It’s 1943, and the world is at war once again. 2000 British soldiers have been marooned on the island of Kheros in the Aegean Sea, with only one week to live. That’s because that’s when the Axis powers plan to demonstrate their force, bullying neutral Turkey into joining the war on their side, and blitzing the island. The only passage to and from Kheros is protected by two massive radar-controlled guns on the nearby island of Navarone. And so the Allied forces have put together a small team of commandos to infiltrate the German-controlled island of Navarone, to blow up the guns so rescue ships can get to the island safely.

Maj. Roy Franklin (Anthony Quayle) is in charge of assembling the team, and has hand picked Capt. Keith Mallory (Gregory Peck), the greatest mountain climber in the world before the war, to head up the effort. He has also brought in Col. Andrea Stavros (Anthony Quinn) to assist him, though the two men have a bit of a rocky past. The rest of the team includes professor of chemistry and genius with high explosives Cpl. John Anthony Miller (David Niven), mechanical marvel and expert with a knife CPO ‘Butcher’ Brown (Stanley Baker), and Pvt. Spyros Pappadimos, a born killer whose father is the chief resistance contact on Navarone. The men only have four days to destroy the guns before the fleet arrives to transport the trapped soldiers. If they fail do so in time, 6 more ships will fall to the Germans. The men face a seemingly-impossible task, which will require a long, arduous journey, climbing an extremely dangerous, steep cliff, dealing with torrential rain, and trying to keep undetected from the German soldiers. Along the way, they’ll face injuries that slow them down, mistrust and infighting, and a potential traitor in their midst who could threaten the entire mission.

The Guns of Navarone is not a factual account of events from WWII, rather it is an action film inspired by the novel of the same name from writer Alistair MacLean. The film was released in 1961, and was a big spectacle blockbuster at the time, nominated for Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Writing, Best Sound, Best Film Editing and Best Music, and taking home the award for Best Effects. It is filled with action, suspense and character drama, taking the audience on a wild ride with this small commando team as they attempt to infiltrate an enemy-controlled island and take out their weapons undetected. Mixed in with the shootouts and big action spectacles is some interesting character drama. Each of these men come from a different background and has different reasons for being on the team. Some of the men have complicated pasts with one another. For example, Stavros still blames Mallory for the deaths of some of his comrades, and once the war is over, he plans to exact his revenge, but for now the two must work together. There’s also the so-called “butcher of Barcelona” who is questioning his life’s choices and wants to stop killing people, but the timing is terrible—that’s the exact reason he was brought on to the mission, and this could put the others in danger. Others also face some life-altering decisions along the way. The film features a very recognizable and talented cast, particularly Gregory Peck as the team’s calm-and-collected de facto leader, Anthony Quinn, who’s probably given the most interesting range and backstory out of all of the characters, and David Niven who gives a bit of a debonair attitude to the team’s explosives export.

The film is a bit long, which is why there’s an optional restored intermission card halfway through. However, it never really drags or feels slow. Throughout the movie, text on the screen updates viewers as to what time it currently is and how many days into the mission the men are. And this helps to move things along and build the tension that time is running out.

For its 2007 DVD release, The Guns of Navarone was completely restored (there’s a nice bonus feature on this), and the improvements in the picture and colors are extremely noticeable. A couple years ago, Sony gave the movie a standard 4K disc release. The contents are nearly identical to this new release, except that this SteelBook version now offers Dolby Vision in addition to the original HDR10 color grading, and is packed in a beautiful new collectable SteelBook case. The picture looks very nice, with rich colors and a generally excellent level of detail, especially in faces. There is a pleasant amount of film grain throughout, though I found it to be a bit aggressive in a few scenes where there is the bright blue sky in the background. The picture also looks a little less clear whenever there is text on the screen (such as giving a time check). But, for the most part, it was quite surprising how nice the film looked for being over 60 years old. The disc’s Atoms soundtrack is quite stunning, providing an incredibly immersive viewing experience, especially when there are planes flying overhead, there’s a heavy storm, or the men find themselves in the middle of a gun battle with the Germans.

Sony’s new 4K SteelBook release features shiny new packaging, which can be seen below. The 4K and Blu-ray discs reside on the right side of the case, while an insert provides instructions for redeeming a 4K Movies Anywhere digital copy of the film. Both the 4K and Blu-ray discs offer the film with or without its original Roadshow intermission card. The 4K disc only includes a Main Title Progression Reel featurette and the theatrical trailer, while the Blu-ray disc (which is identical to the 2011 Blu-ray release), contains the rest of the bonus material—two audio commentaries, plus over 2 hours of featurettes and documentaries. There is a lot of interesting material, but there is no new content produced for this release.

What’s Included:

Film: (2:40:53/2:36:21 with and without Original Roadshow Intermission Card)

4K UHD:
• 2160p / Widescreen 2.35:1
• Dolby Vision / HDR10
• Audio: English Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 compatible), English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, English 4.0 DTS-HD Master Audio, Czech Mono, French 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, German 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, Hindi Mono, Italian 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, Polish 5.1, Spanish (Castilian) 5.1, Spanish (Latin American) Mono
• Subtitles: English, English, SDH, Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Portuguese, Spanish (Castilian), Spanish (Latin American), Swedish, Thai, Turkish

Blu-ray:

• 1080p / Widescreen 2:35:1
• Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, French 5.1, Portuguese 5.1
• Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Portuguese, Arabic, Chinese Simplified, Chinese raTditional, Dutch, Korean, Spanish, Thai

Digital (Limited time offer):

• 4K digital copy, redeemable via Movies Anywhere or Vudu

Extras:

4K Ultra HD:
• Main Title Progression Reel (2:43)
  Take a look at the early main title rendering—sketches of Greek statues and columns appear on top, with the final version of the main title credits displayed underneath.
• Theatrical Trailer (3:42)

Blu-ray:

• Commentaries:
  Commentaries play over the version of the film without the intermission card. These provide a lot of factoids and behind-the-scenes information about the film, though the first can be a bit dry and at times feels like the presenter is reading from a script, while the second has a lot of slow starts and stops.
  • Commentary with Film Historian Stephen J. Rubin (2:36:21)
  • Commentary with Director J. Lee Thompson (2:36:21)
• The Resistance Dossier of Navarone
  Interactive feature where you can use your remote to navigate through text and watch video explorations of various film-related topics. Stephen Nelson (director and curator, Fort MacArthur Museum), military historian and film advisor Captain Dale Dye, and Jonathan Kurtz (Ph.D., Film and Television) talk about the events depicted in the film, what’s real, the special effects, weapons, and more. Originally created in 2011. Select from:
  • Military Fact Or Fiction (4:16)
  • The Greek Resistance (4:06)
  • The Navarone Effect (4:10)
  • The Old-School Wizardry Of The Guns Of Navarone (4:16)
  • The Real World Guns Of Navarone (4:13)
  • World War II In The Greek Islands (3:59)
• Documentaries:
  • Forging The Guns of Navarone: Notes from the Set (13:59)
    In this 2006 featurette, Eve Williams-Jones (the former Mrs. Foreman) and assistant director Peter Yates share stories about the production, including working with writer/producer Carl Foreman, director Lee Thompson & the various actors, the special effects, and more. includes behind-the-scenes photos.
  • An Ironic Epic of Heroism (24:38)
    In this 2006 featurette, author/film historian Sir. Christooher Frayling discusses how the film came about, its themes, the casting, filming locations, Carl Foreman’s role as a creative producer, and more. includes behind-the-scenes photos.
  • Memories of Navarone (29:34)
    In this 1999 featurette, the cast and crew reflect on making the film. Includes behind-the-scenes photos, and interviews with director J. Lee Thompson and stars Gregory Peck (”Mallory”), Anthony Quinn (“Andrea”) & James Darren (“Pappadimos“). Presented in 4:3 full frame format.
• Featurettes:
  • Epic Restoration (9:37)
    Robert Gitt, Preservation Officer: UCLA Film and Television Archive, discusses the process of restoring the film’s video and audio presentation. Includes comparison shots for some of the changes and corrections that were made. Originally created in 2006.
  • A Heroic Score (9:19)
    Film Music Historian Jon Burlingame discusses the film’s composer and score. Originally created in 2006.
  • Great Guns (4:34)
    Black and white narrated promotional featurette includes footage of the cast and crew on set. Presented in 4:3 Full Frame format.
  • No Visitors (4:36)
    Black and white narrated promotional featurette takes a look at the various visitors to the set as the movie filmed on the Greek island of Rhodes. Presented in 4:3 Full Frame format.
  • Honeymoon on Rhodes (4:36)
    Actor James Darren (“Spyros Pappadimos”) narrates this look at the Island of Rhodes, where he was filming and spending time with his new wife of 3 weeks, Evy. Presented in 4:3 Full Frame format.
  • Two Girls on the Town (4:35)
    Actress Irene Papas (“Maria Pappadimos”) narrates this look at her and Gia Scala shopping in town during their time off. Presented in 4:3 Full Frame format.
• Narration-Free Prologue (5:45)
  Watch the opening prologue with just the score, with intro from Film Music Historian Jon Burlingame.
• Message from Carl Foreman (2:00)
  Producer Carl Foreman provides an introduction for and regrets that he can’t be there in person for the film’s Australian premiere at the new Barclay Theatre in Sydney.
• Previews (4:35) Trailers for Sony Blu-ray, Das Boot: The Director’s Cut & The Bridge on the River Kwai play back-to-back.
• BD-Live

Final Thoughts:

The Guns of Navarone is an entertaining WWII fantasy drama that holds up really well over 60 years later. It features an amazing cast, and Sony’s new 4K SteelBook release features great picture and sound and host of legacy bonus material. The release is a must own for fans of the film—it certainly hasn’t looked or sounded better, and the packaging is really nice. However, the contents of the discs are nearly identical to the previous non-SteelBook 4K release, just with the addition of Dolby Vision, so a double-dip may not be worth it for all. That said, if you don’t already own this film, this is the version to add to your collection!

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Gregory Peck, David Niven and Anthony Quinn attempt to infiltrate an impregnable Nazi fortress and destroy two enormous long-range field guns in this 1961 Oscar�-winner for Best Special Effects.