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Top:
A typically brilliant performance from Harrison Ford in this
big budget special effects film with immaculate attention
to detail
Below: K-19, Russia’s first nuclear-powered ballistic
missile submarine
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USSR
secret exposed
K-19: The Widowmaker
Starring Harrison Ford, Liam Neeson and Peter Sarsgaard. Rated M
Reviewer
:: The Big Irish Git
K-19
was dubbed the widowmaker long before it put to sea. Dogged by problems
of supply, poor workmanship, tight budgets, an unyielding and ill-advised
adherence to schedules and other joys of communism, K-19 was Russia’s
first nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine. A big boat.
It
was 1961. Russia had just won the race to get the first man into
orbit. America was in the lead in the race for the moon. And tensions
were high between the two nuclear rivals.
But
as America held a considerable edge in the nuclear-arms race, Russia
was desperate to play a little catch up – regardless of the
risks.
The
concept of assured mutual destruction ruled international relations.
Fearing
for the safety of his tight-knit crew, Captain Mikhail Polenin (Neeson)
protests at the dangerous haste in the construction of his boat.
But
despite his protests and the almost daily system failures and setbacks,
and desperate to deliver a clear message of their own military muscle
to the Americans, Russia pushes on with construction and deployment.
Following
his repeated and obstructionist protests, Polenin, saved only by
his knowledge of boat and crew, is relegated to XO and replaced
in command by hard-line party-loyal Captain Alexei Vostrikov (Ford).
Having
killed six men before she even left dry dock, K-19 and her new captain
set sail on an adventure that will take them to the brink of nuclear
oblivion and beyond.
K-19:
The Widowmaker is a movie based on real events in a shocking story
that remained a closely guarded secret until the fall of the communist
empire.
It
tells the story of the bond between men at war and the bravery of
the few prepared to sacrifice their own lives for the sake of their
comrades, their ship and their motherland.
While
on its first mission – to launch a test missile just to show
the Americans they had the capability – the sub sprang a leak
in a nuclear reactor cooling element.
With
the core threatening to run out of control, possibly setting off
the warheads on board and with a good chance of sparking global
nuclear war, seven members of the crew sacrificed themselves to
effect repairs inside the reactor.
Working
for just 10 minutes at a time in the hot zone, all seven died, as
they knew they surely would, within two days.
A further
14 crew members died within a month. But their uncommon valour in
the face of certain death was never officially recognised –
recorded as unfortunate victims of a peacetime accident.
While
everything about K-19: The Widowmaker seems to be right – high-calibre
cast with typically brilliant performances from Ford and Neeson,
big budget special effects and immaculate attention to detail –
it still just misses the mark.
It’s
one of those movies where the obvious potential and all the right
ingredients are right there in front of you, but never quite gel
in the overall delivery.
And
at just on two hours viewing time, it bordered on tedious.
The Big Irish
Git rates this movie 3 shamrocks
You
can view more than 100 other movie reviews by The Big Irish Git
on his personal web site www.bigirishgit.com
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