The Hunt for Red October (1990)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1990
	Director: John McTiernan (Predator, Die Hard 1-3, The 13th Warrior)
	Actors: Sean Connery (Highlander, Red Sun Rising), Alec Baldwin (Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation), Scott Glenn (Absolute Power, Sucker Punch), Sam Neill (Jurassic Park, In the Mouth of Madness), James Earl Jones (Conan the Barbarian)
	Country: USA
	Genre: War, Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 22.09.2015, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: In the middle of the Cold War, former CIA agent and analyst in UK Jack Ryan (Baldwin) travels to the USA in emergency to discuss his discovery of a new type of Russian nuclear submarine. Meanwhile the commander of that submarine (Connery) refutes his orders and heads for the US East Coast.
Review: After watching all cinema adaptations of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan novels (see a quick summary in the review of Clear and Present Danger), I can confirm that The Hunt for Red October is the best one, and I have always loved the movie for as far as I can remember. It is also for me the best in the sub-genre of submarine movies (only shorty in front of Das Boot and Crimson Tide, and I haven't seen U-571). Alec Baldwin plays a good Jack Ryan and Sean Connery a memorable Russian commander and is able to convey for his character a heavy background like few others can. The rest of the cast (Glenn, Neil, Jones and many many others) is also pleasant to watch. For The Hunt for Red October John McTiernan was visually very ambitious and I was impressed by the many scenes involving not only mock-ups but also real submarines, aircraft carriers, fighter jets, helicopters, ... They help making the movie more believable. What many remember from the movie is the cat & mouse game played between the Red October, Jack Ryan, the US military and the Russian fleet, and those countries' respective diplomats. It is masterfully put in images and an extreme tension is present every minute. During this Nth visioning I even noticed that some deductions/conclusions/decisions are quite far-fetched in order to keep the pace fast and the tension high. An extended cut with 20 minutes of added exposition scenes may have been a interesting idea (my two cents worth). But apart from this minor detail The Hunt for Red October remains an excellent movie.
Rating: 9 /10