good film based on a true story

Rating: 7/10 (6 December 2011)

"K-19: The Widowmaker" is a true story about the USSR's first nuclear ballistic submarine. On its first voyage, the nuclear reactor malfunctions, and the crew risks their lives attempting to fix it by exposing themselves to dangerous levels of radiation. If the situation can't be repaired, they risk not only a nuclear disaster of epic proportions but a world war.
Harrison Ford is the strict Captain Alexei Vostrikov, who puts his crew through endless drills so that they can build camaraderie and a sense of achievement. Unfortunately, the sub is not equipped for any kind of nuclear problem -- they have chemical suits instead of radiation suits (not available until later), and as the second in command (Liam Neeson) says, they might as well be wearing raincoats.
This is the most devastating part of the film. The men can only enter the site of the problem for ten minutes at a time, and it's enough to nearly burn them alive. The sub becomes more and more dangerously radioactive, to the point where they will need to abandon ship. The nearby Americans offer to help, but Vostrikov's patriotism and fear that the Americans may learn Soviet secrets causes him to refuse.
There are some really excellent moments in this film as well as some fine performances from Ford, Neeson, and the rest of the cast, and it is well directed by Kathryn Bigelow.
I see a lot of the reviews deal with accents, so I'll put in my two cents. Yes, it's true, Ford just lost his mid-film and picked it up again later. The rule for actors is that if people are speaking their native language, which naturally these Russians were, no accent is necessary. A good example of this is the film "The Mortal Storm." Otherwise, of course, Chekov would be done with accents, French farces would be done with accents, etc., and they aren't. And yes, it's okay to talk about kopecks with an American accent as we understand that they are speaking Russian. You need an accent if you are playing a foreigner speaking English, so accents were not needed here. It didn't bother me, but it was an unnecessary layer.
All in all, a good, solid movie, not as good as "Das Boot" or a couple of other submarine films, but still worth seeing.