K-19: The Widowmaker
Saw this film last night on DVD. It's a few years old (2002 I believe) and I'd heard it was good so it seemed worth checking out now that the opportunity had presented itself.
Basically, the first 45-50 minutes of this film is utter shit. Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson play Russian submarine captains during the cold war, and this section of the film basically establishes through pathetic, unimaginitive ways that the ship (eventually labelled...drumroll... "The Widowmaker") is "cursed" by cutting between Ford & Neeson scenes to some completely contrived and unintentionally funny scenes of people having absurd accidents on board. Then there's the incompetency behind the angle choices; an oddly high number of pointless dutch angles, as well as the most awkwardly-shot scene in cinematic history which disorientates the viewer by breaking the 180-degree rule when the background, regardless of what side you are shooting from, is the same. Basically, we get 2 people standing in front of the wall in the background in some shots (against wall 1) and a bare wall in others (shot against wall 2) and never feel that we're now looking at the scene from a different side if it wasn't for the magically disappearing people. The biggest sin of all is the apparent characterisation of Ford's character as an asshole by showing him making really dumb decisions all in the name of the "mother land". You could essentially summarise the first part of the movie like so:
INT. SUBMARINE / DECK - NEXT
LIAM NEESON & HARRISON FORD stand on deck, possibly thinking about how Neeson got dumped with the shit Star Wars movie while Ford's landed him with a career.
LIAM NEESON
Did I mention the fire?
They re-start the drill. DUTCH ANGLE on NEESON, capturing his WORLD turning to MADNESS, whereas the last TWELVE DUTCH ANGLES captured BOREDOM, CONFLICT and INDIFFERENCE to VARYING DEGREES.
HARRISON FORD
I realise and demand it again stupidly.
SUBTEXT
Oooh, Ford is such an asshole.
CUT TO:
INT. LEVEL B - NEXT
A member of the CREW BURNS his FACE OFF. SOMEONE rushes to his aid and SLIPS on a BANANA PEEL. The CHEF comes in and ALMOST DROPS the FOOD he is CARRYING.
Both CREWMAN then BASH HEADS and FALL UNCONSCIOUS.
After this point in time however, 50 minutes or so, a crisis begins around which the rest of the story is based, and somehow this so-far-D-grade-movie actually becomes pretty decent. It's like they fired the writer and director and got some new guys in who actually knew what they were doing to salvage something out of it.
Overall, I'm actually going to give this movie a C as the second 60-70 minutes redeem it somewhat to the point of being on par with an average flick, taking it from a Das-Boot-did-it-better-the-first-time first half in which the director at points showed crew having fun in their spare time not because it added to the film but as if the director thought "that is what one does in these types of movies," to becoming something at times thrilling and at other times dramatic in ways which engage the audience - from the conflict between Ford and the crew (think a 1961 Battleship Potemkin scenario) to the crushing portrayal of what some of the men went through (this is a true story) to fix a radiation leak on board the vessell. In the end, Ford isn't even a total bad guy; it becomes apparent that he's not just doing what's best for the Soviet over the lives of his crew out of ambition, but to avoid the same traitorous reputation branded upon his father many years earlier. Why the fuck couldn't we have had some hint that he was more than just a two-dimensional asshole earlier in the film???
Basically, the first 45-50 minutes of this film is utter shit. Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson play Russian submarine captains during the cold war, and this section of the film basically establishes through pathetic, unimaginitive ways that the ship (eventually labelled...drumroll... "The Widowmaker") is "cursed" by cutting between Ford & Neeson scenes to some completely contrived and unintentionally funny scenes of people having absurd accidents on board. Then there's the incompetency behind the angle choices; an oddly high number of pointless dutch angles, as well as the most awkwardly-shot scene in cinematic history which disorientates the viewer by breaking the 180-degree rule when the background, regardless of what side you are shooting from, is the same. Basically, we get 2 people standing in front of the wall in the background in some shots (against wall 1) and a bare wall in others (shot against wall 2) and never feel that we're now looking at the scene from a different side if it wasn't for the magically disappearing people. The biggest sin of all is the apparent characterisation of Ford's character as an asshole by showing him making really dumb decisions all in the name of the "mother land". You could essentially summarise the first part of the movie like so:
INT. SUBMARINE / DECK - NEXT
LIAM NEESON & HARRISON FORD stand on deck, possibly thinking about how Neeson got dumped with the shit Star Wars movie while Ford's landed him with a career.
LIAM NEESON
There's a fire in deck C.
HARRISON FORD
It'll put itself out. Begin a drill where
everyone runs around like headless chickens
trying to end some emergency we are supposedly
somehow inexplicably "simulating" in some
undisclosed way in a limited time frame. Oh
look, time's up. The men have failed. Re-start
the drill!
LIAM NEESON
Did I mention the fire?
They re-start the drill. DUTCH ANGLE on NEESON, capturing his WORLD turning to MADNESS, whereas the last TWELVE DUTCH ANGLES captured BOREDOM, CONFLICT and INDIFFERENCE to VARYING DEGREES.
HARRISON FORD
Dive the ship down to 300 meters.
LIAM NEESON
But that's near crush-depth.
HARRISON FORD
I realise and demand it again stupidly.
SUBTEXT
Oooh, Ford is such an asshole.
CUT TO:
INT. LEVEL B - NEXT
A member of the CREW BURNS his FACE OFF. SOMEONE rushes to his aid and SLIPS on a BANANA PEEL. The CHEF comes in and ALMOST DROPS the FOOD he is CARRYING.
ANONYMOUS CREWMAN #1
This ship will make a widow out of my
wife.
ANONYMOUS CREWMAN #2
Truly the Widowmaker it is.
Both CREWMAN then BASH HEADS and FALL UNCONSCIOUS.
After this point in time however, 50 minutes or so, a crisis begins around which the rest of the story is based, and somehow this so-far-D-grade-movie actually becomes pretty decent. It's like they fired the writer and director and got some new guys in who actually knew what they were doing to salvage something out of it.
Overall, I'm actually going to give this movie a C as the second 60-70 minutes redeem it somewhat to the point of being on par with an average flick, taking it from a Das-Boot-did-it-better-the-first-time first half in which the director at points showed crew having fun in their spare time not because it added to the film but as if the director thought "that is what one does in these types of movies," to becoming something at times thrilling and at other times dramatic in ways which engage the audience - from the conflict between Ford and the crew (think a 1961 Battleship Potemkin scenario) to the crushing portrayal of what some of the men went through (this is a true story) to fix a radiation leak on board the vessell. In the end, Ford isn't even a total bad guy; it becomes apparent that he's not just doing what's best for the Soviet over the lives of his crew out of ambition, but to avoid the same traitorous reputation branded upon his father many years earlier. Why the fuck couldn't we have had some hint that he was more than just a two-dimensional asshole earlier in the film???
posted by Steve @ 9:39 AM
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