One of the best Cold War pictures ever made....along with "The Fourth Protocol" and "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold."
I agree it's one of the best (at least, of those I've seen -- I have to confess I've never seen "The Fourth Protocol") ... I just saw it this evening, and was struck with how well and with what elegant simplicity it creates a vivid sense of Cold War obsessions and paranoia, as well as the almost-incomprehensible stress on the people who formed the front line. Quite amazing.
I haven't read the original novel, so I don't know how well it's written, but I thought the script for this movie was really accomplished. It was taut and well-structured, and I thought it fleshed out its characters just enough to make them potent and interesting while still keeping the story lean and gripping.
SPOILER: There are only two aspects of the script or movie I would change if I could, both of them reasonably small: firstly, I would have liked a wee bit more of an insight into Munceford's character. Poitier did a great job at bringing him to life, as he usually does, but in the script Munceford really remained basically a functionary whose purpose it was to ask the questions that illuminated everyone else -- and so we didn't get the taste of back story on him that we got on Finlander, Schrepke, Potter or Ralston. I would have liked to know what he thought or why he wanted this story. He was the only one in the movie who didn't really have a reason in his own character for being onboard that ship -- other than having found Finlander intriguing in some interview he'd previously given. But that didn't really tell us anything about Munceford.
And the second thing I would change is the timing (meaning the tempo) of Ralston's escalation to his disastrous over-reaction. Although a thread ran right through the movie that showed Ralston as overanxious and feeling he had something to prove, his ascendancy into irrationality at the end just came too suddenly for my tastes, and without any real apparent reason. Prior to that very moment, he'd been overanxious but reasonably judicious in his actions. I feel the ground for him doing something unthinking and absurd should have been prepared just a bit earlier, perhaps with some moment of him doing something fairly harmless but without real consequence, to show how rattled he was by Finlander's own irrationality in his threatening the Russian sub and his maltreatment of Potter. The movie gets away with Ralston's "Fire one!" largely because it's a deeply shocking moment, after which the movie just rockets to its end without giving you a moment to think. But a moment after
that, I found myself thinking it seemed a bit contrived.
As I said, they're small points. It's still an amazing movie.
You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.
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spamdumpj
14 years ago
No, actually it made sense to me. The film had already set the scene with the crew on the edge of their seats, with too little time to relax, with nerves stretched. So Ralston loads the weapons, is concentrating on nothing else, and hears the captain say "Fire one," and does without thinking about it. Finlander's reaction suggests that he knew exactly what had happened and why, and he didn't even stop to tell Ralston that he had mistaken his intentions. Also, the movie did a good job of showing the relationship between Finlander and Ralston, such that Ralston would not want to appear timid in a crisis.
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puirt-a-beul
14 years ago
So Ralston loads the weapons, is concentrating on nothing else, and hears the captain say "Fire one," and does without thinking about it.
Hmmm, but in the couple of minutes leading up to the firing of the missile, it's made very clear both in the dialogue and through reaction shots that Ralston is listening to every word Finlander is saying. So to have him just not hear the whole first three-quarters of Finlander's fateful sentence is a bit of a stretch.
Anyway, as I said, it doesn't invalidate the movie, but it does take the shine off it a bit, especially on subsequent re-watchings.
You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.
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Wakanohana
13 years ago
Would the correct command be "Fire One" or "Launch One"?
It was a rocket, after all -- a rocket that carried a torpedo.
You would fire a torpedo, or fire a gun, but launch a rocket.
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