Lawbolisted Powerful

Pluskylang Great Film overall

WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Myriam Nys Alistair MacLean's output was prolific but uneven. In my humble opinion, "Ice Station Zebra" is amongst his best work. Both a spy thriller and an adventure novel, "Zebra" is tense, gripping, suspenseful and clever. Its depictions of a freezing and hostile environment are in a class of their own and there's a continual vein of dark, sardonic wit. In fact the book ends with one of the best jokes in spy fiction, on the very last page. So this is a pretty good book. The movie, however, is very, very bad, both as an adaptation and as a piece of cinema in its own right. For reasons known only to God, the various makers of the movie decided to gut the book and replace the plot with one of their own invention. In the process much of the dialogue was lost, as was much of the purpose, much of the logic and much of the wit. The result is unpleasant, in a weirdly overserious and overstuffed way. It's pretty much the cinematic equivalent of a "turducken" : the meat of a chicken stuffed inside a duck, with the duck then stuffed inside a turkey. And the movie, which is longer than average, keeps on going and going and going, like an automated toy out of an ad for a battery.In case you're wondering why I'm still throwing this monstruosity 3 stars : a) how many times do you see the inside of a technologically advanced submarine and b) you get to admire the late Rock Hudson, who, just like Niagara Falls, the Everglades or the snow leopard, was an outstanding masterwork of nature.

JohnHowardReid Copyright 2 July 1968 by Filmways, Inc. Distributed by Metro- Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc. New York opening at the Cinerama Theatre: 20 December 1968. U.S. release: 23 October 1968. U.K. release: 9 November 1969. Australian release: 3 April 1969. Sydney opening at the Plaza (as in New York, London and other major roadshow engagements, the 70mm Super Panavision anamorphic print unsqueezed through a single projector on to the theater's Cinerama screen).Running times: 150 minutes (US and Aust), 145 minutes (UK). The DVD is available on Warner Home Video. Rating 10/10.SYNOPSIS: U.S. Navy Commander James Ferraday, stationed in Scotland, receives orders from Admiral Garvey to take his nuclear submarine to a British North Pole weather station called Ice Station Zebra. Ferraday's mission, which he does not yet know, is to recover a capsule from a grounded Russian space satellite containing reconnaissance photographs of all U.S. and Russian missile sites. Also aboard the sub are two British agents, David Jones and Boris Vaslov, the latter a communist defector, and two U.S. Marine officers, Lieutenant Russell Walker and Capt. Leslie Anders. En route, the vessel is sabotaged and almost exceeds its implosion depth before the crew can repair the damage and regain normal depth. Ferraday's suspicions that Vaslov is responsible are rejected by Jones, who vouches for his associate's loyalty and, instead, accuses Anders of sabotage. NOTES: Daniel L. Fapp was nominated for a prestigious Hollywood award for his Cinematography, losing to Pasquilino De Santiis for "Romeo and Juliet". Millar and Johnson were nominated for the same year's prestigious award for Special Visual Effects, losing to "2001: A Space Odyssey".Initial U.S.-Canadian film rentals gross: a disappointing $4,655,000 (just a mere $5,000 more than the initial domestic rentals for M-G- M's 1950 "Annie Get Your Gun"). As the distributor, M-G-M would have made money on this deal, but Ransohoff and Filmways would have been lucky to break even.COMMENT: We've been in submarines and journeyed to the North Pole before via movies, but not to the pole in Cinerama via nuclear submarine. Not that audiences noticed much difference between this one and Fox's 1954 CinemaScope thriller, "Hell and High Water". Nonetheless, it's he-man adventure, this race to the pole by Americans and Russians, with spies and double crosses and gunpoint confrontations once we finally get there. If you're not too bright, you may not tumble to the identity of the spy on board the sub but this, if anything, adds zest to the last phase. If you're not sure who the baddies or goodies or doubtful characters are, there's more suspense and surprise ahead amid the ice floes. John Sturges has ably directed it all with his usual competence.OTHER VIEWS: The most exciting movie ever made. - Howard Hughes.

muckydog2 I am always bemused at how some films seem to generate such wild swings between love and hate. How is it Sheepshaggers Convention is held in such high regard by so many? How is it that Ice Station Zebra is held so low? There are a few films we all seem to love, but ISZ is one most seem to hate. I simply adore this film, It transports me completely. I think the dialogue is some of the most memorable and exciting of any film of this genre, there is a precision that is key to to the brilliance. The film is beautifully paced and directed, There is no clunkiness or waste and the performances and characterisations are outstanding, especially McGoohan and Hudson. I for one truly believe Rock as he tells the young Sergeant, worried that he has never been aboard a submarine before, ''Don't worry, I have'' Or when one lad starts praying as the sub is on a deadly descent, he gently advises him.."Excuse me son, some of us are trying to think" Some of McGoohans lines are more wonderful, but may spoil if I repeat. It is definitely a guys film, I can see that there may be less appeal to women as it is a technical and macho subject matter - and yet does not have that obvious 60s sexist feel...Well maybe because there are no women in it... Anyway I had to say give it a go...You may love it!

David Conrad Most submarine movies are pretty heavy on jargon, and "Ice Station Zebra" is especially so. The first half hour is almost excruciatingly slow-paced and technical, but there are two good reasons for that decision. One reason is narrative: when the action finally begins it comes as a jolt, and the suddenness of the transition creates the atmosphere of tension and unpredictability that is required for the second act. The other reason has to do with the film's production. The studio borrowed a real submarine from the Navy, allowing director John Sturges to stage difficult underwater scenes without relying on unrealistic miniatures or grainy stock footage. Shots of the submarine gliding beneath vast icebergs are eerily beautiful, and they justify the amount of time the script spends getting the characters from point A to point B. The espionage plot may be nothing special, but it is at least evocative of the late 1960s. Ernest Borgnine, Jim Brown, and Patrick McGoohan deliver in strongly- characterized roles.