(Die Hard 1 & 3, The Hunt for Red October, Last Action Hero, Predator)
Producer:
Mace Neufield
Screenplay:
Larry Ferguson and Donald Stewart (based on the novel by Tom Clancy)
Music:
Basil Poledouris
Cast:
Marko Ramius: Sean Connery
Jack Ryan: Alec Baldwin
Bart Mancuso: Scott Glenn
Captain Borodin: Sam Neill
Admiral Greer: James Earl Jones
Andrei Lysenko: Joss Ackland
Ivan Putin: Peter Firth
Dr. Petrov: Tim Curry
Skip Tyler: Jeffrey Jones
Admiral Painter: Fred Dalton Thompson
Caroline Ryan: Gates McFadden
Firstly
it has to be said that this film has so many things going for it.
It's based on the book by Tom Clancy, was directed by John McTiernan
and has an excellent cast fronted by Sean Connery and Alec Baldwin.
A new, technologically-superior Soviet nuclear submarine, the Red October,
is heading for the U.S. coast, commanded by Captain Marko Ramius. The
American government think Ramius plans to attack, but CIA agent Jack Ryan
(played in this, the first of Tom Clancy's films about Ryan) by Alec Baldwin
has a different idea. He's met Ramius before and thinks that he's planning to
defect, but only has a few hours to find him and prove it because the entire
Russian naval and air commands are hunting him down too.
The film begins in Russian dialogue from Sam Neill and Sean Connery and there's
a nice subtle change when the subtitles disappear and English dialogue begins.
One thing that has to be said is that only Sean Connery could get away with
playing different-speaking roles throughout his career and still do all
accents in a Scottish one, this film's role, as a Russian submarine commander,
included.
Also note that the director of photography for this film is the one and only
Jan De Bont, who subsequently went on to direct the non-stop success
Speed, its flop sequel - even though I enjoyed it - Speed 2: Cruise
Control, plus Twister and the remake of The Haunting.
It's interesting to note that Alec Baldwin didn't make it to Patriot Games
because he asked for too much money than the studio were prepared to give him.
As a result, Harrison Ford stepped in and ended up getting paid even more
than Baldwin asked for, getting a multi-picture deal as CIA agent Jack
Ryan in the process, two films of which have already been brought to the big
screen and are also out now on DVD, Patriot Games and Clear and
Present Danger.
The good news comes in the anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen ratio, the widescreen
ratio being essential for any John McTiernan film - and none more so than this
- especially to maintain the level of tension inside the sub, but alas it's
very grainy indeed with print flecks and blemishes all over the place which
brings its score down markedly, which weakens the strength of the colours.
The average bitrate is 6.71Mb/s, occasionally peaking over 8Mb/s.
English dialogue is presented in a remastered Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack,
which comes into its own when the submarines are firing at each other and a
gunfight towards the end, while the Czechs and the Germans only hear Dolby
Surround.
Extras :
Just a 90-second Theatrical Trailer in non-anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen
and, like the PAL laserdisc, a mere 13 chapters which just isn't enough.
Couldn't someone have stepped in to remedy this?
Subtitles are available in English (and hard of hearing), Bularian, Danish,
Dutch, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Swedish
and Turkish. The menus are all static and silent.
Overall, this is still a hugely-entertaining film, but for a back-catalogue
title I'd have expected more from the presentation.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
