Harrison Ford, who stern demeanor is perfect for this part, is Captain Alex Vostrikov, the man brought in to command the new nuclear flagship of the Soviet submarine fleet, K-19. It's 1961 and the USSR is convinced that America is planning a first strike. By situating K-19 off the American eastern seaboard, the Soviets believe they can nullify the United States' superior weapons advantage. Vostrikov has a difficult assignment, K-19 has been rushed into action, so all of its systems are not in perfect working order. And the crewmembers, execpt for one officer, Vadim Radtchenko (Peter Sarsgaard), are loyal to the former Captain, Polenin (Liam Neeson), who remains on board as the Executive Officer. When Vostrikov's fondness for taking seemingly unnecessary chances create unrest amongst the crew, rumbles of a mutiny begin.
K-19 contains a number of scenes that are obligatory in any submarine movie - a dive to crush depth, and uncontrolled rise to the surface, and exercises that presage real emergencies (in particular, fire fighting drills). The strained relationship between Vostrikov and Polenin is as important as any other aspect of the movie. Their interaction undergooes a number of shifts and changes, some of which seem motivated more by a necessity of the plot than by an element of one or both personalities. Nevertheless, they progress for wariness to open distrust to respect - a fairly common arc in movies of this nature.
K-19 also offers a fair dose of politics circa 1961. The film does a good job recreating the sense of global paranoia that existed during that time. Submariners were expected to give up their lives rather than accept help from the "enemy". Better to die a noble death for the sake of the state than follow the path of a traitor and surrender. This is the choice the captains must make with a crippled reactor on the werstern side of the Atlantic. The crew also have to face their fears and perform herioc efforts to repair the crippled reactor.
The movie is fairly paced and it's greatest weakness is the ending. Not only does it dally too long as the result of a superflous epilogue, but it seems determined to tack on a "feel good" moment where one isn't really appropriate. There is nothing in the final 10 minutes that adds to the events that perviously transpired. K-19 will not go down in the movie annuals as one of the great submarine stories, but it is an engaging and exciting narrative of Man contronting the Demons of his own fear and paranoia. This isn't so much a tale of the fight against nature, but the fight against a dangerous technology that is imperfectly harnessed and understood. It also causes us to reflect on the follies of human rivalry. And, even though the era of K-19 is long gone and the Cold War faded into the history books, Man has not changed, and those Demons still exist in this world.
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