K-19: The History Re-maker...

Rating: Null/10 (28 July 2002)

I don't fault much in this movie. The acting was nice; the special effects were nice; the men turned cripsy critters were... well, you know, pretty "realistically" disqusting. Wrap up all that and you have a nice summer movie. I liked the fact that the movie's viewpoint was from those living behind the Iron Curtain, where the Americans were viewed as evil. I got a kick out of that. You also got to see Soviet males fear Americans as much as American males feared the Soviets during a very hectic time filled with tension. I particularly liked the authentic goings-on with Russian command, how the Russians would rather die than give up their boat or lose their reputations. I had a problem, however, with the movie's ending. Particular a very un-Russian sentimentality. I've studied Russians over the years; especially their conduct fighting the Germans on the Eastern Front during World War II. This is a race where hardships were endured and almost embraced. Afterall, this is a country who had Russian villages charged German defenses to "use up most of the Nazi bullets" before the soldiers were sent into the lead storm. This is the country who launches their cosmonauts onto tin-can space stations and keep them up there for a year, risking major psychie damages.
In the movie, the Russians cared about their men. In reality - in a Communist society - individuals don't mean anything when compared to the masses.
The Russians have lost countless subs over the decades, K-19 would have proved no differently. The ending where the seven men who died from radiation was something you would see from Americans, or western Europeans, and NOT from hardened Russian men brought up in a Communist state where there is no such thing as an "individual."
Because of this "American-like" unauthentic sympathy by the surviving boat members for their fallen members, I give this movie a '4'.
Bogus.