The secret power of big movie stars is that even though we know we are watching Tom Cruise or Denzel Washington or Mel Gibson, we still accept them for whomever they are playing on screen. If Cruise is a spy, he's Agent Cruise. If Denzel is a cop, he's Officer Denzel. And if Mel is a military officer, he's Colonel Mel.
A few times a year, a big star challenges himself or herself. I mean, he/she really steps up to the plate and takes on a major hurdle. The latest is Harrison Ford, attempting for the first time an accent in playing Russian submarine Captain Alexei Vostrikov for K-19: The Widowmaker. Oh, yeah. Not only does he lay on the borscht, but Ford also has the double challenge of playing a character who is not completely likable. His Vostrikov is arrogant, stubborn, and follows orders implicitly--even if those orders lead to uncommon pain and suffering from the men under his command.
Ford pulls it off!
The year is 1961, and the race between the United States and the Soviet Union to prove who had nuclear superiority was at its zenith. The movie's title refers to Russia's first nuclear submarine, a vessel rushed into service to test-fire an atomic warhead that would grab the Americans' attention. The film opens with the K-19 failing yet another war drill under the leadership of Captain Mikhail Polenin (Liam Neeson). Polenin's superiors feel that Vostrikov, a career Navy man, would have better results and be the taskmaster that Polenin's crew so rightfully needs. Polenin disagrees, but accepts his demotion to Vostrikov's first officer in order to stay and watch over his men. The K-19 set sail on her maiden voyage destined for disaster. A leak soon developed in her reactor cooling system, making a core meltdown a very real possibility.
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow and based on a true story that only became known after the Cold War ended a little over a decade ago, K-19: The Widowmaker is the best submarine thriller since The Hunt for Red October. There is a seriousness to the film that I really dug, a gritty look down into the souls of military men groomed to follow strict orders but never taught how to be selfless heroes. K-19 isn't about playing hide-and-seek with enemy subs, firing torpedoes, or guys yelling "Dive! Dive! Dive!" It's about an unprepared crew looking to avert a nuclear meltdown that could start World War III. The fact that we all aren't living like Mad Max and envying the cockroaches doesn't make this film's outcome any less riveting. Much like Apollo 13, K-19 derives its drama from the personalities involved in the event.
I know, I know. That all sounds nice, Ted. But you're ducking the big question. Does Harrison Ford pull off the accent?
Let me just say that he doesn't sink the picture the way Kevin Costner does whenever he attempts an accent (I have a colleague in Boston who still delights in telling the story of a preview screening of Thirteen Days in Beantown where audiences were roaring with open-mouthed laughter every time Dances With Wolves delivered his chowder-dripping lines in that Cuban missile crisis flick). In playing Vostrikov, Ford's grumbling, mumbling monotone that he has affected for much of the last decade really comes in handy. He doesn't so much maintain a consistent accent as he puts emphasis on certain words. After the first five or 10 minutes, I was used to the voice and I honestly didn't think about it the rest of the picture.
Instead, I focused more on Vostrikov the character, a man forced to take over a sub full of personnel who immediately don't like or even trust him because he has replaced their beloved Captain Polenin. Ford and Neeson have at least a half-dozen scenes in which the two former Star Wars actors really get to square off and have it out, and the end result is quite riveting. Ford delivers perhaps his most forceful and effective performance since The Fugitive-a mix of strength, arrogance, and ego that appears to border on madness only to be reined back in when the ship ultimately needs a single, definitive leader to make the difficult decisions. I wish we had learned more about Vostrikov's background. We know only that he had a father who was once a great officer, but spent his final years in a military prison. Other than that, Vostrikov is as impenetrable as Ford is on the late-night talk shows.
Neeson, meanwhile, is the perfect counterpoint. His Polenin believes in discipline and duty the same as Vostrikov. But he is more willing to appear human to his men, to have a drink with them, call them by their first names, put an arm around them and give them encouragement when they have doubts. Ford and Neeson are supported well by Peter Saarsgard as a young reactor officer on his first assignment and Christian Carmago as another young officer with deep spiritual beliefs. We learn just enough about all of them to accept them as human beings.
For a summer movie, K-19: The Widowmaker is an exceptionally grim tale. The movie very vividly portrays the effects of extreme radiation exposure as Carmago and others attempt to repair the reactor from inside. When an American destroyer parks itself off the crippled K-19's bough, the tension is raised even further. Will Vostrikov end up a traitor like his father? Will Polenin take back command and save the day? Will the crew opt for salvation at the hands of the Americans or vow to scuttle the boat and sacrifice their lives in the name of the motherland?
To Bigelow's credit, she never American-izes her film. K-19 is about dyed-in-the-wool Communists. Also to her credit is the first-rate technical crew she managed to assemble to pull off this movie. Special kudos go to editor Walter Murch and sound supervisor Pat Jackson, two longtime Francis Ford Coppola collaborators who go all out to make K-19 feel and especially sound like a real ship at sea and not a Hollywood set on super-hydraulics. And cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth of Fight Club fame shoots the Hell out of the K-19's interior, zipping his camera in and out of the sub's tight corridors and cramped compartments. I have never seen a submarine flick better establish the layout of a boat better than this film. By the end credits, I felt I knew every inch of K-19.
It's interesting. I really love submarine flicks, yet I would never want to actually be part of a submarine crew for months on end. So, what is it that attracts me to films like Red October, Das Boat, and K-19? Maybe it's the camaraderie of the characters in each of those movies. Maybe it is the pressure cooker environment that only a sub can create when something goes wrong. Or, maybe it's the fact that it is really difficult to screw up a submarine movie.
K-19 gets it exactly right.
K-19: The Widowmaker is rated PG-13 for disturbing images.
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