Crimson Tide

United States

1995

116 Min

Color

English

Currently 3.1/5 Stars.
1
2
3
4
5

PROD Don Simpson, Jerry Bruckheimer

SCR Michael Schiffer, Richard P. Henrick, Quentin Tarantino

CAST Denzel Washington, Gene Hackman, Matt Craven, George Dzundza, Viggo Mortensen, James Gandolfini, Rocky Carroll, Danny Nucci, Steve Zahn, Rick Schroder

The film takes place in 1994 (from several references made by the story) during a period of instability in Russia. Units of the Russian military loyal to an ultranationalist have taken control of a nuclear missile installation and are threatening nuclear war if either the American or the Russian government attempts to confront him.

The United States nuclear strategic missile submarine USS Alabama is given the mission to go on patrol and be available to launch its missiles in a preemptive strike if the Russian despot, Radchenko, attempts to fuel the missiles his men have captured. Captain Frank Ramsey (Hackman) is the commanding officer of the sub, and one of the few commanders left in the Navy with any combat experience. He chooses as his new executive officer (XO) Lieutenant Commander Ron Hunter (Washington), who has an extensive education in military history and tactics, but no combat experience.

During their initial days at sea, tensions between Ramsey and Hunter become apparent due to a clash of personalities: Hunter’s more analytical, cautious approach towards his mission and the men, as opposed to Ramsey’s more impulsive, fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants approach. The Alabama eventually receives an order to launch its missiles on the Russian nuclear installation, based on satellite information that the missiles are being fueled. Before the Alabama can launch, a second message begins to come through, but it is interrupted by the attack of a Russian Akula-class attack submarine friendly to Radchenko. Too deep for communications, attacked by the hostile Akula and with an order in hand to launch, Captain Ramsey decides to proceed with the launch. Hunter refuses to concur as is procedurally required to launch, and instead tries to convince Ramsay to confirm the second message, which he believes is possibly a retraction of the previous launch order. As the command crisis escalates, Ramsey portrays the XO as an upstart Harvard graduate who does not respect his place in the chain of command.
When Hunter continues to refuse to consent to the missile launch, Ramsey tries to relieve him of duty of replace him with a different officer. Instead, Hunter orders the arrest of Ramsey for attempting to exceed his authority and do an end-run around nuclear launch protocol. The Chief of the Boat (“Cob”), who is an old friend of Ramsey, agrees with Hunter and has the captain removed from the conn and locked in his stateroom. The crew is visibly shaken, but order is maintained.

As Hunter attempts to confirm the second launch message, the Russian Akula-class reappears. An underwater battle ensues, in which the Russian sub is destroyed, but the Alabama is heavily damaged. The ship’s communications are knocked out, several crew members are killed, and the boat takes on water, nearly sinking past the “crush depth” limit at which the submarine’s hull will collapse.
While Hunter waits for communications to be restored, officers loyal to the captain leave the conn together. Ramsey escapes confinement with their help to confront Hunter with charges of mutiny, placing the XO and the officers who assisted him under arrest.

Ramsey nearly succeeds in launching the missiles, prevented only when Hunter persuades the weapons officer to stall for time while he re-takes the bridge with enlisted personnel by his side. In the end, a standoff ensues, and the conflicted officers agree to wait until the last possible moment to launch the missiles. The communications equipment is repaired in time and it is revealed that the Russian army has the situation under control and the rebellion is subdued, eliminating the need to launch the missiles.

The movie culminates in a review at the Pacific Fleet headquarters in Hawaii where several admirals express grave concern about the breakdown of command aboard the Alabama and nuclear launch operations in wartime. While the elder Ramsey voluntarily retires, and the young Hunter is recommended for a command by Ramsey, the movie aims to present the intractably uncertain nature of the launch scenario, in essence placing full blame on neither as well as both characters. A gentlemen’s reconciliation between officers occurs at the closure of the film.

Director

Tony Scott

Tony Scott was a British-born film director and producer. He was the youngest of three brothers, one of whom is fellow film director Ridley Scott. He was born in North Shields, Northumberland, England to parents Jean and Colonel Francis Percy Scott. As a result of his father’s career in the British military, his family moved around a lot. Their mother loved the going to the movies and instilled a love of cinema in her children.

While still a teenager, producer and director Tony Scott made his first foray into film with an appearance in his big brother Ridley Scott’s first short film, Boy and Bicycle. He later attended London’s Royal College of Art, as did his brother, and proceeded to get his feet wet behind the camera, at first by directing TV commercials for his brother’s production company Ridley Scott Associates. He became a leader in the British commercial industry, directing countless ads and building up an impressive resumé over the years. By the early ‘80s, Tony Scott was ready to begin directing films, and for his first project, he agreed to tackle MGM’s artful vampire pic The Hunger, starring David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve. The movie was released in 1983 to a disappointing silence at the box office, and for the next few years Scott returned to commercials as he waited for his next opportunity to come along. That project came in the form of an offer from producer Jerry Bruckheimer to direct a fun action drama about hotshot fighter jet pilots — Top Gun. Scott’s darker artistic sensibilities didn’t jive with Bruckheimer’s ideas at first — he had images of Apocalypse Now and The Road Warrior in mind, while the producers were envisioning something poppier and easy to digest. Finally, Scott understood what they were asking for and created the rock & roll and blue-skies flick that they had in mind. The movie was a massive box-office hit, ushering Scott into the next tier of filmmakers and making a star out of Tom Cruise.

Scott almost instantly became the man to call on for fun action romps, directing films like Beverly Hills Cop II in 1987, Days of Thunder in 1990, and The Last Boy Scout in 1991. He also directed a script written by a then unknown named Quentin Tarantino called True Romance. Starring a top-notch ensemble cast including Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper, Christopher Walken, Gary Oldman, and Brad Pitt, the film was something of a sleeper at the box office. The exuberant tribute to cinematic expressions of love, crime, violence, and rock & roll quickly became another cult hit — and a preview of things to come from the writer behind it. The movie also served as a reminder that Scott was capable of more sensitive and artistic sentiments than the testosterone-driven pictures that encompassed much of his filmography. That is not to say Scott was not quite at home in the action and thriller areas of film, as he spent the 1990s churning out popular titles like Crimson Tide, The Fan, and Enemy of the State. He continued with his trademark action-with-a-sense-of-humor style in the new millennium with films like Spy Game, Man on Fire, and Domino, but by this time he was trying his hand at producing as well. Scott produced and executive produced TV ventures like The Last Debate, The Gathering Storm, and Numb3rs, as well as features such as Tristan + Isolde and In Her Shoes, and his own Man on Fire and Domino.

Tony has worked five times with actor Denzel Washington with Crimson Tide (1995), The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009), Deja Vu (2006), Man on Fire (2004) and Scott’s final film in the director’s chair Unstoppable (2010).

Tony Scott passed away at age 68 on August 19, 2012 in California, USA.

read less

Wall

Displaying 4 of 10 wall posts.

see all

Gondo

15May13

Nowhere do people sweat like they do in Tony Scott films.

HKFanatic likes this

Xesus Duarte Sith Patiño

13Jan13

One of the best comic-book dialogue scene ever.

HKFanatic

13Oct12

By their very nature, submarine pictures tend to be rather claustrophobic, tense, and, to be honest, visually dull. Tony Scott gets around the latter by delivering one of his best-looking pictures of the 90's. The photography is crisp, such as the scene of the sub first submerging, and Scott experiments with both lighting - his actors frequently awash in stunning primary colors - and his usual fast-cutting. With a film this good-looking and well-acted, it's a shame that the screenplay only grows more preposterous as it goes along.

Trevor Tillman and Lights in the Dusk like this

Jack Lehtonen

13Oct12

In a few ways, the most impressive of T. Scott's pre-Enemy of the State work. The expressive use of color, the cramped evocation of space, the grace of the editing during the submersion sequence are all extraordinary. There's also a great deal more levity than any of his other earlier films. However, there are a few dead spots as you press into the film that ultimately put in slightly below the best film of his early period, The Last Boy Scout.

Trevor Tillman and HKFanatic like this