Tired and routine disaster movie
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.

An Undersea Adventure
Charlton Heston stars in this exciting film about an American nuclear submarine which is disabled in a collision with another ship.

Heston stars as Capt. Paul Blanchard, commander of the submarine USS Neptune. Blanchard is retiring and has just turned command of the boat over to Commander Dave Samuelson (Ronny Cox). The ship is making its way back to port in very foggy conditions when suddenly, a Norwegian freighter slams into the sub. The freighter had lost its radar and could not see the sub. Immediately, the sub begins to sink, finally coming to rest 1,450 feet below the surface of the sea and perched precariously on an underwater ledge.

The Norwegians managed to notify the Navy about the accident and soon, Captain Al Bennett (Stacy Keach), along with the Navy's DSRV recovery sub is racing to the scene of the collision. Also included in the rescue effort is Captain Gates (David Carradine), the pilot of an experimental submersible called the Snark; a tiny two-man sub which can be used for various tasks. Gates' job is to clear debris off the deck of the Neptune so the DSRV can dock with the Neptune's escape hatch.

Meanwhile, the Neptune has been enduring several undersea earth slides which threaten to push the sub off the shelf its resting on and into a deep undersea canyon. Blanchard does his best to keep the morale of his crew up, but its become a race against time as the sub begins to lose oxygen and more compartments are flooded by the seawater. Several tricks, including an underwater detonation of explosives, are tried to correct the sub's angle so the DSRV can successfully dock with the Neptune's escape hatch. Finally, the DSRV is able to dock with the Neptune and the task of transporting the surviving crew members to the surface begins. However, the sub begins to slip off its ledge before the rescue can be completed. Will the remaining crew be rescued, or will they slide off the ledge and into the canyon with the Neptune?

This is an excellent film. Made during the height of the Cold War, this film shows what could happen if an American submarine were to sink in a deep part of the ocean. The DSRV has since become the main rescue vehicle for American subs. The film's story is very good, and the acting, especially by Keach, Heston, and Carradine, is first-rate.

I give this movie my highest recommendation. The story is believable and the action is non-stop. Fans of Naval history and action films will be sure to enjoy this exciting movie.

Right UP your ALLEY...
we'll here is yet another reason Charlton Heston is a really great actor. one of the best of them. i'll be really sad to ever see him go. some of my biggest memories of being a kid we're of his movies.
this one is no different he's taking another leap and bound into disaster movies. just this one is underwater. some great actors playing along side him "Stacey Keach" and "David Carradine".
if you like Heston or even if you are into Disaster movies (an odd fascination)this one is "right up your alley". Heston is no amateur to disaster movies, he's done his share of them. hope you enjoy it!
CMH

[Three-and-a-half out of Four stars] Fine performances by Carradine, Heston, Beatty and look for Christopher Reeves (unbilled)
Very well made movie with all cast in their
primes. A Norwegian Freighter hists Amer-I-
can nuclear sub and it sinks to depth or
1,400 ft. Carradine gives up ghost for sub
at end. Great supporting cast with many
Hawai'i Five-0 vets aboard.

Showcasing the Past and Future....DSRV Intelligence Story
Isn't it ironic that amongst the poor acting one really cool aspect of the film came about for future generations to witness. I am referring to the experimental DSRV in the film and how it would become famous not for saving trapped submariners but as an intelligence gathering vehicle during the height of the cold war. Could anyone (civilians) have known or understood the nature of this revolutionary vehicle in the 1960's and early 1970's (launched in 1971 as The Avalon) and what it's true purpose was after it's mission declassification in the late 1990's.

Actually the film is historical in a sense that this vehicle the "The Mystic" was actually a intelligence gathering device used by the US Navy that plyed the Northern Atlantic and Pacific Oceans "tapping" into undersea cables laid by the former Soviet Union's Northern Baltic Naval fleet. The vehicle's purpose was cloaked and sold as a "rescue vehicle" however knowing personally several former US Navy submariner's their accounts are that no vehicle can or would be able to do what was envisioned as the movie portrays since most subs navigate waters far to deep to prepare for and or perform rescue missions without further loss of life possibilities, accounting from angles and degrees of list and other logistical and environmental spatial difficulties.

Historically this vehicle was born as a result of the USS Thresher and USS Scorpion losses and was a perfect cover for the CIA to clandestinely gather intel on Soviet Northern Fleet communications intercepts. The whole premise of the vehicle in actuallity was to "literally wiretap" without the Soviets knowing and this coupled with the SOSUS listenting posts gave US Commanders advance knowledge of all Sub traffic comms to and from Moscow in the 70's and 80's. Cool stuff, a vehicle that has since been exposed as a high priced/tech sluth, and justified as an experimental rescue vehicle that had a "universal collar" to boot, this sure as heck wasn't able to save the crew of The Kursk whose hatch was not configured to accept such a device anyway.

Overall could you imagine the look on the US Navy's media relations people when this was dreamed up! I thought this might be some cool intel for fun to highlight the movies underlying message and promotion or should I say deception, no-one survives submarine sinkings, water pressure and great depths make rescue nearly impossible, this vehicle's potential operating depths include 0-5000ft deep however most US subs built since 1960 can only operate at depths up to 1400-1900 feet max with potential implosion risks where water pressure applies itself at over 25,000 pounds per sq inch, so rescue even at these depths could be remote and that's even a stretch considering the stricken vehicle would have to be listing no more that 14-29 degrees upright for proper seal to be achieved.

Overall at last review the US Navy operated (2) vehicles one on each coast based in Norfolk and San Diego and available to be flown anywhere in the world within a modified C-5 Galaxy cargo plane. In summary as the US fleet reduces size over the next twenty years this vehicle's mission has changed to more peaceful multilateral functionality with other countries testing new technologies on underwater retrieval and rescue methodology. Now you know the rest of the story as Paul Harvey would say. Watch the movie for the unveiling of this vehicle to the world and you now will have a greater appreciation for it.