Film
Bristol Film Festival: The Hunt for Red October
- Director
- John McTiernan
- Certificate
- PG
- Running Time
- 136 mins
The Soviet navy’s sole Scots-Lithuanian nuclear submarine commander Marko Ramius (Sean Connery) is taking the very latest, supposedly undetectable missile sub, the Red October, out for its maiden spin when he dramatically murders the on-board political officer and scarpers with the advanced hardware. It seems the bearded seadog, who likes to meditate upon Hindu scripture, has decided he doesn’t trust the Commies to have exclusive access to such a deadly first-strike weapon. The cunning Russkies, through the offices of their ambassador in America Joss Ackland, tell the Yanks that Ramius has gone bonkers and will be in firing range of the Land of the Free within four days unless they help to sink the sub. But they reckon without CIA analyst Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin), who just happens to be an expert on Ramius and has a hunch about what he’s up to. So begins the sub hunt, with both sides eager to track down the maverick commander, while Ryan faces the additional challenge of persuading his gung-ho superiors not to exercise their trigger fingers.
Despite being explicitly set in 1984, this adaptation of the Tom Clancy Cold War novel already felt dated on release in 1990. Connery tackles his silly lines with his usual aplomb, but Baldwin (who was replaced by Harrison Ford in subsequent Ryan flicks) merely flounders around among all the order-barking square jaws, and no amount of impressive ILM effects can conceal the project’s fundamental silliness. The characters remain obstinately two-dimensional, while the convoluted plotting, which strives for Dr. Strangelove-esque sgnificance, merely undermines John McTiernan’s attempts to build up and sustain tension.
This Bristol Film Festival screening takes place in Redcliffe Caves as part of the fest’s Underground Cinema series. Go here for tickets and further information.
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