Movie review: ‘The Hunt for Red October’

FloridaGator80
A promotional still photograph from the movie “The Hunt for Red October.”

I always find it neat when filmmakers take a very detailed novel and manage to bring it to the screen in a competent, entertaining way. Some films are so superficial that you might get physically ill while viewing, while others crucify themselves on the altar of detail (to steal a quote from a novel about Harvard law students). The gold standard of a book-to-movie is “The Day of the Jackal” (click here to read my review) and another fine example is “The Hunt for Red October.” So, today I’m looking at the outcome of when director John McTiernan took Tom Clancy’s best seller about a defecting Russian submarine captain and his “boat” and made it totally engrossing on the screen. When the film compresses time and details from the book, you easily understand why – if you read the novel – or not even realize it – if you didn’t read it.

‘The Hunt for Red October’
(1990; 134 minutes; rated PG; directed by John McTiernan and starring Sean Connery, Alec Baldwin and Scott Glenn)

A NEATLY EXECUTED COLD WAR DRAMA

(NOTE: I expanded this review with some more opinion and trivia and updated links on Sept. 15, 2018. I again expanded it on March 5, 2026.)

In my opinion, the one of the best movie dramas set in the Cold War is “The Bedford Incident” (click here to read my review). But not too far behind is “The Hunt for Red October” and it didn’t need improvements in the technology of special effects over the 25 years between the two to make it a contender. It does it the old-fashioned way: Through character development.

Of course, there is action and some competent underwater scenes (a bit primitive in today’s wonderful world of CGI effects), but “The Hunt for Red October” is carried by the actors and especially by headliner Sean Connery as Soviet naval  “Capt. Marko Ramius.” Not too far behind is an actor whose personal behavior as a complete and utter jerk always overshadows any of his work: Alec Baldwin as novelist Tom Clancy’s iconic CIA hero “Jack Ryan” (this movie is based on Clancy’s first best-seller of the same name).

A promotional still photograph from the movie “The Hunt for Red October.”

The story of “The Hunt for Red October” is simple: Connery is disgruntled at the hypocrisy and incompetence of Communism and the Soviet system and intends to defect to the United States to present a gift of Russia’s latest and most technologically advanced submarine – the “Red October.” There is an intricate plot throughout as Connery first kills the political officer aboard the sub; is forced to evade his own navy; and then must communicate with a U.S. attack submarine in order to complete his mission to defect.

In the parallel story, Baldwin is the analyst who deduces the defection and becomes the president’s envoy to the military and ultimately leading the effort to get aboard the sub and come face-to-face with Connery. Along the way he must deal with initially stultifying efforts from top military brass to incredulous naval officers in the North Atlantic to a top-shelf, follow-orders submarine captain, so capably played by Scott Glenn.

The deceit by Connery is obvious since you know his intention, but director John McTiernan handles it so well that the storyline is seamless and easy to comprehend despite the complexities presented in Clancy’s novel. In the end, the good guys win. Most of the bad guys don’t know what happened and the one who did is on the bottom of the Atlantic in his own torpedoed sub.

Here’s a look at some of the cast:

  • A promotional still photograph from the movie “The Hunt for Red October.”

    He’s an Oscar winner (not for this one) and Connery is at his commanding best here – and the beard is great for both being a sailor as well as Russian of his age. He completely submerses himself in the character of “Ramius” (pun intended) and is the backbone of the film. Connery is most famously the first “James Bond” (check out “Goldfinger” – click here to read my review – and “Diamonds are Forever” – click here to read that review) and has also been in “The Rock” with Nicolas Cage. Frankly, I like him best as the father of “Indiana Jones” in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” and gave his expected great effort opposite Mark Harmon in “The Presidio” (click here to read my review). He won his statue for “The Untouchables” with Kevin Costner. Connery died at 90 of respiratory failure in 2020.

  • It’s unfortunate that he’s an Oscar nominee for “The Cooler,” but I have to admit Baldwin does an adequate job here as the earnest, intelligent CIA analyst. It’s too bad he’s such a total jerk in his personal life because that colors how I evaluate him. Ultimately the role would have been better suited to another actor with ability. Baldwin has also been in … ah, who cares? I certainly don’t and I won’t spend another second or word on this pathetic fool.
  • A promotional still photograph from the movie “The Hunt for Red October.”

    A Primetime Emmy nominee, Glenn doesn’t have much room to maneuver as “Cmdr. Bart Mancuso,” who is the captain of the U.S. attack sub on Connery’s track. Glenn isn’t given the opportunity to show emotion, but he conveys a commanding presence mixed with intelligence. While Glenn is good here, he was better in both “The Right Stuff” (click here to read my review) and “Silverado” (click here to read my review). He was also terrific as the bad guy opposing John Travolta in “Urban Cowboy.” His nomination was for the series “White Lotus” and, with only 104 acting credits spanning seven decades beginning in 1965, Glenn isn’t the most prolific of stars.

The political characters here play off each other very well. They are:

  • A Golden Globe winner , Richard Jordan plays National Security Adviser “Dr. Jeffrey Pelt” and doing the politician thing is certainly in his acting wheelhouse. Jordan is smooth when necessary and a bit tight and assertive at other times. Too bad the role wasn’t a bit bigger. He was simply terrific as the serial killer in “The Mean Season” with Kurt Russell and Mariel Hemingway and was solid in in the sci-fi classic “Logan’s Run.” Jordan won his Globe and Emmy for the mini-series “Captains and the Kings.” He was also in the 1984 effort for “Dune” and I enjoyed him in the noir drama “The Friends of Eddie Coyle” with Robert Mitchum (click here to read my review). Jordan died at 56 of brain tumor three years after “The Hunt for Red October” was released.
  • Joss Ackland plays disingenuous Soviet ambassador “Andrei Lysenko.” Ackland plays the pompous, authoritarian bureaucrat really well and this movie is no exception. Like Jordan he is smooth, but gets the chance to add to his emotions here instead of just the usual gruff and officious. Good job, Joss. He also played a two-faced Soviet bureaucrat to perfection in the exceptional HBO film “Citizen X” (click here to read my review) and as a good guy was in “The Mighty Ducks.” Ackland died at 95 in 2023.
  • An Oscar nominee for “Equus” in 1977, Peter Firth plays the doomed political officer ironically named “Andrei Putin” (the film was made long before the similarly named political officer became the leader of Russia). Firth is forthright and forceful in his few minutes on screen.

Now, I’ll run down a couple of players from the supporting cast:

I’m not going to take any more space to write about other supporting actors such as Fred Dalton Thompson and James Earl Jones, who are both solid here.

Director John McTiernan, who is better remembered for “Die Hard” (click here to read my review) and “Predator” (click here for my review), does really nice work with “The Hunt for Red October,” including the tiny details – such as the Russian characters speaking their language briefly until a segue in Connery’s cabin puts them in English for the rest of the movie.

His career ran aground for lying to FBI agents during the Pellicano investigation of wiretapping in Hollywood and he served time in federal prison, but not before launching the completely horrific remake of “Rollerball” (click here for look at that one) and this film included principals in the FBI probe. However, one of his best is another remake: “The Thomas Crown Affair” in 1999 (click here to read my review) and it would set the big screen sizzling with forty-somethings and is in many ways better than the original.

“The Hunt for Red October” was the sixth ranked film at the box office in 1990 with $122 million in ticket sales, according to Box Office Mojo. Worldwide, “The Hunt for Red October” made $200 million on a budget of $30 million, according to Wiki. The No. 1 film of the year was “Home Alone” with $285.7 million (click here for my review) and the No. 2 film was “Ghost” with $217.6 million, while the No. 3 film was “Dances with Wolves” with $184.2 million. Here are the films from that year that I’ve reviewed for my blog:

Assorted cast and film notes (via IMDb.com):

  • Connery’s full birth name was Thomas Sean Connery; Glenn’s full birth name is Theodore Scott Glenn; Sam Neill’s birth name is Nigel Neill; Ackland’s full birth name was Sidney Edmond Jocelyn Ackland; and Jordan’s full birth name was Robert Anson Jordan Jr.
  • “The Hunt for Red October” won an Oscar! It was for best sound effects. It also got two other nominations – one for Best Sound and the other for Best Film Editing. Too bad it didn’t one for not having had Baldwin in the cast.
  • Baldwin got his part when Harrison Ford turned it down (thanks a lot, Harrison for letting the pathetic fool get in). Neill benefitted, too, when Ford turned down the lead in “Jurassic Park” and he got that one (again thanks, Harrison – but only because Neill was so good, not because he’s a jerk).
  • Finally and directly from IMDb.com: “It is a manly film: Gates McFadden with Louise Borras (as Jack Ryan’s wife and daughter) and Denise E. James as a flight attendant have the only credited female speaking roles, and all of their dialog scenes are over before the end of the opening credits. There is an uncredited female engineer speaking in the background at (the) dry dock and another (non-speaking) flight attendant appears at the end, but apart from that there are no other women in the film.”

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