Customer Reviews

K-19: The Widowmaker (Widescreen)

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(27)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I became a fan of the "sub" genre after seeing movies like U-571 and The Hunt for Red October. While U-571 was sort of a pastiche of all the other submarine films that went before it, it made me an immediate fan. It also made me realize just how contrived spaceship movies are.

Unlike the other films, K-19 - The Widowmaker is about a real incident (like the supposed Red October incident) in which a Russian nuclear submarine's reactor nearly had a catastrophic meltdown just off the eastern coast of the United States in the 1960s. Scary stuff.

As a result of this gritty reality, K-19 is powerful in a way that Titanic was powerful. It doesn't matter if the movie isn't quite realistic - the events are so horrible that tension is rife throughout the film. Or at least, it should be.

K-19's initial launch is a debacle. In short, the submarine never has a chance to be successful - the men are inexperienced and costs are cut, such that K-19's crew is lucky that it even works at all. Add in the ship's doctor getting run over by a truck, the failure of the christening bottle to break against the sub's hull, and the firing of the chief engineer and it's hard to disagree with the notion that the ship is cursed.

The new captain aboard Alexei Vostrikov, played by Harrison Ford, pushes the sub to its limits. The tension rises as he forces the crew to do random drills, forces it to dive to near crushing depths, and rise right through the arctic ice. This by far is the most exciting part of the film - there is no enemy except Vostrikov, and it's nail biting after witnessing the poor construction of K-19. Ultimately, K-19 fires its test missile, signaling a message to America that the Russians could launch a nuclear strike if they wished.

Then the sub is pushed to its limits once again, beyond what even Alexei could have feared. They are to patrol the eastern seaboard, right near a NATO base. The ship's original captain, Mikhail Polenin (Liam Neeson) disagrees. Indeed, he disagrees with everything Vostrikov does because he puts the men at risk. I couldn't help but feel contempt for Polenin, who seems so attached to his crew that he no longer has the stomach for war. I'm not sure if that was the director's intent.

Unfortunately, the second half of the film drags. The ship's engines begin to overheat and the inexperienced chief engineer concocts a plan to pipe coolant into the system from the ship's freshwater tanks. Failure means a nuclear explosion "a hundred times worse than Hiroshima."

And so we have a long, slow, miserable, sometimes disgusting foray into the effects of radiation poisoning on the human body. The men who go in have naught but chemical suits rather than radiation suits to protect them. That is, they have no protection at all. So they are exposed for 10 minutes a time in an attempt to minimize the radiation poisoning.

Not only doesn't that tactic works, the radiation leak spreads throughout the submarine. Alexei's choice: accept help from the Americans and save the men or sacrifice his crew to retain Soviet secrets. This decision takes a loooong time to resolve. The movie loses a lot of its momentum, almost becoming a different film that's a lot more like The Andromeda Strain.

What was most striking about this part of the film was how it's been cribbed in other genres. I couldn't help but be reminded of Wrath of Khan, my favorite Star Trek film. Similar to K-19, an officer takes it upon himself to enter the highly lethal radiation chamber in order to "sacrifice the few to save the many." It's chilling to imagine that real human beings had to make that choice. It certainly changed my perspective on Wrath of Khan. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing.

Ultimately, the Russians on board were treated like traitors instead of war heroes. The men weren't fighting any enemy but the politics of Russia itself, and as such they could never leave the disaster of K-19 as heroes. The movie wraps up with what happened to them afterwards, after the fall of the U.S.S.R. At least 27 of the crew died from radiation poisoning.

K-19 is a depressing movie that is torn between being an action submarine flick like U-571 or a disease epidemic battle for survival like Andromeda Strain. It's not as good as either film, but the fact that it's based on real-life events leaves a chilling reminder that sometimes reality is far worse than anything Hollywood can dream up.

I love reading reviews from people who complain about the historical inaccuracies in movies such as this. What were they expecting? Anything put out by Hollywood is meant to entertain, not educate. Movies such as this are BASED on true events, not actual retellings of the events.

I thought both Harrison Form and Liam Neeson did outstanding acting jobs, and yes they even made believable Russians.

I also thought the film did a good job of portraying the Russian military as human beings, rather than just the enemies we learned to despise during the Cold War.

So see this movie and leave all expectations of a history lesson at home.

This is another caught in a leaky sub movie. You just have to enjoy this type of movie to watch it. No new revelations. Harrison Ford gets to play the misunderstood heavy Capt. Alexei Vostrikov; we have to remember he is a good actor and play on both sides of the fence. Harrison Ford is also the executive producer. If you have the heavy then you have to have the father figure played by Liam Neeson as Capt. Mikhail Polenin.

People like to compare this movie to other recent submarine movies but the formula was played out long ago in "Run Silent Run Deep" (1958) with Clark Gable as Cmdr. 'Rich' Richardson and Burt Lancaster as Lt. Jim Bledsoe. They had similar command and loyalty conflicts.

This is a great movie and is far superb to U-571. The story is exellent and just about everything is exellent. I recommend this to any submarine movie collector or just a person who likes a good story.

Veteran actors Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson star in this thrilling film about a Russian nuclear submarine and its crew during the height of the cold war. Ford stars as Captain Alexi Vostrikov, a by-the-book, bend and no break commander of the Russian submarine K-19. Neeson stars as Captain Mikhail Polenin. Polenin is the exact opposite of Vostrikov. He is well liked by the crew and is willing to take advice from them.

The K-19 is the newest is Russian submarine technology. Capable of firing missiles up and down the American coast, the submarine and its crew set off on their maiden training mission.
The crew successfully fires the test missile, but soon another problem develops. The crew soon realizes that their nuclear reactor which powers the ship has developed a severe leak which threatens to possibly destroy the ship.

Volunteers are chosen to go inside the reactor area to try to fix the leak by welding pipes to bypass the leak, but these men soon are suffering from radiation exposure. Meanwhile, an American destroyer has come upon the crippled sub and has offered assistance. Vostrikov is determined not to seek help from the "enemy" Americans, and the K-19 does manage to contact another Russian sub and the crew is transferred.

I thought this was a very good movie. Neeson and Ford do very good jobs as the Russian captains, although I didn't care too much for the fake Russian accents. The special effects, especially the underwater shots of the K-19 are excellent. I've been a fan of submarine movies for a long time, and I rate this movie alongside others such as "U-574", "Crimson Tide", and "The Hunt for Red October". It is full of excitement and will definitely captivate you throughout.

I enjoyed watching this movie, and happy
to have it part of my dvd collection !!!

Compared to sub stories before it like Hunt for Red October, Crimson Tide, K19 comes up a little short. Still its an interesting, if somber outing, with Harrison Ford struggling through a pseudo-Russian accent and Liam along for the ride. An average telling of the 1961 core meltdown accident aboard the K19 there are some compelling moments when the 7 crewmembers sign their death warrants by going into the core to repair a leak. It's depressing watching them go to their demise and the talk of duty and heroism rings hollow based on the context of the time and actions taken by Ford. Ah the ultimate futility of the conflict, it leaves one feeling emotionally blank.

At the height of Cold War tension in 1961, the Russian government is in a hurry to deploy their brand new nuclear submarine, the K-19, with orders to test fire a nuclear missile in the north Atlantic. The hope is that such a show of power will discourage America from launching an attack on the motherland. When Captain Mikhail Polenin (Liam Neeson) argues that the ship is unready to begin sea trials as scheduled, he demoted to the position of executive officer and replaced by Alexei Vostrikov (Harrison Ford). The barely seaworthy K-19 is sent out as initially planned.

Vostrikov tests the crew's physical and mental limits with a series of intensive drills designed to determine what the men and the ship collectively can withstand, creating much tension between the men. After successfully firing the test missile, the K-19 is ordered to take up a position off the American coast, but then disaster strikes as the cooling system of one of the nuclear reactors on board fails. Repeated attempts to repair the leak are unsuccessful and radiation begins to spread through the ship, leaving Vostrikov in a precarious position - he can seek help from the nearby Americans and risk charges of treason at home, or he can wait for a Russian ship to find them and risk the life of every man on board.

When I saw that this film was being done by National Geographic, it encouraged me to go see it in theaters. I'm glad I did, for it lived up to my expectations in almost every way. Ford, Neeson, and all the supporting actors turned in wonderful performances. They made their roles very believable. The cinematography was also extremely well done. The few on-shore scenes were shot in the actual locations in Russia where the original events occurred, giving the film an authentic feel. The scenes inside the submarine were shot in sets built to the scale of the actual K-19, helping the viewer comprehend the claustrophobic atmosphere. Both the actors and cameramen do a great job working within the confines of such small spaces.

The reality of the radiation leak is dealt with superbly. It is hard to capture an invisible foe on film. Here, in fact, the depiction of men with radiation burns and sickness are so graphic and convincing that I'd warn those with weak stomachs to be careful with this movie. A few scenes are quite disturbing.

I must admit that I was extremely dismayed, however (as almost every other reviewer has already mentioned), by the very fake-sounding Russian accents delivered by some of the American members of the cast, most notably Ford himself. But then I have to remind myself: even if the accents on film had been impeccable, the real men on the original K-19 wouldn't have been speaking English in the first place, accent or no. So how realistic can you be? Perhaps it would have been better to scrap the accents altogether and just have the actors use their natural voices. Regardless, I think the accent issue is a minor one. The rest of the acting is terrific and the film loses none of its intensity.

The DVD includes a "making of" documentary, and three additional featurettes. It is interesting to see what went into this production - the history, the re-building of the ship, the approach director Kathryn Bigelow took to filming, etc. The actors also offer their insights into the film. All in all I found the movie highly enjoyable. Despite minor discrepancies which are all but inevitable in a successful life-to-film adaptation, it should appeal to Cold War buffs and action/drama fans alike.

In Brief

Based on the events of a true story, the film explores the emotional drama that unfolds around Captain Alexei Vostrikov (Harrison Ford) who in 1961, at the height of the Cold War, is ordered to take command of the nuclear missile submarine K-19 from its original commander Captain Mikhail Polenin (Liam Neeson). The Soviet's first nuclear submarine, the K-19 is an ill-prepared beast, and Vostrikov must quickly ready her for her maiden voyage & test fire a missile no matter what the cost may be.

Review

Nicknamed the Widowmaker during its outfit and construction after the death of several workers involved with K-19, it was always felt to be a cursed boat and the events as retold here seem to confirm this. It was only after the collapse of the Soviet Union that this story could be told - and the emotional drama is extreme and worthwhile. Both Neeson and Ford are brilliant in their portrayals of the Captains at loggerheads; submerged in not only a crate with a nuclear reactor pasted into it but also a political exercise where the schedule takes priority over the needs of reality.

While noted director Kathryn Bigelow is capable of delivering on the action, as she has proven in the past with films such as Near Dark, Strange Days or Point Break, her films always manage to stand out from the run of the mill action genre fare. One could argue that it is her innate ability to deliver believable characters, allowing even the darkest or toughest of them to show their bare belly of motivating emotion to an audience, that makes her work stand out from the rest. K-19 is no different, as the parallel opposites in command show us: the two Captains, Ford ruling with a rod of iron, Neeson the velvet glove. Both appear to be the opposites of the other, yet both serve their motherland putting the brotherhood of the Union before all else, and if anything are merely symbolic of the two sides of one ruler.

This use of binary opposites runs as a theme throughout the film and is most notably picked up in the lighting and camerawork by the director of photography, Jeff Cronenweth whose previous work included the stunning Fight Club. Here one can't help but notice the polish of the nuclear reactor, isolated in its chamber of bright fluorescent light, incongruous to its outer confines of the old style shell of a submarine with its analogue dials & switches bathed in a hue of bronze old sticky light. Indeed throughout the course of the film there is a pleasing combination of CGI camera movements through the hull of the boat to steady cam shots within, thus displaying the grandeur of such a 'modern' machine. While later as the mood of the film takes a turn for the worse this is reinforced with frantic handheld camera work and the use of a shallow depth of field that has been present in many of the shots through the entire film becomes more apparent and indeed poignant highlighting the claustrophobia and panic that ensues.

The only minor annoyance that I had with the film was the particularly bad Russian accents used by some of the actors. At times it felt more like a "wessal" full of Chekhov's from Star Trek worrying about the "noo-clear ree-ac-tor and mee-siles." That said the performances by the supporting cast are among some of the best I have seen in a film this year and it is only the believability of their work that elevated the tension and interaction between both Ford and Neeson - who ultimately hold the film together.

The Verdict

The sheer horror and ultimately the gratification of this film comes from the reality that is communicated so well. The build up within the narrative is not wasted and a link between the crew and audience is established well. You feel that you have gotten to know these men that are suffering, yet the story is not about them but rather the two central figures. And while both are played well this shift of focus to the chain of command makes one feel that there are other stories within the boat that are merely hinted at and are somewhat lost. Its strength comes from the fact that this happened but like all dramatisations this too is its weakness for one cannot help but think to what degree a certain amount of embellishment has taken place. Ultimately this is the story of two Captains and their men, not the other way around, and on that level it works so well it should not be missed.

I had some problems with this film. Not the whines about historical inaccuracy (you are preaching to the choir since I love history), because I have long ago stopped expecting anything too accurate to come out of Hollywood. Not the American actors playing Russians - hey get real. Hollywood is going for BIG NAME to sell the tickets. Had they staffed the roles with lesser-known Russian actors would the film have even gotten more than passing notice?

What I had problems with - I was unable to distance myself from the grim realities of the film by saying at the back of my head - it's only fiction. Accurate or not, this the depicts a tragic accident based on truth that was officially suppressed for 28 years.

Set at the height of the Cold War Between Russian and US, Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson deliver intense performances as the command of the Soviet nuclear submarine K-19. An exposed reactor core nearly resulted in a nuclear catastrophe for the men aboard the K-19 and the world around them. As the core is breached, the men must be sent in time and again - all knowing they are being sent to their deaths. Gradually, the struggle between Ford and Neeson sees the crew escalating to near-mutiny (can you blame them?), with Ford struggling to retain command.

Kathryn Bigelow as director has a fine sense of pace and how to spiral the tension, proving she is able stand toe to toe with male directors of this genre.

It's just not an easy film to watch, to see those poor lads going in to death, sacrificing themselves for the sake of other.