K-19: The Widowmaker (2002)

 

               “K-19: The Widowmaker” was directed and co-produced by Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty). She and the other producers were the first western civilians to be allowed on the Russian naval base on the Kola Peninsula. The Russians provided members of the actual K-19 to serve as technical advisers, but they quit when they realized how far the script was from reality. Maybe they should have been listened to because the movie was a bomb, making only $67 million with a cost of $90 million. The movie was financed by the National Geographic Society. (It took such a beating, it did not do a comparable movie, “The Way Back”, until eight years later. It was another bomb.) $25 million of the budget was Harrison Ford’s salary. He worked 20 days. Nice work if you can get it. Years later, he told an interviewer that his role was one of his favorites.

               The movie takes place in 1961. The K-19 is a new sub and has not been broken in yet. A practice nuclear launch fails due to faulty equipment. Foreshadowing! Capt. Vostrikov (Ford) believes the boat is not ready, but Khrushchev needs to impress Kennedy with his new super sub. Vostrikov gets the message and proclaims it to be “the finest sub in the world.” The crew begs to differ when the champagne bottle used to christen the ship goes clunk instead of crash. They immediately dub their boat “the Widowmaker”. The dominoes keep falling. The nuclear reactor officer is drunk on duty and replaced by a rookie who proceeds to kiss his girl goodbye AND shows off her picture. Dude! What are the Russian words for “dead meat”. The doctor is killed in an accident. But the boat does go well past crush depth (like every other sub in a sub movie) but maybe … Nah! Speaking of cliches, would you believe the Captain and his exec Polenin (Liam Neeson) butt heads? Polenin and the crew were expecting him to be promoted to command and feel Vostrikov pulled strings to get the command. Sound familiar “Run Silent, Run Deep” fans?  There is a great scene where the sub surfaces through polar ice. Then its back to this boat sucks!  Then the reactor overheats, as well as other problems that you wouldn’t give to a monkey on a rock. I won’t spoil it, but whenever you think you have seen the last problem, you haven’t.

               “K-19” got a raw deal from audiences and critics. Actually, I don’t think you can fault audiences. Who exactly was the movie aimed at? Russians did not want to be reminded of the disaster and Westerners did not care about a Soviet sub that was saved by a valiant crew. Who was the audience supposed to be rooting for? Harrison Ford, of course. The non-actor part of the budget resulted in a authentic nuclear sub experience. The cinematography is outstanding. The interiors are realistic. Not too cramped, not too spacious. The cast is good, but the character arc  of the exec is a bit too redemptive. And the political officer is quite unrealistic (a possible sop for Russian cooperation?). I did not find the accents distracting, but I’m not an accent Nazi. Ford did get some criticism for his lack of one, but what do you expect for $25 million? Overall, the movie is suspenseful, despite the tropes. One of which is the brass asses. However, those crass asses do force Ford to make some interesting decisions that are arguable. One thing is for sure, you’ll be glad you weren’t on that sub. And you’ll feel sorry for the men who were. Unless you are a bitter old Cold Warrior.

               So, what did the survivors dislike about the narrative? Do they not understand that “inspired by actual events” means entertainment trumps history? Apparently not, because all of their complaints resulted in a big fat “so?” from the producers. They were upset with the profanity, drinking, and insubordination of their cinema selves. They disputed the conflict between the captain and the exec. They clearly had not seen any American sub movies. And they didn’t like the mutiny which did not happen in real life. (All of these complaints would have torpedoed (get it?) US Navy cooperation.)

               Besides all that, what else was inaccurate? First let me mention that the main technical adviser was U.S. Navy Capt. Peter Huchthausen (Ret.). Before you decide whether to side with him or the crew, bear in mind he wrote the book that accompanied the release of the movie. The background is accurate. The sub was rushed into development by Khrushchev’s government because he wanted to quickly enter the nuclear sub race. Because of the rush and probably because of Soviet incompetence, the boat had several accidents in production, costing 8 lives. The champagne bottle not breaking was true. But the sub was never called the Widowmaker. (Don’t you hate it when an historically based movie starts out with an untrue title?) After the accident, the crew called it the “Hiroshima”. It was commanded by Nikolai Zateyev whose exec was Vasily Arkhipov (the same Soviet submariner that did not start WWIII during the Cuban Missile Crisis when he refused to launch a nuclear torpedo at an American destroyer that was tailing his sub). I found no evidence that there was any command dysfunction. The sub suffered several problems during sea trials including some not shown in the movie. The hulls rubber coating came off. There was flooding during a crash dive to maximum depth. There was flooding due to cooks clogging the galley’s waste system. I found no evidence of the sub surfacing through the ice cap.

               The accident was pretty accurately depicted. There was a communications breakdown. The film does a great job highlighting the courage of the crew and the leadership of the captain. They did have to jury-rig a new coolant system and the engineering group did expose themselves to lethal levels of radiation. Even after that was solved, the ventilation system sent radiation throughout the ship resulting in 14 deaths over the next two years. The nuclear missiles were not in danger of exploding. There was no mutiny, but Zateyev did have most of the sidearms thrown over board to discourage the possibility. Zateyev did make the decision to sail to link up with some diesel-powered subs. He did encounter an American destroyer that offered help which was refused. There was no mooning of a helicopter. In conclusion, “K-19” suffers from the sin of enhancement for entertainment value, but that can be partly excused as a way to gin up sympathy for the crew. Sympathy they deserved.

 

GRADE =  B-