CRIMSON TIDE
A film review by Vince Deehan
Copyright 1996 Vince Deehan
Director: Tony Scott Cast: Gene Hackman, Denzel Washington, George Dzundza, Viggo Mortensen, Matt Craven
I'd heard that CRIMSON TIDE was a classy action film, a cut above the rest, a tense white-knuckler. Boy, was I misled. Whilst I appreciate that for alot of people CRIMSON TIDE was all of these things, I personally found the film very disappointing.
The plot is simple. Too simple. Gene Hackman plays Lt. Commander Hunter, in charge of a US nuclear submarine and Denzel Washington plays his second in command, Captain Ramsey. When Hunter decides, without authorisation, to launch a nuclear missile at an attacking Russian submarine, it starts a battle of wits between Hunter and Ramsey - who knows that Hunter is acting recklessly and is about to start a nuclear war without confirmation from his superiors.
Where is the tension in this film? I certainly felt none as I watched it. The scene where Hunter and Ramsey come to blows has been screened too often in trailers for this film, for it to have any real impact on the screen. The characters of Ramsey and Hunter were so thinly written that it was frankly hard to side with either of them. Hunter (Hackman) was basically a hard-headed unthinking man who did what he was told and questioned nothing. Whilst Ramsey was a University-educated man who had learned to think things through and to question everything. We knew next to nothing about these two men, yet we are expected to sit through two hours of them bashing their heads against each other.
The beginning of the film where the conflict which led up to this point is explained, is frankly bewildering. A CNN news reporter rattles through the history of the conflict, while a barrage of real footage from recent wars is flashed up on the screen. Did anyone follow any of this ? Am I just exceptionally slow, because I couldn't make any sense of it.
It would have helped if we had seen the "enemy". I realise that for those on the submarine, all they can see is blips on a screen, but surely we as a viewer could have been shown the men on the other submarine. When all you can see on the screen is a few blips heading for the US submarine, it really is hard to feel the actual danger of the oncoming missiles. There are shots of the actual torpedoes heading through the water, but I would have preferred to have seen a glimpse of what was going on from the other side.
The only scene where I felt any genuine tension was when Lt. Paul Hellerman (Rick Schroder) was being commanded to close an airlock which would trap two other crew members in a flooding hull. The theory being that two lives being lost would be preferable to the whole submarine being flooded which would kill everyone. The panic in Hellerman's voice as he bravely dared to ignore his instructions, in an attempt to give his colleagues a chance to escape the hull, was brilliantly conveyed.
The dialogue was interesting. "Aye, aye Captain", was heard frequently. I was amazed that they still say this. Very quaint, but quite encouraging that things like this endure amidst all the high-tech equipment of a modern submarine. At least, I assume that people still say this and it isn't just sloppiness on the part of the scriptwriters. I gather Quentin Tarantino did some writing in this film. Could it be possible that the ludicrous references to the Silver Surfer and Star Trek originate from Tarantino's pen. I really don't know. The Silver Surfer reference occurs in a scene where a young naval officer admits that this was the cause of a fight he has just had with another man. In a better film this may have been funny, but here it just seemed totally out of place. It was clearly meant to be funny, but it wasn't. The Star Trek reference is used by Ramsey to calm down an electronics man who has to quickly repair the radio receivers. The Scotty and Kirk analogy used is desperately patronising and dumb, and would be better used to placate a small child and not a grown man.
Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington turn in good performances, performances that are far better than the script deserves. They really are wasted though, because they are not stretched by the one-dimensional characters and the dull writing.
Review written on Mon 11 March 1996 by Vince Deehan (vince@deehan.demon.co.uk)
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