so the radar guy notified the two guys on the tower that an object was on the same course in the opposite direction 6,000 yards away and approaching. those two guys on the tower just took a look in the fog, saw nothing (but of course!) and told the radar watcher to notify them when the distance between them was reaching 3,000 yards. can you believe this kind stupid operation by a u.s. nuclear submarine?! why they had to maintain the cruise course? why they could not adjust the course just a lit bit to avoid any possible crash? were there so many objects in front of the submarine that forced it to maintain their course? well, what a stupid scenario! when the radar guy notified the captain of the foreign cargo ship lost their radar, he ran up to the bridge to notify the captain, he just told the crew to continue the course. one of the bridge member asked the captain: "don't we have to stop the ship to repair the radar first in this heavy fog?" well, if the captain decided to stop the cargo ship, the stupid submarine would still crash into the cargo ship, because the subs would still maintain their crash course. this is such a stupid movie that sickened me to the extreme. a good movie would not bend itself too wide just to make the scenarios serve the development of it so conveniently, overlooking the illogical, ridiculous and unreasonable plot. i just couldn't go on once a stupid premise blindly served the purpose. watching this stupid movie is like after heard the warning of the radar guy they were on a crash course to an approaching object 6,000 yards away, yet the two guys on the conning tower simply told him to notify them when it reached them on the same course @ 3,000 yards. you heard my similar warning here too, but you still decided to maintain on the crash-collision course. good luck and, see you on the bottom of the deep ocean.

Nice underwater drama film based on a real-life incident about pitting man and machine . It deals with an US Navy atomic submarine (commanded by Charlton Heston on his final voyage and as second in command Ronnie Cox) that has accidentally collided with Norway freighter and goes down into deep . The movie concerns upon an American sub , the complications originated for a nuclear scape and fight against time . But the submarine, and its crew, are ill prepared for the challenges they will face . A two-man rescue operation by means of an experimental driving craft (captained by David Carradine and Ned Beatty) try to find the victims , as many sailors will have to sacrifice themselves to save life of crew members. And a greatest ship based in San Diego California with an expert crew of ¨Submarine Rescue Unity¨ heads the sinking location.Runtime film is overlong , the flick is slow moving and a little boring , though a bit monotonous is quite interesting. Tense and exciting at times and climatic ending , but lot of minutes are superfluous ,it has half hour of excess, however the movie is enough agreeable.The yarn is interesting and based on real deeds as submarine U.S.S. Thresher that sank in 1963 in one of the worst catastrophes at sea. There are suspense ,thriller and action, though the scenario is mostly developed into submarines.Charlton Heston's performance as commandant is excellent, he hands perfectly the role , Heston has gotten the best character along with David Carradine as valiant skipper . Ronny Cox's acting as the contender official is first rate. Facing off between two commanders is top-notch . And large support cast as Stephen McHattie, Dorian Harewood, Charles Cioffi, Rosemary Forsyth and look for Christopher Reeve and Michael O'Keefe .David Greene direction is fine and cinematography is atmospheric and colorful . Jerry Fielding music is spectacular and adjusted to film.The movie will appeal to disaster genre enthusiasts and action lovers . Rating : 6,5 , better than average .

Gray Lady Down is one of the better Seventies disaster films and it's also one of the better films that Charlton Heston did in the later part of his career starting in the Seventies. Heston like so many other of the stars of the studio era was finding fewer and fewer decent film properties to do. This was one of his better choices.Heston plays the skipper of a nuclear powered submarine which goes down in a collision. Things get further complicated when the 'gray lady' is buried partially in an undersea mudslide, blocking the escape hatch.The Naval Rescue service is on the job however, but this will prove a difficult task.The film is divided evenly between Heston and his crew as Heston tries to keep morale up that the survivors will be rescued and on the surface rescue vessel where a conflict between two captains hampers the rescue effort. Stacy Keach is the captain of the rescue vessel and his conflict is with Keith Carradine also of captain's rank who's developed a special undersea two man vessel that can scoop the dirt off the gray lady. Special mention should go to Ronny Cox who is Heston's number two and also not really getting along with him, but who steps up to the plate in a most heroic fashion.In 1978 when Gray Lady Down came out there were still memories of the submarine U.S.S. Thresher which went down in 1963 with all hands lost in one of the U.S. Navy's worst disasters at sea. A lot of what you see in this film was developed because of that tragedy.Gray Lady Down is a no nonsense sea rescue film with the impossible situations that characterized a lot of the films of this type kept out of the story. It's one of the best and yet most unsung of the disaster films of the decade. Should be seen more often. Charlton Heston and the rest of the cast do a fine job on this film.

I rented it with the wife one day after remembering seeing it as a child. 5.6 is about the right rating for this film. Not a failure, but not that entertaining either. Many other sub movies like Das Boat give a better feel. Heston does another great role, it is hard to name many bad films he has been it. In the end, rent something else! 5/10