The
extra dimension brought to film making by the uncompromising sea and
inlet at Polyarny does not make Hunter Killer unique among submarine
movies. Hull cracks and ruptured hydraulic lines are not the
unexpected surprises. Torpedo technology and evasive
countermeasures...ho hum. The unexpected surprise is a first
time Captain Joe Glass (Gerard Butler) whose commission came out of
the blue the hard way, and whose tactical wisdom came from some
unknowable source.
Of
course, there are brave heroes. There are Defense Department
specialists whose educated guesses succeed and top brass skeptics who
safely predict failure, but who ride the wave to a final high five.
There are Navy Seals who do real Seal things, improvising every
aspect just right. Navy Medal of Honor right.
I hesitate to tell you the details of this story, but it's a
moral story. I felt good feelings when courage and bravery stood up.
I think I yelled when an old technology foiled the enemy's sure kill
multi-missile strike against the USS Arkansas. If you have a Hunt for
Red October DVD on your shelf, Hunter Killer should go right beside
it.
Ed
Slater October,2018
2 comments:
Hunter Killer, the book, is actually two stories loosely knitted together by single character connection. Story One is about Wall Street greed and is a combination of a John Gresham novel and the movie Wall Street. Bad guys outnumber good guys 4 to 1, with the Russian Mafia, a corrupt SEC administrator, a greed driven hedge fund owner, a corrupt computer systems company CEO and manager, and a deviate programmer all playing the bad guys. Scenes are full of drunkenness and sexual innuendos made by horny computer geeks. The Russian Mafia characters are portrayed as over muscled tough guys with heavy Eastern European accents, one being particularly thick headed. Not very original. As in a Gresham novel, all the bad guys are caught or killed and an unlikely character (who happens to be bad also) slips away to a sunny remote island with the money. Ho hum. John Gresham could have told the story in a more interesting way. There is a little subtle humor though to save the day. One episode involves the Russian thugs' frustration as they attempt the navigate midtown Manhattan traffic to find their prey. Having just come back from New York City myself, I feel the author inserted this piece as a way of venting his frustration with New York City traffic.
Story Two is a fascinating account of the interaction between Russian and US submarines in a post Cold War era scenario. Although the plot is stretched a bit far to be wholly believable, I found the technical capability of the submarines' navigational, spying, attack, and defense systems to be amazing and seemingly realistic. The true humanity of the book is shown in the caring the submarine commanders, both US and Russian, have for their crews, and the willingness of the American submariners to risk their lives to save their fellow Russian submariners, and the respect shown by each countries officers for their counterparts. The compassion portrayed in multiple roles makes Story Two worth reading.
Now I have to read Story 1. The knitting segway will be pretty interesting.
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