On the jacket of the just released reissue of 'The Guns Of Navarone', Columbia bills this as "digitally remastered from newly restored film elements". After seeing the picture, one may be inclined to question Columbia's (or their marketing department's) definition of "restored". Though not bad, per sé, this job is certainly not on par with the restorations of 'Lawrence Of Arabia' or 'Spartacus'. It probably isn't even as good as another recent Columbia reissue, 'Bridge On The River Kwai', also billed as "restored", though many take issue with this label being applied to this film as well.
Semantics aside, this is, none the less, the best video incarnation of 'The Guns Of Navarone' I have ever seen. The most obvious improvement is, of course, letterboxing. Filmed in CinemaScope, and composed very wide, this transfer has been framed at about 2.20:1. The Eastman Color stock has not fared well over time. Colors are somewhat faded and fleshtones tend toward pink in a number of scenes. On the plus side, the colors are solid and mostly stable with very little chroma noise. The image appears grainy at times, though I cannot be certain if this is inherent in the film stock or the fault of the transfer. The transfer is quite sharp and sometimes increased sharpness will enhance grain. Image detail and contrast are very good with excellent shadow detail in the many night (or day for night) scenes.
Though the film is showing signs of age, the soundtrack has fared much better. The Dolby matrix was derived from the four channel magnetic master soundtrack and sounds quite good. Dialog is clear and natural sounding and the music track has very good depth but somewhat limited range. The almost total absence of hiss leads me to believe that some effort was put into the audio of this disc.
'The Guns Of Navarone' runs 157 minutes and has been spread to four sides with 58 chapter markers. Sides 1 and 2 are CLV and sides 3 and 4 are CAV. Columbia/Tristar has included the theatrical trailer following the film. List price is $49.95.
I have always found 'The Guns Of Navarone' to be an excellent action/suspense film. Despite the less than pristine quality of the film elements, I believe this disc would be a welcome addition to the collection of any fan of the genre.
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