Cheap Crimson Tide (Video) (Tony Scott) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of Crimson Tide

Why can't they make more movies like this
Excellent movie. Seriously, why can't they make more movies like this? Smart, well-acted, very dramatic, exciting. I could go on and on. Just a very satisfying movie....each of the thousand times I have watched it. If I accidently come across it on TNT or HBO or wherever, I have to sit and watch it until the end even though I have it on DVD right there on my bookshelf! I can't walk away! <
> <
>I love the beginning of the movie when they are boarding the sub, and they are standing in the rain while Hackman addresses the crew, and he has that little Q&A routine with the chief of the boat (George Dzundza). This scene really sets the tone. It almost made me want to join the Navy. <
> <
>The battle between Hackman and Washington's characters is, of course, what the movie is all about, and they pull it off flawlessly. Very good work by both men. That said, all of the key charactors are interesting and well-acted. The director really pulls this movie together very well despite the many charactors involved (many of these guys are big stars now). <
> <
>The great acting, the very exciting story, and edge of the seat drama just overwhelm whatever weaknesses or improbabilities that may exist in this movie. Great stuff. <
> <
>

---

Review from a REAL Submariner
I gave this movie 3 stars because ultimately, I was entertained. The acting (for the most part) was outstanding, and the tension that was created could be cut with a Knife. <
> <
>That being said, Let me put some peoples mind at ease, and relate some of the inaccuracies of the movie. <
> <
>1. No Animals on Board. Period. Lose the Dog and the Fish Tank. An aquarium would be a terrible missile hazzard, and a dog crapping and pissing onboard, not a chance. <
> <
>2. The supply officer (James Gandolfini) would never be allowed near control. Nor would he have the ability to force a seaman or petty officer to do push ups onboard a bus. The Supply Officer is a "restricted" officer, which means they can not participate in "command" of the vessel. The "Chop" would simply be in charge of the ships stores and the galley, nothing else. <
> <
>3. There is no countermanding a launch command. Period. If the CIC (The Prez) issues a launch, the birds are flown. All the fail-safe measures (authenticating the flash traffic) are pretty much spot on, yet when word comes down to launch, you launch. The Navy asks it's young submariners to be prepared to do the unthinkable, and are trained as such. As long as there exists the slight possibility that a valid order may be later recinded, you take away the confidence of the crew in it's orders. The safe guards regarding authorization and two person concurrance is designed to prevent a single officer from launching weapons. <
> <
>However, once a properly formatted, and authentic order is received, it is expected that it will be carried out. To do otherwise would always give crew members a moment of pause, wondering when the order to stand down would occur. This hesitation can not exist. Thus once the birds are ordered to fly, they will fly, as certain as if the president had pulled the trigger himself. <
> <
>4. While some submariners have been on the heavy side, the number of obese people seen on the boat is not consistant with a real crew. And I have never seen ANYONE as obese as the COB was in this movie. <
> <
>5. There are no secret "crawl spaces" in which people can move around in. The boat is not that big. Thus, Hunter and crew would have had to navigate actual passageways to get to control, and would have run into whatever guards were stationed. <
> <
>6. The "submarine" diving in the exterior shots was not a trident ballistic missile boat, but rather a Los Angeles Class attack boat out of Hawaii. I was in Pearl Harbor when the filming took place, and Pearl is strictly a Fast Attack sub base, with Tridents only coming once in awhile for a stop over after the end of a patrol. The boat shown in the dive footage was actually an LA attack boat, and not a boomer. <
> <
>7. While boat commanders frequently run multiple casualty drills, there would never be a "weapons drill" run just after a potentially fatal fire. The boat commander is ultimately responsible for the boat, crew, and it's payload. No commander would brush off such a large conflageration and "run a drill" until the fire had been fully extinguished and the reflash watch reported no possibility of reflash existed. <
> <
>8. Enlisted Submariners by nature are picked for their maturity and intelligence. Submariners, especially Nuclear Trained, are encouraged to "question" orders. The safety of the boat and the crew depends on each person being able to accurately determine if an order given is "lawful". The "boys" on board Alabama showed none of those traits. The fact that the "chop" could bully his way into the Captain's Quarters by simply yelling is a testament to the poor opinion the film makers had of enlisted men. <
> <
>In a "real" boat, the "chop" would have been staring down the barrel of a .45 caliber handgun, and would have been wrestled to the deck while a "security violation" was reported over the ship and "away the security alert team" was sounded. Security on board a sub is so crucial, that there is a story in which a seaman actually ordered Admiral Rickover to kiss the deck face down because the admiral while wearing full dress whites, refused to show the deck watch his military ID. He was spot promoted to Petty Officer by Rickover himself. <
> <
>So while my Sailor side has issues with all the inaccuracies and fairly poor treatment the military gets with this movie, I do find the movie suspensful, entertaining, and sometimes too close to comfort (the flooding sequence is a nightmare all sailors share) <
> <
>So kudos to the film makers for making a slick, taunt, thriller, but thankfully, that would and could NEVER happen.

---

Incredible Actors and Well Done Plot
This is a simply amazing movie, and what makes it even more stellar is that we've had several fantastic submarine movies in the past - Das Boot and Red October come to mind. We've already seen the claustrophobic, booming power of being trapped in an underwater submarine. That this movie is able to make that closeness even more powerful - and draw us into a story that really grips you with its meaning - is rather impressive. <
> <
>We begin with two powerhouses of actors, Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington. Gene is in charge of the sub; Denzel works for him. Gene is an unabashed alpha male, not unheard of in a commander. Denzel is intelligent and respects the chain of command. Suddenly, we're thrown into a situation where the sub *might* have been ordered to launch a missile attack on an enemy to protect the US. Unfortunately, the sub can't get confirmation. So either they shoot and risk starting WWIII for no reason - or they fail to shoot and leave millions of people open to slaughter. <
> <
>The plot and dialogue is incredible because it explores all the shades of grey in the characters. There's no right or wrong. Both scenarios are equally plausible. Gene wants to do what he was ordered to do, to save as many lives as he can. Denzel is desperate to get confirmation rather than risk mistakenly starting a world war. Both men suck up the men around them into their sides. Nobody WANTS the war. Gene doesn't take pleasure in firing - but he sees it as a necessary action to save lives. <
> <
>In such close confines, every person on screen makes a huge difference. This movie had not only two stellar top men, but also a fantastic supporting cast. James Gandolfini a la Sopranos. Viggo Mortensen a la Lord of the Rings. The music from Hans Zimmer is just amazing. He is a genius and can give incredibly subtle nuances to his works. <
> <
>If I had to find something to nit-pick in this movie, it's that I don't think the sub scenes were truly "realistic". It seemed more of a Hollywood sub than a real working piece of machinery that trained soldiers were living in for months. I think Das Boot did an exquisite job of getting that sense across. But really, the sub in this case was a "set" for the dialogue and character development to happen in. It wasn't the showcase, and this wasn't a sub documentary. So I'm willing to accept that tradeoff, so that we could have as tightly woven a story as we got.