The Hunt for Red October

Directed by John Mcteirnan; known for his direction in both Die Hard and Predator, this cold-war action-thriller quite literally follows a Russian submarine for an impressive runtime of 2 hours and 15 minutes. The opening sequence of the film shows promise with an instant introduction to the quality and power of the soundtrack that elevates the icy peaks surrounding a giant ruski sub. Unfortunately, this is where the quality both begins and ends. After getting used  to the short 5 minutes of Sean Connery’s ‘russian tongue’, Mctiernan must have given each member of the soviet cast a happy meal as they were soon speaking all-american. Although my knowledge of the cold war isn’t anything to be proud of I do understand that it mainly consisted of a propaganda battle between America and Russia, and whilst suspending disbelief is recquired for most films, how can an audience lose themselves in the magic of the big screen when the alleged soviet sub seargeant is speaking scottish to his american speaking soviet naval crew. Accent and language aside, the film is overall tedious with mediocrity clinging to all of its components. The acting from most of the cast is underwhelming, with Alec Baldwin’s performance included. Connery has some great deliveries but is let down by the mundane dialogue that seems to plague the majority of the script. The premise of the story is simple but soon the simplicity is drowned out by unintresting seens of political back and forth between characters with a lack of backstory and therefore relevance. The achievement of cinema can be watered down to the basic principle of show don’t tell, the cinematography of the film is uninspiring and often choppy in regards to scene changes and action sequences, so little is leanred visually. The lack of support from the visual aspect of the film translates almost perfectly into the dialogue which as previously mentioned is full of politics, corny one liners and irelevant conversation. We do learn the nature of the sub and the intentions of the supposedly renegade captain, but by the time this information is absorbed the characters question ever-evolving possibilities which are then interrupted by poorly produced cgi torpedo chase sequences. Once these action sequences are over, the characters become more confused as to what events are taking place and what the implications may be. This creates an incoherent and messy plot as the audience has little understanding of the events to apply to the characters rationale, actions and discussions. In conclusion, the complex nature of the plot and the ineffective cinematography could’ve been overlooked by a well-written script that could’ve provided the foundation for some better dialogue and performance to allow the film  to become more coherent, enjoyable and accessible to a satisfied audience.