it almost go far enough to make contact several times. [00:57:09] Ian: That brilliant tension mechanic. [00:57:11] Matthew: That's interesting you say that. This is one of those situations where as a, 21st century movie viewer, I, I found myself thinking, okay, you've established the tension. You can move on now. 'cause they did that so many times over and over. Did you find that that was too much or did you like the way they just didn't stop building that tension? [00:57:31] Ian: I thought it was good, but I kind of expected them to use something else to complete it. [00:57:36] Matthew: Yeah. [00:57:37] Ian: They'd previously established how big these guns are, how hard they hit, and I'd been looking at it and saying, okay, it's gonna stop right above, and the, then they're gonna fire and we're gonna watch the whole thing lurch a little, and that'll be the reaction. [00:57:49] Matthew: Ah, [00:57:50] Ian: I was expecting them to like add to it, but instead they did just bring the elevator down three times and then on the fourth set it off, which is like, not the way I would've done it nowadays, but it wasn't innately a bad way to do it. [00:58:06] Matthew: Yeah, that's interesting. That would've been, would've been fun because they did establish earlier that the vibration of these guns is so extreme. They had to evacuate part of the island because the houses were crumbling and [00:58:18] Ian: yeah, [00:58:18] Matthew: they, they never really did anything with that, that little detail. It was just a way to point out how giant these guns are, [00:58:26] Ian: so I expected them to use it more. It wasn't the most clever use, but it was a fine use. [00:58:35] Matthew: Yeah. [00:58:35] Ian: Yeah. That's what, that's what I wanna call it. [00:58:39] Matthew: So we do eventually get this scene where the entire cavern explodes and the top of the island blows off. And we see this from the perspective of the escape boat where, Miller and Mallory and the rest of the survivors are. [00:58:56] Ian: Yes. [00:58:56] Matthew: And it is a big explosion. [00:58:59] Ian: We watch as a gout of flame comes out from the cave we watch as both of these giant guns fall off and lurch forward into the sea, and then we watch the top of the entire mountain break off and crumble around it. This is huge. It's almost, they, they cut back to our people on the boat and it's a little bit, I think, bigger than they expected. Yeah. They're like, oh, disable the guns. And it's like, we have disabled the geography. [00:59:29] Matthew: Yeah. And we get the cheers and the sirens from the British destroyers celebrating the fact that they can now make it through. [00:59:38] Ian: Yep. [00:59:38] Matthew: And an interesting little coda to Andrea Stavros and Maria in that. [00:59:46] Ian: Yeah. [00:59:47] Matthew: He was going to go back to Crete where he was from and continue the fight. She has to go back to her home on Navarone because, the Germans are still there. They're still punishing the people of her town for helping the English, and she needs to go back and fight. So, uh, so he decides to go back with her? [01:00:08] Ian: Yeah. the going back with her kind of says he's left the events of the past behind, and he's probably not going to come to kill our lead Mallory, when it's done. It's like, oh, Stavros has found a way forward that isn't vengeance. [01:00:25] Matthew: I think so. I think so. I think [01:00:27] Ian: so. Uh, [01:00:28] Matthew: he, uh, Mallory saves his life, you know, helping him aboard the boat. After he's been injured and at the end, before he leaves with Maria, there's this smile and handshake between Stavos and Mallory. But I don't know. It's still possible, you know, I'm not saying I don't appreciate who you are and that I like the fact that you saved my life, but, you know, promise is a promise and I promise to kill you. So, [01:00:53] Ian: yeah, exactly. [01:00:53] Matthew: He shows up on his door sometime in 1946 and says, you know, Hey, how have things been? [01:00:59] Ian: How have things been said? What? I said, [01:01:01] Matthew: yeah, [01:01:02] Ian: okay. Sense, [01:01:02] Matthew: but no, I think you're right. Makes sense. He's, I think he's given up that vendetta. [01:01:05] Ian: Yeah. [01:01:08] Matthew: there is a bit of a, new rapport between Mallory and Miller too, as, sharp as their conflict was there for a while. [01:01:14] Ian: Yes. [01:01:15] Matthew: They got this mission done. I think they each appreciated the others' importance and strengths and. Value as a comrade. So they, of course, they, they, they bond their friendship by sharing a cigarette, as always. [01:01:27] Ian: Mm-hmm. And there's a little bit there of like, oh, for Miller, it's a okay, when the job needs to get done, get it done. And for Mallory, there's a little bit of a, doing the job doesn't have to destroy who I am, and I can still see bright, positive spots. I can still, [01:01:46] Matthew: yeah, [01:01:47] Ian: I can still respect myself by the end of this. And they learn that bit from each other. [01:01:56] Matthew: Oh, and, and speaking of what happens to the different characters, while the guns are exploding and the whole island is shaking because of it, we do get a cut to Franklin, who is apparently in a German hospital. And is getting whatever medical treatment he needed. So he's gonna be a prisoner of war clearly, but at least it doesn't seem like he's going to die of gangrene, which was his prognosis earlier. [01:02:18] Ian: And there's this moment of where you kind of realize, you get to see him realizing that the information he was given was false. [01:02:25] Matthew: Yes. Yes. [01:02:27] Ian: It's like, it, it turns the destruction of the guns almost into fireworks for him [01:02:35] Matthew: and that he even, he played his role even after he was injured. Yep. And I think we might be heading towards our final questions about this movie. [01:02:44] Ian: I think we are. [01:02:48] Matthew: So stick around, listeners as we will be talking about, our recommendations about viewing this movie or not, and, what else we might be interested in seeing. With regard to this movie and its characters. But in the meantime, if you're enjoying the Inter Millennium Media project, please go to immproject.com and that's where you will find all of our back episodes. If you'd like more of the show, it's also where you will find ways to contact us. We would love to hear from, from you on our Discord, our contact email or actual mail via our PO box. And also that's where you will find ways to support the show. You'll find a link to our Patreon where you can both support the program and get bonus audio content. And if you join us at the movie club level, we've got some slots remaining in the movie club. You will get a, a mystery DVD in the mail periodically. [01:03:36] Ian: Yeah. Do you wanna know what it's like to be me, not know what you might be seeing next? Get to explore the world of cinema in this way? It's a great way to do it. Yeah. Come on and join me in the movie club. [01:03:47] Matthew: Another way to support the show is, on our store, if you like, t-shirts and coffee mugs and notebooks and other fun things, both for the podcast and for some of the things that we have talked about, like Space 1999 and The Prisoner, you'll find them there. But of course, the best way to support the show is to tell your friends about it. Let people know, share it. Give us, five star ratings wherever you get your podcasts. And, if you find video a easier way to share or to enjoy the podcast more and more of our episodes are also on our YouTube channel, which you'll find linked from imm project.com. And Ian, where can people find you? [01:04:26] Ian: I can be found as item crafting, be that item crafting.com item crafting on Blue Sky or as item crafting live on Twitch. I stream every Thursday playing games and making crafts. So come on over and join. [01:04:40] Matthew: I've been enjoying those. [01:04:42] Ian: Thank you. And how about you, dad? Where can they find you? [01:04:46] Matthew: Well, you can find me by going to by matthew porter.com occasionally I'll blog on that page, but you'll also find links to things like my Mastodon and Blue Sky and my YouTube channel where I review movies and movie theater experiences and occasional travel destinations. So that, that brings us to our final questions about this movie. And the first one is screen or no screen. Do you recommend this movie? [01:05:17] Ian: It's gonna be a screen for me, but it's very much a, you'll know if you'd be the type of person who wants to screen this to begin with. Yeah. Before it even starts. This is not everyone's cup of tea. This is not a, oh goodness, amazing film, but it's a really good film of this type. [01:05:33] Matthew: Yeah. [01:05:33] Ian: So I'm saying like, go, go watch it if you want that kind of movie. [01:05:39] Matthew: I say it's a screen. It's a great example of what it is. It was part of a cycle of World War II movies that were happening at the time. And, uh, it's one of the better ones of the bunch. So, yeah, I, I say screen. [01:05:52] Ian: This is a good film. [01:05:55] Matthew: And that leads us to our next question, which is revive, reboot, or Rest in Peace. Now, reboot is a, a remake of this story, but a revival is, uh, a sequel or a prequel or something else in which this story is still Cannon. [01:06:10] Ian: Oh, that exists, doesn't it? I, I, I, I'm, I'm on the Wiki. I, I checked the Wikipedia page and there is a sequel. I think [01:06:20] Matthew: there is. There is. [01:06:24] Ian: That's 17 years later. [01:06:26] Matthew: Yes. [01:06:27] Ian: And that is a gap, [01:06:29] Matthew: and it does not bring any of the cast back. [01:06:34] Ian: Okay. [01:06:37] Matthew: But it is a sequel. [01:06:39] Ian: This is an odd one. Now, in terms of sequels and continuations, it's not really truly one, but there's an interesting note here. Uhhuh, Guns of Navarone is directly stated by the developers to be one of the inspirations for the original 1981 Atari, Commodore 64 and Ms. DOS Game. Castle Wolfenstein. Castle Wolfenstein, the series that was then after picked up by ID Software who later made DOOM. Partially based on what they learned doing, taking over the Wolfenstein series. So the entire Doom franchise now can play a weird version of like degrees of Kevin Bacon back to Guns of Navarone. [01:07:40] Matthew: That is interest. [01:07:41] Ian: So there's, I feel like, I don't know Guns of Navarone, but I've seen its ripples and in that same way I've seen its ripples in other films. Yeah. I think that there's a lot of other films that take some stylistic inspiration, even if it doesn't know it does, because of how this movie has impacted cinema at the time as part of that set you're describing. [01:08:06] Matthew: Yeah. It, it definitely has had that influence. It influenced other World War II movies, influenced other war movies. I mentioned Star Wars up at the Top. That's one of those movies that it's part of the same heritage. From this movie. Yes. It's interesting you mentioned Wolfenstein. There are other World War II movies that I would've thought of first or earlier if I were trying to think of things that inspired Castle Wolfenstein. And I'm thinking of movies like Where Eagles Dare, which I don't think I've shown you yet, but we, we will have to do that at some point, point. Don't think [01:08:33] Ian: so. [01:08:33] Matthew: But, but I can see that among all the different movies that inspired Wolfenstein this would be among them. Yeah. [01:08:41] Ian: So I'm trying to think though, like, I know that this Force 10 from Navarone exists, but what else could you do? I could see a side, I could see a story of Andres Ros and Maria Popin, the two of them, you know, Andrea and Maria just being the terrors in the night of the, of the, the island of Navarone. This, that could [01:09:04] Matthew: be interesting. [01:09:04] Ian: This action couple that fights their way back through cleaning up this, this gr Greek island could be an interesting story. The continuing adventures of, Mallory and Miller is a thing there, but I feel like we've got enough other films that are doing stories here. I'd rather see disconnected other teams with similar, narratives. So I don't, I think this is a rest in peace for me. [01:09:31] Matthew: Yeah, I mean, I don't, [01:09:33] Ian: yeah, [01:09:33] Matthew: um, like you say, there is that sequel, but the watching this movie did not leave me thinking, oh, there's gotta be a sequel. There are loose ends to tie up, or there's past prior adventures of, of, uh, Mallory that we heard about that I really wanna see enacted. So if I were just watching this movie and didn't know anything about else, about, uh, about it, I would say, yeah, this is satisfying. Let it rest in peace. [01:10:05] Ian: I get the feeling. [01:10:08] Matthew: Yeah. As it happens though, we will be back in a couple of weeks. [01:10:12] Ian: Yep. So that's right. Everybody there is more coming for Navarone Vember here. [01:10:19] Matthew: That's right. So we hope you will join us then for another tale of a movie from the 20th Century. [01:10:28] Ian: In the meantime, go find something new to watch. [01:10:41] Matthew: I can't believe I hadn't thought of Navarone Vim. That's our thing. I've [01:10:47] Ian: been waiting on that. [01:10:48] Matthew: That's perfect.