Force 10 from Navarone (1978)

 

In 7 words or less: A poor man's Dirty Dozen

What's it all About? The Force 10 squad led by Harrison Ford is tasked with blowing up a bridge in Yugoslavia. Tagging onto this group is Robert Shaw and his buddy Edward Fox who have a separate mission to route out a traitor and eliminate him.

'We're gonna need a bigger gun'

Best bits? There is a great scene where a captured Force 10 execute a cracking bluff to convince their German hosts that they are deserters and not on a top secret mission to cripple the Nazi war effort.

Did it make you think thoughts? This is one of those 70's ensemble cast pieces that popped up a lot in that decade. Harrison Ford, Robert Shaw, Edward Fox, Carl Weathers, Barbara Bach and Richard Kiel are all on show. Weathers appears to still be playing Apollo Creed with his, angry, shouty 'you done me wrong' Sergeant Weaver, Kiel is in Bond-villain Jaws mode except now he has a sketchy Yugoslav accent, Fox is excellent as the stiff upper lipped straight man and explosives expert Miller and Ford and Shaw display great chemistry as they repeatedly clash and unsurprisingly then buddy-up.

'Cut yourself shaving?'

Would you watch it again? Probably not. There are too many other better war movies out there.

Rating (out of 100%): A solid if not spectacular war movie that stretches on a bit too long. I give Force 10 a young-Han-Solo-outing 50%

Worse than: The Guns of Navarone (1961)
Better than: Attack Force Z (1982)