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Amazon.co.uk Review
An intense dramatisation of a long-suppressed Cold War anecdote, K-19: The Widowmaker is the first big Hollywood film to view the conflict through a Soviet periscope, casting Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson (with slight accents) as patriotic Russians.
In 1961, as NATO deploys long-range nuclear attack submarines, the Kremlin forces the Russian Navy to follow suit, whether they're ready or not. Ford takes over from popular skipper Neeson in command of the eponymous submarine, riding the men hard through a missile test, and then coping with an escalating series of crises as a jerry-built reactor threatens to melt down (and perhaps start World War III).
Though the political specifics are fresh, this has all the expected elements of a sub movie, citing everything from Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Das Boot to Crimson Tide and The Caine Mutiny as sailors bristle mutinously under a marine martinet. This, along with inept engineering and ideological interference, prompts disaster.
Director Kathryn Bigelow, the most undervalued talent in Hollywood, is in her element with heroic men under pressure, and a terrific central stretch has comrades trying to fix the reactor even though they've been given the wrong protective gear and start coming down with radiation sickness as they work. Less successful is a superfluous epilogue that pulls the old Spielberg present-day-reunion-of-the-aged-survivors-at-a-gravesite gambit. --Kim Newman
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a well crafted, true story and Exposition of the cold war submariners' duties. The unusual thing is that the Russians are depicted as the good guys. The editing, as signified by the pace of the film is superbly done. The claustrophobic aspects of the ship could have been boring but it was not the case. The two captains are shown as mutually distrusting at first but under duress begin to see the others point of view under the weight of an unreliable and dangerous vessel.
The 'rights and wrongs' of politics are left aside and the crews lives are shown during this catastrophic failure.
Both Alice and I enjoyed this film. It was shown to a Russian audience of Sea fairer and had mixed reviews.
15 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
K19, the Widow Maker is a suspense full movie that keeps you guessing the outcome. Your emotions that calls for anger turns into applause and in the final outcome you realize that people, also people that are on the other side are worthy of their courage, their dedication, loyalty and honor to their Nation.
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
K-19 may be historically inaccurate, but show me a military movie that isn't. This film is way more true to life than the idiotic fantasy that was U-571, in which Americans won the second world war by capturing a cipher machine (FYI, it was a British crew who captured the machine and anyway the Brits already had one, reverse-engineered by Polish intelligence and given to them in one of the more stunningly generous acts of wartime cooperation).
The important thing is not so much how doggedly authentic the story is. After all, Wolfgang Petersen's classic 'Das Boot', surely the ultimate sub movie ever in its original miniseries form, is fictional. What matters is the quality of the story, and the story told here in K-19 is profoundly touching. Harrison Ford seems really engaged for the first time in a long time, Liam Neeson is properly cast for a change as a slightly ambiguous figure (instead of just as a nice guy) and Peter Sarsgaard is heartbreaking as the head of the team that attempts to repair K-19's reactor.
Kathryn Bigelow's films have veered between genuinely eerie (Near Dark, The Loveless), silly (Point Break, Blue Steel) and romantic but a bit daft (Strange Days). For my money, this is the first movie she's made that her fans don't have to apologise for. So who cares that the crew all have silly Russian accents? Like you'd prefer that Harrison Ford sounded American and Liam Neeson sounded like he was from Ballymena? The sadness and grimness of life in the USSR have not generally been paid attention to by US filmmakers, who for the most part portrayed Soviets as cannon fodder, but this is a brave effort and a gripping and affecting movie.
The important thing is not so much how doggedly authentic the story is. After all, Wolfgang Petersen's classic 'Das Boot', surely the ultimate sub movie ever in its original miniseries form, is fictional. What matters is the quality of the story, and the story told here in K-19 is profoundly touching. Harrison Ford seems really engaged for the first time in a long time, Liam Neeson is properly cast for a change as a slightly ambiguous figure (instead of just as a nice guy) and Peter Sarsgaard is heartbreaking as the head of the team that attempts to repair K-19's reactor.
Kathryn Bigelow's films have veered between genuinely eerie (Near Dark, The Loveless), silly (Point Break, Blue Steel) and romantic but a bit daft (Strange Days). For my money, this is the first movie she's made that her fans don't have to apologise for. So who cares that the crew all have silly Russian accents? Like you'd prefer that Harrison Ford sounded American and Liam Neeson sounded like he was from Ballymena? The sadness and grimness of life in the USSR have not generally been paid attention to by US filmmakers, who for the most part portrayed Soviets as cannon fodder, but this is a brave effort and a gripping and affecting movie.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
K 19
I have watched this film several times and still enjoy watching it, an excellent film with two great actors, well worth the money.
Published 1 month ago by cKingc
A Bigelow classic - recommended.
Starring Harrison Ford as Capt. Alexei Vostrikov and Liam Neeson as Capt. Mikhail Polenin, Kathryn Bigelow's film is an exciting and dramatic re-enactment of the events surrounding... Read more
Published 5 months ago by RR Waller
Fast moving fun formula
This is another caught in a leaky sub movie. You just have to enjoy this type of movie to watch it. No new revelations. Harrison Ford gets to play the misunderstood heavy Capt. Read more
Published 10 months ago by bernie
Excellent
I didn't know the story of K19 before seeing this film and was enthralled. Obviously the content is very disturbing as it's based on true facts. The acting is also superb. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Susan A. Taylor
True story
This is a true story and was of particular interest as I live in Helensburgh close to Faslane Cemetery, where all but one of the submariners are buried. Read more
Published on 20 Jan 2010 by Mrs. S. Young
Run-of-the-mill film, ok but not spectacular
Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson wouldn't be the obvious first choices to play Soviet submariners, but despite this they both do a reasonable (but not great) job in this "inspired by... Read more
Published on 29 Nov 2009 by J. S. Hardman
A Dramatic Film
"K19 The Widowmaker," stars Harrison Ford, and Liam Neeson. An action-drama released in 2002, the film is set at the peak of the Cold War, and is based on a true story - one that... Read more
Published on 19 Jan 2009 by Andrew Kerr
A Dramatic True Story
This movie is about the Soviet Unions first nuclear submarine, the K-19. The Soviets in their rush to get a nuclear deterrent off the U.S. Read more
Published on 5 Oct 2007 by M. A. Ramos
undersea shenanigans...
The submarine film as been done so many times, and there really are some real classic underwater sub films. Read more
Published on 4 April 2006 by Mr. J. WARE
the real story was somewhat different
There is something basically wrong with this film. For those who know the real story of K19, the film should have been a scathing indictment of the Communist system. Read more
Published on 23 Sep 2003
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