Sean Connery month: The Hunt for Red October

A retrospective by Brooks Rich

To discuss a legend like Sean Connery, one would think I would start with Dr. No and go from there. We will get there but I decided to start with a film that would also let me make up some ground for the canceled John McTiernan month from awhile ago. McTiernan ends his most famous hat trick of films, starting with Predator in 1987 and concluding with the amazing action-thriller The Hunt For Red October from 1990, based on the book by Tom Clancy.

Sean Connery is Marko Ramius, a Soviet submarine commander who is taking the newest Soviet sub out for a test run. The sub, the Red October, is able to move silently through the water and past the sonar of the US navy, meaning they can have nuclear warheads off the coast without warning. Ramius thinks this is unacceptable and too much power for his country to have. He has decided to defect and turn the Red October over. The US and Soviets are after him. The US thinks he has gone crazy and is coming to launch on the US, save for one man, a CIA analyst named Jack Ryan, played by Alec Baldwin.

Got give credit to McTiernan for this film. There was a brief moment in time where he was the best action director working. While Hunt For Red October is no Die Hard, it is still an insanely good action thriller. It's more of a chess game than a balls to the wall action film.

Connery commands the screen in this film, no pun intended. He is at his most charismatic and intense here. There are different eras of Connery's career in my opinion. There is of course the Bond era. From there Bond era he would play a variety of different characters in the late '70s and early '80s with films like The Man Who Would Be King, Outland, and In the Name of the Rose. Starting with The Untouchables, Connery would enter the badass old guy stage of his career, playing intense badass old men who are always the toughest guy in the room. Ramius is sort of a mix of the tough old guy and Bond.

Comments

John Travolta month: Saturday Night Fever

A retrospective by Brooks Rich So this was not the big start of John Travolta's career. That would be the classic sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter. But this did elevate Travolta to another level. For any of you going oh come on. This silly movie with a disco soundtrack? Come on, Brooks. Just wait. Have you ever actually seen this? This isn't about disco. Disco just happens to be the music of choice. This about the kind of people who are kings at the dance clubs and then losers the rest of the time. There is a lot of darkness and truth in this film. So if you've never seen it please. Do yourself a flavor and check it out. Just watch it and then come back to read this. This is a movie about the different types of people we become between our real lives and our weekend lives. Tony Manero is a regular working class guy in a Brooklyn neighborhood, struggling to make ends meet and dealing with his loving but at times overbearing family. He lives in the shadow of his priest brother. ...

Forgotten Film Friday: Melinda and Melinda

A retrospective by Brooks Rich I know Woody Allen is a complicated figure. He is a creep in a lot of ways and some people find his sexual weirdness to be too much. I get that. But on the blog I sometimes like to separate the art from artist. Not always to be sure. Jeepers Creepers will never be covered here because Victor Salva is a useless piece of human garbage. What he did I can't ignore. Allen I can push aside him being weird to cover him now and then. It's hard to write a film blog and not mention a Woody Allen film now and then. The man has some bangers. And I've always wanted to cover this film. The concept is so interesting and Allen post 2000 is fertile ground for Forgotten Film Friday. So let's look at the film and not Allen himself. Melinda and Melinda is a dual narrative about a woman named Melinda, an underrated and brilliant Radha Mitchell, who shows up unexpectedly at a dinner party in New York. The film questions if life is inherently tragic or comic a...

Ranking every Tintin comic

A ranking by Brooks Rich In order to expand the blog a little, we'll sometimes cover other media besides films. Film will still be our bread and butter but the blog will also cover tv, music, comics, books, and other forms of media. To start it off I will be ranking all 21 main comics in a beloved series of books form my childhood, The Adventures of Tintin. Created by Belgian cartoonist Herge, Tintin, who has literature's greatest cowlick, is a reporter who travels the world with his faithful dog Snowy, the best fictional dog of all time, chasing bad guys and sticking his nose in other's affairs. Tintin is often joined on his quests by Captain Haddock, his most trust human sidekick. I credit Tintin and the Hardy Boys for my current love of mystery novels. Ranking the 21 main Tintin comics is far more doable than ranking the original Hardy Boys runs. As a quick note I will not be counting the unfinished Tintin and Alph Art or Tintin in the Land of the Soviets or Tint...

Cinema Basement

Search This Blog