THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, May 15, 1995 TAG: 9505130031
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
ALTHOUGH IT is just mid-May, the first high-tech, pop-thriller of the summer season is upon us. ``Crimson Tide'' is a dizzying suspenser that trots out an obvious formula. But if this is predictable button-pushing, the right buttons are pushed.
Even though the film has all the macho element of an action flick, the surprise is the acting. A cool Denzel Washington and a psychotic Gene Hackman are in your face most of the time - sweating, worrying and squaring off.
Their worries are valid. ``Crimson Tide'' resurrects the most persistent fear of our generation - nuclear holocaust. Just when we thought it was OK not to worry about Russia, we are faced with a rather convenient trauma: Soviet rebels have confiscated nuclear arsenals.
The USS Alabama, a Trident nuclear submarine, hovers in Siberian waters. When orders come to fire its nuclear powerhouse, quirky, ``old-Navy'' Capt. Frank Ramsey (Hackman) delightfully reasons that ``we're back in business.'' He is challenged, even to the point of mutiny, by his college-educated second in command, Lt. Cmdr. Ron Hunter (Washington). The crew has to choose sides.
Hackman and Washington effectively save the film. When you think about it, there isn't much logical suspense here. We know no one is going to blow up the world. We know Ramsey is the bad guy and Hunter is pretty-nigh perfect in every way. Why then are we so engrossed for the film's 115 minutes? Because everything, but everything, is played so seriously.
Tony Scott, the director who had a more splashy and superficial success with ``Top Gun,'' keeps the pace at high speed and lets the camera get in close to serve his two stars.
Of course, ``Crimson Tide'' is hardly a new yarn. It borrows from everything: Tom Clancy novels, ``Dr. Strangelove,'' ``The Caine Mutiny'' and, most directly, the ``The Bedford Incident,'' the 1965 nuclear-scare drama involving a ship out of Norfolk and a clash between Richard Widmark and Sidney Poitier.
A major weakness is Ramsey is so clearly pictured as the bad guy early in the game. Rather than letting us choose sides, Ramsey comes off as more than gung-ho; he may be psychotic.
Hackman lends some balance by neatly underplaying the character and even suggesting some sympathy with his love for country and devotion to ``going by the book.''
Washington is forced to play a rather faceless goody-goody, but he does it with a burning cool that keeps us interested nonetheless.
Red, green and blue lights are used for varied rooms, but the lack of cooperation from the real Navy shows in the few exterior shots. Perhaps it's all to the best. Director Scott got to use all that heavy equipment in ``Top Gun'' and ended up with more flash than involvement.
A major distraction is the loud and obtrusive musical scoring of Hans Zimmer. His choruses, chants and other excesses might work in an epic adventure. Apparently, no one told him that the film is an intimate character study.
If ``Crimson Tide'' is derivative and somewhat formulaic, it's no matter. The suspense works while you're in the theater, which is where it counts. ILLUSTRATION: HOLLYWOOD PICTURES
Denzel Washington, left, and Gene Hackman vie for control of the USS
Alabama in ``Crimson Tide.''
MOVIE REVIEW
``Crimson Tide''
Cast: Denzel Washington, Gene Hackman, George Dzundza, Viggo
Mortensen
Director: Tony Scott
Screenplay: Michael Schiffer
Music: Hans Zimmer
MPAA rating: R (strong language, little actual violence)
Mal's rating: ***
Locations: Chesapeake Square in Chesapeake, Janaf, Main Gate in
Norfolk, Kemps River, Lynnhaven, Pembroke, Surf-N-Sand at Virginia
Beach
by CNB