The Hunt for Red October (1990)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

John McTiernan

Writers (WGA):

Tom Clancy (novel)
Larry Ferguson (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

2 March 1990 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Thriller

Tagline:

Invisible. Silent. Stolen.

Plot:

In 1984, the USSR's best submarine captain in their newest sub violates orders and heads for the USA. Is he trying to defect, or to start a war?

Plot Keywords:

Soviet | CIA | Submarine | Navy | Jack Ryan

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 2 wins & 6 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Sun. July 12	2:30 PM	TNT
Mon. July 13	12:00 AM	TNT

Cast

Sean Connery	...	Captain Marko Ramius
Alec Baldwin	...	Jack Ryan
Scott Glenn	...	Commander Bart Mancuso
Sam Neill	...	Captain 2nd Rank Vasily Borodin
James Earl Jones	...	Admiral James Greer
Joss Ackland	...	Ambassador Andrei Lysenko
Richard Jordan	...	Dr. Jeffrey Pelt
Peter Firth	...	Political Officer Ivan Yurevich Putin - Red October
Tim Curry	...	Dr. Petrov
Courtney B. Vance	...	Sonarman 2nd Class Ronald Jones
Stellan Skarsgård	...	Captain Tupolev
Jeffrey Jones	...	Oliver Wendell 'Skip' Tyler
Timothy Carhart	...	Bill Steiner
Larry Ferguson	...	Chief of the Boat Watson - USS Dallas
Fred Dalton Thompson	...	Rear Admiral Joshua Painter - USS Enterprise

Runtime:

134 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Russian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) | Dolby SR (35 mm prints)

Certification:

Canada:G (Nova Scotia) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | Iceland:12 | Australia:PG | Netherlands:6 | South Korea:12 | Brazil:12 | New Zealand:PG | Germany:12 | West Germany:12 (f) | Argentina:13 | Chile:14 | Finland:K-12 | Ireland:12 | Sweden:11 | UK:PG | USA:PG | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

It is a manly film: Gates McFadden with Louise Borras (as Jack Ryan's wife and daughter) and Denise E. James as a flight attendant have the only credited female speaking roles, and all of their dialog scenes are over before the end of the opening credits. There is an uncredited female engineer speaking in the background at Skip Tyler's dry dock and another (non-speaking) flight attendant appears at the end, but apart from that there are no other women in the film.

Goofs:

Factual errors: FFG 51 (USS Gary) homeported in Yokosuka, identifies herself as "Reuben James" (FFG 57), which is homeported in Pearl Harbor. Further, Reuben James was not commissioned until two years after the incident took place. (This is because both ships were used in filming.)

Quotes:

Jeffrey Pelt: You slammed the door on the General pretty hard, didn't you?
Jack Ryan: That was not my intention.
Jeffrey Pelt: Oh, yes, it was! He was patronizing you, and you stomped on him! And in my opinion, he deserved it!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Allemaal film: De gouden jaren (#1.3)" (2007)

Soundtrack:

The Anthem of the Soviet Union

A surprisingly action filled submarine movie.

Yes, it sounds like a weird combination. A submarine movie with exciting action. Still "The Hunt for Red October" is a movie filled with some superb underwater action sequence's that were brilliantly directed by action movie veteran John McTiernan. The underwater finale is really 'edge-of-your-seat' stuff!

With this movie McTiernan shows once more that he is the best action movie director alive, along with James Cameron. Still the movie has more to offer than just action. The story is also what makes this an excellent political thriller, making this movie perfectly watchable for both the action movie lovers and those of political thrillers. Of all the Tom Clancy novel movies this is my personal favorite and best so far.

The cast consists out of some big names. Connery is great as Russian submarine captain who talks Russian with a Scotish accent. Alec Baldwin is a wonderful Jack Ryan. Other actors that stood out to me were; Sam Neill, Tim Curry, Stellan Skarsgård, Jeffrey Jones and Scott Glenn. Only too bad about the Beaumont character, that was just annoying and unnecessary.

The phenomenal cinematography was done by Jan de Bont. The likewise phenomenal music was composed by Basil Poledouris who's name I can't still spell right without having to look it up. Poledouris truly is a criminally underrated composer and with this movie he once again delivers a true masterpiece.

It's the combination of all these great things that make "The Hunt for Red October" a brilliant and tad underrated movie, that is perfectly watchable for a wide range of people.

9/10