K-19: The Widowmaker

K-19: The Widowmaker

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow
Produced by Kathryn Bigelow
Harrison Ford
Edward S. Feldman
Sigurjón Sighvatsson
Christine Whitaker
Screenplay by Christopher Kyle
Story by Louis Nowra
Starring Harrison Ford
Liam Neeson
Peter Sarsgaard
Music by Klaus Badelt
Cinematography Jeff Cronenweth
Edited by Walter Murch
Production
company
Distributed by New Films International
Paramount Pictures (US)
Constantin Film (Germany)
UIP (UK)
Release dates
  • July 19, 2002 (2002-07-19) (United States)
  • September 5, 2002 (2002-09-05) (Germany)
  • October 25, 2002 (2002-10-25) (United Kingdom)
Running time
 138 minutes[1]
Country United States
United Kingdom
Germany
Canada
Language English
Russian
Budget $100 million
Box office $65.7 million[2]

K-19: The Widowmaker is a 2002 submarine thriller film about the first of many disasters that befell the Soviet submarine K-19.

The film was directed by Kathryn Bigelow, and stars Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson. The screenplay was adapted by Christopher Kyle, with the story written by Louis Nowra, based on real life events depicted in a book by Peter Huchthausen. The film is an international co-production between the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Canada.

The film cost $100 million to produce,[3][4] but gross returns were only $35 million in the United States and $30.5 million internationally.[3][2] The film was not financed by a major studio (National Geographic was owned by National Geographic Partners, a joint venture with 21st Century Fox and The National Geographic Society), making it one of the most expensive independent films to date. It was filmed in Canada, specifically Toronto, Ontario; Gimli, Manitoba; and Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Plot

In 1961, the Soviet Union launches its first ballistic missile nuclear submarine, the K-19. The ship is led by Captain Alexei Vostrikov, aided by executive officer Mikhail Polenin. Polenin, the original captain, and the crew have served together for some time but Vostrikov's appointment is alleged to have been aided by his wife's political connections. During his first inspection, Vostrikov discovers the submarine's reactor officer to be drunk and asleep on duty. Vostrikov sacks the officer and orders Polenin to request a replacement. The new reactor officer, Vadim Radtchenko, arrives direct from nuclear school having just been fresh from the naval academy, annoying Polenin who thinks Vostrikov was too punitive on the former reactor officer who was competent despite his momentary lapse of judgment. Also, during the preparation period for the sub's launch, the ship's medical officer is killed when struck by an oncoming truck, and is subsequently replaced by the command's foremost medical officer, an army officer who has graciously offered himself in the submarine's time of need, but also privately admits to Vostrikov that as an army officer he has never been out to sea and suffers from motion sickness. During the K-19's official launch, the bottle of champagne fails to break when it strikes the bow; the sailors nervously glance at each other due to this customary sign of bad luck.

The crew's performance improves and Vostrikov decides to carry out the K-19's first mission, which is to surface in the Arctic and fire an unarmed ("test") ballistic missile. After that, the K-19 will patrol a zone in the Atlantic within range of New York and Washington D.C. just in case the U.S. launches an attack to the Soviet Union.

As a test of the sub's endurance, Vostrikov orders the K-19 to submerge past its maximum operational depth of 250 meters to its "crush depth" (300 meters), then surface rapidly at full-speed to break through the Arctic pack-ice which he estimates to be no more than one metre thick. Polenin regards this maneuver as dangerous and, during the surfacing procedure, storms off the bridge. After scraping along the underside of the ice, the K-19 finally breaks through and surfaces with no apparent damage. The crew is both relieved and exhilarated by Vostrikov's bold maneuver and the test missile is launched successfully.

As the K-19 sails southwards to begin the second part of its mission, a pipe carrying coolant to the reactor cooling system springs a leak and then bursts completely. Polenin and Vostrikov are informed that once the nuclear reactor reaches 1000 °C, the nuclear reactor will explode and most likely plunge the world into a nuclear war. The frightening possibility prompts the crew to solve the problem. The control rods are inserted to stop the reactor, but without coolant the reactor temperature continues to rise rapidly. Polenin and Radtchenko are shocked to discover that back-up coolant systems have not been installed. Vostrikov orders the K-19 to surface so that he may contact fleet command to inform them of the accident and await orders. But upon surfacing they discover the long-range transmitter on the conning tower is damaged and they are unable to contact fleet headquarters – Vostrikov assumes, ruefully, his surfacing maneuver in the Arctic caused the antenna damage.

An engineering team reluctantly have to enter the reactor to make repairs, and produce a makeshift coolant system to get the reactor temperature down. Polenin discovers the submarine has been provided with chemical suits rather than suits to protect against radiation. He nonetheless tells the first team that the suits will protect them. The first group emerges from the reactor compartment vomiting and heavily blistered. The second team panics, but make their way in. The repairs succeed in cooling the reactor, but many are severely ill with radiation poisoning.

Vostrikov is informed that a helicopter is approaching; he and some of the crew climb out onto the deck, thinking a Russian ship has come to save them, only to discover that it is a US Navy helicopter from a nearby US destroyer. The destroyer is asking if the K-19 requires assistance. Vostrikov orders a reply in the negative; the men on the deck notice a crewman in the helicopter photographing them, and they drop their trousers and bare their buttocks at him. The helicopter flies away. Vostrikov refuses to allow the Americans anywhere near K-19. The US destroyer follows them at a discreet distance. Back in the Soviet Union, the Soviet government begins to have suspicions about the K-19 abandoning the mission following K-19's failure to contact fleet headquarters about the condition of the mission.

The submarine makes its way towards a group of diesel submarines in the south, but the pipework ruptures and the temperature begins to rise once again, forcing Vostrikov to dive the submarine and quell a mutiny. The second repair is a success, but the engineer has sustained more radiation than the previous teams and is certain to die. Captain Vostrikov drags him from the reactor. After that, the K-19 finally reaches to the location of the diesel submarines. However, the Soviet leadership order him to confine the crew on the submarine until a freighter can arrive to pick them up. Knowing that it would be too dangerous to keep the crew on K-19, Vostrikov orders the crew to be evacuated to the diesel submarines despite knowing he will most likely lose his command and be sent to a gulag.

After the incident, Captain Vostrikov is tried for endangering the mission and disobeying a direct order, but Polenin comes to his defense, which resulted in his charges being dropped.

An epilogue shows an aged Captain Vostrikov in 1989, putting on his dress uniform in a small flat and catching a train to meet up with Polenin. It is exactly 28 years after the accident; the Berlin Wall is shown to be coming down. Vostrikov grumbles about the inconvenience but Polenin informs him this is the anniversary of the day they were rescued. The commanders enter a cemetery where a number of the surviving K-19 crewmen are gathered by a grave site. We learn that this is the first time the K-19 survivors have met since the incident. Vostrikov is visibly moved as he greets the men and informs them that he nominated the men now dead of radiation poisoning (28 in total) for the distinction of Hero of the Soviet Union, but was told they were not worthy of the title as they died not during war time, but as the result of an accident. The film ends with the moment when, years before, the whole crew took a group photograph in front of the submarine.

Cast

Production

"The Widowmaker" nickname was used only in the movie. In real life, the submarine had no nickname until the nuclear accident on 5 July 1961, when she got her actual nickname "Hiroshima". Producers later admitted that the title was "one of their biggest mistakes."

The producers made some efforts to work with the original crew of K-19, who took exception to the first version of the script available to them.[5] The submarine's captain presented an open letter to the actors and production team, and a group of officers and crew members presented another. In a later script, several scenes were cut, and the names of the crew changed at the request of the crew members and their families.

The most significant difference between the plot and the historical events is the scene that replaces an incident where the captain threw almost all the submarine's small arms overboard out of concern about the possibility of a mutiny; the film instead portrays an actual attempt at mutiny.

The Hotel-class submarine K-19 was portrayed in the film by the Juliett-class K-77, which was significantly modified for the role. Her Majesty's Canadian Submarine Ojibwa portrayed the Soviet Whiskey-class submarine S-270. HMCS Terra Nova portrayed USS Decatur. The Canadian Halifax Shipyards stood in for the Sevmash shipyard of northern Russia.

Klaus Badelt wrote the film's late-Romantic-styled score.

Reception

The film received mixed reviews with a total of 60% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. It is summarized as being "A gripping drama even though the filmmakers have taken liberties with the facts."[6]

When the film was premiered in Russia in October 2002, 52 veterans of the K-19 submarine accepted flights to the Saint Petersburg premiere; despite what they saw as technical as well as historical compromises, they praised the film and in particular the performance of Harrison Ford.[7]

References

  1. ↑ "K-19 – THE WIDOWMAKER (12A)". British Board of Film Classification. 2002-06-18. Retrieved 2013-01-20.
  2. 1 2 "K-19 The Widowmaker (2002)". BoxOfficeMojo.com. Retrieved 2009-03-14.
  3. 1 2 "K-19: The Widowmaker (2002)". DVDmg.com. Retrieved 2009-03-14.
  4. ↑ "Hollywood's Biggest Names-Are They Still Worth Their Price?". EZ-Entertainment.net. Retrieved 2009-03-14.
  5. ↑ Amelia Gentleman (23 February 2001). "Hollywood infuriates Russian veterans". The Guardian. Retrieved 2010-10-06.
  6. ↑ "K-19: The Widowmaker Movie Reviews, Pictures". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 19 August 2009.
  7. ↑ Irina Titova. "K-19 Film Premieres at Mariinsky Theater". The St. Petersburg Times. Retrieved 13 April 2013.

Further reading

External links

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