Gray Lady Down
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Movie Reviews of Gray Lady Down
Movie Review: Charlton Heston's career goes down with the ship
Summary: 2 Stars
How sad it was to watch the once-great actor Charlton Heston's career go down with the ship in the '70's, as he finished his career as the star of major studio fare with "Gray Lady Down," an undistinguished, by-the-numbers disaster opus in which he's the captain of a nuclear submarine that sinks to the bottom of the ocean after being accidentally rammed by a Russian ship. The film follows the Navy's desperate attempt to rescue the surviving crew members before they run out of air, or worse yet, fall off the ridge they are resting on and crush in the resulting water pressure.
That's it for plot. What follows is pure tedium, as Heston and crew (watch closely for Michael O'Keefe and a pre-"Superman" Christopher Reeve) struggle to survive while the Naval authorities above (led by Stacy Keach and David Carradine) come up with a rescue plan. Evidently, all rescue procedures showcased in the film are authentic and were in use at the time, but so what? Watching this film is like spending two hours watching a bunch of sweating men sitting in a sauna. Director David Greene (an ace TV director who is out of his league on the big screen) manages to create absolutely no suspense or urgency in nearly two hours and exhibits zero style or technique. Even the musical score is boring.
As for the performances, Heston seems less stiff here than in "Airport 1975," but he once again fails to exhibit any of the charisma or phenomenal talent he displayed in classics like "Ben-Hur," "A Touch of Evil," and "The Planet of the Apes." He just looks tired, and it's no wonder that this was his last major studio film and that only three more star vehicles would follow: the unfortunate trio of the vulgar "The Mountain Men," the horrible "The Awakening" and the middling actioner "Mother Lode." Keach, on the other hand, is effective as the chief rescuer, Ned Beatty provides needed moxie as a particularly sweaty rescue worker, and David Carradine adds an offbeat edge as an unusual, zen-like Naval officer. (Although even then he appears to be waiting for Quentin Tarantino to grow up and create "Kill Bill" for him.) Unfortunately, Ronny Cox exits early as Heston's doomed replacement (cliche alert: this is Capt. Heston's final voyage, natch).
In all, "Gray Lady Down" is a total misfire and plays like a tired rehash of "Airport '77." And it looks particularly bad when compared to great submarine films like "Das Boot," "The Hunt for Red October" and "Crimson Tide." In all, it sinks faster than the submarine.
Incidentally, the DVD in in panavision widescreen (2:35:1) and is remastered with superior sound. However, there are no special features of any kind. All in all, a tired presentation of a tired film. ** (out of *****)
Movie Review: Tired and routine disaster movie
Summary: 2 Stars
At times feeling like Airport '77 without the plane or the all-star cast, 1978's Gray Lady Down came out in the dog days of the disaster genre when Charlton Heston's career as a big screen leading man was on its last legs, and there's a sense of tired routine to this tale of a sub stranded on an unstable ocean ledge after a collision with a fishing vessel. The last major submarine movie until The Hunt for Red October, it suffers the problems of most peacetime submarine movies. Without the standard can't fail wartime dramatics of the genre - depth charges, torpedoes, silent running et al - it's a pretty static affair with Heston and his crew spending most of the film sitting around waiting to be rescued while Stacy Keach hovers around the rescue ship's control room and David Carradine and Ned Beatty sit around watching from their prototype mini-sub in murky model shots.
A lot of money has been spent, but to little effect. David Greene's flat direction doesn't disguise the fact that there's little in the way of tension while at times you can't help wondering if the price of the Navy's co-operation was eliminating any possible drama from the script in the fear it might make them look bad. The film does briefly raise the possibility of conflict between Heston and Ronny Cox's ExO over responsibility for the accident only to quickly let the matter drop lest anyone get the impression that not all of the navy's sub commanders are at the top of their game.
Christopher Reeve has a couple of lines in a bit part and it's nice to briefly see Heston's War Lord co-star Rosemary Forsyth as his wife even if all but one of her scenes ended up on the cutting room floor, but the film remains a pedestrian time-filler. Even Jerry Fielding adds nothing much to the proceedings with his TV movie-style score, bizarrely built around the Carol of the Bells.
Movie Review: Terrible
Summary: 1 Stars
This movie is not even worth one star it is worth 0. Wow was this a bad movie. The plot was good but the acting was terrible. Charles Heston was even a bad actor in this movie. It's two hours of dialogue and captains talking. It takes them forever to even get close to getting them out of there. It's just blah, blah, blah. I bought this for my dad last Fathers day and he saw the trailer and said this does not look good and looks corny. I decided to watch it almost a year later and was very dissaponting. This is in fact just bad enough for Mystery Science Theatre 3000 to make fun of. Please do yourself a favor and do not buy this stupid movie. God bless you and have a great day.