The Hunt Is On
Filmed in 1989, but set in 1984, The Hunt For Red October stars Alec Baldwin as Jack Ryan, a role later played by Harrison Ford in 1992’s Patriot Games and again in 1994’s Clear And Present Danger , and finally by Ben Affleck in 2002’s The Sum of All Fears. Sean Connery plays a very memorable role as Captain Ramius, the captain of the new secret Soviet submarine, Red October. New Soviet technology has given them the ability to create a submarine that is virtually undetectable. Ramius decides to defect from the Soviet Union, but does not tell his crew. Instead, he leads them to the east coast of the US, but US intelligence becomes aware and suddenly, as you can imagine, tensions are very high between the US and the Soviets. From the US perspective, the Red October is a very large threat; from the Soviet point of view, their new technology is being captained by someone who is trying to defect, so they’re eager to destroy the submarine. Inside the sub, Ramius is able to keep his intent well hidden until someone on board figures out that Ramius is not following orders. Meanwhile, CIA agent Jack Ryan, who has studied Ramius’ career, is granted only a few hours to locate Red October and find out for certain what the truth is before the US must act and before the Soviets destroy their own sub.
The result is quite a military and political thriller, true Tom Clancy material. I didn’t find Alec Baldwin to be a very convincing Jack Ryan, even though he had the role before Harrison Ford, but Connery delivers a superb performance as Captain Ramius. Scott Neill and James Earl Jones also star in this very well talented cast.
Surfacing On Blu-ray This Week
The Hunt For Red October makes its Blu-ray debut in great form. The lack of extra features, which I will elaborate on shortly is disappointing, but the video quality was surprisingly great. Aside from some persistent texture problems during the dark, underwater shots of the subs, The Hunt For Red October looked very good: colors were vibrant, skin textures were clear and sharp – I was pleasantly surprised given the film’s twenty year age. The Dolby TrueHD audio was palpable as well, adding significantly to the suspenseful nature of the film with the classic soundtrack, great dialogue audibility, and clear effects.
The only major falter of this Blu-ray release would be in the additional features area. This release includes an audio commentary track by Director John McTiernan and a dated thirty minute making of feature shot in SD. While worth a view, “Beneath the Surface – Cast & Crew Interviews,” is a largely superficial set of older interviews talking about each other and the making of this great film.