Squid Flicks: The Hunt for Red October

Title: The Hunt for Red October

Director: John McTiernan

Original Release Date: March 2, 1990

My Overall Rating: 5 stars out of 5

via Amazon

A nuclear submarine has been stolen.  Soviet navy legend Marko Ramius (Sean Connery), in defiance of orders, is heading towards North America with his nation's latest technological marvel: a submarine which evades radar detection.  Moscow calls Washington for help in capturing and perhaps even destroying the renegade captain and his vessel.  The CIA brings in analyst Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin in the role that catapulted him to superstardom) to find their man.  Everyone thinks Ramius is a madman - everyone but Ryan, that is.  Ryan believes Ramius is trying to defect.

My wife suggested The Hunt for Red October (based on the Tom Clancy novel of the same name) as a good Father's Day movie this year - a solid choice.  It's an excellent example of the cerebral action movies that Hollywood used to make a lot but not so much in the age of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe).  The narrative appears at first to be a straight-forward cat-and-mouse chase but the cleverness lies in sorting out who, exactly, is chasing whom at a given moment.  Writing, visuals and sound are all outstanding.  The acting especially is exceptional and it all began with perfect casting.  Ramius is the third best role of Connery's career (after Bond and Jimmy Malone in The Untouchables).  Baldwin is leading man handsome, yet geeky enough to be believable. I don't think Kevin Costner, the original choice for the part, could have found that sweet spot.  Scott Glenn is in the Scott Glenn part.  James Earl Jones brings just the right blend of wit and gravitas.  Tim Curry is somehow always the perfect choice, no matter the character.  Then Sam Neill breaks your heart with the "I would have liked to see Montana" line.

My two favorite moments are relatively subtle ones.  I love when the camera zooms in on Lieutenant Putin (Peter Firth) and the dialogue on board the Red October switches permanently from Russian to English, then zooms out again. 

That scene is famous.  I'm guessing most people wouldn't notice my second one.  Well, everyone remembers the Red October crew singing the Soviet national anthem.  It's an important plot point.  But did you ever notice there's a moment when the singing suddenly gets a lot better?  It's at about 4:24 in this video:

It's obvious - to me, anyway - that a professional chorus was dubbed in for that bit in post-production.  

In March 1990, the fall of the Soviet Union was just a year away.  The Cold War was nearing its end and the geopolitical landscape was on the brink of dramatic changes.  As such, the movie is a bit of a political relic.  But a world on the brink of catastrophic war doesn't seem so far distant these days.  Even out of context, The Hunt for Red October tells a profoundly compelling story.  It still holds up 35 years later.  The best movies do.

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