'K-19' sinks into a swamp
of inconsistencies, bad acting
By Heather Nicholson
The Daily Cougar
No matter how appealing another Cold War
movie with heavy star power might seem, don't be tempted. K-19: The Widowmaker,
starring Harrison
Ford and Liam Neeson, is a big, stinky
bomb.
Photo courtesy of Paramount
Pictures
In K-19: The Widowmaker Liam
Neeson (left) and Harrison Ford portray captains of a flawed submarine.
The film, which is based on a true story, fails to accurately portray the
events that occurred at the height of the Cold War.
Speaking of a bomb, that is exactly what
this movie claims to be about. It resembles Pearl Harbor, with its moral
lessons of duty and courage, more
than the thrills of Hunt for Red October.
The story is inspired by actual events
that occurred during the Cold War and are now being revealed because of
the fall of communism. K-19 was an
actual Russian submarine that carried
nuclear warheads out to sea for testing. A few unlucky mishaps occurred,
and the sub gained its pet name as
the 'widowmaker.'
The only thing interesting about this movie
is the perspective from which the story is told, in Russian. The film portrays
Russian camaraderie and the
effects of American propaganda on the
Russian public. The movie also tries to give insight to why we are hated
as a country.
Cold War movies usually portray Russia
as the ugly, red ghoul of communism and America as the political savior.
K-19, however, tells the story of a
motherland in which everything is equal
and done for the good of the group and where Americans boast greed, waste
and anti-civil rights acts.
Harrison Ford collected a hefty $25 million
check for his role as Captain Alexei Vostrikov. He attempted a Russian
accent throughout the film, but it
faltered frequently.
Why would Russians even speak English to
each other unless an American movie is made with American actors for an
American audience?
The movie should have been in Russian with
English subtitles if the moviemakers wished to achieve true authenticity.
Nothing about this film sets it
apart from all the other action dramas
that are made solely to break records.
In fact, one of the true survivors of K-19,
Yury Mukhin, told Variety magazine that the movie portrays the crew "as
a bunch of stupid, disrespectful,
eternally drunk Soviet sailors who played
cards as the alarms were sounding." To say the least, Soviet submariners
are upset with the script,
claiming that the Intermedia Films production
insults them and has overlooked technical details.
