The Hunt For Red October (1990)

Capt. Vasili Borodin: I will live in Montana. And I will marry a round American woman and raise rabbits, and she will cook them for me. And I will have a pickup truck... maybe even a "recreational vehicle." And drive from state to state. Do they let you do that?
Captain Ramius: Oh, yes.
Capt. Vasili Borodin: No papers?
Captain Ramius: No papers, state to state.
Capt. Vasili Borodin: Well then, in winter I will live in... Arizona. Actually, I think I will need two wives.
Captain Ramius: Oh, at least.

In what I consider a strange hole in my knowledge and movie catalog.  I had never seen The Hunt For Red October (THFRO). Never. Not on TNT. Never. I've always known of it, but it just never was a priority, I guess.

It's been 30 years since the filming, and much has changed, Alec Baldwin especially. But what grated on me was how much less scared I was/am of an outside threat to national security. So.. spoilers...The Russians develop a new kind of submarine propulsion that is silent. (It isn't. Courtney B Vance can just hear it, apparently.) And with that silent system Soviets could, without warning, launch atomic missiles at the United States. This is the terror that is to be averted by the intrepid Jack Ryan.

As plot devices go, Tom Clancy knows how to push national threat, espionage, and a very small amounts of heroism into a decent mix for a current audience about to get into the Gulf War. Unfortunately, for me, it didn't age well and in hindsight it reeks of nationalism.

Now to what I noticed.  I am jaded and not at all afraid of national security threats or terrorism -especially when those concerns are the driving force behind a narrative. I might be alone in this. But I am just not frightened or even scared of these things. -maybe if it was a current film...but even then.

Am I a monster for not being invested emotionally in the security and lives of my fellow citizens or of other humans across the board? I am not sure. The national security threat, terrorism threat, story is now so over done in my history of media consumption that it is basically meaningless.  I no longer care -at least in story sense- about the potential of a terrorist threat or security calamity. I think each of us has witnessed at least 1-2 crimes against humanity in terms of death and violence on screen and all that's happened for me is a lessening of the impact. Yikes!  This is perhaps the scariest thought I've had on this blog.  Pro-longed exposure to existential threat only lessens fear and empathy.

So, THFRO is a decent film that is no longer impactful in any sense. Other than seeing an all-star cast then and now.

2 final points:
-Stellan Skarsgard makes a pretty great Russian commander.
-Basil Poledouris should just have been hired for more soundtracks.  -Bravo

3.1 out of 5 stars

-So consider also that this film came out as the Soviet Union was crumbling. When the media restrictions fell and movies flooded into Russia.  THFRO would have been 1 of the first.  How might the Russians feel about it?