Emotionally Involving, Well Acted & Presented Picture With a Big Subject

Rating: 8/10 (27 October 2015)

Director Kathryn Bigelow, Awards Notwithstanding, still hasn't Made a Film as Memorable or As Good as Near Dark (1997). One Wonders if this one had a Residue of Her Husband's Influence and Obsession with all things Underwater, because why on Earth (as well as under the sea) would She Take On this Type of Iffy Sub-Genre Movie Making.
The Submarine Picture has a Long and Loyal Following among Specialized Film-Buffs. it remains a Rarely Done, but an occasional Dive into War Machinery that has as Its Setting the Stuff of Confinement like a Prison, and the Participants might Want to Escape, Save Their Own Lives and Possibly the World.
This was a Risky Investment, a Multi-Million Dollar Production with a Suspect Subject like the Cold War that Did Not Involve Spies but an Attempt at the Soviet Union to Keep Up with the Arms Race. That Is, make the Nuclear Missiles Mobile. The Film Flopped.
The Reasons are Many and Varied but it Doesn't Mean the Movie is Bad. It's Well Done and Holds its Own Against Others of It's Type. The Use of Claustrophobic Chaos that the Genre Demands with added World War III Paranoia makes it a Movie Worth Watching. Not the Least of its Attraction are the Two Leads Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson that for Better or Worse, are Watchable most of the time.
It's Long, Demanding of Empathy that is Not Always an Easy Thing to Pull Off with one's Enemy, and is Based on an Historical Event.
Not Everyone is going to come Aboard with the Type of Mindset Required for this Type of Thing. That is an Open Mind. The kind that makes one Think of Implications from a Nationalistic and Political Xenophobia that Could and Has Resulted in the Puny Humans that have Their Fingers on the Button.