In each year of the 60s MGM seemed to release three $10 million dollar movies. I have never seen a film company so dedicated to ensure their output was simply colossal. With this aim, some good ideas were boosted up and into mega colossal whopper H-U-G-E ambitions that were presented in 70mm, ran over 2.5 hours and commanded luxury picture palace sized first release cinemas world wide. As such an experience they all looked sounded and presented with this aim intact. Today the lion is in a cage at Warner Bros and Foxtel screens the films in the centre panel crippled by pan and scan only. I can hear the poor beast crying. ICE STATION ZEBRA is the MGM version of a James Bond film and succeeds in the experience offered above. On TV it is a compromised "TV show" and faults become so apparent that you might switch off. I suggest any chance to see this film on a large cinema screen will allow you to be swept up in the excitement of a pensive thriller. By the time we get to the location of the title, and the hilariously silly set made clearly of plastic icebergs and santasnow to see what seems to be a cold war picnic at the North Pole, you will be more aghast that the climax could be so shoddy and lame. It looks like a TV station Santa-set with fur parkas and guns instead of helpers. But, under the spell of the cinema, belief is suspended and the film succeeds. On TV you start wondering why there is no frosty breath and warm heads under beanies.
