Ice Station Zebra (1968)

During the height of the Cold War, the US nuclear submarine USS Tigerfish, captained by Commander James Farraday, is sent on a secret mission to a location near the North Pole. Their mission, ostensibly, is to rescue survivors from Ice Station Zebra, a British weather research station, but it is quite clear that it is more than that. The presence of the shadowy, enigmatic Mr. Jones, a British civilian who has control over the mission, makes it clear that something larger is afoot. Then the submarine is sabotaged - there is clearly a Russian spy on board.Enthralling, suspenseful Cold War thriller, directed by John Sturges and based on the Alistair MacLean novel. Sturges sets the scene and builds the tension well. Some great scenes involving the operation of the submarine, which will appeal to military buffs. Quite accurate in the military aspect - great detail from Sturges.Can be a bit clumsy at times though. Some plot developments aren't entirely watertight.Interesting ending, though maybe a touch predictable.Still, overall, a good action- and tension-filled ride.

This is a monumental rendering of a rather ordinary adventure by Alistair MacLean involving the usual ingredients of spies, traitors, violence, sabotage, conflicts, political crisis, unbearable suspense, life and death and everything else, but is it not just a little overdone? In the first part of the film, until they finally reach that polar station after the middle of the film, there is very little acting and mainly only technical manoeuvres to get the submarine to its destination, which involves tremendous difficulties, especially with the lack of communications and of course a very thrilling sequence of almost getting stuck under the ice with the prospect of a submarine shipwreck, which isn't a very cheerful prospect for those suffering from claustrophobia on board - this is unavoidable in every submarine film - the claustrophobia is the main element of terror, although here it is not so much in focus.Patrick McGoohan is the ordinary hard line tough guy as an agent with a secret mission, he always is, Ernest Borgnine is the one of the leading actors that gets some opportunity to act, while Rock Hudosn is very bland as a character, almost like a mere figure-head of the journey, while the actor who makes an impression is Alf Kjellin in his brief but efficient appearance in the end. The lack of any woman during all these 2,5 hours adds to the futility and superficiality of the film.Not even Michel Legrand's music can save it. It is impressively majestic and almost bombastic like the whole film, but you see too much of the submarine and the waves and the ice and too little acting. The action in the end is hardly substitute enough for that either.The following Alistair MacLean films, like "Bear Island", "When Eight Bells Toll" and "Puppet on a Chain" are more effcient for being more tense and brief and intensive. Here there is too much circumstance and too little substance.

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.

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.