Destination: Zebra, station polaire

In each year of the 60s MGM seemed to release three $10 million dollar movies. I have never seen a film company so dedicated to ensure their output was simply colossal. With this aim, some good ideas were boosted up and into mega colossal whopper H-U-G-E ambitions that were presented in 70mm, ran over 2.5 hours and commanded luxury picture palace sized first release cinemas world wide. As such an experience they all looked sounded and presented with this aim intact. Today the lion is in a cage at Warner Bros and Foxtel screens the films in the centre panel crippled by pan and scan only. I can hear the poor beast crying. ICE STATION ZEBRA is the MGM version of a James Bond film and succeeds in the experience offered above. On TV it is a compromised "TV show" and faults become so apparent that you might switch off. I suggest any chance to see this film on a large cinema screen will allow you to be swept up in the excitement of a pensive thriller. By the time we get to the location of the title, and the hilariously silly set made clearly of plastic icebergs and santasnow to see what seems to be a cold war picnic at the North Pole, you will be more aghast that the climax could be so shoddy and lame. It looks like a TV station Santa-set with fur parkas and guns instead of helpers. But, under the spell of the cinema, belief is suspended and the film succeeds. On TV you start wondering why there is no frosty breath and warm heads under beanies.

Big-budget, all-star, action-packed adventure about an American submarine sent to the North Pole to retrieve a downed satellite which contains a roll of film. The Russians want it as badly as the Americans because the film contains high-orbit pictures of BOTH country's missile sites.

Rock Hudson is the sub commander, Patrick McGoohan is the cynical secret agent with a dry wit (a roll he made famous in two famous British TV shows, `The Secret Agent' and `The Prisoner'), Jim Brown is a hard-nosed Marine captain, and Earnest Borgnine is a Russian defector working with McGoohan and the Americans to retrieve the valuable film.

The special effects of the Russian jets could have been much better, even in 1968. But the fantastic exterior arctic sets create a stylized North Pole as appealing as the sets of Altair 4 in `Forbidden Planet'. Sure they don't look `real' -- but that's doesn't mean they don't look good. And brother, they sure look BIG. Furthermore, these sets don't just sit there, they actually DO neat stuff: hugh blocks of ice converge and threaten to crush the sub's conning tower, and the conning tower raises and lowers through cracks in the ice!

Dynamite score by Michel LeGrand. Sterling screenplay by Douglas Heyes, riddled with sharp dialogue that the fine cast delivers perfectly (I love it when McGoohan tells Hudson that the film invented by America's German scientists was put into the camera invented by Britain's German scientists and sent up in the satellite invented by the Russian's German scientists. Funny.

Based on Alistair MacLean's best-selling novel. A genuine techno-thriller that predated Tom Clancy's work. And it was originally released at Cinerama theaters! Gotta love it . . .

After re-discovering Patrick McGoohan, I decided to give this film a try. I had heard the title mentioned for years, but had no clue what it was about.

The overall look of the film was rather impressive. I appreciated most of the technical aspects. You really feel like you would NOT want to be stationed on(in?) a submarine! The special effects weren't bad for 1968. The soundtrack is good as well.

When you have Borgnine and Jim Brown in a movie, you automatically think in terms of "The Dirty Dozen". They both did better in that film...

I have never been at all impressed with Rock Hudson, and found his acting to be rather wooden here. He does a good job with the regulation "sub speak", but, for example, in the post-flooding scene with McGoohan, he is very obviously not as impressive an actor as the Englishman (ok ok, McGoohan was born in the US to Irish parents, but they moved back to Ireland, then to England).

In fact, I (and so many others) feel McGoohan steals the movie. Of course, he had many years experience playing "secret agents", so this film may have been a cake-walk for him... just speak a bit more and trade in a black & white blazer for a warm parka! (He did, in fact have to take time off from filming "The Prisoner" to make Zebra.) His character's comments regarding bullet velocity in cold climates is a fan-favorite, along with "the coffee cup" and post-flood explanation. I swear the other actors were just standing there, watching his performance, forgetting the cameras were rolling.

In short, if you like submarines, spies, and mild action, you should like Zebra.

This film is very underrated on this site. It is in a genre that is not really made very often any more--action adventure that is plausible both in plot and technology. And the action adventure plays equal footing to the actual acting and dialog. It is closer to an World War II action film than to, say, one of Arnold Schwartzeneger's action films.

As an artistic piece of work, the lack of women (and any romantic story) keeps this cold war picture completely focused on the primary story, and makes the actors work all that much harder to keep the viewer engaged.

There is also a good bit of spectacular on-location filming that still takes your breath away with its beauty. The actual polar icecap scenes (with actors) where the focal point of the movie's action takes place is a set. And it is a glorious one. No CGI imagery here! I bought this DVD for this film in a bargain bin. If you get the chance snap one up, or rent it and watch it on a decent TV. Great transfer.

Good score as well.

I first saw this film when it was released in 1968 at the Summit Cinerama theater in Detroit, and it was a fantastic movie going experience. I think the first thing that draws you into this film is the rousing score by Michel Legrand and the marvelous cinematography. The engrossing story moves along at a good pace aided by some very intelligent and witty dialogue. A superb cast of seasoned professionals including Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, Jim Brown and especially a very suave and droll Patrick MacGoohan create fully realized characters that act and react in very real human emotions to some extremely tense and suspenseful situations. The next time you see this film in the TV listings, be sure to check it out and I think you will find it superior to many films of the same genre that have been made since. One thing I find puzzling is the fact that this classic has not been released on DVD, and I only hope it is very soon.