There were 2 things that always impressed me about The Hunt for Red October.
1) It's an excellent example of the movie being better than the book. There are two climactic arcs in the book, but the second one feels like just a regrind of the first, with no higher stakes. Condensing that down to just one real ending makes a lot of sense.
There were 2 things that always impressed me about The Hunt for Red October.
1) It's an excellent example of the movie being better than the book. There are two climactic arcs in the book, but the second one feels like just a regrind of the first, with no higher stakes. Condensing that down to just one real ending makes a lot of sense.
2) Lighting and staging. You get a visceral feel of darkness in the submarines - especially the Russians - but it's actually well lit. Not like a lot of recent movies where darkness is just darkness (which is both boring and frustrating to look at). The focused lights at floor level that illuminate the faces of the Russians from below are really striking. Ditto with the staging that shows the tightness of the control room and the vast size of the missile bay.
There were 2 things that always impressed me about The Hunt for Red October.
1) It's an excellent example of the movie being better than the book. There are two climactic arcs in the book, but the second one feels like just a regrind of the first, with no higher stakes. Condensing that down to just one real ending makes a lot of sense.
2) Lighting and staging. You get a visceral feel of darkness in the submarines - especially the Russians - but it's actually well lit. Not like a lot of recent movies where darkness is just darkness (which is both boring and frustrating to look at). The focused lights at floor level that illuminate the faces of the Russians from below are really striking. Ditto with the staging that shows the tightness of the control room and the vast size of the missile bay.