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Writers: Alistair MacLean (novel), Douglas Heyes (screenplay)
Cast: Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, Patrick McGoohan
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Thriller
About: A mystery at the North Pole has occurred. The scientists at Ice Station Zebra have radioed a garbled message for help!...Then comes only radio silence....Meanwhile the Soviet Union has a spy satellite with stolen high tech camera technology that has fallen from orbit and landed at the North Pole, on the drift ice. The U.S. sends a nuclear sub, the USS Tigerfish on a secret rescue mission. On board is an ex Russian who's defected to the west and a British SAS officer, along with a bunch of Marines. One of them might be a saboteur.
Background: Reportedly Ice Station Zebra was Howard Hughes favorite movie. As he owned a Las Vegas TV station the reclusive millionaire would call and request the movie to be played over and over. That was in the days before DVDs and VCRs. It ran over 100 times thanks to Hughes!
Rock Hudson who plays the submarine captain considered this his favorite movie of his own. Originally Charlton Heston was offered the role of submarine captain, but he turned it down, saying there was no characterization in the script. Indeed the movie has little characterization, and all the actors appear wooden even Rock Hudson. So it's odd that this is his favorite film when Rock has done much better movies and had much better roles.
The fault isn't with any of the actors but with a script that's heavy on intrigue but light on character motive. I guess Chuck Heston knows how to read a script!
The star of the movie is the cutting edge, underwater camera cinematography. That's a real sub you see diving under the water, and those ground breaking scenes were done with a special underwater camera designed and operated by the 2nd unit cameraman and cinematographer John M Stephens. The underwater scenes and the sub look amazingly real, because it is real! That alone makes the film well worth watching.
I found the first two acts that took place on the sub to be the best. Once the crew gets to Ice Station Zebra the movie becomes a standard fare story.
Ice Station Zebra (1968)
Director: John SturgesWriters: Alistair MacLean (novel), Douglas Heyes (screenplay)
Cast: Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, Patrick McGoohan
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Thriller
About: A mystery at the North Pole has occurred. The scientists at Ice Station Zebra have radioed a garbled message for help!...Then comes only radio silence....Meanwhile the Soviet Union has a spy satellite with stolen high tech camera technology that has fallen from orbit and landed at the North Pole, on the drift ice. The U.S. sends a nuclear sub, the USS Tigerfish on a secret rescue mission. On board is an ex Russian who's defected to the west and a British SAS officer, along with a bunch of Marines. One of them might be a saboteur.
Background: Reportedly Ice Station Zebra was Howard Hughes favorite movie. As he owned a Las Vegas TV station the reclusive millionaire would call and request the movie to be played over and over. That was in the days before DVDs and VCRs. It ran over 100 times thanks to Hughes!
Rock Hudson who plays the submarine captain considered this his favorite movie of his own. Originally Charlton Heston was offered the role of submarine captain, but he turned it down, saying there was no characterization in the script. Indeed the movie has little characterization, and all the actors appear wooden even Rock Hudson. So it's odd that this is his favorite film when Rock has done much better movies and had much better roles.
The fault isn't with any of the actors but with a script that's heavy on intrigue but light on character motive. I guess Chuck Heston knows how to read a script!
The star of the movie is the cutting edge, underwater camera cinematography. That's a real sub you see diving under the water, and those ground breaking scenes were done with a special underwater camera designed and operated by the 2nd unit cameraman and cinematographer John M Stephens. The underwater scenes and the sub look amazingly real, because it is real! That alone makes the film well worth watching.
I found the first two acts that took place on the sub to be the best. Once the crew gets to Ice Station Zebra the movie becomes a standard fare story.