Guns of Navarone

Revealing mistake: In the shots taken from above, on the scene where Mallory and Stavros are climbing the cliff under hard rain, the rain falls over the back of them, not over his head. Reveals that this scene was taken in horizontal position over the floor. Not taken in vertical position.

Revealing mistake: When, during the final battle in the town, a German truck explodes from a grenade, it explodes from the inside of the bed. This isn't possible because the truck is covered by tarp and we can't see any way the grenade could get into the bed.

Fireball

Plot hole: The huge guns are set high up on a cliff face facing out to sea and it is obvious that they cannot be depressed to fire at a downward angle - the massive gun carriages set on rails would prevent that happening. They cannot be elevated to fire at an upward angle, too, because they fit pretty snugly in the hole cut into the cliff face to accommodate them. This means that their maximum and minimum ranges would be quite close together, covering a strip of maybe a few hundred metres either side. Given that the sea is completely open on the side of the island they are protecting, why don't the ships targeted by the guns while passing the island simply sail inside or outside of the narrow stretch of sea the guns can hit?

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Suggested correction: The guns are firing across a strait. A strait is a "narrow passage." Since the targets must appear at a limited range, the guns only need a limited elevation angle.

Noman

Watch the film again. The guns are facing the open sea. There is no land visible anywhere behind the ships. If that's a strait, it's a very, very wide one.

The mission given says the guns are guarding a strait. The last shot of the six destroyers shows land behind them on the opposite side of the strait.

Noman

Other summaries explain that the strait is only deep enough for the ships at the place which matches the guns' range. So ships could not take advantage of further away or closer in.

Then what are the dark shapes rising out of the sea on the far side of the ships. If they are not islands, what are they?

Noman

Suggested correction: That the gun carriages are supposedly set on rails is not correct. In the novel template, as well as in the film, it is shown that the guns were installed on turntables. And as for their variable angles of fire - it could be due to (fictional) modifications.

Daniel4646

More mistakes in Guns of Navarone

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.

More quotes from Guns of Navarone

Trivia: Peter Grant, future manager of The Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin, had an uncredited bit part in this movie playing a British commando.

Scott215

More trivia for Guns of Navarone

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