Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

K-19: The Widowmaker Blu-ray Movie Review

Overlooked? Yes. Gem? No. Competent, sometimes riveting, Sub movie? Absolutely.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 4, 2010

In the history of the Soviet Navy, no sailors have been given such a boat as K-19.

Run Silent Run Deep. The Enemy Below. Das Boot. Crimson Tide. U-571. The Hunt For Red October. K-19: The Widowmaker? Ask any fan to rattle off three of four Submarine movies in 10 seconds, and chances are that K-19 won't make the list. While not sunken treasure, K-19 nicely submerges its audience into the world of a 1960s Soviet sub mission gone terribly wrong, the picture capturing the tensions, fears, and humanity of a desperate crew about as well as any other of its kind not named Das Boot. Much more of a Human Drama than a flat-out Action movie, K-19 actually has more in common with what is widely considered the greatest Submarine movie of them all -- the aforementioned Das Boot -- than it does something more flashy like U-571, but a period piece focusing on a relatively-unknown Russian sub that features an arguably-miscast Harrison Ford, no torpedoes fired, and a midsummer release date that saw it surrounded by bona-fide blockbusters would seem to spell doom at the box office and, indeed, Director Kathryn Bigelow's (The Hurt Locker) picture sunk to the tune of about $33,000,000, the difference between the picture's gross worldwide revenue and its $100,000,000 budget. Still, taken for what it is, K-19 proves a competent, well-made picture that admittedly lacks action but is otherwise a steady, intriguing, and sometimes engrossing picture that's worthy of the storied genre.

Sailing toward history.

The year is 1961, and the Cold War is in full swing. Nuclear weapons and MAD -- Mutually Assured Destruction -- have become de facto deterrents to wide-scale war between the United States, the Soviet Union, and their proxies. Though both sides have stockpiled enough weapons to destroy the world many times over, the U.S.S.R. has finally developed its first nuclear submarine -- dubbed the K-19 -- and she's soon to set sail and patrol the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. Before her launch, her Captain, Mikhail Polenin (Liam Neeson, Taken), is replaced by Captain Alexei Vostrikov (Harrison Ford, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), though Polenin is retained as Vostrikov's Executive Officer. The crew believe their ship to be cursed by the inordinate number of deaths surrounding her construction and the failure to achieve a proper send-off with the customary bottle of champagne that refuses to break against her hull. As the ship is tested at sea and her crew submitted to challenging drills, K-19 develops a reactor coolant leak that places every member of the crew in harms way and hinders the vessel's ability to function, raising tensions and jeopardizing the Soviet Union's ability to successfully counter their adversary's nuclear submarine program.

Enjoying more ups than downs, K-19 makes for a worthwhile journey beneath the sea, even if it does prove somewhat unorthodox in that it's built sans any real action scenes; this isn't one of those movies with torpedoes spinning through the water, a silent crew gazing above as a destroyer hunts for them with sonar pings and depth charges, or any of the other more conventional Submarine movie motifs that add excitement and tension to the experience. Director Kathryn Bigelow instead chooses to tell a story that is, yes, short on action in the traditional sense but heavy on drama, both as it pertains to the nuts-and-bolts of the story and through the way the movie creates real people that hurt and suffer for their Captain and for their Motherland. Indeed, K-19 is something of a reserved, melancholy picture that puts a different spin on a group of people more often than not represented in films as but thematically irrelevant -- if not even sometimes nameless and faceless -- characters that serve only as a generic and, in many ways, robotic adversarial figures rather than real human beings. In that way, K-19 proves very similar to films like Das Boot and Stalingrad that show the "enemy" to be every bit as human as the men and women who are more often than not heroically depicted in movies that focus on the other side. The characters of K-19 are painted as real flesh-and-blood individuals who understand and embrace the principles of honor and duty but also demonstrate real emotions, including fear, which makes K-19 a story worth telling no matter the flag under which they served.

Stylistically, Bigelow doesn't quite achieve the same level of close-quarters tension as did Wolfgang Petersen in Das Boot; there's still a cramped, uncomfortable feel throughout the movie, but the absolute sense of claustrophobic confinement just isn't there in many scenes. The audience never feels quite like a member of the crew, but K-19 more than makes up for that considering the surprising amount of emotional depth the picture has engendered by the time the credits roll. To Bigelow's credit, however, K-19 never feels all that bloated, even considering a runtime that extends well beyond two hours; she gets the most out of what is a fairly linear and basic plot line, drawing the audience in and ensuring that the tension and drama take center stage and overshadow the fact that there aren't any major action scenes in the more traditional "submarine warfare" sense. Additionally, the cast is excellent, even if Harrison Ford never gets his accent to a level beyond "trying." Ford's physical performance and grasp of the material, however, are both excellent, capturing the tone of a sub Captain who is at once both demanding and prideful but also compassionate and understanding of his men's needs. Liam Neeson is well cast as the Executive Officer, while a young Peter Sarsgaard does well in supporting role in one of his biggest parts before becoming more of a bona-fide movie star.

K-19: The Widowmaker Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

K-19: The Widowmaker surfaces onto Blu-ray with a competent 1080p, 2.35:1-framed transfer that's nicely filmic in texture but isn't as strikingly beautiful as many of the other Blu-ray images out there. Among the image's most easily-recognizeable traits are black levels that sometimes crush details around the frame and a thick layer of grain that's retained throughout the film. Blacks never veer towards a shade of gray, but they and several other shots are sometimes dotted with some errant noise. The grain structure will please purists but leave those wanting a smoother, shinier transfer disappointed. K-19 employs what is, generally, a bland color scheme that's heavy in darker shades of black, brown, and gray inside the sub, while exteriors are often cold, gray, and white. There's little in the way of flashy colors, but the absence of a brighter palette suits the themes of the film, its cramped quarters, and the era in which it takes place well. Fine details are best described as "adequate." The picture takes on a rather flat appearance, but the lines and creases in leather jackets or the dings, dents, scratches, seams, debris, rust, and grime as seen on many of the surfaces inside the sub are nicely resolved. Though heavy on the grain and exhibiting a touch of excess noise, the print never features any debilitating scratches, pops, or debris. Flesh tones remain stable and, for the most part, representative of neutral shades throughout the movie. Paramount's Blu-ray transfer for K-19 is a stable one; the picture by nature doesn't lend itself to the proverbial "eye candy" sort of transfer, but it's capably filmic in texture and makes for a quality Blu-ray release within the context of the picture's somewhat bland visual style.

K-19: The Widowmaker Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

K-19: The Widowmaker's Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack proves a submersing experience, but not one that's altogether seamless. Outside of a few heavier and more involved scenes, this track is built of pretty standard stuff. Music is solidly -- if not routinely -- delivered, though an early scene featuring a Naval band proves rather striking in its realistic tone. Dialogue delivery is consistently stable with several instances of a satisfying and realistic reverberation about the soundstage. Though devoid of any traditional action scenes, K-19 on several occasions flexes its muscles with some hefty bass, notably as the ship leaves the dock in chapter three or, later in chapter six, during the test-firing of a missile. Both instances deliver a potent but not excessively or unnaturally heavy low end; there's enough to rattle the seat but not enough to test the limits of the subwoofer. Additionally, the track often does a fine job of recreating the sounds of the cramped interior of the sub, particularly in one scene in chapter five as it submerges beyond its recommended maximum depth. The pressure of water against the hull is nicely realized, and the surround speakers often come alive as various creaks, cracks, and other assorted sounds associated with deep submersion inside a sub spring forth into the listening area. Much like the video presentation, K-19's lossless soundtrack is of a relatively good quality; it doesn't match the most seamless and powerful of high definition soundtracks, but it suits the material rather well.

K-19: The Widowmaker Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

K-19: The Widowmaker's Blu-ray release floats out a few extra features. First up is an audio commentary track with Director Kathryn Bigelow and Cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth. The track is informative if not a bit on the dry side, with discussions revolving around shooting locations, their visit to the real K-19, some of the challenges of the shoot, various creative solutions for special effects, research for the project, character accents, and much more. The Making of 'K-19: The Widowmaker (480p, 20:16) is a basic studio-supplied making-of piece that features an overview of the film and the history of the real-life story behind it, the quality of the cast, shooting segments in Russia, transforming a decayed Russian period-appropriate sub into the K-19, shooting in the cramped quarters of the sub, cast preparation for the roles, the work of Kathryn Bigelow, the challenges of shooting some of the scenes, and more. The piece is constructed through clips from the film, interview snippets with cast and crew, and behind-the-scenes footage. Next is Exploring the Craft: Make-Up Techniques (480p, 5:27), a look at the application of makeup designed to represent the effects of radiation exposure as they were suitable for filming and the process of aging Harrison Ford for several scenes. Breaching the Hull (480p, 5:11) looks at the process of creating the illusion of the sub breaking through ice. It's in the Details (480p, 11:50) examines the process of making the picture as authentic as possible. Concluding this collection of extras is the K-19 theatrical trailer (1080p, 2:34).

K-19: The Widowmaker Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Though a box office dud, K-19: The Widowmaker proves a competent, sometimes moving, and often riveting Submarine movie that's not action-packed in the traditional sense, but the focus on the human drama, pain, and raw emotion of the real-life events depicted in the film make it a worthwhile endeavor. It's not surprising that the film failed to recoup its budget; the midsummer release date and the lack of a louder and glossier U-571-style approach probably hurt it more than it should have, but while K-19 didn't win over moviegoers, it deserves a second chance on home video. Patient audiences will be rewarded by a solid picture with moving dramatic elements that don't rise it to the top of the Submarine movie heap, but neither do they allow the picture to sink to the depths of irrelevancy, either. Paramount's Blu-ray release of K-19: The Widowmaker is consistent but not exceptional. Alongside a fair supplemental section, the disc sports picture and sound presentations that get the job done but won't be remembered as Blu-ray milestones. Fans will want to pick this one up, while other interested parties would be better served to take in K-19 as a rental.