Crimson Tide

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General		Extras
Category	Thriller	Theatrical Trailer(s)	None
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	None
Year Released	1995	Commentary Tracks	None
Running Time	111:11 minutes	Other Extras	None
RSDL/Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Movie
Region	2,4	Director	Tony Scott
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Denzel Washington Gene Hackman George Dzundza Viggo Mortensen James Gandolfini Matt Craven
Case	Amaray
RRP	$34.95	Music	Hans Zimmer

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	MPEG	None
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Dolby Digital	5.1
16x9 Enhancement	Yes	Soundtrack Languages	English (Dolby Digital 5.1) French (Dolby Digital 2.0 ) Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0 )
Theatrical Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Macrovision	?
Subtitles	English Dutch Portuguese French English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes

    A splinter Russian militant faction has gained control of a Russian military facility with nuclear launch capabilities. The USS Alabama is sent to within range of this base in case the militants attempt to launch a nuclear strike against the US, which they have threatened to do.

    The crisis escalates, and the submarine receives an order to launch its missiles against the targets. The submarine also receives a partial message which could be either a confirmation of the first message, or an order to abort the attack. What happens next?

    Crimson Tide works at several levels. Firstly, it is a better than average submarine movie. Secondly, it is a fascinating character study, with two very strong characters (Ramsey and Hunter) pitted against each other. Thirdly, it poses a chilling scenario. Whilst one sequence of this movie is essentially lifted from Das Boot (the Russian sub attack), the remainder of the movie is highly original, and is more a character study set in the confining space of a submarine rather than a conventional action picture.

Video

    The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 2.35:1. It is 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer was razor sharp and crystal clear at all times. Shadow detail was superb and there was no low level noise.

    The colours were perfectly saturated throughout. There are a lot of intense splashes of colour throughout this movie, with highly saturated reds in particular being very prominent. None of these show any sign whatsoever of any colour bleeding.

    No MPEG artefacts were seen. Film-to-video artefacts consisted of exceptionally rare and very minor aliasing which would have gone unnoticed except for the fact that I was looking very hard for it. Film artefacts were extremely rare.

Audio

    Dialogue was almost always completely clear and audible, with only a few words here and there being a little hard to make out.

    There were no audio sync problems with this disc.

    The musical score by Hans Zimmer was comprised of mainly orchestral and some amazingly effective choral works, along with the odd contemporary song. The music was nearly omnipresent, and terms like grandiose and important-sounding spring to mind to describe it. The score was mostly very effective at creating the appropriate atmosphere of tension on screen, though at times it felt like the composer was trying too hard to manipulate our emotions rather than simply guiding them.

    The surround channels were used frequently, but subtly for music, sound effects and for ambience. They really sprung to life during the action sequences. Whilst being a pretty good and quite enveloping mix, I have heard better.

    The .1 channel was used on occasion to accentuate the on-screen action, but was not used all that heavily.

What's Missing / What's Extra

Menu

    The video quality is magnificent, and is of reference quality.

    The audio quality is very good.

    The extras are non-existent.

Video
Audio
Extras	nil
Plot
Overall

© Michael Demtschyna
16th June 1999