MovieChat Forums > Ice Station Zebra (1968) Discussion > No cold breath

No cold breath

posted 17 years ago by jonokjan
14 replies | jump to latest

Have seen the movie a few times but don't recall seeing any breath coming from the characters during the outdoor arctic sceens. That's the only thing that ruins the movie for me. It keeps reminding me it was filmed on a warm Hollywood sound stage. Was that an oversight or was it over budget?

If it bleeds, we can kill it!

[–] judd_clarke 17 years ago

Get. A. Life.

[–] Moor-Larkin 17 years ago

http://flickr.com/photos/11417707@N04/

[–] max_demian 14 years ago

...and the survivors didn't have chapped lips.

[–] arbilab 13 years ago

No movement of the fur parkas or the snow on the ground in the 'thrilling climax' with howling wind on the soundtrack. Were they over budget? Major.

[–] cableaddict 11 years ago

- Same with the yellow smoke from the canisters, when they were set off. It just hung in the air, yet you hear howling wind in the background.

[–] a_l_i_e_n 13 years ago

Have seen the movie a few times but don't recall seeing any breath coming from

the characters during the outdoor arctic sceens.

Was that an oversight or was it over budget?

Nowdays they can add computer animated breath into any actor's mouth to simulate the kind of condensation of water vapor in the breath you'd see from someone in a cold weather environment. They used to build sets in freezers as was done in "The Exorcist" to get breath to appear on film. But, as the second half of the story was set largely outdoors with a lot of characters present, it made it difficult to put them all in an artificially cold area large enough to create the condensation of water vapor in the breath effect. Shooting outdoor scenes on location would've been expensive, too. So, I guess they just decided they'd spent so much money already that they could skip this little detail and nobody would notice. Seems they were wrong there, too.

^ Edited to make TongueFU happy.

[–] artistathome 13 years ago

Filmmakers better not try to get away with ANYTHING if they are filming what they say is an EPIC.

if it is just any old movie, that is one thing. But this was a big budget pic with great music and great acting from a great book.

And yes, audiences today noticed. Did they notice in 1968?
Nope.

[–] TongueFu 9 years ago

If there's steam coming out of a human being, then he's got a much bigger problem than cold air. The emanation of steam indicates that he's boiling inside. By the time his body reached a temperature high enough to make his bodily fluids steam, he would be dead from hyperthermia. What you're referring to is the visible cloud caused by the condensation of water vapor in the breath when a person exhales in a frigid environment.Vapor, not steam!

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] bradford-1 13 years ago

My parents took me to see this in 1969 as a birthday treat. After the picture, my father said something like, "I don't get it. Those guys were supposed to be near the North Pole, but I never saw anybody's breath." Me and my mother sloughed him off!

"We're fighting for this woman's honor, which is more than she ever did."

[–] richard-III 10 years ago

Hehe. Well, it didn't bother me. Maybe because I'm used to watching stage plays.

"I don't discriminate between entertainment
and arthouse. A film is a goddam film."

[–] Steamboy 10 years ago

They looked too hot with their shiny forehead and not one bit cold, I found this more disturbing than the lack of cold breath. They could try to act it at least!

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[–] rpartrid-2 9 years ago

and no head covering near the ending - I live in Canada -your ears would freeze and fall off (joking) in the arctic and Rock's hair doesn't move in the raging blizzard And did I notice this in 1968 YES (I was a young adult then)

[–] 9 years ago

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