As you might have guessed, I do own a
few submarine movies. Below, I'll give you a small review of each, and I
hope that I can inspire you to spend an evening below the surface.
(For the record: Don't even ask for a copy, I will under no circumstances
make one.)
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The "Evaluation" is my personal
opinion, and does not represent anyone but me.
I'm giving out zero
to max. five torpedoes depending how well I like the movie, the more
torpedoes, the better. |
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Title: Below. |
Front:
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Back:
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Directed by:
David Twohy
Main cast: Matt
Davis, Bruce Greenwood, Olivia Williams, Holt McCallany, Scott Foley,
Zach Galifianakis, Jason Flemyng, Dexter Fletcher. |
Year: 2002
Length: 101 min. |
Story:
In the dark silence of the sea during
World War II, the submarine U.S.S. Tiger Shark prowls on what should
be a routine rescue mission. But for the shell-shocked crew, trapped
together in the sub's narrow corridors and constricted spaces, this
is about to become a journey into the sensory delusions, mental
deceptions and runaway fear that lurk just below the surface of the
ocean and deep inside the human psyche. |
Evaluation: Good movie, even the
ghost-stuff is fine. Scary and catching.
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Title: K-19. |
Front:
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Back:
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Directed by:
Kathryn Bigelow
Main cast:
Harrison Ford, Liam Neeson |
Year:
2002
Length: 138min. |
Story:
The story of USSR's first nuclear
ballistic submarine, which suffered a malfunction in its nuclear
reactor on its maiden voyage in the North Atlantic in 1961. The
submarine's crew, led by the unyielding Captain Alexi Vostrikov,
races against time to prevent a Chernobyl-like nuclear disaster
which threatens not only the lives of his crew, but has the
potential to ignite a world war between the super powers. |
Evaluation: It's an OK movie, though it is
slightly predictable at times.
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Title: U-Boat / In enemy hands. |
Front:
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Back:
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Directed by:
Tony Giglio
Main cast: William
H. Macy, Scott Caan |
Year:
2004
Length: 94min. |
Story:
At the height of Hitler's infamous
U-boat war, the crew of the U.S.S. Swordfish were heading home after
months at sea. They never made it. Now prisoners of war aboard
U-boat 429, a small group of American survivors will find their
loyalties put to the ultimate test when they're forced to join their
German captors to fight for their very lives. |
Evaluation: Fine movie, that really
catches you at times.
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Title: U-571. |
Front:
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Back:
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Directed by:
Jonathan Mostow
Main cast: Matthew
McConaughey, Bill Paxton, Harvey Keitel, Jon Bon Jovi |
Year:
2000
Length: 116min. |
Story:
In the battle front of espionage and
code cracking of World War II, there remains but one task on the
Allied agenda: the capture of a German "Enigma" machine which will
allow the Allied naval forces to locate and track submerged German
U-Boat submarines. When one such German vessel breaks down after a
battle with British forces, a secret mission is dispatched to take
over the U-Boat by commando American forces and retrieve an Enigma
machine intact. The raid goes well, at first, yet following the
destruction of the American mothership and the arrival of
reenforcement German ships, the Americans trapped on the U-Boat must
use their training and wits to pilot U-571 in order to save their
lives. |
Evaluation: You have got to see this one,
if you're into subs at all. Very catching, nail-biting action.
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Title: Das Boot. |
Front:
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Back:
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Directed by:
Wolfgang Petersen
Main cast: Jürgen
Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, Klaus Wennemann, Hubertus Bengsch,
Martin Semmelrogge, Bernd Tauber, Erwin Leder, Martin May, Heinz
Hoenig, Uwe Ochsenknecht, Claude-Oliver Rudolph, Jan Fedder, Ralf
Richter, Joachim Bernhard, Oliver Stritzel |
Year:
1981
Length: 293min. |
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Story:
It is
1942 and the German submarine fleet is heavily engaged in the so
called "Battle of the Atlantic" to harass and destroy English
shipping. With better escorts of the Destroyer Class, however,
German U-Boats have begun to take heavy losses. "Das Boot" is the
story of one such U-Boat crew, with the film examining how these
submariners maintained their professionalism as soldiers,
attempted to accomplish impossible missions, while all the time
attempting to understand and obey the ideology of the government
under which they served.
A
detailed look into the claustrophobic and terrifying world of a
German U-boat crew hunting ships from undersea. Gritty, realistic,
and peppered with black humour, this is one of the few sympathetic
portrayals of the war from the German side to be released in
western distribution.
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Evaluation: You have not seen thé
submarine movie until you have seen Das Boot. Great realism. Periods
of 'nothing' one second, and A LOT going on the next. The absolute
best picture of real sub life is given when viewing it end to end
non stop.
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Title: The hunt for Red October. |
Front:
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Back:
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Directed by:
John McTiernan
Main cast: Sean
Connery, Alec Baldwin, Scott Glenn, Sam Neill, James Earl Jones,
Joss Ackland |
Year:
134min.
Length: 1990 |
Story:
Based on the Best Selling novel by Tom
Clancy this film tells the story of Captain Marko Ramius, the
skipper of the Soviet Union's newest nuclear sub. Jack Ryan of the
CIA gets involved in a tense, tangled hunt for this sub, when Ramius
defects, taking the "Red October" with him. The story is an action
packed techno-thriller.
Sean Connery stars with Alec Baldwin in John McTiernan's blockbuster
The Hunt For Red October. Connery plays Marko Ramius, a senior
Lithuanian sub captain whose plans to defect are met with strong
opposition by his own Soviet navy, and American misconceptions of
his intentions. Baldwin plays CIA analyst Jack Ryan, the one man who
sees the defection, and must convince most of the American navy he
is correct. The action climaxes with an amazing naval battle, but
who will win The Hunt for Red October? |
Evaluation: Though the inside of the sub
is a bit "Hollywood", it's still a great movie to watch.
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Title: Enemy below. |
Front:
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Back:
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Directed by:
Dick Powell
Main cast: Robert Mitchum, Curd
Jürgens, David Hedison |
Year:
1957
Length: 98min. |
Story:
Set during the Battle of Atlantic
during the Second World War, "The Enemy Below" tells the story of
the cat and mouse Destroyer escort/U-Boat hunt. For the Americans, a
former Merchant Mariner who saw his wife killed when his freighter
was torpedoed by the Germans. For the Germans, a veteran U-Boat
commander who sees no honor in the German aims of the war. Both of
these highly experienced men must now battle each other, knowing
that only one will survive. |
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Evaluation:
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Title: Hostile waters. |
Front:
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Back:
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Directed by:
David Drury
Main cast: Rutger
Hauer, Martin Sheen, Max von Sydow, Colm Feore, Rob Campbell |
Year:
1997
Length: 94min. |
Story:
The True story of how an antiquated
Russian Project 667a "Yankee" Class Submarine, K-219 collides with a
Hunter Killer "Los Angeles" Class American submarine causing a
leakage in the K-219's missile bays, almost leading to nuclear
meltdown in it's reactors off the shores of Bermuda.
Adding to the tensions aboard the damaged Russian boat are the
Americans' fears of a possible launch/meltdown and the ramifications
that the whole situation could have on the delicate peace process
going on between Reagan and Gorbachev at the time. |
Evaluation: I find the character played by
M. Sheen a bit too "I don't have full control over the situation
like a Capt. should have" in this movie, but other than that, it's
pretty good.
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Title: Grimson tide. |
Front:
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Back:
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Directed by:
Tony Scott
Main cast: Denzel Washington, Gene
Hackman, Matt Craven, George Dzundza, Viggo Mortensen |
Year:
1995
Length: 116min. |
Story:
In
the near future, Russian rebels have taken over one of the ICBM
bases in the USSR. Alarmed by the prospect of a rebel strike, the
U.S. sends the U.S.S. Alabama, a nuclear ballistic submarine, to
watch over the base and retaliate in case they launch. While on
patrol, the submarine is attacked and the radio systems are knocked
out. An emergency message received during the battle is only
partially recovered. Captain Ramsey believes it to be the order to
launch on the rebels, while XO Hunter wants to wait for a
confirmation message. The conflict escalates into mutiny as Ramsey
and Hunter fight for control of the Alabama's nuclear missiles. |
Evaluation: Great movie, simple as that. I
could imagine that this could not ever happen cause procedures
covers the situation, but still.. makes you think. What if....
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| Title: I507 The final weapon / Lorelei. |
Front:
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Back:
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Directed by: Shinji Higuchi
Main cast: Koji Yakusho, Satoshi Tsumabuki, Yu Kashii. |
Year: 2005
Length: 115min. |
Story:
Nearing the end of WW2, this sub plays a deadly game with the enemy in the attempt to stop a third nuke over Japan. Man an machine merges in pure sci-fi, and shows new ways of war fare that has not been seen before. |
Evaluation: I will be generous and give it one torpedo (not armed though) for at least featuring a sub. The basic idea for the movie is OK I guess, but it completely fails to catch on. Nearing the end, one side is unrealistically comatosed while the other side ends the war in an ending that you have most likely already guessed. Besides, the sci-fi part is bad and makes no sense.
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| Title: Submarines. |
Front:
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Back:
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Directed by: David Douglas
Main cast: Stephen Ramsey, Robert Miano, Jim Davidson, Joseph J. Tomaska, Jodi Bianca Wise, Rufus Dorsey, Stefan Shterev, Atanas Srebrev, David Douglas, Tim Douglas, Anton Georgiev, Chris Salazar, Charles Bywaters, George Stanchev, Miroslav Kosev |
Year: 2002
Length: 91min. |
Story:
A US Virginia class sub and a Soviet Akula class sub collides under water. On the way back to the dry dock, the US sub starts to hunt a hijacked Soviet sub, in an attempt to stop it before it launches missiles on the US coastline. The hunt leeds to a chase, and subsequent battle.
The US captain must go against direct order to stop the threat, while he tries to find out who is to blame for the collision.
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Evaluation: They should have made up two new classes for the two subs, because they are anything but an Akula and a Virginia. The Akula is a mix of Akula and Typhoon, while the Virginia looks like a very raw sketch of the Ohio class. Technical details are pure fantasy, and the inside of the US sub is more like a visit to the Starship Enterprise. Direct torpedo hits at 300 ft causes big holes in the outer hull, but only little or no damage besides that. Damage to the sail suddenly appear in one scene without anything to cause it, and the chain of command of doubtful in the US sub. The silos have doors, and electrical panels inside, from where a female guest messes with missile launch.. and so on.
Having said that: If you have only little or no knowledge about subs, the Akula or the Virginia, then you might enjoy the movie, and the plot.
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