Tuesday 17 January 2012

The Hunt for Red October

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Year:1990
Country of origin:USA
Director:John McTiernan
Genre:Militaristic thriller
Starring:Sean Connery, Alec Baldwin
Rating:4/5
IMDB link:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099810/
Tagline:Invisible. Silent. Stolen.
Favourite line:"My Morse is so rusty, I could be sending him dimensions on playmate of the month."

Excellent high concept thriller from one of the grand masters of action, John 'Die Hard' McTiernan.

Baldwin plays a CIA man, convinced that a new class of Soviet Submarine has been developed, one that can move in stealth mode via a jet propulsion system that the Americans and British can only dream of.
Connery, rather amusingly, plays a Russian submarine Captain, Ramius, who plans to defect to The West during the Maiden voyage of said new craft, The Red October, named in honour of the October Revolution of 1917, which saw the ousting of the Russian Government by the Bolsheviks.
The defection is inspired by Ramius' certain knowledge that the Russian submarine fleet, if equipped with such technology, would prepare a First Strike against America, which would be crippled within minutes by the might of nuclear weaponry that could be delivered simultaneously by a fleet of submarines that would be, effectively, invisible.
His plan - deliver himself, his crew and, most importantly, the technology itself to America.

Taut, claustrophobic and played with conviction, this is a solid thriller, and is certainly superior to the similarly themed Crimson Tide, which suffers from a pro-American stance that is vaguely nauseating to anyone from outside Milwaukee.
Well crafted, action packed and intelligent, this is a cut above most Hollywood high-concpet thrillers.
Very enjoyable.

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