Hunt For Red October, The (Blu-ray)

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The supporting cast in the film is full of other familiar faces and each add to the overall value of the film. Gates McFadden of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" fame plays a grounded Mrs. Ryan in the film, but has very little screen time. Richard Jordan takes on the role of National Security Advisor Jeffrey Pelt and makes the decision in the film to send Jack Ryan to the Red October. Veteran actor and former Presidential hopeful Fred Thompson does a great job as a Rear Admiral. Jeffrey Jones is best known for "Ferris Bueller´s Day Off," but as Naval Academy Instructor and Jack Ryan friend Skip Tyler, Jones shows he can handle a serious role. The chameleon-like Tim Curry portrays Russian naval officer Yevginy Petrov. He doesn´t have a large role, but I enjoyed seeing him in the film. Sam Neill and Stellan Skarsgard are two other actors who handle a Russian accent and provide depth to the film. It shouldn´t be forgotten that James Earl Jones and Scott Glenn give great performances in memorable roles as well.

"The Hunt for Red October" is a stunning film. It is not my personal favorite of the Tom Clancy series, but I´m not afraid to swallow my pride and say that "The Hunt for Red October" is the best of the four films. Everything in the movie is solid, aside from the plot point where Jack Ryan is placed upon the Russian submarine. The film looks absolutely amazing and provides some of the best underwater scenes ever filmed. The story and pacing of the film are both top notch and while I wish Connery had a slightly stronger accent, his performance is very good and as I´ve already stated, Alec Baldwin has given the truest performance of Jack Ryan. The movie runs for two hours and fifteen minutes, but it is a lean feeling 135 minutes. I always wonder of how I would view the series had Baldwin remained in the title role and I tend to feel I would have loved those films and this would be my favorite all-time.

Video:

"The Hunt for Red October" finally arrives in high definition form on retail shelves on a very good AVC-MPEG-4 encoded 2.35:1 transfer. The film was to originally appear on HD-DVD, but a problem with packaging and lack of supplemental materials canned that release and this Blu-ray disc is the first time the film has been available in glorious 1080p. The film is now a catalog title and no longer a recent big budget blockbuster. The near twenty-year age of the film starts to show and "The Hunt for Red October" looks a little washed out at times, there is a minor but ever-present amount of film grain and a few flaws from the source materials can be spotted. Regardless of its flaws, "The Hunt for Red October" still looks very good. Detail is generally quite strong and coloring is solid. I absolutely loved how well the underwater scenes turned out. The breaking down of gradients and posterization that was present with the DVD release is gone and detail remains strong during the darkest moments. While identical to the unreleased HD-DVD version of the film, this is a huge step up over the previous DVD version.

Audio:

The Russian themed score by Basil Poledouris is one of the most memorable elements of "The Hunt for Red October" and thankfully the Dolby Digital TrueHD 5.1 mix delivers the goods for both the film and its patriotically haunting score. There is plenty of usage from all six channels in this multi-channel surround mix and each sonar blip, metallic ping from water pressure and the churning of water in screws sounds strong. The film understands the power of simplicity, but is able to become an aggressive beast with a wall of sound at other times. There are some very nice explosions heard in the film and while "The Hunt for Red October" cannot compete with "U-571" in the sound department, it delivers a wonderful sounding undersea experience through its five main channels. What I did notice that caused a little disappointment was the relative timid nature of the .1 LFE channel. The bass wasn´t nearly as strong as the film demanded and that was the only true flaw in the TrueHD mix.

Extras:

Three supplements are provided with the Blu-ray release of "The Hunt for Red October." The disc begins its bonus offerings with a Commentary by Director John McTiernan. McTiernan provides a nice mixture of information and personal insight into the film, but his delivery is dry and full of dead air. While the commentary is interesting and informative, it is not something you want to listen to if you feel tired in the least. The making of documentary Beneath the Surface (29:00) touches on most of the elements of the filmmaking process for "The Hunt for Red October" and with the exception of Sean Connery, most of the principal members of the cast and crew are present. This was full of talking-heads interviews and a little back-patting, but I found it to be pretty good and easily sat through its half hour running time. Finally, the films Theatrical Trailer is presented in high definition.

Closing:

I greatly enjoy "The Hunt for Red October" and while Alec Baldwin is not my favorite choice as Jack Ryan and this film is not my favorite entry in the Jack Ryan franchise, it is perhaps the best film from a critical standpoint and Baldwin may have been the correct choice as Ryan. "The Hunt for Red October" provides a fairly faithful and strong story based upon Tom Clancy´s award winning film. With solid acting, wonderful filmmaking and plenty of suspense, "The Hunt for Red October" is a film that is easy to watch repeatedly. The new Blu-ray release of the film provides good visuals and sound with a few nice supplements. It isn´t perfect, but it is the best release yet for this classic and highly entertaining movie. I´m a big Harrison Ford fan, but if I had to recommend any of the Jack Ryan films as an introduction to Tom Clancy and Jack Ryan, it would have to be this film.

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