Review for The Hunt For Red October

Introduction

It’s time for another quickie double-dip Blu-ray review, although given how long it’s been since I reviewed the DVD of The Hunt For Red October, maybe it’s time for a full-on reappraisal. This film is an odd one in my collection. It’s certainly not my favourite film, although I do enjoy it watching it. It’s a decent adaptation of a spy thriller novel; perhaps the best such adaptation of one of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan novels, and it has some great performances in it. But there are better Cold War brinkmanship movies out there. The real reason I double-dipped on this film is I watch it a lot. I really do enjoy it. It’s my staple, go-to movie when I can’t make up my mind what to watch, when I’m standing, somewhat slack-jawed at the extent of my DVD and Blu-ray collection, daunted by just how many discs I’ve accumulated over the years. I know that no matter what mood I’m in, no matter that I can’t decide on what film I really do want to watch, that The Hunt For Red October will entertain me. When I watch a film that much, I might as well have it in as decent quality as possible.


The Soviet Navy has launched its flagship of the deep, the nuclear missile submarine, Red October. It has a revolutionary propulsion system that renders it invisible to conventional sonar, which could potentially allow it reach the shore of the continental US and launch its missiles with no warning whatsoever. Such a weapon platform really has only one use, and it’s not deterrence. That’s a fact that’s not lost on its captain, Marko Ramius, a Lithuanian native who’s trained most of the Russian submarine corps, but because of his nationality, only gets to take new submarines on shakedown cruises. So when a letter from Ramius arrives at the Soviet admiralty announcing his intention to defect, all hell breaks loose.


At the CIA in the US, civilian analyst Jack Ryan has already brought the implications of the Red October’s caterpillar drive to his superiors when news of the Red October going renegade arrives. Coupled with misinformation from the Soviets, the likelihood of a full on panic at the prospect of an imminent nuclear attack increases, but Jack Ryan is alone in believing that Ramius wants to defect, in which case there is the tantalising chance of grabbing the submarine. National Security Advisor Jeffrey Pelt is willing to take a gamble on Ryan’s theory, but he’ll have to go out there and find the Red October before the Soviets do.

Picture

This is definitely a step up from that disappointing DVD that I’ve owned and worn out through repeated playback over the years. The 2.35:1 widescreen 1080p image is clear, and mostly sharp, and for the first time I could see the composite lines in the opening sequence with the Red October setting out on its maiden voyage. It’s not the spectacular, super-sharp image that people expect from modern films on Blu-ray, but for a vintage film in high definition, with little apparent re-mastering, The Hunt For Red October looks very good. It’s rich with detail, has much more depth than the DVD, strong consistent colour even with the film’s subdued palette of wintry hues, a regular layer of film grain, and only the odd moment of softness, one moment of smear to pick nits at. Other than the opening sequence, the effects shots in this film, mostly pre-CGI hold up surprisingly well.

Sound

You have the choice of Dolby True HD 5.1 Surround English, DD 5.1 German, Spanish, French, and Italian, along with subtitles in these languages, Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Finnish, and Swedish. The surround audio is excellent, Basil Poledouris’ music comes across well, the dialogue is clear throughout, and the film immerses (pun intended) you in the action. You can feel the claustrophobia in the submarines, the rumble as they wallow past, the subsonic thud of undersea explosions, and indeed whales humping. The saving grace for the DVD was an excellent DD 5.1 Surround track; the Blu-ray is better even than that. The subtitles for the Russian dialogue are player generated on this disc, and you can’t turn them off, although you can change subtitle tracks.

Extras

That original DVD was wholly lacking in extra features, but this Blu-ray release makes up for that, although it seems that it ports over extra features from the 2003 Special Edition DVD, so you might have seen these before.

The disc boots up to an animated menu and a progress bar appears when you pause or skip during playback.


In the extras, you’ll find an audio commentary from director John McTiernan, and as in the other commentaries I’ve heard from him, he’s economical with the comments. But what he does say is well worth listening to, and for a commentary I just meant to sample for this review, I found I’d already listened to half of it before I turned it off.

Beneath the Surface is a 29:00 featurette made in 2002 that looks back at the making of the film, with interviews with cast and crew to appreciate, although Sean Connery’s comments are taken from a contemporaneous 1990 interview for the film. It’s presented in 480i format, and again is well worth watching.

Finally the theatrical trailer is presented in 1080p and runs 1:34.

Conclusion

I still love The Hunt For Red October. It’s the only Jack Ryan movie that I like enough to have bought, repeatedly, and I really do like Alec Baldwin’s take on the character, very much an academic and not an action hero, old enough to be wise and experienced in what he specialises in, but still young enough to get out of his depth pretty quickly. I never really clicked with Harrison Ford’s take on the character, while the less said about Ben Affleck’s movie the better and to be honest I haven’t seen the Chris Pine reboot (does he reboot everything?) But the real secret is that this really isn’t a Jack Ryan movie. Distilling a hefty novel into a workable screenplay means losing plot threads, whole chapters even, and finding the character arcs and the essential story that will work best on the screen, and in this film, it’s the story of Marko Ramius and his attempt to defect to the West with his ultimate doomsday weapon. The drama, the emotional arcs happen on his boat, and Jack Ryan’s arc is the intellectual counterpoint which drives the narrative, supplying the necessary exposition, until that point in the film when he gets to the Atlantic to try and contact Ramius. In short... that is Sean Connery on the Blu-ray cover, not Alec Baldwin.


The film overflows with acting talent though, each role gets the weight and import that it deserves, and the richness of the characterisations always comes across. That’s what makes this film so enjoyable for me, so easy to choose to re-watch. It’s a character driven story with great performances, so much so that you don’t realise how light it actually is on action. But a smart, thought provoking script and a distinct lack of summer blockbuster fireworks more than make up for that deficit. I find it a lot more exciting than the effects heavy behemoths that take over the multiplexes these days.


I’m sure if someone went to the original negative and scanned it at 4K or however many K is deemed future-proof these days, The Hunt For Red October could look better on Blu-ray. There are moments on this disc I wish could be cleaner, or indeed a tad sharper, but for the most part this is a great disc, with excellent detail and it’s much better in the way of contrast and dark detail than my old DVD version. This is one film you shouldn’t hesitate to upgrade to Blu-ray.