Ice Station Zebra, Where Eagles Dare. = When? (1 Viewer)

[Randy Streck]

Just was wnadering if anyone has an update on these 2 great movies, and if/when they are coming to DVD.

Thanks,Randy

 

[Jim Robbins]

You and about a million others want both these films. I was just watching my very noisy Laserdisc last night. I know they had work to do before releasing "WED". I hope it has much less video noise since 90% of the movie is at night. I am not sure if this is MGM or Warner's but MGM has been very active lately in releasing older films(just look at tomorrows releases).

 

[Phil Nichols]

My only way to watch WED is via a VHS copy and I can clear up most of it's noise with a special filter in my VCR. However, I can't find it anywhere in NTSC VHS widescreen - only P&S - which REALLY ruins the great vistas in this movie. WED does exist in PAL VHS widescreen and I've given some thought to buying this PAL version and having it converted to NTSC.

ISZ would be great on DVD too, and I can't find it on widescreen (letterbox) VHS either - in the meantime.

 

[Eric Paddon]

"I am not sure if this is MGM or Warner's but MGM has been very active lately in releasing older films(just look at tomorrows releases). "

They are both under Warner control, not MGM.

 

[Ken Wilson]

Hi!
Where Eagles Dare, Guns of Navarone, fine, but Ice Station Zebra?! They totally f*ucked-up the story in that movie; it was hardly recognizable as I recall.
Anyway, that's the way I felt; I read every book Alistair McLean ever put out back then, and I just remember being very offended by the way Hollywood changed the story...

Ken

 

[Bjorn Olav Nyberg]

Ken,

Another Alistair McLean fan here back in my youth, I read al of his books (except the Alastair MacNeill books) pretty much in order, and watching most of the movies whenever I could. In fact I remember borrowing The guns of navarone at my library and reading it the day before the olympics in Korea started, because norwegian television was showing The guns of Navarone during the night before the olympics started, and I wanted to read the book first.

Anyway, to get to the point, although I was a big fan of the books, a lot of the filmed versions made me appreciate the effort to stray a little (or a lot) from the book in order to achieve something of the same tension. I remember the book as pretty intense, but kinda low on action, whereas the movie played more like a straight-forward action movie. And actually that didn't bother me at all, I think the best movies that borrow their ideas and/or plot lines from books are the ones that are willing to stray from the book, if the book is hard to port directly to the screen. To me it makes sense, since the mediums are a lot different anyway.

I'd very much like Ice station Zebra, and remember it as being one of the best MacLean based movies ever, despite taking a lot of liberty with the book.

 

[Ken Wilson]

Hi Bjorn,
Please don't interpret my earlier comments to mean that I only like movies that stick to the book story. It's just that some books don't lend themselves to that sort of tinkering with screenplays, and I think Ice Station Zebra is an example of that.
After I posted earlier, I went over to the Internet Movie Database to see what a lot of other people felt. It's quite obvious from the lower score that people didn't like Ice Station Zebra nearly as much. Score: 6.2/10 versus 7.5/10 for Guns of Navarone. The Guns of Navarone was nominated in multiple categories for Academy Awards, including Best Picture, plus several other organizations for other awards. Ice Station Zebra only got nominated for Oscars in Cinematography and effects. That's it. Zip all else.
I'd call it rental material, not buying material.

Ken

 

[Eric Paddon]

I agree that the movie "Ice Station Zebra" is not very enjoyable if you read MacLean's novel first. I found the novel to be an exciting mystery story, and the movie ruined this completely by changing all the characters and the plot.

 

[Dan M~]

Thats OK, I haven't read the book.
Bring on the DVD!! (Ignorance is bliss!)

 

[Mike Friedrich]

I haven't read the book either but I really like watching ISZ, it's one the first Hollywwood atomic age submarine films not counting Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea in which a few have followed.
bodymov'n

 

[Mick B]

If Howard Hughes were alive, we would be watching ISZ long ago.
mick

 

[Dharmesh C]

I thought I saw a rather decent print of Where Eagles Dare on TCM in England.

 

[RickardL]

I have commented on this before but...
I have a widescreen VHS PAL copy of Where Eagles Dare
in Dolby Surround which I think is really good for VHS
quality. So, there must have been a decent master
available in the UK in the mid 90s (where and when I
bought the movie).

 

[Phil Nichols]

RichardL,

I'm come close to buying the PAL widescreen version of WED from a European supplier and then having it converted to NTSC for my use here in the US.

Do you happen to know how PAL-to-NTSC conversion of letterbox movies comes out quality-wise? I'm even wondering if conversion to NTSC Super-VHS from PAL VHS for WED might result in a "loss-less" conversion, because as I understand it PAL VHS does indeed tend to produce superior images to straight NTSC VHS?

 

[Bjorn Olav Nyberg]

I thought I saw a rather decent print of Where Eagles Dare on TCM in England.

I saw it too. To be precise, I saw it on the european version, which usually air them a week or so after the UK version, but it was almost certainly the same, and it looked pretty good. It would probably not make a good DVD though, since the DVD would require a higher resolution after all.

 

[Dharmesh C]

I watched a bit on TCM digital, Bjørn. I was rather surprised that the print looked rather clean. Digital is pretty close DVD quality, I think.

 

[Mike Friedrich]

Phil, if you're going to pay for a PAL to NTSC transfer most definately go with SVHS , 400 lines of resolution compared to 265[VHS] and yes PAL is in between both as far as resolution so go for the higher res. Also have them use a really good blank like a 3M Blackwatch, you'll like the results.
If you do decide to do the WED SVHS transfer let me know incase you're interested in swapping for a WS LD copy of ISZ.
bodymov'n

 

[Jeff_HR]

I liked both films very much. And I would buy both in a split second! Too bad that there is no really concrete info available as to possible release time frames.

 

[Peter Kline]

Zebra also has some of the worst production values. The scenes at the Pole are so obviously sound stagy. If done today people would laugh. (Actually they laughed when it was released). Adding insult to injury it was presented in so-called "Cinerama". As others stated, the book is the way to go.