The Guns of Navarone (film)
The Guns of Navarone is a 1961 epic war film about a team of Allied saboteurs that is assigned an impossible mission: infiltrate an impregnable Nazi-held Greek island and destroy the two enormous long-range field guns that prevent the rescue of 2,000 trapped British soldiers.
- Directed by J. Lee Thompson. Written by Carl Foreman, based on the novel by Alistair MacLean.
An impregnable fortress... An invincible army... and the unstoppable commando team. taglines
Prologue Narrator
[edit]- Greece and the islands of the Aegean Sea have given birth to many myths and legends of war and adventure. And these once-proud stones, these ruined and shattered temples bear witness to the civilization that flourished and then died here and to the demigods and heroes who inspired those legends on this sea and these islands. But though the stage is the same, ours is a legend of our own times, and its heroes are not demigods, but ordinary people. In 1943, so the story goes, 2000 British soldiers lay marooned on the tiny island of Kheros, exhausted and helpless. They had exactly one week to live for in Berlin the Axis high command had determined on a show of strength in the Aegean Sea to bully neutral Turkey into coming into the war on their side. The scene of that demonstration was to be Kheros, itself of no military value, but only a few miles off the coast of Turkey. The cream of the German war machine, rested and ready, was to spearhead the attack, and the men on Kheros were doomed unless they could be evacuated before the blitz. But the only passage to and from Kheros was guarded and blocked by two great, newly designed, radar-controlled guns on the nearby island of Navarone. Guns too powerful and accurate for any allied ship then in the Aegean to challenge. Allied intelligence learned of the projected blitz only one week before the appointed date. What took place in the next six days became the legend of Navarone.
Captain Keith Mallory
[edit]- You think you've been getting away with it all this time, standing by. Well, son... your bystanding days are over! You're in it now, up to your neck! They told me that you're a genius with explosives. Start proving it! [gesturing with his pistol] You got me in the mood to use this thing, and by God, if you don't think of something, I'll use it on you! I mean it.
- Tell me, schoolteacher, from a purely moral point of view - bearing in mind that we represent the side of goodness and civilization - do you think that what I did to Franklin was a civilized thing to do?
- To win a war, you have to be just as nasty as the enemy. What worries me is that we're likely to wake up one morning and find out we've become even nastier than they were.
Corporal John Anthony Miller
[edit]- Sir, I've inspected this boat, and I think you ought to know that I can't swim.
- [as the team prepares to leave, Miller comes stomping in] Everybody stay exactly where you are! The party's over. Somebody stepped on the cake! [opens his case] Exhibit A: a clockwork fuse. Elementary and archaic, but they work. Only this one doesn't work, you know why? The clock's okay, but the contact arm's been broken off. This clock could tick away until Christmas, and it wouldn't set off a firecracker! Exhibit B: Exhibit B is missing! All my slow-burning fuses are gone, disappeared, vanished! Exhibit C: my time pencils. Seventy-five grains of fulminate of mercury in every one of them, enough to blow off my hand. And very unstable, very delicate. [He smacks the one in his hand against the bundle of the rest, then violently crumples the whole mess together, and throws them in a corner] Which means there is a traitor in this room.
- [after commandeering Nazi uniforms] Hmm, not very hygenic. Shocking taste in undies, too. [mockingly saluting] Heil, everybody.
Other
[edit]- Squadron Leader Howard Barnsby, RAAF: First, you've got that bloody old fortress on top of that bloody cliff. Then you've got the bloody cliff overhang. You can't even see the bloody cave, let alone the bloody guns. And anyway, we haven't got a bloody bomb big enough to smash that bloody rock. And that's the bloody truth, sir.
- Maria Pappadimos: She is my friend, Anna. She is one of us. It's bad that this happened to her. Before the Germans came, she was a school teacher in Mandrakos. Last year, she was caught. They tortured her to make her betray us. They whipped her until the white of her bones showed. Some nights we could hear her screaming. Then they took her to the fortress and they kept her there for six months. When they let her go, she could not speak. She has never spoken since, not even in her dreams. Even I have never been allowed to see the scars on her back. But she's a good fighter - as good as any of you. She is like a ghost. She goes anywhere. She got us these guns and she kills without mercy. You are very lucky brother.
Dialogue
[edit]- Commodore Jensen: Gentlemen, these men have a special interest in Navarone. I got your radio report, but I thought perhaps you could be more specific.
- Squadron Leader Howard Barnsby, RAAF: I'll be specific! As you can plainly see, it was ruddy awful. But we'd love to go back. Wouldn't we, boys?
- [His boys give several loud cheers]
- Squadron Leader Howard Barnsby, RAAF: Just as soon as we can! BUT - we've got one condition. We want the joker who thought this one up to come with us. And when we get there, we're gonna shove him out at ten thousand feet - without a parachute.
- Cohn: Do you think they've got any chance at all, sir?
- Commodore Jensen: Frankly, no. Not a chance in the world. I should be very surprised if they get even halfway to Navarone. Just a waste of six good men. However, I suppose that doesn't matter, considering how many have been wasted already. I'm glad it's not my decision; I'm only the middleman... Still, they may get there, and they may pull it off. Anything can happen in a war. Slap in the middle of absolute insanity people pull out the most extraordinary resources: ingenuity, courage, self-sacrifice. Pity we can't meet the problems of peace in the same way, isn't it? It would be so much cheaper for everybody.
- Cohn: I never thought of it in just that way, sir. You're a philosopher, sir.
- Commodore Jensen: No. I'm just the man who has to send people out on jobs like this one.
- Corporal Miller: [watching Stavros poking around the room] What are you doing, friend? Checking for dust?
- Col. Stavros: No, friend, microphones.
- Corporal Miller: This is the British Army post, man! Don't you trust anybody?
- Col. Stavros: No! That is why I have lived so long.
- Capt. Mallory: Can you do anything at all?
- Corporal Miller: I don't know. There's always a way to blow up explosives. The trick is not to be around when they go off. But aren't you forgetting something? The lady. As I see it, we have three choices. One we can leave her here but there's no guarantee she won't be found, and in her case, they won't need a truth drug. Two, we can take her with us, but that would make things worse than they are already. And three... well, that's Andrea's choice, remember?
- Capt. Mallory: You really want your pound of flesh, don't you?
- Corporal Miller: Yes, I do. You see, somehow I just couldn't get to sleep.
- Capt. Mallory: Well, if you're so anxious to kill her, go ahead!
- Corporal Miller: I'm not anxious to kill her, I'm not anxious to kill anyone. You see, I'm not a born soldier. I was trapped. You may find me facetious from time to time, but if I didn't make some rather bad jokes I'd go out of my mind. No, I prefer to leave the killing to someone like you, an officer and a gentleman, a leader of men.
- Capt. Mallory: If you think I wanted this, any of this, you're out of your mind, I was trapped like you, just like anyone who put on the uniform!
- Corporal Miller: Of course you wanted it, you're an officer, aren't you? I never let them make me an officer! I don't want the responsibility!
- Capt. Mallory: So you've had a free ride, all this time! Someone's got to take responsibility if the job's going to get done! You think that's easy?
- Corporal Miller: I don't know! I'm not even sure who really is responsible anymore.
- Capt. Mallory: He's going to kill me when the war's over.
- Major Franklin: You're not serious.
- Capt. Mallory: Yes, I am. So is he. [pause] About a year ago, I gave a German patrol a safe passage to get some of their wounded into hospital. I guess I still had some romantic notions about fighting a civilized war. Anyway, they wanted Andrea pretty badly, even back then. As soon as they got behind our lines, they shot their casualties, went over to his house, and blew it up. He was out on a job at the time, but his wife and three children were in the house. They were all killed. I helped him to bury them. And then he turned to me and said that as far as he was concerned, it wasn't the Germans who were responsible, but me. Me and my stupid Anglo-Saxon decency. Then he told me what he was going to do, and when.
- Major Franklin: You think he still means to do it?
- Capt. Mallory: He's from Crete. Those people don't make idle threats.
- Capt. Mallory: I have no time for this!
- Corporal Miller: Now just a minute! If we're going to get this job done she has got to be killed! And we all know how keen you are about getting the job done! Now I can't speak for the others but I've never killed a woman, traitor or not, and I'm finicky! So why don't you do it? Let us off for once! Go on, be a pal, be a father to your men! Climb down off that cross of yours, close your eyes, think of England, and pull the trigger! What do you say, Sir?
- Capt. Mallory: Are you sure it will work?
- Corporal Miller: There's no guarantee, but the theory's perfectly feasible.
- Corporal Miller: Well, right now I say to hell with the job! I've been on a hundred jobs and not one of them's altered the course of the war! I don't care about the war anymore, I care about Roy!
- Capt. Mallory: And if Turkey comes into the war on the wrong side?
- Corporal Miller: So what? Let the whole bloody world come in and blow itself to pieces, that's what it deserves!
- Maj. Baker: What's going on here, what are you doing to that man?
- Major Franklin: You know him?
- Maj. Baker: Of course, that's Nikolai, our laundry boy. Is he the reason I'm being disturbed? Look, Franklin, I've had a hard day!
- Major Franklin: Does his job involve listening at keyholes?
- Maj. Baker: It's just a case of idle curiosity, he doesn't speak a word of English!
- Major Franklin: Then why was he listening, why does he carry a knife, and why did he try to stab this man?
- Maj. Baker: I presume he was trying to defend himself, when you've been in this part of the world as long as I you'll know carrying a knife doesn't mark one as a criminal!
- Major Franklin: Pappadimos, have you got your silencer?
- Pvt. Pappadimos: Yes.
- Major Franklin: Then use it. Shoot the laundry boy.
- Maj. Baker: Are you crazy?
- Major Franklin: And if the Major gets in your way, shoot him too. That's an order.
- [Discussing what to do with Franklin after he broke his leg scaling the cliff; take him along, or leave him behind for the Germans]
- Col. Stavros: There is of course a third choice. One bullet now. Better for him, better for us. You take that man along,you endanger us all.
- Corporal Miller: Why don't we just drop him off the cliff and save a bullet?
- Capt. Mallory: And why don't you shut up? Yes, there's a third choice. We'll make it if necessary, when it's necessary, and not before.
- Capt. Mallory: You have any brothers or sisters?
- Maria Pappadimos: I have a brother, Spiros, in America.
- Capt. Mallory: Oh, He's not that far away.
- [Maria stops what she is doing and looks up with a stunned look on her face. Mallory points the butt of his sub machine gun at Spiros]
- Capt. Mallory: He's that handsome devil right over there.
- Maria Pappadimos: [She gets up and walks over to her brother. Her face has a look of wonder and love at seeing the brother she hasn't since he was a child] Spiros! [Then her face turns hard and angry as she slaps him hard in the face]
- Pvt. Pappadimos: What did you do that for?
- Maria Pappadimos: To remind you to write letters occasionally.
- Pvt. Pappadimos: There happens to be a war on.
- Maria Pappadimos: I mean before the war! I promised myself I'd would do this the first time I ever saw you again. [Her manner changes to contrite] Well, I'm sorry, brother.
- [Spiros just smiles, shakes his head, grabs her and gives her a great big bear hug]
- Weaver: I'm desperately sorry, gentlemen. Really, I am. It's embarrassing. Just look at it!
- Capt. Mallory: No, it's exactly what we want.
- Weaver: They said you wanted a boat no one would notice, but that's a disgrace! Give me 36 hours, and I know I can lay my hands on a German E-boat in absolutely perfect condition. I promise you, only one careful owner. I'll just pop over to Rhodes and get it for you.
- Major Franklin: Rhodes? Won't the Germans have something to say about that?
- Weaver: I suppose they would, sir, if they knew. But I've got good connections there. What do you say?
- Capt. Mallory: No, thanks. We can't wait.
- Weaver: Pity.
- CPO 'Butcher' Brown: I'm tired and I'm fed up. I've been fighting this war a long time. I've been killing Germans since 1937. There's no end to them. Shoot a man at 200 yards, he's just a target. You kill him with a knife...... you're close enough to smell him. I smell them in my sleep. After the last time, I made a pact with myself: I'd do my job. But I wouldn't do the other anymore. Not if I could help it.
- Capt. Mallory: And who gave you the right to make a private peace? You think you're the only one who's tired?
- Corporal Miller: To tell you the truth, I didn't think we could do it.
- Capt. Mallory: To tell you the truth, neither did I.
Taglines
[edit]- An impregnable fortress... An invincible army... and the unstoppable commando team.
- The Greatest High Adventure Ever Filmed...from COLUMBIA!
Cast
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