Hunt for Red October, The (1990)
The Hunt for Red October (1990), directed by John McTiernan.
The US Civil War has long been called the "American Iliad": a titanic, multi-faceted, all-encompassing existential struggle -- with opportunities for literary treatment. As time passes, the Cold War with the Soviet Union has gained some of the same mythic stature: all those decades of nukes and spies, political turmoil -- and the novels and movies that came out of it.
You hear it in spy spoofs: "I miss the Cold War".
This is the first Tom Clancy film adaptation and the first Jack Ryan movie. In retrospect the characters and dialogue can seem a bit cute, but I think it gets the tone of the book right. Clancy was a natural for screenplay treatment, writing short segments and quickly cycling through all of his plot-lines, which is what you need in action thrillers.
We get our money's worth: when the film seems to be over we have whole other act with the attack sub and saboteur.
Notes:
Do we believe Alec Baldwin as the ex-Marine (well...) now a brainy CIA analyst (maybe).
The US Navy cooperated quite a bit with the production, giving the film extra realism. By contrast the Soviet sub interior looks like the Death Star from a galaxy long ago and far away.
The communists are shown running a well-oiled ideology enforcement machine.
Lore has it that Sean Connery was temperamental on set, but also that he had the force of personality to bring order to chaos when it was needed. His salary was something like 12% of the original budget.
Would it have been wrong to have him use his own hair?
The plot shares something with The Sting (1973): they have to get away with the prize without the other side knowing it has been stolen.
I'm not sure why Jonesy was on the Red October.
If you freeze-frame you can see a nice Red Star on the nose of the torpedo just before it hits the Russian attack sub.
Basil Poledouris score. Like all Russian naval stories it features a great men's chorus.
Available on Blu-ray.
