The Tide has Come!

As I have said many times, I generally love action movies, as long as they feature an exciting plot with amazing action sequences, good acting, and decent dialogue. Yes, it’s difficult to get those things in action films, but sometimes it happens. Sometimes one will overrule the others, such as when a movie’s action scenes are so amazing that the cheesy dialogue doesn’t matter. Although I haven’t seen Top Gun (1986) since I was a kid, I remember it being that way. Yes, the dialogue was cheesy and the plot was overdone, but the airplane sequences were great! At least when I was a kid. So I have liked director Tony Scott ever since I saw Top Gun back then.

Until now, I couldn’t tell you any other movie Tony Scott had directed. I can rattle off many of Ridley Scott’s films, but not his brothers’. On a whim, however, I requested Crimson Tide (1995), and when the credits came on, I felt like my friend who saw The Fugitive (1993). When they announced that Tommy Lee was in it, his jaw dropped, and he uttered, “Nawwww….”, until they showed that it was actually Tommy Lee Jones and not the drummer for Motley Crue. In other words, I had no idea that Tony Scott had done this movie, or that he had done any other movies besides Top Gun.

Based on these two films, my love for Tony Scott is solidified. Yes, he has tarnished his record with some terrible films so forgettable that I hardly remember them—Days of Thunder (1990), anyone?—but Crimson Tide is an excellent submarine film (True Romance (1993) and The Hunger (1983) are both worth watching, too). I don’t love submarine films, or maritime films in general, because they’re always so claustrophobic. I know that’s part of the point, but it makes me a bit uneasy. Yes, Das Boot (1982) is great, but these films are generally unexciting and uninspired.

Crimson Tide, however, is quite riveting. My only complaint is that the film is a bit too long. At a running time of nearly two hours, my heart couldn’t take it. With the series of “mutinies,” the movie is simply too taut to be bearable for two hours. And I kept thinking, “I hope he’s right; I hope he’s right!” If you have seen the movie, you know what I mean, and if you haven’t seen it, well, you should.

Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman are great together. They’re both such good actors that it’s nice to see them play off one another. And there are some other familiar faces that I enjoyed seeing, as well.

Overall, Crimson Tide is a great action film that features superb dialogue and great acting. The plot is interesting and engaging, although not the best I have seen. The action scenes are pretty sparse, though. Perhaps I should call this a thriller rather than an action film because it really doesn’t feature too much action. But the movie is so tense that I didn’t miss it.

Grade: 7