“Gray Lady Down” was an addition
to the venerable submarine subgenre of war movies. It was based on the novel by David Lavalee
entitled Event 1000. That title
refers to U.S. Navy terminology for a rescue of a sunken submarine’s crew. It was directed by David Greene (“Friendly
Fire”). It attempted to tap in to the
craze for disaster films in the 1970s, but barely made a blip at the box
office. The movie stars Charleston
Heston sporting his Moses beard. The
production got cooperation from the Navy and the Department of Defense. The USS Trout was loaned to stand in for the
movies USS Nautilus. Footage and a
full-scale model were provided by “Ice Station Zebra”.
It’s Commander Blanchard’s
(Heston) last cruise before a desk job. Should
be a piece of cake, right? On a foggy
night, the sub is running on the surface when they encounter a Russian
freighter that lacks radar. Since the
Nautilus does have radar, you would think it could easily avoid a
freighter. However, what would be entertaining
about that? The resulting collision
tears a giant hole in the engine room and the sub goes down in deep water. Well below crush depth, of course. The American-built sub withstands the
pressure, but settles precariously on a ledge.
The angle makes rescue by a DSRV (Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle)
problematical. The DSRV goes down and it
looks like the rescue will go off without a hitch until a “gravity slide”
covers the escape hatch. Complications,
complications. What we need here is an
iconoclastic genius! Keith Carradine -
enter stage right. Carradine plays Lt.
Gates. Gates commands an experimental
mini-sub named after him. It’s called
the Snark. Fresca product placement! Leaks, mechanical breakdowns, command
dysfunction, etc. ensue. The dominoes
elicit the following line from Heston:
“I’m beginning to feel like a one-legged man in an ass-kicking
contest.” (A line recycled probably from the
uncut version of “The Ten Commandments”.) Somehow the movie manages to throw in an
underwater explosion. If you have seen
any disaster movies, you know there will be survivors and some who sacrifice so
there will be. Did you think the Navy
cooperated with a movie that showed its DSRV as a failure? Do you think
recruitment to the submarine service would be improved by having the crew
perish? Cooperation comes with some
script vetting, after all.
“Gray Lady Down” is not as bad
as you would expect. It is middle of the
road for the subgenre. And, by the way,
I’m not sure it really is a war movie.
Unless you want to believe my conspiracy theory that the Soviet
freighter meant to sink our sub. (Or how
about this one? Commander Blanchard
purposely disregarded his radar in order to provoke World War III so he would
be able to avoid the desk job.)
Regardless, it certainly is a submarine movie. This is proved by the escalating series of
crises common to this subgenre. You get
many of the greatest hits - flooding
compartments, lack of communication, fear of crushing, and so forth. All of this drama is competently
performed. The cast is fine. The recognizable stars are strong, especially
Carradine. His character is stock, but
he brings a twinkle to it. He balances
Heston’s pomposity. I have to admit that
Heston does not chew the scenery as a much as usual. However, the supporting cast is weak. It includes Christopher Reeve in his film
debut. (You know you are in trouble if
Moses and Superman can’t save you.) The
special effects are those of a made-for-TV movie. But at least they are not laughable. The music also reminds of a TV movie.
Will “Gray Lady Down” crack my
100 Best War Movies list? Obviously
not. But it is a fairly entertaining
movie.
