K 19: The Cold War enemy according to Hollywood

After becoming President, JF Kennedy stepped up the cold war rhetoric and increased the US defence spending. Khruschchev on the other side detested Kennedy and he wanted to test him. The best know test was the Cuban missile crisis of 1962.
With the cold war over, some incredible stories come out in the open. One of the more horrifying stories is the fate of the K 19. The first Russian nuclear submarine that was send in 1961 by Khruschchev on a mission to show Kennedy that the Russians were able to strike the American homeland with nuclear missiles launched from submarines.

Hollywood embraced the story and made it into a cold war disaster movie, starring Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson.
Ford plays Captain Nikolai Zateyev, the commander who lead the K 19 into disaster during its maiden voyage. Neeson is the executive commander in whom the crew have total confidence.
The story line is quite simple. In the opening sequence the crew aboard the K 19 is preparing a launch of a nuclear missile, which is aborted due to a technical failure. It turns out to be a realistic drill, but it sets the tone for the rest of the film. Neeson, the respected commander, opposes higher ranking navy officers. Featuring further is a ship that doesn't work properly at critical moments due to inadequate materials.

In the mean time Ford gets the assignment to bring the K 19 close to the American coast to be observed intentionally by American reconnaissance planes, so Kennedy will know that the Russians can strike their homeland.
On its voyage commander Ford takes the sub and her crew to the edge of its capability. He doesn't make a lot of friend aboard, but he is a man with a mission, who's father was a well known officer in the navy who ended up in the gulag.

Half way, the nuclear engine breaks down and a melt down is immanent. To fix the reactor the crew has to do some bricolage to the reactor. Some men have to go in and attach a pipe so cold water can cool down the over heating system.
Commander Ford doesn't want to go back, he wants to complete his mission. A nearby American frigate is prepared to give assistance, but Ford doesn't want to give in to the enemy. The situation is quite hopeless and the crew knows it. Ford rules like a captain Ahab and than you can be sure that there is a thread of mutiny. The political officer takes commander Ford in chains and gives Neeson the command. He expects him to ask assistance from the US vessel, so the contaminated ship can be abandoned.

Neeson doesn't give in to mutiny and stands by his senior officer. Just in time a Russian rescue sub arrives. The ship is abandoned and tugged back to Russia. The end of the pride of a nation.

The most striking thing about K 19, the movie, is the way Hollywood portrays the former enemy as heroes, proud and patriotic. The Russians are not portrayed as the evil enemy, but as contestants with their peculiar faults that causes them in the end to lose the cold war.
After annexing the Second World War by producing endless streams of "German" war movies, Hollywood turns now to the cosy cold war. A time when the enemy was a well defined entity and not some diffuse network like Al Qaida. An enemy that had a similar army which happened not to be as good as the American.
It is hard to determine if the story is accurately historical. It appears to be so. The disaster scenes are exiting and the fixing of the reactor scenes are horrific. Ford and Neeson play their role well, although the Russian accent they use doesn't let us forget that they are in fact well paid Hollywood stars.

K 19 The Widowmaker (IMDb) | National Geographic | ZAP2it | K-19: The Widowmaker: The Secret Story... Amazon | Official site
- posted by DD @ 2:48 PM Perma Link/Print