Sauvez le Neptune !

I first saw "Gray lady Down" in the theater (Floral Park, NY). I've seen quite a few times since. The cast is very good. The movie looks great. It has more than a couple of tense moments. It moves fast with little, if any, downtime. "Gray Lady Down" is not a classic. I wouldn't put it on any of my Top Ten lists but I always have a good time when I watch it.

This is a great movie for military enthusiasts and disaster buffs both. If you're looking for that, this is a classic.

Don't pay attention to reviews about military-based films by anyone who derides the movie as a "waterlogged Naval documentary," which contains two errors in one statement. First, there is no need to capitalize "naval," and second, what kind of snobby theater twit attacks a movie for being too "Naval" when the subject is about...a U.S. NAVY SUBMARINE? Next he'll attack Ghostbusters for being a shill for paranormal investigators.

Stupid reviewers aside, this is a good movie.

One of the better disaster films of the 70s with fine performances by Charlton Heston and David Carradine, lending strong support are Stacy Keach, Stephen McHattie, Ronny Cox, Ned Beatty, and a cast of recognizable faces including Christopher Reeve in his film debut pre-Superman. Solid thrills and tension throughout with a tight script and believable story based on a real incident (supposedly). Solidly entertaining and holds up well. One of the best submarine films out there. Highly recommended.

I remember seeing this movie in the theater when it came out and the review in Time magazine. OK I remember one part of what was a positive review. It said that the movie avoids the bane of the disaster genre, the subplot. The best sentence in the review that I think describes the movie perfectly is," It is a job-oriented movie about job-oriented men." I can't think of a better way to describe it. The actors give there best professional naval officer performances (well maybe not Carradine...good performance...not sure about the naval officer part) and the movie sticks its subject, the rescue. An entertaining movie that delivers a straightforward story and there is nothing wrong with that.

Watching this rescue-of-a-sinking-sub film back in the day, it must have felt kind of redundant in the wake of THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (1972) and AIRPORT’ 77 (1977); that said, it didn’t hinder movie mogul Lew Grade from financing a production not long after depicting the biggest (fictional) rescue operation of all time with RAISE THE TITANIC (1980) – which, incidentally, is a title I haven’t watched in some time!

In any case, GRAY LADY DOWN is as much a drama detailing the plight of the sub’s constantly diminishing crew, commandeered by the oh-so-stoic Charlton Heston, as a showcase for novel sea exploration/rescue techniques (in the form of a mini-sub armed with sonar and camera designed and maneuvered by David Carradine). The tension arises out of the fact that the damaged vessel is slipping ever downwards due to the water level inside and the unstable surface where it’s been lodged; added to this, however, is antagonism going on both above and below the surface (between Carradine and Stacy Keach, the officer in charge of the rescue operation, and between Heston and Ronny Cox, the man who was supposed to relieve him of duty, respectively). Also in the cast is Ned Beatty as Carradine’s long-suffering chubby pal and Christopher Reeve (in his film debut) as Keach’s young aide; interestingly, the two would be re-united soon after for SUPERMAN (1978)!

The film is aided by nice Widescreen photography and a serviceable score by Jerry Fielding, but let down somewhat by overlength (the repetitive and draggy nature of events tending towards a general dullness). However, as I said in reviews of some of the other disaster movies I’ve been watching of late, while most of these were pretty much dismissed when originally released, with time, have achieved an undeniable campy charm (amusingly, at one point the submerged crew choose to watch JAWS [1975] – conveniently, also a Universal production – as a means of respite from their current dilemma, but especially when Heston proclaims in desperation: “I feel like a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest!”).