7/23/2002
K-19 The Widowmaker stars Harrison Ford as Captain Alexi Vostrikov, Joss Ackland as Marshal Zelenstov, Liam Neeson as Captain Mikhail Polenin, Peter Sarsgaard as Vadim Radtchenko, Donald Sumpter as Dr. Savran, Natalia Vintilova as Kataya, and a ton of more Russian names.
K-19 The Widowmaker is a film about an incident during the 1960's cold war, which was heating up. The Soviet Union, always referred to as Russia, was in a military race with the United States. The Russians were building a nuclear submarine with the ability to fire missiles with nuclear war heads. The K-19 was the submarine that would go and test fire a missile where the Americans could see that the Russians had this capability.
K-19 The Widowmaker starts out with the finalization of preparing the K-19 for sea trials. The current Captain, Mikhail Polenin has not pleased the party with all of his complaints about faulty outfitting of the K-19. A new Captain, Alexi Vostrikov, is sent to get the sub ready and go through the sea trials. The old Captain will remain and be the executive officer. The new Captain is much more stern than his predecessor. This creates a lot of animosity among the men. Several omens precede the perils the sub will face at sea. The first is that the champagne bottle does not break at her launching.
K-19 The Widowmaker has flaws as a movie. The acting is superb, I predict an Oscar for Harrison Ford. Remember you heard it here first. But the film does not place this story in the correct historical perspective. In fact if you are not a student of the 1960's or lived then, like me, you are missing the the main point of the story. Interspersed American views may have helped this film.
It is difficult to be sympathetic to Russians. This film is a emotional one with a lot of dramatic, gut-wrenching scenes, however, if these men were Americans it would be easier to like the story. Afterall they were testing a missile that was destined for the United States.
I give it 3 out of 5 pet rats: 