Meltown on Soviet sub threatens world...

Rating: 9/10 (12 March 2006)

High tension acting played brilliantly by Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson. Claustrophobic photography and uplifting music bolster the tension and the moral conflicts of the film. It is clear now that the risk of a nuclear catastrophe in the K-19 sub was real in 1961 with a probable trigger-quick nuclear retaliation by America. Unbelievable? Why then did the President of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev propose in 2005 to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee that the crew of the K-19 should be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for their actions of July 4, 1961? Harrison Ford, who is half Irish and half Russian, and Liam Neeson, who is Irish, (both having much somewhat similar hardships and adventure in their youth) rose convincingly to the acting challenges of different personalities having to come to terms with higher moral ideals. They gave surprisingly inspiring performances of a higher order than the classical moral acting of Hollywood movies of the 1930's-1950's. In the Hollywood movies opposition on moral grounds to government, politicians and military authorities could lead to loss of career. In the Soviet such opposition meant either death or banishment to the frightful prisons of Siberia, etc., the Gulag. Ford, as Commandant Nikolai Vadimirovich Zateyev, is ordered to take over the command of the first submarine converted to nuclear capability from Neeson, the Commander Mihail Polenin, who stays as second in command. Ford is the person the Communist Politburo and Military consider politically reliable whereas Neeson is too undisciplined and chummy with the crew. The Soviet Union wants now to demonstrate to America that it is also a superpower with intercontinental nuclear missiles. The Amerian Navy has an observer ship near by. More importantly at stake is the Soviet's reputation in the eyes of the Third World. Its mission must not fail! Meltdown of the nuclear reactor powering the K-19 is caused by a faulty cooling circuit. (Remember the scary repercussions of Third Mile Island?). Ford knows that the intense heat from this risks a catastrophic explosion of the nuclear missiles which would also blow out of the water the American observer ship. This would could risk an automatic nuclear riposte from America against the Soviet Union. The 1960's were the years of sabre rattling and trigger happy generals. Ford cannot ask the Americans for help - a sign of Soviet weakness in the eyes of all. Neeson wants to. Thus the conflict. But as crew members voluntarily offer their lives to enter the radiated chamber to welder the leaks, the character changes between Ford and Neeson. They rise finally to a very high order - a higher moral dimension which also involves the crew. A dimension so missing from many of Hollywoods films. This lack of moral fiber in Hollywood - reflected in the recent disappointments regarding prisons in Iraq - is probably also the reason for the erroneous marketing of the film. Hopefully, Hollywood will re-find this moral fiber. Hopefully it will re-market the K-19 as a film worthy of reflection, with great action and human understanding.