Suggestion: The Guns of Navarone

[NRoberson86 78]

In terms of WWII military squad movies, I feel this one goes a bit forgotten these days in lieu of The Dirty Dozen or The Great Escape. I think it has a great cast and rarely misses a beat. You can still feel the moments of applause it had back in '61. Everyone loves watching Nazis get beat up.

 

Maybe have Matt Gourley back on for it. He loves squad movies.

[TKFopp 14]

Seconding this suggestion. I remember watching it's (admittedly lesser) sequel all the time as a kid in the 80's, because that one had Han Solo, Apollo Creed and Quint on the squad. Wasn't able to see the original Guns until it finally got released on DVD a decade ago, but I loved it (probably better I didn't catch it until an adult). It's still in my collection, I need to hunt down a copy of Force 10 and make a double feature of them some weekend.

[TKFopp 14]

Got around to re-watching GUNS with FORCE 10 this past weekend and wanted to give this suggestion the bump again. Liked it even more this time. There's a lot more thematic meat on the bone for GUNS than most "men on a mission" movies. Even other big movies of that type, like DIRTY DOZEN and WHERE EAGLE DARE (also watched that one this past weekend too), don't try to work on that level that GUNS does. Both are solid WWI action adventures, and great entertainment. but GUNS aims higher (har, har).

 

In GUNS, the war has taken its toll on EVERYONE. No one is who they aspired to be when they joined it (or were dragged into it) and there's a sense weariness informing everyone's arc and characterizations. The characters deal with it in different ways: hiding from the responsibility and blaming the officers (Niven), or becoming all work, denying what its doing to them (Peck), or even switching sides to just make it stop (....that would be telling). Everyone has a breaking point moment with what the war has done to them and what it keeps making them do. Even the guy who earned the nickname "The Butcher" is tired of all this, to a heart-breaking end effect.

 

If you're not normally into this type of film, give it try, you may be surprised. The film doesn't ignore the effects that the "hard choices" have on the men and woman on this mission. (And it still works as a crowd pleaser, a neat trick)

 

You can probably skip FORCE 10 tho. It's an okay WWII adventure, but its all plot and spot the actor/actress of the period fun.