The Hunt for Red October (1990)

Tom Clancy's tour-de-force turned into a great movie, with a great cast. Sean Connery IS Marko Ramius--he steals every scene he's in. Alec Baldwin is solid as Jack Ryan. And the supporting cast led by James Earl Jones, Scott Glenn, Sam Neill, Fred Dalton Thompson, and the late Richard Jordan is supurb. This is a suspensful thriller from the word go. The action is almost non-stop. The combat footage--both above and below the water are excellent. Hitchcock would have loved this one!

Fmovies: 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

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"The Hunt for Red October" is taken off of military-expert Tom Clancy's gripping novel. Tom Clancy has a knack for the inner-psyche of our fears. He doesn't openly thrill us, but rather opens our minds to the potential hazards in the US government. Most government/military thrillers skim the surface and gather us a few good things to make us go, "Whoo," but Tom Clancy's books make us fall over in amazement. The man has an incredible knowledge of the government and its subsidaries, and his novels show this.

His film adaptations normally make good. All four are at least good, and one of them, "The Hunt for Red October," is taut, tense, and powerfully moving. The plot of the film is fictional, but it is right out of the headlines.

It is about a submarine, a Russian, and an American. It sounds like the setup for a bar-joke, but it's not. The Russian man is named Ramius (Sean Connery), who, along with his crew, takes a Soviet submarine out to the North Atlantic ocean. The sub is the best-of-the-best, with an all-new propolsion system (it's faster than other submarines), and uses advanced techniques to literally disappear off radar.

After a few days out at sea, the submarine vanishes off radar, and the Russians, frantic, tell the American government that Ramius has taken the sub to America's mainland to launch a missile attack. However, CIA Analyst Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin) thinks otherwise. He believes Ramius is defecting to the States along with his crew. Further, he believes the Russians don't want to admit this for fear of losing their best submarine.

The film is directed by John McTiernan, who brought us "Predator," "Die Hard," "The Thomas Crown Affair" (remake) and "Die Hard with a Vengeance." All of the preceding films are very good, most of them great, and "The Hunt for Red October" qualifies as "very good."

Sean Connery gives a commanding performance as the leading character, Ramius. His second-hand-man is played by Sam Neil, faking a Russian accent very badly. But Neil is lovable in his role, despite having the worst Russian accent ever. Tim Curry joins along for the ride on the misfortuned sub as well, and Alec Baldwin gives his best performance as Jack Ryan.

As much as I don't like to admit it, Harrison Ford isn't the ideal Jack Ryan for me. He differs too much from the character in the novel. Neither Ben Affleck nor Alec Baldwin take the cake, either. But if you look past the book persona, you will enjoy the performances in all the films much more.

I don't tend to like military thrillers most of the time. Most likely because they are put together sloppily on the whole. But "The Hunt for Red October" isn't sloppy, careless, nor boring. It's thrilling, exciting, and entertaining.

But the book is better.

4/5 stars -

John Ulmer

The Hunt for Red October fmovies. Let's talk about some of the things that make a movie a classic.

Acting? Check. Just look at the stars.

Script? Check. Based on book by Clancy back when people read books (and dinosaurs walked) and Clancy OWNED his niche.

Cinematography? Direction? That it takes place on a sub means it is distinctive and memorable from the getgo. Something about the claustrophobia of a submarine reflected in the claustrophobia of a movie theatre.

Most of important of all is the pacing. There are few films that I have seen this many times and the reason is that the story builds so beautifully. With such a great payoff. Story telling at its finest. So tricks, so attempt to sucker punch the viewer, not even any pretty girls to distract from the weak scenes. Because there are none.

A classic. And under-rated.

It's almost 10 years now but I am still awed by the caliber of the film. McTiernan has made a moderately good book by Clancy into an outstanding political thriller.

The complexity of the film is particularly challenging. Clancy plots are notorious for beginning with several different threads that interweave somewhere in the book. Screenwriter Larry Ferguson takes apart those threads and models a film based on dual protagonists, Connery and Baldwin. The myriad of supporting actors (including current TN Sen. Fred Thompson) that appear on screen subsequently all have distinct but nonetheless crucial roles to the plot.

Baldwin, in what is and will probably be his career best role ever, shines as the intelligent and patriotic Jack Ryan, a thinking man's hero. Connery lends incredible presence, as usual, to his interpretation of Ramius.

A pure masterpiece.

Because of the intrigue this film offers, the circumstances involved tie up neatly in a very convincing way. Needing all of the variables to fall into place if his defection hopes to be successful, Soviet (although Lithuanian by birth) submarine Captain Ramius (Sean Connery) is a very worthy submarine captain. Never cracking under pressure and carrying out his duty professionally, Ramius is the perfect ally to the west in keeping the balance between the super powers in their military endeavours.

Alec Baldwin is good as Jack Ryan. I wish he had stayed on as this character in 'Patriot Games' and 'Clear and Present Danger', because although I like Harrison Ford better as a movie star/actor, Baldwin just seemed better for this role. Too bad he left.

Director John McTiernan uses a smooth pace and lets the screenplay speak louder than his role as the man in charge of it all and the film's photography is tense along with the editing and sound. An Oscar winner for sound effects editing, 'The Hunt for Red October' will put a submarine in your living room if you have the DVD 5.1. surround sound. It's positively realistic!