The Caine Mutiny: Collector’s Edition (1961)  - PICK

The Guns of Navaronne: Collector’s Edition (1961)  - PICK

This week Sony Home Video releases a number of classic military films in special collector’s editions, including The Guns of Navarone and The Caine Mutiny, both based on best-selling novels.

The Caine Mutiny boasts Humphrey Bogart in one of his greatest performances, and one of his last, as Captain Queeg, the new captain aboard the Caine whose iron fist and by-the-book demeanor masks gradually cracking nerves, obsessive myopia and paranoid delusions. Based on the best-selling 1951 Pulitzer Prize winner by Herman Wouk, The Caine Mutiny overcame initial resistance by the military to its checkered subject matter and went on to garner seven Academy Award nominations, including Bogey’s best-actor nod and one for best picture.

The film compellingly sketches Queeg’s gradual disintegration both in command and in the witness stand as one of his officers, Ensign Keith (Robert Francis), stands trial for mutiny. The film has been digitally restored. It looks and sounds better than previous editions. The one-disc collector’s edition doesn’t offer many extras, but there is a commentary by film experts Richard Peña and Ken Bowser as well as a retrospective documentary.

Gregory Peck leads a star-studded cast in The Guns of Navarone, including David Niven, Anthony Quinn and Stanley Baker, in J. Lee Thompson’s loose adaptation of the 1957 novel by Alistair MacLean. Set in the Greek islands of the Aegean, the film self-consciously sets out to tell its fictional tale of World War II derring-do as a heroic legend set on the same stage as the Greek myths of old, with human beings rather than demigods as the heroes.

The plot concerns a critical mission to destroy a pair of massive Nazi guns on the island of Navarone that control the waters around the island of Kheros, where 2,000 British soldiers wait to be evacuated. The soldiers face certain death within one week unless the guns are destroyed and the soldiers can be evacuated. To do this, the saboteurs will need a passel of special skills, requiring the assembling of an eclectic team of experts in various areas, from explosives to mountain-climbing to combat. The saboteurs are aided by a pair of Greek women resistance fighters (Irene Papas and Gia Scala), but they must also contend against a traitor in their midst.

The two-disc special edition is loaded with extras, including a number of documentaries, two commentaries including one from the director a new commentary by film historian Stephen Rubin, and a passel of featurettes.

Content advisory  
The Guns of Navarone: Wartime violence, including an execution of a civilian traitor; restrained depiction of torture; mild British vulgarities (lots of uses of “bloody”). The Caine Mutiny: Psychological pressure and tense themes. Both films might be okay for older kids.