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Hunt for Red October 1990 (2016)

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Re: Hunt for Red October 1990 (2016)

#131
post #93
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The trick they use to handle the transition from Russian to English dialogue is so cool.

I'm trying hard to think of a false or dated moment in the whole movie. If you made a 1984 period film about the same subject, in 2025, I'm not sure what would be different other than the actors. Even the SFX hold up.

Early Tom Clancy, before he monetized his name, was pretty amazing. The Hunt for Red October was published by the Naval Institute Press. [0]

It was also the first adult book I read. Probably around 6 or 7? Before Jurassic Park, which I read before that movie came out.

I'd asked my father if "There were books about other things, because kids books were boring."

He handed me Tom Clancy off his bookshelf.

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Naval_Institut...

Re: Hunt for Red October 1990 (2016)

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

/me remorsefully remembers the cute German girl who asked him if he wanted to go see it with her. Decades later, it occurred to me that she liked me. Oh, well, story of my life!

The 5 hour uncut Das Boot is an amazing first date.

Here is your chance to have a similar experience if you're in NY: https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/5746.

Re: Hunt for Red October 1990 (2016)

#133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Like, is Russia reserving its soliders on the Western front for NATO reasons rather than just using everything against Ukraine? The Russian government is treading a fine line domestically. For most Russians, the war is a not relevant to them. They do not want to fight, which is why when it became clear Russia wasn't going to have a quick victory, there was one quick and dirty mobilization that mostly sucked up peop…

From all of this, it doesn't really seem like they would be much of a threat to NATO. Except for the nukes. As far as traditional forces, there seems to be a disconnect between the fear of vs the credible threat. Or I'm just grossly misjudging things and it's a good example of why I'm not involved in any threat assessment type of position. Underestimate your opponent at your own peril type of thing

Russia isn’t much of a threat outside of its own railway system. The soviets build their military logistics around rail as the primary mode of transport. This is why UA being able to hit the exit rail depots where RU was massing equipment was so effective at stopping the RU advance (coupled with UA’s innovative use of drones to attack road-based supply lines).

NATO makes use of rail, but also has LOTS of varied mobility for delivery of logistics.

In this way, NATO can shut down an invasion by RU by attacking the rail system, with both conventional and cyber weapons.

The only counterexamples I can find are where the RU contractors do large scale ware for junta/warlords like in Syria and multiple countries in the Sahara. But they aren’t fighting a large modern army there — mostly insurgencies and militias.

Re: Hunt for Red October 1990 (2016)

#134
post #115

Great read on how ILM made the shots. As a crew member on the USS Salt Lake City (SSN-716), we took many of the cast and crew out to sea for 24 hours before they made the movie to get a feel for what sub-life was like before they made the movie. All the cast and crew were great, and I think it made the movie better. Actor Scott Glenn, who plays the Captain of Dallas, modeled his character after our Captain, Tom Fargo…

for those who didn't realize - same guy is Walton Goggins father in S03 of White Lotus

Bit of a spoiler, don't you think?

Re: Hunt for Red October 1990 (2016)

#135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. The thing that bugs me about Apollo 13 is that they played up the drama unnecessarily, because the ground crew was so large, well-trained, and in sync. Like the scene where they dump a box of stuff and say "You have to make this go into here using just this?"- the actual story is that one of the engineers on the ground realized basically as soon as he heard about the accident (and the LM lifeboat) that they wo…

It’s a reality of cinema that when they do a biopic or a film about a real event, they often have to make changes that enhance the drama. Some of these are reasonable, some not so. In Apollo 13, they upped the drama by significantly shortening the time required to get the LEM up and running as a lifeboat. I’m okay with that. Inserting drama where there was none is less justifiable, as it speaks to the character of th…

I've read that when they adapted the story of Desmond Doss into the movie "Hacksaw ridge" they had to tone down some of the true events, because the scriptwriters decided that audiences would find parts of the story unrealistic and unbelievable.

Re: Hunt for Red October 1990 (2016)

#136
post #115

Great read on how ILM made the shots. As a crew member on the USS Salt Lake City (SSN-716), we took many of the cast and crew out to sea for 24 hours before they made the movie to get a feel for what sub-life was like before they made the movie. All the cast and crew were great, and I think it made the movie better. Actor Scott Glenn, who plays the Captain of Dallas, modeled his character after our Captain, Tom Fargo…

for those who didn't realize - same guy is Walton Goggins father in S03 of White Lotus

Dude... delete that. That’s an important spoiler for a show that just came out a week ago. Yeah, he's in White Lotus S3. That’s all you needed to say.

Re: Hunt for Red October 1990 (2016)

#137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Like, is Russia reserving its soliders on the Western front for NATO reasons rather than just using everything against Ukraine? The Russian government is treading a fine line domestically. For most Russians, the war is a not relevant to them. They do not want to fight, which is why when it became clear Russia wasn't going to have a quick victory, there was one quick and dirty mobilization that mostly sucked up peop…

From all of this, it doesn't really seem like they would be much of a threat to NATO. Except for the nukes. As far as traditional forces, there seems to be a disconnect between the fear of vs the credible threat. Or I'm just grossly misjudging things and it's a good example of why I'm not involved in any threat assessment type of position. Underestimate your opponent at your own peril type of thing

Russia isn't a conventional threat to all of NATO, but it can and does bring an enormous amount of artillery to grind away weaker enemies. The big risk is to the Baltic states. They've only got a small border with a friendly country (Poland). If Belarus allows Russian use of it's land, it'd be harder to defend.

Re: Hunt for Red October 1990 (2016)

#138
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, aside from the weird civilian rape-to-romance subplot, yeah. Technically it holds up well. Which is true for most of Clancy's novels.

Didn't he save her (Vigdis?) from being raped, though? Your post implies that he raped her, and a romance developed from that.

I think I was ambiguous on who raped (or attempted to rape) her, but the point still stands. While its certainly possible, it seemed like such a non sequitor to have her fall immediately for her savior, after a rape whose sole point was to make it clear that the russians are the bad guys.

I think Clancy was misunderstanding his audience in believing he needed to add rape to all the other bad things, trivializing rape, and probably most importantly for the purposes of this discussion, insisting on a superfluous romance subplot in a techno-thriller. Its been a long time since I read Red Storm Rising, and the main thing I recall is that I hated the romance subplot. It was a human interest story when I picked it up for the guns and bombs and missiles and things.

Re: Hunt for Red October 1990 (2016)

#139

Great read on how ILM made the shots. As a crew member on the USS Salt Lake City (SSN-716), we took many of the cast and crew out to sea for 24 hours before they made the movie to get a feel for what sub-life was like before they made the movie. All the cast and crew were great, and I think it made the movie better. Actor Scott Glenn, who plays the Captain of Dallas, modeled his character after our Captain, Tom Fargo…

You read the book? I’m curious how all of the operational details and jargon held up to a real sailor.

In case you didn't know, Tom Clancy has also written a lot of non-fiction military reference material: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Clancy_bibliography#Non-fi...

Re: Hunt for Red October 1990 (2016)

#140
post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You read the book? I’m curious how all of the operational details and jargon held up to a real sailor.

In case you didn't know, Tom Clancy has also written a lot of non-fiction military reference material: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Clancy_bibliography#Non-fi...

Oh cool — no I didn’t know. Loved Red October - it somehow seemed to be faster paced than the movie was, which seems rare.
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