K-19: THE WIDOWMAKER

[MARCBLEE]

K-19: THE WIDOWMAKER

IT TOOK 28 YEARS FOR THIS SECRET TO BE TOLD.  ONLY AFTER THE FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL DID NEWS OF THIS SURFACE.  NOW WE GET A MOVIE BASED ON AN ACTUAL EVENT THAT COULD HAVE BEEN CATOSTROPHIC FOR THE WORLD

Synopsis: At the height of the Cold War, Captain Alexi Vostrikov (Harrison Ford) is ordered to take over command of the nuclear missile submarine K-19, pride of the Soviet Navy. His assignment: Prepare the K-19 for sea and take her out on patrol, no matter what the cost. But problems with the K:19 arise that may lead to a core meltdown and explosion that will certainly kill all aboard, and possibly trigger a nuclear war. Vostrikov must choose between his orders and the lives of his men.

K-19: The Widowmaker, an actual Soviet sub accident, has the ring of truth about it, thanks to the loss of the Russian submarine Kursk and revelations about what caused that sinking.

Liam Neeson is Polenin, who is to captain the Soviet navy's first nuclear ballistic missile submarine, the K-19. He has worked his crew, battled the shipyard and the military brass to get the vessel ready. He isn't willing to compromise the ship's safety for the Motherland.

So he is displaced. Capt. Vostrikov(Harrison Ford), a senior, politically connected skipper, is brought in to take the sub to sea.

"We deliver, or we drown," he informs Polenin.

With deadly and complicated equipment that the green crew doesn't understand and a new captain, the drowning seems more likely. Superstitious sailors label the ship unlucky, "The Widowmaker." But it's 1961, the very height of the Cold War. The Soviets, to maintain the balance of "mutually assured destruction," must match the new American threat, our A-bomb armed submarine fleet. So the K-19 heads to sea, safety be damned.

The hull creaks and groans from the crushing pressure. Sailors stare, wide-eyed, at every drip plopping from the damp, leaky pipes. The corridors are crowded, the bulkheads low, the torpedoes as dangerous to their crews as they are to the enemy. And there's always a gauge that sticks, requiring someone to tap on it to make it work.

Action director Kathryn Bigelow uses those familiar ingredients as seasoning in what is essentially a character study of men facing horrific choices. The choices arrive in the form of what became the hallmark of the Soviet system -- an accident.

K-19 is no Red October/U-571-style hunt-and-hunted thriller. The sub here is a crucible where character, mettle and metal are tested. The movie makes the most of the novelty that these men are the faceless commie enemy, humanized. It has taken this long for a Hollywood movie to allow the Soviets to show patriotism, even as the film condemns a heartless, unworkable political system for flinging brave sailors into battle with inferior hardware.

The cast, a mix of Hollywood, international and Eastern European actors, speaks variations of "Hollywood Russian," with mixed results. Ford takes a shot at it, Neeson rarely bothers, and old pros like Joss Ackland lay it on thick.

Other details, like the borscht and red wine served the crew (the wine helps protect against radiation), are interesting “facts” I never knew about.  I wonder if it’s true.  

And the players hit many of the right emotional marks, especially Neeson. Ford may struggle with playing a man who could be either a patriot or a suicidal fanatic, but Neeson brings credebility to a deceptively heroic role. As in other sub movies, the rest of the crew are relative unknowns, but perfectly solid in playing stoics, martyrs, cowards and schemers.

Bigelow and the screenwriters didn't know how to end this thing, which leads to several anticlimactic super-titled postscripts ripped from the pages of history. But she nails the emotion and just enough of the details to make K-19 a serviceable addition to the roster of submarine thrillers. It's no Das Boot, Crimson Tide or The Enemy Below. But it's no embarrassment, either.

My Score: 8 out of 10

[Werewolf]

Thanks, Marc!  

I am waiting for this movie for so long and I´m looking forward to see it. It will be interesting to see how an American film shows a Sowjet crew as heroes.

this is a potential "hunt for red october"-killer!