Crimson Tide (1995)

Two of our heavyweight actors play opposites in this wonderful suspense film. Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington are give some orders in their submarine. The problem is that the orders are not clear and three is impulse versus caution. Gene Hackman is the wizened veteran who has quite an ego. The stakes are high and Denzel Washington needs to follow the restraints he has had embedded in him. There are great scenes of conflict and tension. This is no ordinary decision and the implications of what is done are incredibly significant. Just watch the two fine actors work at their craft. Remember, also, there are some other factors beyond the mission that are involved here.

I love war movies. I watch just about every one I can. I'm willing to watch some pretty bad movies as long as they have heavy equipment of some kind. I'm afraid this movie fell somewhere near the middle - I rated it 6 of 10 stars.There was no shortage of stars and recognizable faces. It makes me wonder how the producers were able to pull such a high powered cast to a so-so movie. I would have to say my overall rating was higher just because of the cast. The acting was fine, but the movie was just short of boring.I noticed Rocky Carroll of NCIS fame, Matt Craven who played SecNav on NCIS, Jason Alexander of Seinfeld, and several others who must have been starting out in 1995.The story consisted almost entirely of a ton of dialog within the sub. The basic story, of the XO taking over the sub and the captain taking it back, was sound, but there really wasn't much else to the story. It was direction that screwed it up. Basically that was the entire story. It could have made a decent short of 20 minutes or so.I couldn't tell if this was intended to be a heavy drama, or something else.In the end it was watchable. But I won't every go out of my way to watch it again. Put this movie up against some of the great WWII movies, such as In Harms Way, and there is no comparison.If you like sub movies and a ton of good actors give it a watch, but don't expect too much. There is always somebody who labels most movies "The best movie ever made." I just didn't see it here.

Prior to Tony Scott's recent suicide, I hadn't seen most of his movies. But now I've seen "Crimson Tide". This portrays tension aboard a nuclear submarine when the hot-headed captain (Gene Hackman) wants to go ahead with a launch while the restrained executive officer (Denzel Washington) wants to wait for another signal. I didn't think that it was a great movie, but the context of rebel forces in Russia threatening to launch nukes brings up the issue of how secure weapons of mass destruction anywhere are, combined with the risk that a trigger-happy might ignore an incomplete message and decide to launch weapons. The point is, who can truly be considered sane in a completely insane situation? Like I said, it's not any kind of masterpiece, but still worth seeing. Great tension between Hackman and Washington. Appearing in early roles are James Gandolfini, Steve Zahn, Ryan Philippe and Daniel Von Bargen.

Crimson Tide is a must-see for anyone who likes action combined with drama or are big fans of A-list actors. Going into this movie, I expected something along the lines of The Hunt for the Red October. But what I got is a better film. This movie portrays possible real-life scenarios on whether or not submarine commanders should launch nuclear weapons.This is about a naval submarine heading to Russia to launch nuclear weapons on them. But after the radio transmission failed in the middle of the report, the captain and XO go out on each other determining what will be best thing for them to do.The acting is phenomenal. Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington are brand name actors who never do anything wrong. They are marvelous here as the captains.Overall, this is not like most thrillers. This one has a great build-up and a great ending. Also, I must note the score by Hans Zimmer. It is worth listening too. I rate this film 9/10.