By
1960 the United States established an offensive nuclear advantage
by placing Polaris submarines with nuclear missiles under
the Arctic ice cap, in range of Leningrad and Moscow. Not
to be outdone, the Soviet Union rushed construction of a similar
submarine, named K-19, for operation by 1961. K-19:
The Widowmaker, directed by Kathryn Bigelow,
is a dramatization of that ill-fated sub's first voyage, with
fictionalized crew interactions. Titles at the beginning tell
us that in 1961 the United States possessed enough nuclear
weapons to destroy the planet ten times, whereas the Soviet
Union had enough to blow up the earth twice. They also tell
us that the events on which the film was based were kept secret
until 1989. When the film begins, the sub's commander is Captain
Mikhail Polenin (played by Liam Neeson), who is frustrated
that K-19 is such a rinky-dink ship with so many defects that
the crew has given the sub the nickname "widowmaker"
because they do not expect to live through the first mission.
Nevertheless, he keeps his crew happy by paternalistically
treating them as "family." Eager to deploy K-19,
Party Chairman Nikita Khrushchëv names Captain Alexei
Vostrikov (played by Harrison Ford) as the new commander,
so Polenin is demoted to his Executive Officer. Yet before
the sub starts its mission, ten men are already dead, and
there is a bad omen when the champagne bottle fails to shatter
at the christening of K-19. Vostrikov obviously has experience
as a submarine commander, and he orders drills as soon as
the ship is launched to make his crew combat-ready. The contrast
between Polenin's "family" and Vostrikov's "crew"
comes to the fore on several occasions, as Vostrikov turns
down cautious suggestions from Polenin. (Indeed, Vostrikov's
personality seems modeled on Richard Widmark in The
Bedford Incident (1965), who commands an American
destroyer that confronts a Russian nuclear submarine in the
Arctic.) After testing the capabilities of the ship and crew,
K-19 arrives at the missile-launching site and fires a test
missile, the purpose of which is to inform Washington that
Moscow has achieved a nuclear parity that will deter any aggressive
intentions of President John Kennedy and the American military.
Having achieved K-19's mission, however, Moscow orders the
sub to proceed to a position off the Atlantic coast, within
range of New York and Washington. En route, all hell breaks
loose, as the nuclear reactor core suddenly heats up due to
a malfunctioning coolant system, raising the possibility of
the first nuclear detonation since Hiroshima; if misperceived
as a Soviet first strike, aiming to wipe out a nearby American
ship and NATO naval base, retaliation from the United States
might bring about nuclear war. The nailbiting intensity of
the dilemma tests the mettle of officers and crew, notably
those assigned to solve the problem who are exposed to excessive
radiation. Throughout, Vostrikov never wavers in making excellent
if tough command decisions. However, as radiation leaks from
the reactor core into the rest of the sub, the options narrow,
while an American destroyer appears nearby, asking whether
there is any need for assistance. One option is to accept
help from the Americans, but that would entail relinquishing
the sub to investigation by the Americans as well as surrendering
the crew to an unwelcome interrogation; Vostrikov brands that
option as treason. A second option is to scuttle K-19, loading
the crew on lifeboats to be picked up by the Americans, but
of course a nuclear detonation would occur. Vostrikov instead
orders option three-fix the problem in the reactor core. Although
the repairs are indeed handled satisfactorily at first, the
reactor core starts to heat up a second time. Vostrikov then
orders the sub to dive below the surface while insisting that
the problem must again be fixed, though clearly a failure
to do so appears to entails taking the sub and crew to the
bottom of the sea before an inevitable nuclear detonation.
The Communist Party officer on board then decides to arrest
Vostrikov and to appoint Polenin as the new commander, but
Polenin refuses to assume command, has the mutineers arrested,
and reinstates Vostrikov as commander. Indeed, there are two
personality transformations at this point: Polenin has gained
considerable respect for the sagacity of Vostrikov's command
decisions, while the latter has developed a more compassionate
attitude toward the crew. The problem in the reactor core
is fixed, the ship resurfaces, and Vostrikov now surprises
everyone by being prepared to surrender the crew to the Americans
while scuttling the sub. However, a second Soviet submarine
soon appears, accepts the crew after decontamination baths,
and another naval vessel is on its way to tow K-19 back to
port. From Moscow's perspective, the unusual movements of
K-19 serve to indict Vostrikov, whose submarine commander
father died in the Gulag, for treason. Titles at the end tell
us that he was acquitted but never commanded a submarine again.
Titles also inform us that twenty members of the crew eventually
died of radiation poisoning, especially those who worked to
cool down the reactor core. The film ends at a cemetery, where
officers and crew meet in 1989 to pay homage to those who
died as a result of the ill-fated K-19 mission. Vostrikov
notes that he recommended that those who risked their lives
to cool the reactor core should be given the medal "Hero
of the Soviet Union," but his request was denied because
the actions were not taken in time of war and the mission
was unsuccessful. (K-19 is still in the Russian fleet, though
decommissioned.) As a film that brings to light facts that
have long been kept secret, the Political Film Society has
nominated K-19: The Widowmaker for
an award as best film exposé of 2002, as well as an
award for best film of peace, having eloquently demonstrated
the dangers of nuclear accidents during the Cold War. MH
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