Historically Flawed But Worth Watching

Rating: 6/10 (20 December 2006)

"K-19, The Widowmaker" is only loosely based on real events. National Geographic produced this movie and the real story of the K-19 can be found on their website. Nonetheless, the film is worth watching for its gripping storyline, realistic set design and the scenery-chewing performances from Liam Neeson and Harrison Ford.
Ford in particular stands out in a rare "Not-So-Good Guy" role. He is backed up by an excellent cast with quite a few well-known British actors in supporting roles.
The submarine itself is a triumph of production design. I've been lucky enough to see the inside of a 60's-era Soviet sub and the team who worked on "K-19" did a great job constructing the sets. Director Kathryn Bigelow and cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth managed to avoid the feeling that the sub set was built for filming with a combination of hand-held camera work and rigidly confined points of view.
Despite a reasonably pacey screenplay and a lot of drama, there are a few clunky elements in "K-19". Some of the crew may as well have "Corpse" tattooed on their foreheads as it's clear very early on that they are doomed. The reactor control officer is the only main character we see kissing his girlfriend goodbye, and he is the only crewmember who shows anyone a photo of his sweetheart. Not a good sign. Despite wimping out of the initial attempts to prevent a reactor meltdown (having seen the burned, vomiting wrecks who emerge from the reactor compartment after just 10 minutes), Lt Radtchinko enters an irradiated compartment to bodge a leaky coolant pipe and single-handedly saves the ship later on, just like I knew he would. One of the aft torpedo room ratings exhibits signs of claustrophobia fairly early on and, after a fuel leakage in his compartment, I found myself waiting for the poor guy to crack under pressure. He does of course, spectacularly, taking a few of his crewmates with him. Having dissed the film for these predictable turns, I have to say that I didn't predict the course of events after some of the officers mutinied against the captain, so maybe I'm criticising too much.
What makes this film so believable is the recreation of Soviet Russia's Cold War mentality. Everyone is under pressure to conform to the Communist ideal and the submarine is a hastily-designed jury-rigged deathtrap. Although the film doesn't mirror the true story of the K-19, it does show the courage and humanity of a submarine crew who went to sea in a boat that they knew was fundamentally unsafe. I actually found myself breathing a sigh of relief when the majority of the men aboard this floating radiation hazard were rescued.