Crimson Tide
Tony Scott (1995)
You know immediately from its title that
Crimson Tide is either going to be about the time of the month from hell or communists. Thankfully it is the latter.
Although to be fair you could argue that in the movie Russia is going through the mother(-land) of times of the month.
Crimson Tide is a deceptively simple movie. At its core is a dichotomy represented by the confrontation of two characters. Gene Hackman plays a seasoned submarine captain who is ready and willing to atom bomb Russia back to the stone age and will do so as soon as he is ordered to. He is a « hard-ass » made hard by his experience of combat and the cold war. By contrast, Denzel Washington is a green, if competent, XO who has never seen action. He is willing to fire the missiles but will refuse to do so until he has gotten the latest information that a breach in communication has stopped the submarine from getting. He prefers to bond with and encourage the crew instead of riding them hard.
As we learn by the end of the movie, from a legal standpoint both characters turn out to be equally right and wrong relatively to their choice about whether to fire the missiles or get the latest orders first. The film is not about Washington taking over a warmongering trigger-happy dinosaur but about the transition from the cold war era to the a new, (hopefully) less belligerent age.
The strength of the movie is that nothing is black and white. Hackman is not a bad simple-minded guy ; he is a great captain and complicated character. But he comes to understand that maybe the time for soldiers like him has gone and it is the Washingtons of the world who are better prepared to deal with what is to come.
«
All I gotta know is how to push it, they tell me when. They seem to want you to know why. »
Hackman's remark is a little on the nose but the dialogue works well and the script is one of the definite strengths of the film. It enables Scott to effectively establish characters that are more complex than what you usually get in action movies and makes for great entertainment, both amid the chaos and the calm. The exchange about horses as everyone nerve-wrenchingly awaits for the orders is a treasure.
I don't know if
Crimson Tide is too hopeful about human nature and the nature of the people who find themselves inhabiting continent-sundering machines. Everyone in the submarine is terrified by the prospect of nuclear war and they all very much hope they will not have to rain hellfire upon Russia ; their leaders agonize over the decisions they have to make, about the personal considerations that inevitably come into play, their moral codes and military law. I hope these are indeed the people who man nuclear submarines as opposed to those who wish they will one day have the opportunity to put them to use.
Submarines are perhaps the tensest place imaginable when push comes to shove - except perhaps space ships like that of
Alien. The movie uses that wisely to build tension and by the end it you can almost taste the sweat pearling down on every character's forehead. You feel the heat of close-quarters and the claustrophobia of it. Somehow they all manage to retain a level of calm and ultimately are able to take a step back and take the most reasonable course of action. Perhaps improbably, no one ever makes a unfortunately drastic decision.
What
Crimson Tide best conveys is the terror that must have permeated the worst moments of the cold war, the threat of doom that created people who were ready to obliterate lest they be obliterated first. It is a paradox that a submarine captain, far from being the most senior member of the navy, should have power akin a president's in one way, and yet refuse to question orders. This is quintessentially a movie of its time and could not be made today. It is a time machine that leads you to the last place you would fantasize about but you're glad it does because the trip turns out to be unexpectedly fun.
7/10 - Solid thriller
What's the deal with Tony Scott and Denzel Washington ?