There’s way more than just one or two.
Thirty years ago this month, “The Hunt For Red October” was released in the United States. The film is important because it taught my generation a truth known well by our parents and our grandparents: It is virtually impossible to screw up a submarine movie.
Is it heightened drama born of salty submariners jammed into the confined space of control rooms “rigged for red”? The simultaneous dangers of fire and water, burning and drowning, explosion and implosion? The terrifying suspense of depth-charge attacks? Yes, yes and yes!
But the genre’s advantages alone cannot explain the staying power of “The Hunt For Red October”. The truth is, the movie taught Generation X, my generation, so much more. As befits a submarine movie, we must go deeper when considering what makes the film so special, even after 30 years.
Kerrigan dives deep (a-HEHN!) into this truly classic flick with a quick plot recap, enthusiastic critiques of various technical aspects of the film, and such-like. But for me the most important Red October takeaway, especially in these parlous times, will always be this:
Words to remember.
(Via Insty)
- Entries
I actually read that one first. Clancy could write. My favorite: Red Storm Rising.
Me too, John. One of the rare exceptions to my longstanding maxim that if you’ve read the book first, the movie will almost always suck for ya. Rising was one of my faves too, along with Cardinal Of The Kremlin and…well, shit, almost all of ’em, really. Then he kinda lost me with Executive Orders, which was okay, I guess, but kinda went off the rails by the end.
Blade Runner, for one, was a huge, stunning improvement on the book.
And THAT makes me think I maybe oughta do a post listing the movies I saw after reading the book that DIDN’T suck. Hmmm…
Great idea for a post Mike. Loved the book and one of the best movies ever!
Fred Dalton MF’n Thompson!
Also read the book. Part of what made the movie really good for me was that the characters pretty much looked like I had imagined them while reading the book. I read a lot of Clancy till I got tired of the ‘next in the series’ format that sadly seems to now dominate adult fiction.
Best line of the movie “Russians don’t take a dump without a plan, son”
Call me an old softie, but I’ll always give “Owl-rick Bard-ren” a pass just ’cause he played Jack Ryan in this movie.