A Masterpiece that I fear will be overlooked!

Rating: 10/10 (16 July 2002)

Contains Spoiler There was a sneak screening of Kathryn Bigalow's "K-19 : The Widowmaker" at the North Island United States Naval Air Base in San Diego, California last night and today and I was privileged to watch this film.
First of let me say this, I was very weary to go into a film with both two fine actors (and both Star Wars Alumni) Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson doing their best to hide Irish and American accents respectively, with Russian ones but I must admit the following...
"K-19" is an amazing film. Sure it has it's plot holes, I mean heck what movie doesn't these days but as a Naval Submarine film acting on material that has been done before (Crimson Tide, Hunt for Red October, U-571 and Das Boot), it is a stand alone excellent film with lots of heart and patriotism, (for Russia I must add).
Harrison Ford's character is a complicated one as you don't know where his true intentions and loyalty lie from time to time in the film and maybe that worked in the roles favor by adding mystery?? But Harrison played the crucial moments very well and I was most impressed with his job in this film. This sounds very early now but for the first time i think Ford may have actually found a film that could get him that Golden Dude that he has deserved for so long! I hope the Academy does not shy from this film or his performance. To do so would be a crime.
Liam Neeson seems to have been given the 'Star Wars - Episode I - I am Obi-Wan Kenobi and I am your servant standing in the background' treatment as his character really has trouble finding a piece of the pie to really hold on to. He really needed some gripping dialouge to keep his character interesting. Only at the end does he add some mystique of his own to the film. All through the film he talks of mutiny and his crews loyalty only to himself and how Ford's character is not as good as him but at a crucial part in the film, he for some reasons defies all logic and does the opposite of what we would have expected. This I did not understand. The scenes with him and Ford facing off, (ala Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman) give the film serious punch when some is needed!
The Special Effects were awesome and the soundtrack was moving but I must give props to one part of the film in particular and that was the final closing scene..***SPOILERS*** with Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson re-uniting with his surviving crew after 28 years of silence. I don't say this often but there was not a dry eye in the house.
Overall I give this film 8 stars out of 10. Kudos to Ford and Bigelow for making my Sunday afternoon enjoyable.