Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.5

Crimson Tide Blu-ray Movie Review

All hands to battle stations for this thrilling Blu-ray!

Reviewed by Martin Liebman February 4, 2008

In my humble opinion, in the nuclear world, the true enemy is war itself.

Some movie genres defy convention, churning out good movie after good movie with only a stinker here and there. Baseball movies come to mind. For every oddball bad movie like The Fan (sorry Tony), I give you The Natural, Field of Dreams, Major League, and The Rookie. The same truism holds for submarine movies. The occasional U-571 is counter-measured by The Hunt for Red October, The Enemy Below, Das Boot, and Crimson Tide. While Wolfgang Peterson's outstanding Das Boot stands alone as the best of the best of the genre and as a giant in all of cinema history, Disney's Crimson Tide proves itself to be an exciting, tense, and well crafted film that oozes greatness from the acting, direction, music, story, and special effects. The film is as entertaining as it is nail-bitingly intense, and it stands near the top of great submarine movies, ranking high on the list of the best action films of the 1990s.

Gene Hackman's reaction to the New England Patriots losing Super Bowl XLII.

As Crimson Tide opens, we learn that the world is on the brink of World War III. Not since the Cuban missile crisis has there been such a heightened state of alert and such a heightened state of fear. A Russian dissident has broken off from the former Communist nation, garnering large scale support from the Russian military. He's seized military installations and a harbor containing several Russian nuclear and attack submarines. Russia has sunk into a state of civil war, and the rebels threaten nuclear strikes on the United States and Japan should those or any other nations take action deemed hostile towards his regime. Captain Frank Ramsey (Gene Hackman, Behind Enemy Lines) is the captain of the U.S.S. Alabama, a nuclear submarine containing more firepower than has ever been unleashed in the history of warfare. The ship's Executive Officer (or X.O.) finds himself stricken with appendicitis, and his replacement is Lieutenant Commander Ron Hunter (Denzel Washington, Man on Fire). As the Alabama sets sail, the Captain and X.O. almost immediately disagree over the timing of a drill, showcasing Captain Ramsey's hard-lie approach to running his ship and the X.O.'s slightly more rational approach. When the Alabama receives word that the radical Russians are fueling missiles meant to be launched against the United States and her allies, orders come in to destroy a package of set targets, including those missiles being fueled, via a nuclear strike. At the same time, a Russian Akula class submarine has managed to track the Alabama and engages her. The American ship barely escapes, but her communications are damaged during the attack while a new message about their nuclear strike is incoming. The Captain and the X.O. will square off for the remainder of the picture, one demanding the missiles be fired as soon as possible while the other demands the attack wait for confirmation of the final message.

Crimson Tide's strength lies in, well, just about every aspect of the movie. When your film stars Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman, it garners a large amount of instant respectability, and in this case, the two actors deliver extremely fine, powerful, and memorable performances. Denzel is Denzel, an actor who is always at the top of his game. The Academy have voted him two Oscars for his mantle as well as three additional nominations. Gene Hackman, as I have heard referenced by his peers, is the "actor's actor," and he, too can boast of being the recipient of two best actor Oscars. While neither actor earned a nomination for their work in Crimson Tide, both are at the top of their games, showcasing terrific range and turning in performances with a bravado all their own and a chemistry that's second to none. Perhaps their best scene comes near the end of the film, awaiting the resolution of their final confrontation. They've been at each other's throats for the past hour of the film, and they can instantly turn off the anger and continue a conversation they began at the outset of the film about horses. It's terrific stuff and that scene alone is well worth the price of admission, but thankfully these two brilliant actors are not the only admirable qualities in this film.

Director Tony Scott knows how to make a bold, engaging action film. Man on Fire may be his most critically acclaimed work, and he is probably best known for the testosterone-laden Top Gun. However, Crimson Tide may very well be his best overall movie. While it's not as edgy as Man on Fire or as popular as Top Gun, Crimson Tide simply clicks on all levels. In addition to the fine acting showcased in this film, Scott has further upped the ante by teaming up with legendary composer Hans Zimmer, whose score here is perhaps the quintessential action film score, sounding very similar to his work on another Disney-backed project from around the same time, Michael Bay's The Rock. No action film is complete without outstanding sound effects, and Crimson Tide earned two Oscar nominations, one for sound and the other for sound effects editing. Indeed, all of the great efforts that went into the making of this excellent film result in an incredibly tense and sometimes horrifying movie. There’s a certain realism and fear throughout the picture, and it's so thick you could cut it with a knife. Just as Gene Hackman is the "actor's actor," Crimson Tide is the action fan's action movie and is one of the best of the bunch to come out of the 1990s.

Crimson Tide Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in 1080p and in its original 2.40:1 aspect ratio, Crimson Tide is one fine looking Blu-ray disc. The movie is mostly dark in nature, due to both the cramped, cold submarine, lit mostly by the red and green glows of alarms and monitors, and also to an intentional attempt to underscore the dread and seriousness of the pending action the ship must partake in. On a related note, black levels appear to be accurate. A few scenes exhibited some softness, resulting in an undefined and unsharp image, but most of the time, the movie looks absolutely fantastic. Despite the low lighting and somewhat dark colors, detail is extremely high. Take a look at the stitching on the Admiral's gold shoulder pieces during the inquest at the end of the film. You can literally make out each individual thread on the stars, anchor, and hawser sewn onto them. The print on display here is in very good shape, but the occasional black spot or speckle does rear its ugly head from time to time. This is a twelve-year-old film and expectations are high, but asking for absolute perfection is unreasonable. What we get here is about the best we could have hoped for.

Crimson Tide Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Disney presents Crimson Tide on Blu-ray with a 5.1 uncompressed PCM audio track that stands above many others as a reference quality mix. Each speaker is present and accounted for throughout the film as music and sound effects sweep all around the listening area. As rain falls, thunder claps, and music crescendos during the Captain's speech before the submarine launches, the room becomes that wharf, completely immersing the viewers and turning them, if only for a few moments, into some of Ramsey's men. When the submarine does set sail, the deep voices of the choir resonate throughout the room as the subwoofer belts out each and every deep note. Surround channels are particularly extravagant during the attack scenes. When the alarm blares, there is a realism and fear the permeates the entire sonic experience, creating an aura of tension as the ship prepares for the inevitable attack. Torpedo launches offer incredible depth of bass and the effect of them shooting through the water spreads across the soundstage with both power and grace. The more mundane aspects of the track, such as dialogue, are presented with reference quality accuracy. I found nothing to complain about with this track. It's no wonder the film earned Oscar nominations for its sound, and Crimson Tide is an early contender for best sounding catalogue Blu-ray disc of the year.

Crimson Tide Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

It's almost an injustice that a film as fine as Crimson Tide arrives in high definition with a substandard helping of extras. First is The Making of 'Crimson Tide' (480p, 19:57). This feature offers the usual blend of self-promotion, offering the cast and crew talking about the characters and the story with clips of the movie thrown in for good measure. There is some casting discussion with director Tony Scott, and Denzel Washington discusses learning the lingo of the Navy and becoming familiar with the workings of a nuclear submarine. Producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson describe this film as an "escapist" movie and discuss the hows and why of their reasoning for making this film--namely to be a fun, entertaining popcorn flick. That it is, and it's one of the best of its kind. All Access: On the Set of 'Crimson Tide' (480p, 10:18) is described as a tour of the submarine with actor George Dzundza, but this is more of a behind-the-scenes feature, showcasing an extended rehearsal of a crucial scene and the filming of a couple more. There are a few anecdotes thrown in here as well. Finally, seven deleted scenes (480p, 6:14) and Disney's movie showcase that features three of the best demo-worthy scenes from the film conclude this short set of extras.

Crimson Tide Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Crimson Tide is a film that has an awful lot of very good things going for it. First and foremost, it stars two of the biggest names in Hollywood who are among the best actors of the past few generations: Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman. Starring alongside them is a "who's who" list of Hollywood standouts, including Viggo Mortensen and James Gandolfini. The film is directed by the venerable Tony Scott, whose credits include mega-hits such as Top Gun, Enemy of the State, and Man on Fire. The film's tense, thrilling script, combined with an excellent score, great acting, and fine direction, make it a no-brainer to be a hit as a taut, exciting thriller. Indeed, Crimson Tide delivers, and it's a film that has withstood the test of time, feeling as fresh and exhilarating today as it did some twelve years ago upon its initial release. This Blu-ray edition boasts a very good video transfer and an outstanding audio quality. Unfortunately, the supplemental material is far too short, so fans of the film will need to look elsewhere to get their fill of behind-the-scenes material. Nevertheless, this is a very nice Blu-ray package from Disney, and Crimson Tide comes highly recommended to all Blu-ray fans.