CRIMSON TIDE
A film review by Ben Hoffman
Copyright 1995 Ben Hoffman
Almost the entire film takes place aboard a U.S. submarine equipped with long range nuclear missiles. What the film makes clear is that a nuclear war is a nuclear holocaust for the whole world; there would be neither winners nor losers of such a war.
When the Nationalist Russians tangle with the rebellious Russians as to who will have control of Russian nuclear missiles, the U.S. fleet is put on alert. At all costs, the rebels, who have already declared the U.S. an enemy, must not be allowed to get control of the missile site.
Captain Frank Ramsey (Gene Hackman) who has been the commander of the sub, the Alabama, for many years, and his very intelligent but new Executive Officer, Lt. Commander Ron Hunter (Denzel Washington) are in charge of the sub. When an Emergency message comes over the wireless to get missiles ready if they have to be fired should the rebels take over the missile site, everyone on the sub realizes what could lie ahead for the world.
The Navy rule is that both the Captain and the Executive officer have to be in agreement before the missiles can be fired. At that point another message comes through saying (paraphrased) "Have the missiles ... " but the radio is down and the rest of the sentence does not come through. It is at this point that the Captain and Executive officer get into a fierce disagreement which turns to mutiny. The Captain wants the missiles to be fired; the Exec officer wants to wait until they can read the rest of the message. What if the message read "Have the missiles taken off the ready. There is no longer a crisis"?
Mutiny, encounter with a Russian sub that is firing at them while both subs spot each other under the water, and the radio out of commission, all make for a thrilling film. If it were not that in 1981 I had seen another submarine film, the German DAS BOOT (which was many times better), I would give CRIMSON TIDE a higher rating. In addition, some of the CRIMSON TIDE's crucial endings are predictable.
My suggestion then is to see CRIMSON TIDE but be sure to get a video of DAS BOOT (The Boat), preferably in German with English subtitles.
Others in the cast include Matt Craven, George Dzundza, Viggo Mortensen, James Gandolfini and others.
Directed by Tony Scott.
3 bytes 4 Bytes = Superb 3 Bytes = Too good to be missed. 2 Bytes = So so. 1 Byte = Save your money.
Ben Hoffman
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