ICE STATION ZEBRA (1968)
- Info-Station On Ice -
A film review by Gerard Martin
Copyright 1996 Gerard Martin
Directed by : John Sturges Cinematography by : Daniel L. Fapp Produced by : Martin Ransohoff Written by : J. W. R. Burnett, Harry Julian Fink, Douglas Heyes Based on the book by : Alistair MacLean Edited by : Robert Dalva Music by : Michel Legrand Starring : Rock Hudson, Patrick McGoohan, Ernest Borgnine, Jim Brown, Tony Bill --------------
By placing a high premium on the value of information, ICE STATION ZEBRA remains a movie that nearly holds its own almost thirty years later. Indeed I would speculate that simply to have revealed this basic "information" tenet of the story would surely have been viewed as a serious "spoiler" in 1968 when the movie was released and 1963 when Alistair MacLean's book by the same name was published. You see, ICE STATION ZEBRA is really about the retrieval of "information about"; this along with a never-ending routine of attention paid to the always frequent exchange of logistical "information for" in the movement of people and things across the earth's geography.
Director John Sturges' production of ICE STATION ZEBRA opens with critically acclaimed special effects shots of a satellite in orbit far above the earth; this immediately followed by scenes of the instrument-lit technical subculture world of satellite geo-orbital tracking. Then, almost as soon as the space-age starts, the scenes of vast antenna arrays are replaced when high-tech meets low-tech in the scene-change to a more down-to-earth yet oddly formal underworld of a bar, a telephone, and a proverbial private chamber where only secrets about secrets are ever revealed. Here is where the constant need for much more information quickens the pace. Questions abound and answers are few and far between. Even the questions quickly lead to more questions! Who are the good guys, the bad guys ... and what do they know about this story?
Beyond the search for Ice Station Zebra - and much sooner rather than much later, there is cause for wonder of the more eclectic kind. Why are there no women in this film? When did actor Rock Hudson, who plays submarine captain James Ferraday, decide that he preferred the company of men? Was not the character "David Jones," played by Patrick McGoohan, the opportune warm-up exercise for the acting role of No. 6 in THE PRISONER which aired on television the same year? "There's somebody who doesn't want us to get to Ice Station Zebra" speaks Jones mid-way through the film when a deadly sabotage effort threatens the mission of this state-of-the-art nuclear-powered submarine. Can chewing gum really be that deadly? Not, implies Jones, unless one knows what one is doing.
In the end, perhaps "doing" is what the story is all about. The enigma that is the Arctic "Ice Station Zebra" is a place, a moment in time, and an action packed final=E9 to elaborate opportunities to show a nuclear submarine as intricate, powerful, vulnerable, monumental and awe inspiring no matter how one chooses to use this "chess-piece" in the ancient cold-war game of sizing-up the enemy.
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