This is a monumental rendering of a rather ordinary adventure by Alistair MacLean involving the usual ingredients of spies, traitors, violence, sabotage, conflicts, political crisis, unbearable suspense, life and death and everything else, but is it not just a little overdone? In the first part of the film, until they finally reach that polar station after the middle of the film, there is very little acting and mainly only technical manoeuvres to get the submarine to its destination, which involves tremendous difficulties, especially with the lack of communications and of course a very thrilling sequence of almost getting stuck under the ice with the prospect of a submarine shipwreck, which isn't a very cheerful prospect for those suffering from claustrophobia on board - this is unavoidable in every submarine film - the claustrophobia is the main element of terror, although here it is not so much in focus.Patrick McGoohan is the ordinary hard line tough guy as an agent with a secret mission, he always is, Ernest Borgnine is the one of the leading actors that gets some opportunity to act, while Rock Hudosn is very bland as a character, almost like a mere figure-head of the journey, while the actor who makes an impression is Alf Kjellin in his brief but efficient appearance in the end. The lack of any woman during all these 2,5 hours adds to the futility and superficiality of the film.Not even Michel Legrand's music can save it. It is impressively majestic and almost bombastic like the whole film, but you see too much of the submarine and the waves and the ice and too little acting. The action in the end is hardly substitute enough for that either.The following Alistair MacLean films, like "Bear Island", "When Eight Bells Toll" and "Puppet on a Chain" are more effcient for being more tense and brief and intensive. Here there is too much circumstance and too little substance.

I saw the movie at the Cinerama theater in 1968...if you don't know what Cinerama was, look it up. It's kind of like IMAX but done with three projectors. Yes, now the fact that it is a set is rather obvious but then, just seeing this on a huge, huge screen was breathtaking. The movie holds up even though today's standards would have forced them off the sound stage and generate 4/5 of it with a computer. I thought the twist with the death of Jim Brown was cool, even now as I just saw it on TCM. The "oh well, we both accomplished our mission as best we could, now let's just walk away, no sense killing each other" finale...was interesting but not so sure I buy it. Another reviewer here asked why they just didn't blow the whole place up immediately and leave so no one would get the capsule, if they suspected that the capsule was there. First, the allies wanted the capsule because it had important Russian information on it as well. 2nd, they were looking to see what happened to the people there first, so they had to investigate. As an added point, Borgnine's accent was horrid. It went on and off and at first, it sounded like he was trying to do an Irish accent. Awful.

DAS BOOT meets THE THING is how I would describe this Alistair MacLean thriller in retrospect. It's one of the tentpole movies of the 1960s, a larger-than-life thriller that makes full use of Cold War tensions in its tale of a desperate race to the North Pole to grab a MacGuffin that the other side can't be allowed to get its hands upon.ICE STATION ZEBRA is an unashamedly old-fashioned film, brought to life by the sterling direction of surehand John Sturges (who'd previously completed, so memorably, THE GREAT ESCAPE and THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN). The running time is lengthy and there's barely any action, but there is plenty of suspense and a handful of exciting set-pieces that don't disappointment. I'd previously watched the hammier MacLean adaptation BEAR ISLAND previously, but it wasn't anywhere near as assured - or, indeed, well made - as this film.The late, much missed Rock Hudson grabs the main role of the submarine commander and proves to be a likable and realistic hero. Ernest Borgnine is a delight, as always, and Patrick McGoohan is excellent as well. It was a pleasure to see Jim Brown in an early role in his career, but the real star of the thing is the submarine, which is brought to expert life. The only thing you can really criticise about ICE STATION ZEBRA is that some of the miniature effects are a bit shonky - the model planes flying in front of the back screen projection are appalling - but poor effects have never tempered my enjoyment of a movie. This one's a delight.

Based on Alistair MacLean's novel, and starring Rock Hudson as a submarine commander assigned to a top secret mission to the North Pole, where he carries passengers; a mysterious British civilian(played by Patrick McGoohan, on a break from filming his classic series "The Prisoner") a Russian(played by Ernest Borgnine) and also stars Jim Brown as a platoon leader. All of them converge on Ice Station Zebra, a weather tracking station that finds itself at the heart of an international incident.Mediocre adventure yarn is too long, and unconvincingly tries to pass off the frozen Antarctic outdoors on an indoor set! Good cast and score, but that's all in disappointing film.