Gray Lady Down | | Cast : | Charlton Heston, David Carradine | | Director : | David Greene | | Studio : | Universal Studios Ho | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | April , 1978 | | DVD Released Date : | May 11, 2004 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Dubbed) | | Audience Rating : | PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | June 04, 2005 | | Summary | Terrible | Content
 | 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. |
| Rating | | | Date | February 06, 2005 | | Summary | ***** Film of my life! | Content
| My eyes are glued to that movie.It has very good effects for
drowning people(Ronny Cox,Commander Samuelson)and the falling
rockslides and the big explosions!Comparing it to 20,000 leagues
under the sea,this film is far better.It stars Charlton Heston
as Captain Blanchard,David Carridine as Captain Gates and Stacy
Keach as Captain Bennett.If you havent seen this movie rent it out now and enjoy.
P.S. Rate it 5 stars or their WILL be something really wrong! |
| Rating | | | Date | August 24, 2004 | | Summary | That Sinking Feeling | Content
| For all the films that have ever been made about submarines, especially nuclear-powered ones (THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, DAS BOOT, etc.), the 1978 drama GRAY LADY DOWN stands out as a very good film that even the passage of more than a quarter of a century can't diminish.
Loosely based on David Lavallee's novel "Event 1000", the film puts legendary actor Charlton Heston in the role of the commander of the nuclear submarine "Neptune". On its way home, the sub is accidentally hit by a wayward Norwegian freighter in dense fog some sixty miles off the Atlantic seaboard. While he and his crew (including Ronny Cox, Dorian Harewood, and Stephen McHattie) try to find ways of staying alive and sane as the sub rests on an unstable slope more than a quarter mile underwater, a massive rescue operation is mounted by a by-the-book captain (Stacy Keach) and a non-conformist Navy man (David Carradine) that involves not only the Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle (DSRV) but Carradine's own debris-clearing vehicle the Snark.
The result is, despite some minor flaws, a very good and taut suspense drama, with Heston giving yet another one of his professional performances, this time not as a megahero (a la BEN-HUR), but as just one of the guys. Keach and Carradine also do a good job under the direction of David Greene, as does Ned Beatty as Carradine's assistant. Solid underwater photography and special effects, plus a tension-packed score by Jerry Fielding (Oscar nominee for THE WILD BUNCH and STRAW DOGS) make GRAY LADY DOWN a thoroughly underrated film that is well worth watching. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 09, 2004 | | Summary | Charlton Heston's career goes down with the ship | Content
| 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 *****) |
| Rating | | | Date | July 06, 2004 | | Summary | Excellent print Great Movie. | Content
| Make sure your purchase THIS version of Gray Lady Down, it is from Universal and is released in widescreen as it should be. I already had a copy of The Goodtime release which as other reviewers have stated it was in pan and scan. |
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