Futility pervades throughout this film

Rating: Null/10 (20 March 2003)

K-19: The Widowmaker is about a Russian submarine, (the pride of the Russian fleet), its crew and the many problems they encounter while trying to prove nuclear superiority to the United States. A sense of futility pervades throughout the film and the crew is made to seem pretty inept, however this contributes to the development of their desperate situation. Liam Neeson is the captain of the K-19 but Harrison Ford is sent in as his superior officer to carry out orders that only Ford knows of. He seems cruel, but he is in fact doing what he is told by his superiors. The first half-hour of the film builds the foundation of futility amazingly well. Situations involving incredibly bad luck are almost piled upon one another in first 30 minutes. Nothing goes right for these poor guys. This sets us up to feel a real sense of hopelessness for the crew. The dismal lighting technique used throughout the film in both exterior and interior shots work well to establish this particular theme of futility. Even the shots of the K-19 out in the ocean will make you feel cold and frightened. If you saw `The Hunt for Red October', you will see similarity in the filming and lighting techniques for the interior footage of both submarines. And even though both of these movies may at first seem alike and want people to moan about `another Russian sub movie' the two stories are completely different. If Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson are in the same movie together, how can you go wrong? Both actors do a good job in their respective roles as captains, even though Ford's accent slips from time to time. K-19 is yet another true story which can now be told, that took place during the cold war. If nothing else, this movie should be seen in a historical context so as to not repeat our past mistakes.