The Hunt for Red October (Special Collector's Edition)
by John McTiernan
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Actor: Alec Baldwin, James Earl Jones, Sam Neill, Scott Glenn, Sean ConneryDirector: John McTiernan
Brand: Hunt
Cinematographer: Jan de Bont
Producer: Jerry Sherlock
Producer: Larry DeWaay
Producer: Mace Neufeld
Writer: Donald Stewart
Writer: Larry Ferguson
Writer: Tom Clancy
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 134 minutes
Published: 2003-05-01
DVD Release Date: 2003-05-06
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Paramount
Product features:
- Condition: New
- Format: DVD
- Anamorphic; Closed-captioned; Color; Dolby; DVD; Subtitled; Widescreen; NTSC
DVD Reviews of The Hunt for Red October (Special Collector's Edition)
DVD Review: Great movie and documentary on classic sub film
Summary: 4 Stars
Director John McTiernan has had a checkered past as a movie maker. He has made some of the best movies to come out of Hollywood in recent years (`Die Hard' and `The Thomas Crown Affair') and yet he is also the one responsible for some of the worst big budget productions (`The 13th Warrior,' `Nomads' and `The Last Action Hero'). Thankfully for fans of the Tom Clancy novel on which `The Hunt for Red October' is based, this movie falls into the first category. And equally lucky for fans of the novel and film is the fact that Paramount Pictures has seen fit to replace the previous movie-only bare bones DVD release with a special collectors edition.
Sometime in the early 1980s I was looking through novels in the local bookstore searching for that one elusive book that would make a great birthday present for my mother. I came across a work by an author I had never heard of, and a novel that sounded as if it had an interesting `Firefox-like' plot. The author was Tom Clancy and the novel was `The Hunt for Red October.'
Fast forward several years and in 1990 Paramount Pictures released the Sean Connery/Alec Baldwin starring adaptation of the novel. The movie was a triumphant success, even given its longer than usual running time and its lack of real action (most of the actual action occurs in the final moments of the film). What held the movie together, and kept the viewers rapt attention, was the simply incredible acting and presence of Sean Connery as Soviet sub captain Marko Ramius and the building suspense and tension that pervades the well structured plot.
The plot centers on the plan by Ramius to, with the help of some fellow crewmembers, to defect to the United States, taking with him the newest sub in the Russian fleet - the Red October (named after the October revolution. The Red October is capable of running silent with a new propulsion system that makes it almost invisible to sonar. The Russians launch a mission to destroy the submarine and even tell the Americans that Ramius is a rogue in an attempt to elicit their help in sinking the ship.
The one American who doesn't believe the Russian story is CIA analyst Jack Ryan (played in this movie by Alec Baldwin). Having met Ramius previously and studied him he suspects the true intention of the Soviet captain. He must convince his bosses and eventually an American sub captain (played wonderfully by Scott Glenn) to trust him and give Ramius a chance.
Taut and at times nerve wrenching (the blind timed navigating through the underwater trenches), the `Hunt for Red October' is simply one of the best techno-thrillers to come out of Hollywood in the past two decades. Sticking fairly close to the Clancy novel, McTiernan keeps building the pressure and ratcheting up of the stakes until an explosive final confrontation off the Labrador coast.
For the collectors edition Paramount has provided us with not only a commentary by McTiernan but also a nice "making of.." documentary. I have always been disappointed with McTiernan commentaries (`The Thomas Crown Affair' is a case in point) and again here with `The Hunt for Red October' there is a lot of dead air with not much being said. Where this DVD does score top marks is in the documentary. We are provided with some fairly in-depth insight into what went into the making of the picture.
Featuring all the leading actors in the movie and the production team responsible the documentary covers every angle and even reveals how close they came to not signing Connery when the Scottish actor was faxed the entire script sans the opening scroll.
A great movie and this well-made documentary make this DVD a must buy - Recommended.
Description of The Hunt for Red October (Special Collector's Edition)
Based on Tom Clancy's bestseller, directed by John McTiernan (Die Hard) and starring Sean Connery and Alec Baldwin, THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER sweats with high-tech anxiety and the tension of men who hold Doomsday in their hands. A new technologically-superior Soviet nuclear sub, the Red October, is heading for the U.S. coast under the command of Captain Marko Ramius (Connery). The American government thinks Ramius is planning to attack. A lone CIA analyst (Baldwin) has a different idea: he thinks Ramius is planning to defect, but he has only a few hours to find him and prove it - because the entire Russian naval and air commands are trying to find him, too. The hunt is on!Before Harrison Ford assumed the mantle of playing Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan hero in Patriot Games, Alec Baldwin took a swing at the character in this John McTiernan film and hit one to the fence. If less instantly sympathetic than Ford, Baldwin is in some respects more interesting and nuanced as Ryan, and drawing comparisons between both actors' performances can make for some interesting postmovie discussion. That aside, The Hunt for Red October stands alone as a uniquely exciting adventure with a fantastic costar: Sean Connery as a Russian nuclear submarine captain attempting to defect to the West on his ship. Ryan must figure out his true motives for approaching the U.S. McTiernan (Predator, Die Hard) made an exceptionally handsome movie here with action sequences that really do take one's breath away. --Tom Keogh
Before Harrison Ford assumed the mantle of playing Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan hero in Patriot Games, Alec Baldwin took a swing at the character in this John McTiernan film and hit one to the fence. If less instantly sympathetic than Ford, Baldwin is in some respects more interesting and nuanced as Ryan, and drawing comparisons between both actors' performances can make for some interesting postmovie discussion. That aside, The Hunt for Red October stands alone as a uniquely exciting adventure with a fantastic costar: Sean Connery as a Russian nuclear submarine captain attempting to defect to the West on his ship. Ryan must figure out his true motives for approaching the U.S. McTiernan (Predator, Die Hard) made an exceptionally handsome movie here with action sequences that really do take one's breath away. --Tom Keogh
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