Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Force 10 from Navarone Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov July 11, 2020

Guy Hamilton's "Force 10 from Navarone" (1978) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the disc include vintage trailer for the film and exclusive new audio commentary by critics Steve Mitchell and Steven Jay Rubin. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

The bridge

I don’t know how anyone can take Guy Hamilton’s film Force 10 From Navarone seriously. It is supposed to be taken seriously, but it feels like an exotic James Bond spoof set during WWII with the famous agent missing from the film. I have written a lot about exotic films because I enjoy them, but only when they are all in on the circus and entirely honest with their audience, and this film isn’t. At its very best it looks and feels like an unfortunate compromise between a director and screenwriter that were quite simply not on the same page.

Summertime during WWII. Col. Barnsby (Harrison Ford) is ordered to lead a team of international military experts to Yugoslavia and destroy a massive bridge. During the operation, Barnsby must also identify and neutralize an elusive double agent with a formidable record.

But shortly after Barnsby and his men land in Yugoslavia a platoon of Serbo-Croatian chetniks capture and then transport them to a heavily-guarded camp where the Germans begin interrogating them. With the help of Russian resistance fighter Maritza (Barbara Bach), who has stolen the heart and mind of the commander running the camp, Barnsby and his men manage to escape and then reach a partisan stronghold where they are provided support for their operation. However, once they arrive in the area where their target is the demolition expert declares that they don’t have enough explosives to bring down the bridge, so a new, much more complicated, and riskier plan is quickly put together to get the job done. However, as Barnsby and his men go to work, the double agent strikes again, and then again, hoping to collapse the entire mission.

The film is loosely based on Alistair MacLean’s novel of the same name, but it is hard to make a case that the significant discrepancies that exist between the two are responsible for the mediocre end product. The truth is that there is a lot of material in this film that is simply incompatible, causing very odd tonal shifts and contrasts that over time destroy the integrity of the main characters and their mission. For example, before Barnsby and his men reach Yugoslavia the film becomes quite tense and dark, creating the impression that it would evolve into an authentic war drama about a deadly mission. However, the emergence of Drazak (Richard Kiel), the colorful leader of the chetniks, instantly introduces an entirely new vibe to the drama and after that, it is impossible to think of the mission as anything else but the central piece of an undercooked parody. (The entire segment with the mask-wearing infiltrators that get killed for all the wrong reasons is the definition of cinematic silliness. The segment with the penicillin is flat-out insulting). The rest of the film is acted by two very different groups of actors. In the first are the likes of Ford, Robert Shaw, Franco Nero, and to a lesser extent Carl Weather, which look committed to the original idea of being part of an authentic war drama. In the second are Kiel, Bach, Edward Fox, and various other supporting actors that behave as if they are contributing to an Enzo G. Castellari film scripted by a very young and overly enthusiastic Emir Kusturica. Needless to say, there is a lot of material that quite simply does not come together and yet there are some big-name actors before the camera just going along with it. It is very, very strange, and no, most definitely not in a good way.

Cinematographer Christopher Challis produces a few memorable panoramic vistas from the area where the bridge is, but there is a sea of difference between his work in this film and Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s visual stunner The Tales of Hoffmann.

*Kino Lorber's release features the longer extended version of the film, which is approximately 126 minutes long. This version of the film was recently remastered in 2K.

Force 10 from Navarone Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.40:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p[ transfer, Force 10 from Navarone arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

This release is sourced from a recent 2K master and features only the longer extended version of the film. Now, having just viewed it for the first time, I can confirm that it is not identical to the remaster Indicator/Powerhouse Films used to produce this release of the film. Here the entire film has a different color scheme, plus in a lot of the darker footage shadow definition and delineation are superior. Indeed, in certain areas, there is substantially more to see, and not only in backgrounds, so the perception of depth is different as well (compare screencaptures #24 and 26 to the corresponding screencaptures from our review of the Region-B release). Furthermore, the primary colors and supporting nuances are better balanced, so the strong red/pink hues from the Region-B release are eliminated. I don't know why there is such a dramatic difference, but the saturation levels are much better balanced on this release and as a result, there is a bigger variety of color contrasts. The density levels are practically identical. Image stability is excellent. Lastly, I spotted a couple of tiny white flecks, but there are no distracting debris, cuts, damage marks or other distracting age-related imperfections. So, there are minor but meaningful adjustments/improvements on this release that in my opinion produce a superior technical presentation of the film. My score is 4.75/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Force 10 from Navarone Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and English DTS-HD Maser Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

I viewed the entire film with the 2.0 track. I had to turn up the volume just a tiny bit more, but my impression was that it was every bit as solid as the one that is present on the Indicator/Powerhouse release. I did not detect any technical anomalies to report in our review.

Force 10 from Navarone Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - a vintage trailer for Force 10 from Navarone. In English, not subtitled. (2 min, 1080p).

• Commentary - this brand new audio commentary was recorded by critics Steve Mitchell and Steven Jay Rubin. I also appears on the recent release of Force 10 From Navarone that Indicator/Powerhouse Films produced on the other side of the Atlantic.

• Additional Trailers - additional trailers for the following titles from Kino Lorber's catalog:
  
  1. Tobruk
  2. The Devil's Brigade
  3. Hornets' Nest
  4. The Secret Invasion
  5. Ambush Bay
  6. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three

Force 10 from Navarone Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you are looking for the best technical presentation of Force 10 from Navarone you will have to pick up Kino Lorber's release. It has only the extended version of the film, which is the one to see, and I expected that its technical presentation will be identical to the one from Indicator/Powerhouse Films' recent release. Well, it looks quite different, and on my system also very clearly superior. I am not a fan of this film, but if you are get this release for the better technical presentation and the Region-B release for the extensive supplemental features.