Review of Hunt for Red October, The

Introduction

Jack Ryan, a lowly CIA analyst who specialises in Soviet intelligence thinks he has the answer and the military are wrong. Jack must convince his superiors that the Captain of the largest Soviet nuclear submarine ever built plans to defect and not launch a full-scale attack against the United States.

This film follows Jack through his endeavours to not only convince Washington but also those at the sharp end beneath the waves of the North Atlantic.

Combining stunning underwater special effects with the tension generated by the script adapted from Tom Clancy`s novel by Larry Fergusson and Donald Stewart this is edge of your seat entertainment from beginning to end.

Video

This Paramount dual layer single sided disc presents the image as a a letterboxed non-amamorphic transfer. When compared to more modern films the image quality does suffer, with some graining in the opening scenes of the Red October leaving port. These slight glitches aside, the picture throughout the film manages to capture the confined environment of a submarine better than any before it and most after. The levels of light and shade are just right with the primary object of each scene in crisp focus, to promote the feelings of tension required.

Audio

A very good audio track accompanies the film with both Pro-Logic and 5.1 presented on the disc. One niggle is that the 5.1 track has to be manually selected from the menu each time, otherwise the disc defaults to the Pro-Logic soundtrack.

A very good atmosphere is achieved with the underwater shots as well as the submarine internal sequences, background mechanical noise moving through all speakers, sometimes together, sometimes singularly.

A particular favourite is the active sonar pings, which really do seem to bounce around the room.

The superb score by Basil Poledouris captures the essence of the film extremely well.

Features

Static menus and the theatrical trailer are the only extras that are present on this disc.

A wasted opportunity as a Making Of style documentary would have been most welcome, particularly dealing with the shooting of the underwater sequences.

Conclusion

A superb tension filled film, although the tag of based on the novel by Tom Clancy is a bit rich, it involves a CIA man and two submarines. If you haven`t read the book, watch the film, if you have read the book, watch the film but try not to pick fault with the missing bits.

Alec Baldwin puts in a superb performance as Jack Ryan and personally I prefer him to Harrison Ford who took over the role for the next two films. Sean Connery also gives his usual polished performance, this time with the help of a $20,000 hairpiece, which allegedly he kept after filming.

A much more technically accurate film than Crimson Tide, The Hunt for Red October provides tension, excitement and intrigue from start to finish, with only the lack of decent extras preventing the disc from getting a higher score.