Signature Entertainment
This week, Matthias Schoenaerts, Colin Firth and co. take to the seas in the new underwater thriller Kursk: The Last Mission. The film, which debuted at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, where we first caught it, is based on the true story of the nuclear-powered Oscar-class K-141 sub, which, following two massive explosions, was sunk to the bottom of the nearly two decades ago.
The film is excellent, brought to the screen by talented Danish director Thomas Vinterberg, the screenplay based on the book Robert Moore’s book A Time to Die, which was released in shops in 2002, two years after the disaster.
In this feature, we take a look at the film and four other submarine features to have graced the silver screen in recent times, all of which are well worth seeking out.
Kursk: The Last Mission (2019)
We’ll lead out with Kursk: The Last Mission, a superb little feature with an excellent ensemble cast in Schoenaerts and Firth, along with Léa Seydoux, Max von Sydow, and the late Michael Nyqvist. Vinterberg directs with precision, the co-founder (with Lars Von Trier) of the Dogme 95 approach to filmmaking, evident here with its authentic approach. The film is a slow burner, but with exceptional cinematography from Oscar-winner Anthony Dot Mantle (Slumdog Millionaire), and some dynamic editing from Valdís Óskarsdóttir, as well as a thumping score from Alexandre Desplat, it is well worth checking out, even though it is often harrowing to watch.
The Hunt For Red October (1990)
It may be nearly 30 years since The Hunt For Red October hit screens, but boy does it still play well. Adapted from the novel of the same name by Tom Clancy, the film sees Sean Connery as submarine captain Marko Ramius who swerves way off course to the coast of the United States in an invisible, stealth-like sub named ‘Red October’. Luckily, CIA operative Jack Ryan (here played by Alec Baldwin) briefly picks up a signal and heads off to infiltrate the rogue skipper and save the U.S. from a potential attack. There have been no less than four other actors portray Ryan in films and TV series since. Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck, Chris Pine and most recently John Krasinski have all played the role on screen, but Baldwin was the first in this tense, taut thriller from John McTiernan who, in 1990, was riding on a wave of success following Predator and Die Hard.
Related: Kursk: The Last Mission review [TIFF]
Crimson Tide (1995)
Five years on from The Hunt For Red October saw the release of Tony Scott’s actioner Crimson Tide. The film is largely set on board the submarine at the heart of the story, the Alabama, this time captained by Gene Hackman’s Ramsay, accompanied by Denzel Washington’s executive officer Lieutenant Commander Ron Hunter. Ramsay is trigger happy combat veteran, keen to launch the sub’s nuclear missiles when under threat. First officer Hunter thus stages a mutiny to stop it from happening. Featuring a superb supporting cast including James Gandolfini, Viggo Mortensen and Ryan Phillippe, as well as a reported script polish from maverick moviemaker Quentin Tarantino, Crimson Tide remains one of the best Jerry Bruckheimer & Don Simpson movies of the nineties, and certainly one of Tony Scott’s finest action movies. See it.
Das Boot (1981)
Possibly the finest of all of the submarine movies ever brought to the screen, Das Boot has been brought to the screen as a recent television event series and a superb 1981 movie from Wolfgang Petersen. The film is based on Lothar-Günther Buchheim’s 1973 German novel of the same name and is set during WWII. It tracks the boredom and tedium amongst the crew of ‘the boat’ of the title, a German U-boat as it patrols the seas in the Battle of the Atlantic. It’s a proper pot-boiler, and intense, engrossing and, at times, a terrifyingly claustrophobic affair, skillfully crafted for the big screen by Petersen and co. If you’ve not seen this genuine classic from nearly forty years ago, bump it to the top of your lists right now.
K19 – The Widowmaker (2002)
We mentioned Harrison Ford earlier in the article in regards to playing Jack Ryan in nineties spy thrillers Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger and, while he missed out on playing Ryan in The Hunt For Red October, in 2002 he would finally get to lead the cast of a fairly decent submarine movie. K-19: The Widowmaker was produced and directed by Point Break helmer Kathryn Bigalow and revolved around the nuclear submarine of the title which suffers a malfunction early into its maiden voyage. The crew, led by Ford’s Captain Alexei Vostrikov, face a race to save the ship – and indeed a nuclear disaster.
Kursk: The Final Mission is released in cinemas on 12th July.
