The Hunt For Red October (Special Collector's Edition [DVD] [1990]

Full of suspence and did not expect the conclusion.

A great story involving political issues and emotional issuesBruising and brilliant

Love this film. Great actors and very believable story. Did it really happen? Nobody will say for certain, my view is yes it did.I would recommend this film.

Following the sad news of Sir Sean Connery's passing last weekend, in tribute the Memsahib and I sat down to watch "The Hunt For Red October" and Connery in one of his finest roles as the Soviet (Latvian) submarine Captain Marko Ramius.If, like me you've read Tom Clancy's superb novel from which this film was made, then you'll know the story because the film sticks pretty close to the book [I'm not going to give a precis here you can read that elsewhere on this page]; but that actually aids the enjoyment, there were moments when I had to explain bits to the Memsahib, but then the inside of one submarine looks pretty much like another. Okay there are a few small changes that have been made from the book to simplify the story, albeit only slightly, but these take nothing away from the plot, and besides without these it would have been a four hour movie.The cast are great, in particular Connery is excellent as the Latvian submariner, the young Connery may have been everyone's favourite Bond but the older Connery was born to play more complex parts and this role ranks alongside his portrayal of the Franciscan friar/detective William of Baskerville in "The Name Of The Rose" [which if you haven't seen you must]. In addition Alec Baldwin is superb as Jack Ryan [a role that has been played by almost as many as have had a crack at being Bond!], and James Earl Jones sets down his marker as Admiral Greer [a role he reprised in "Clear and Present Danger" and "Patriot Games"].The film opens with the Soviets speaking Russian with subtitles, but once we have established that they are Russians then the dialogue switches to English unless the Russians are speaking to each other in front of Americans when they speak Russian, but fortunately after we establish that Ramius and Ryan are bilingual everything continues theteafter in English [confused, you won't be].But you will need to remember that this was a cold war story, things have changed a lot in the last thirty years and of course the technologies have moved on a long way, but if you remember the eighties then this is a must-see movie although at points it shows it's age with some clarity and colour issues, but I put that down to the artificial lighting inside a submarine.Highly recommended.

I know movie buffs always rate Citizen Kane as the best film ever. In my own personal view Casablanca and The Third Man are up there too but one that people might not expect to see listed on someone's "best movies ever" list is Hunt for Red October.I actually went to see this in the cinema when it first came out back in 1990. It was a complete fluke, I didn't know what to expect at the time and picked it almost randomly - but it turned out to be gripping and I've watched it 20 to 30 times since.This is a great story with a gripping plot that keeps you hooked from start to finish. It's one of those films where you actually start to learn the dialogue: "Give me a ping, Vasili, One ping only" it's so good.The characters are well developed and to my mind this is actually Sean Connery's best piece of work ever. But it doesn't stop with Connery. Alec Baldwin, Sam Neill, James Earl Jones and others give cracking performances. Perhaps two of my favourite are Tim Curry as the hapless doctor and Joss Ackland who surely plays the best Russian Ambassador ever dramatised ?If you haven't seen this before do yourself a favour and see it - you won't be sorry. If you have seen it before I don't need to tell you do I? You already know it's a brilliant piece of entertainment !

Bought as a gift

Blu Ray all zone (not confirmed)Ratio of the feature film:2.35:1Languages of the feature film:- Dolby True HD 5.1: English- Dolby 5.1: French, Italian, German, Castilian Spanish- Dolby 2.0 Surround: Commentary by the director John McTiernanSubtitles for the feature film and the making of:- French, German, Italian, Castilian Spanish, Dutch, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish and English for the hard of hearings.Verdict:This film on Blu Ray is really amazing, a good picture with an outstanding soundtrack. The soundtrack is perfect with a fantastic music. The picture has a natural noise quite visible during the dark shots but not too annoying.Even if the pictures is not 100% perfect, it gives us much more details about the models submarine for instance the missiles hatches visible on the hull of the Typhoon, the grid pattern on the outer bow doors of the caterpillar. We can also count the missiles silos when Ryan is about to go after the cook and show us how long the submarine really is, it makes the scene looking truly impressive!High Definition picture means details we are not supposed to see !!- We can clearly see the whole deck and the conn tower of the Red October is a giant model (where Sean Connery and Sam Neill stand at the beginning of the film) as we can see the edges of the model barely submerged.- Technical mistake about this model, there is no wake as there are no propellers either which in fact are visible on a real typhoon-class submarine (when afloat).- The wires holding the 3 models submarines are visible on nearly every "underwater" shot. For instance, when the first torpedo is shot at the Red October, we can clearly see several wires holding the Red October when she is evading the attack.- The CGI effects are quite obtrusive but it is 1989 CGI, in fact we can say they are good considering what we were capable of doing in the 80s.Overall, it is a true pleasure to see this film on Blu Ray with its beautiful picture. Although we see the wires holding the sub, the underwater sequences still look superb thanks to the flawless motion and lighting of the 3 submarines.Bonuses:- Making of "Beneath the surface" -> Dolby 2.0, 29 min, SD, subtitled.- Theatrical Trailer -> Dolby 5.1, 1.5 min, HD, no subtitle.

OK some my criticise elements of this film, but as a stand alone, it hangs together well, the book is substantially different, but allowing for artistic licence, an enjoyable romp.