Great movie!
Added 8/17/2009
I usually like a book more than the movie. In this case the movie fully lived up to the book on which it is based. The cast is excellent, and the story moves well. I get some movies from Netflix, but this one is well worth buying.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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5 stars until the last 5 minutes
Added 7/4/2009
If you have read the book, then watch the movie until the 140th minute and stop. You will thank me for it.
Until then, the movie is a taut thriller, and Rock Hudson really towers and carries the movie thru.
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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ice station zebra
Added 6/9/2009
Excellent picture, like this are not made any longer ! I do reccommend also Where Eagles Dare
Alfredo
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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Another All-time Favorite.
Added 6/6/2009
About the only thing I had in common with Howard Hughes is that we both loved this movie. Hughes allegedly watched it 17 times one weekend. I saw it at its original reserved-seat run at the Cinerama theater on Broadway in New York and have watched it numerous times since then (although not as much as Hughes.)
The name Alistair MacLean is not that well-remembered today. However he was the king of action novelists during the 1950s and '60s. Many of his books were made into films, the most famous being "The Guns of Navarone" and its sequel "Force 10 from Navarone," "Where Eagles Dare," "Breakheart Pass" and this film. This film was supposed to re-unite his Navarone stars, Gregory Pack and David Niven. However when shooting started, they were no longer available. Instead we got Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine and Patrick McGoohan. Hudson and Borgnine are fine but it is McGoohan who steals the film as a British secret agent named "Jones" who is very similar to his John Drake "Secret Agent" TV persona. There are no female members of the cast.
The first half of the film involves the U.S. submarine's voyage under the polar ice pack to get to Zebra. It includes a terrifically suspenseful scene of a saboteur's attempt to flood the submarine while under the pack. The second half involves the locating of Zebra culminating in the U.S./Russian confrontation at the detroyed station for the secret of Ice Station Zebra.
Directed by the great John Sturges, (The Great Escape, Magnificent 7, etc.) this is an exciting and suspenseful film. It features a great score by Michel Legrand and fine special effects of the submarine journeying under the polar ice pack (great on the big screen.)It lost the special effects Oscar to 2001. The DVD features the overture, intermission music and music for exiting the theater.
Unfortunately the DVD only includes some vintage short subjects from the time the film was made. It would have been very nice for a retrospective on this fine film. While Hudson and Sturges are long-gone, McGoohan was alive until recently and Borgnine, Jim Brown (who basically stands around looking angry the entire film,) and Tony Bill are still alive.
This is a classic cold-war suspense thriller that has stood the test of time, I would love to see its eventual release on Blu-ray.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Cold War in the proper setting.
Added 5/21/2009
At the time this film was released, the spy satellite at the center of the story was considered a science fantasy. We know better now. Cold war thriller with all the implausible elements all too plausible in the present time.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Great movie!
Added 8/17/2009
I usually like a book more than the movie. In this case the movie fully lived up to the book on which it is based. The cast is excellent, and the story moves well. I get some movies from Netflix, but this one is well worth buying.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
5 stars until the last 5 minutes
Added 7/4/2009
If you have read the book, then watch the movie until the 140th minute and stop. You will thank me for it.
Until then, the movie is a taut thriller, and Rock Hudson really towers and carries the movie thru.
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
ice station zebra
Added 6/9/2009
Excellent picture, like this are not made any longer ! I do reccommend also Where Eagles Dare
Alfredo
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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