by Jake Hjort, Contributing Writer
Welcome back, fellow time travelers, to another edition of 20th Century Flicks! This month, in a continued effort to check classic cinema off of my list of shame, I’m diving back to the year 1990 to check out Jack Ryan’s cinematic debut in The Hunt for Red October. Having recently read Dead Wake, Erik Larsen’s novel about the RMS Lusitania and the German U-boats who sunk her, I’ve been on a bit of a submarine kick and figured I’d save what I had heard is one of the best sub-based films of all time for this column. I’ve also never seen anything with Jack Ryan before, so what better entry point than his debut 34 years ago?
Set in 1984 amidst the backdrop of the Cold War, the film follows the titular Red October, a state-of-the-art Soviet nuclear submarine that is purportedly undetectable by sonar. Captained by Marko Ramius (Sean Connery), the submarine begins plotting a course towards the eastern seaboard of the United States, using its silent caterpillar drive to evade the USS Dallas,an American sub that had been trailing it. Although many government and military officials fear that the Red October is coming to attack, CIA analyst Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin) believes Ramius may actually be wanting to defect. With the help of the crew of the Dallas, Ryan must find the Red October, ascertain Ramius’ true motives, and if he truly wants to defect, find a way to seize the Red October and allow him refuge without alerting the Soviets.
Although this is the only chance he would get to play Jack Ryan before the role was recast with Harrison Ford a few years later, Baldwin is pretty charismatic in the role, even if he may not be the most convincing action star on the planet. However, despite the fact that Jack Ryan is ostensibly the main character of this film (and greater franchise), it really is Connery’s performance as Ramius that steals the show. In a vacuum, Ramius isn’t exactly an easy character to like: His ambiguous motivations and gruff demeanor make him a bit hard to root for and Connery sticking with his native Scottish accent while his comrades attempt Russian ones is a bit laughable, but the performance is just so engaging that I really don’t care about any of that. Over the course of his career, Connery gave so many incredible performances and this one may very well be among the best.
Even outside of the two great leads, I need to take a moment to appreciate how incredible this movie’s cast is. Alongside Connery and Baldwin, you have Sam Neill, Tim Curry, and Stellan Skarsgård playing Soviet officers, and James Earl Jones, Scott Glenn, and Courtney B. Vance on the American side. Furthermore, these guys aren’t all here just to collect a paycheck — they’re all giving great performances. Jones, who had just recently passed when I watched the film, is perfect in his role as a Navy Vice Admiral and CIA Deputy Director, his golden voice adding so much gravitas to the character. Vance is also great as a prodigious sonar operator serving on the Dallas, as is Neill in his role as Ramius’ second-in-command.
Aside from the great performances, my favorite thing about The Hunt for Red October is how well director John McTiernan works with tension throughout the film. Coming fresh off of Predator and Die Hard, it’s no surprise that McTiernan is an excellent director, but I’m impressed by how well he was able to transition from those more typical action films to this quieter thriller. With so many secret plots and unknown allegiances, combined with how isolated and cut off from communication those on the submarines are, it’s hard to ever fully be comfortable in who you can trust and how close to danger any character is. On top of that, the film does a fantastic job positioning Jack Ryan as a character who is both and incredibly talented and competent analyst but also completely out of his depth in the field, a difficult balancing act that allows you to admire him as a spy but empathize with him as a human. From start to finish, I was on the edge of my seat, never quite sure how things would end and who would survive (except for the one character who started making in-depth future plans. He was obviously doomed).
Thankfully, the quality of the filmmaking doesn’t end at the tension building — this is an all-around great film. Although I can’t say how good of an adaptation the screenplay is from the Tom Clancy novel of the same name, its merit on it’s own is excellent. The writing and dialogue are clever and the script strikes a good balance of giving you all the information you need to figure out what’s going on without holding your hand. The score, composed by Basil Poledouris, helps to set the tone throughout the film and the production design of the submarine sets is absolutely incredible.
All in all, this is another film that I am very happy to have checked off my list of shame. It’s a rarity in that it that had largely remained on the outskirts of my pop culture consciousness, so knowing nothing more than the submarine setting, I was really able to just open myself up to the film and experience the story without any spoilers or baggage. Although there doesn’t seem to be much continuity between them outside of James Earl Jones, I look forward to checking out the Harrison Ford Jack Ryan films as well to see what’s in store next for the character.
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