CRIMSON TIDE - UNRATED EXTENDED EDITION (Buena Vista)

[DJ Scotty]

IN THE FACE OF THE ULTIMATE NUCLEAR SHOWDOWN, ONE MAN HAS ABSOLUTE POWER...AND ONE MAN WILL DO ANYTHING TO STOP HIM.

My apologies, members, for originally posting this in the wrong forum...

Believe it or not, Tony Scott's Crimson Tide has been one of the most sought-after DVD titles in the history of the format (and perhaps even earlier than that, given its popularity on laserdisc) in terms of fan pressure for a special edition treatment, and the reason is really no mystery. Disney's Buena Vista home entertainment program originally launched a horrid, non-anamorphic barebones version of Crimson Tide that was seriously tough to watch...reds, in particular, during scenes in the USS Alabama submarine, would bleed all over the place, and the digital pixelation was absolutely atrocious in some dark shots. As a diehard fan of this Jerry Bruckheimer/Don Simpson-produced actionfest set aboard a nuclear submarine, I can attest to the poor quality of the original Buena Vista release of this title as well as admit to being one of those fans that have been salivating at the thought of a new version with perhaps better cover art, some keepcase literature and behind-the-scenes features....well, fans have been given that, but not all is perfect, as I will explain a bit later on.

The Mouse (affectionately known by DVD aficionados as the code word for the Disney Corporation's Buena Vista home video/DVD division) has recently been releasing some much-beloved explosion gems from the Bruckheimer stable in these "Unrated Extended Editions" -- this past Tuesday (on the birthday of yours truly which was a real treat because Crimson Tide is one of my all-time favorites!) saw the launch of the aforementioned Crimson Tide Unrated Extended Edition and Con Air Unrated Extended Edition, as well as Enemy of the State. Prior to these, we saw Buena Vista's re-release of the Nic Cage thriller Gone in 60 Seconds in a "unrated extended" kind of thing, too. What annoys me about these releases is that, first of all, in the wake of high definition sources like HD DVD and Blu ray, are companies like Disney/Buena Vista (whom I hear is not yet standing behind HD DVD) simply trying to milk and rape the public for as much as they can with these double-dips....or is the effort genuine, as in the case of Crimson Tide and Con Air, in which both received a much-needed anamorphic widescreen transfer (this process clearly benefitting the awful-looking Tide previously on DVD, but I'll get to that)? Then, what also bothers me about these "unrated extended" cuts is that they just seem utterly, utterly, unnecessary -- and I mean that by every sense of the word. Because of this, I refused to pick up Daredevil Director's Cut, Casualties of War Extended Cut, The Patriot Extended Cut....and on and on. Watching this "extended" version of Crimson Tide, I couldn’t help but think how much "better" and more "cohesive" the original version DVD was in comparison; at times, these "added" scenes simply don’t do what they're supposed to -- flesh out characters, make some scenes make more sense, etc....in fact, in the case of Crimson Tide, they make the narrative feel stranger and not so cohesive. Do we really need these "edited out" scenes back in the films so we double dip once more? And then what happens when the unavoidable high definition version -- on HD DVD AND Blu ray -- of all these films come and we have to triple dip to obtain those better cuts? Disney actually expects us to engage in this (in all fairness, most studios are guilty of this). I find nothing compelling about these edited-back-in scenes on these "unrated extended" DVDs; instead, I applaud the inclusion of anamorphic treatment on titles like Crimson Tide and Con Air because, in the case of Tide anyway, the benefits are crystal clear and the transfer is almost night and day in comparison to the original release.

Let's talk about the packaging of these "extended unrated" cuts; aside from the fact that the anamorphic transfers SHOULD have been given on the first versions of these discs, the beautiful slipcases included on these new versions should have been what they were packaged with, too. The artwork alone is worth the double dip here, if you dig that sort of thing (and I do, being an aficionado of how my collection looks of the shelf). Crimson Tide - Unrated Extended Edition comes as a single-disc package, once again, but is this time adorned with similar artwork from the first release, with Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington's faces yet bordered with a very cool metallic-looking raised pattern to mimic the bolts of a submarine; this border runs the top and bottom of the keepcase, which slips into an identical outer slipcase (which boasts the raised design). Some military dog tags on the side of the box proclaim this to be the UNRATED EXTENDED EDITION. Very nice work here from The Mouse in terms of aesthetics. The disc itself receives all-new artwork compared to the original, which sat as a simple, chrome disc but now boasts the red and grey colors from the new box.

The film itself, in my opinion, is one of Tony Scott's best efforts to date, and moves with that typical Jerry Bruckheimer-infused intensity that many find annoying and headache-inducing after awhile (just try to count all the explosions per minute in Armageddon or Con Air), yet the subject matter at hand is not as hit-you-over-the-head in terms of pacing than the aforementioned action flicks. With Bruckheimer and collaborator, the late Don Simpson, handling the action onboard the set of Crimson Tide, Scott went to work with a directing style that gives the viewer a feel of life aboard a deep sea nuclear submarine (yes, this has been done before as in Hunt For Red October and U-571, but bear with me here) with steep, angular shots, darkened corridors lit in deep reds and a general sense of claustrophobia. After the typical Bruckheimer/Simpson opening crashing lightning logo, Crimson Tide opens with a message on the screen ensuring us that there are no more powerful men in the world than the President of the U.S. (and a Soviet political reference) and the Captain of a nuclear submarine. We then cut to a CNN reporter standing on the deck of an aircraft carrier somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea explaining that a crisis has arrived: some ultra-radical Russian leader has gained power and backing (fans of the sitcom Seinfeld will notice the guy playing this role to be Elaine's boss) and due to U.S. intervention in his country's business, he plans to declare nuclear war on the States, and threatens to launch nuclear weapons at us. We then meet our characters: in a sizzling, captivating role, Denzel Washington plays Lt. Commander Hunter, a Navy submarine Executive Officer who is home hosting a birthday party for his daughter, along with fellow officer and friend Weps (Viggo Mortensen, The Lord of the Rings series), a Weapons commander also in the Navy. During his daughter's party, Washington overhears another CNN television broadcast announcing the radical Russian's plans for attacking the United States, and Mortensen suddenly gets a page on his beeper confirming that the threat is real and that the two of them must be called to duty (as far as "added" scenes go for this new DVD edition, there are some small added scenes here with dialogue between Mortensen and Washington at the birthday party, but nothing monumental or important in my eyes).

Called to the nuclear submarine base, Washington and Mortensen are given their orders, but not before Washington "interviews" for the position of Executive Officer by the Captain of the USS Alabama, the sub being sent to intercept the Russians, Ramsey (Gene Hackman). Hackman reads Washington's resume and sizes him up immediately as a Harvard-educated straight arrow who simply knows too much theory and is not experienced enough in the field...but he needs an XO because his got appendicitis. So, after getting the seal of approval by Hackman, his beloved Jack Russell Terrier named Bear and his Chief of the Boat, Cob (George Dzundza), Washington is given the duty of Executive Officer, right next to Hackman, onboard the Alabama.

The men are then assembled in a ready-room to be briefed by Hackman and an Admiral on the current situation of the radical Russian nationalist and the fact that he does not possess the launch codes to the nuclear subs he has stolen, but that he could possibly crack those codes and then sneak into our waters and destroy Washington or New York. Here, we meet some of other characters, including a rather thin-looking James Gandolfini (TV's The Sopranos) as the boat's Supplies Officer, and Matt Craven as Zimmer, the Communications Officer. Some surprising roles surface in this thriller as well, including small parts by Steve Zahn, Rick Schroeder and that kid we all know and love that played DeNiro's son in A Bronx Tale. After receiving their orders, the men say goodbye to their wives and children at the sub base (some added scenes are included in this version here, where along with Washington saying goodbye to his wife and kids, other members of the sub are doing the same....again, unnecessary, really). Washington then attends the rainy evening crew assembly for the night of the Alabama's launch for their mission, where Hackman gives an inspirational speech to the young men, albeit a bit frightening when he says "All I ask is that you keep up with me....and if you cant....that strange sensation you'll be feeling in the seat of your pants....will be my boot in your ass!"

Once underway, we are lead to believe that Hackman's Captain Ramsey character is a reasonable, level-headed commander willing to give Washington's XO character a fair chance on this mission; they chat it up before submerging under the water about cigars and Washington commanding his own sub someday. At this point, Scott slows the pace a bit so we can get to know the characters, the feel of the sub, and what goes on all those feet under the water. Not yet reporting for any kind of duty, Washington is jogging around the sub, keeping in shape, when a fire in the galley breaks out and he responds to it immediately (there is some added footage here which is seemingly ridiculous in my opinion, which includes one of the crew kids picking up Gene Hackman's dog's poop as Washington runs by towards the kitchen....was that really necessary?...as well as some angle shots of him coming around the corridors....is that what warrants an "unrated extended edition"?). While Washington's character is helping pull smoke-battled cooks from the galley and shoots the CO2 cutoff switch coolant out, Hackman, being the hardass Navy skipper he is, orders that an "Emergency Action Drill" be conducted right then at that very moment in the middle of the chaos. Confused as to why Hackman would do this, Washington arrives late to the removal of the drill authentication orders that must be read in a situation like this. Hackman responds sarcastically when Washington arrives late, but he was fighting the fire even though Hackman doesn’t seem interested. Already, you can sense tension is brewing.

Because Washington advised Hackman that the fire in the galley could still flare back up while Hackman is running the drill, Hackman finds it disrespectful and orders Washington up to his quarters. There, he snips at his second in command about not questioning orders in front of the men, that his orders be followed and that Washington had better "bite his fucking tongue" if privacy doesn’t allow itself to disagree with his calls. Hackman goes as far as saying that the officer who died during the fire in the galley died because of his weight -- not the fire. There is an added scene here where Hackman requests that Washington speak to George Dzundza's character about his weight, as well, and to be honest, it makes the dialogue and pacing quite awkward.

The next scene adds Washington shaving in his quarters where he speaks to Dzundza about his being overweight, but the conversation and scene itself is very weird and feels out of place -- in fact, it creates a problem in the way that it seems these two are perfectly getting along and that Dzundza is sympathetic to Hackman being hard on him, but later on, during the original cut of the film there is one scene where Dzundza curses at Washington after a mutiny takes place and it completely negates the feeling that this "overweight talk" added scene created; I didn't like it, and fans of the films will know what Im talking about.

With the tension between Hackman and Washington growing because of their "commanding styles" (observed during a crew dinner with the Captain and his men where Hackman sizes Washington up even further as well as conversation between Washington and Mortensen about Hackman being a "hardass"), the action finally heats up in Crimson Tide where the sub receives an "Emergency Action Message" (EAM) from Washington, informing them that the Russian radical is indeed preparing to launch weapons at the U.S. and that Hackman's sub needs to take them out first. The sonar officers pick up this Akula Russian Attack Sub on the radar, where they fire missiles at the Alabama, forcing Hackman to launch countermeasure devices and escape the attack. The torpedoes miss, going after the countermeasures and into the underwater canyons, but Washington has his own problems; because he requested Hackman float a radio buoy to receive the remainder of the EAM transmission, it caused the ship to go unsilent and put them in the crosshairs of the Russian attack sub. For this, Hackman resents Washington even more.

Because of this Russian sub's attack, the Emergency Action Message was severed, and the crew does not now know what the U.S. intentions are as far as going after the Russians any further, or if the attack has even been recalled. Washington is desperate to make Hackman understand that this message must be confirmed before any more action can be taken -- but Hackman wants to follow Navy protocol which says that without any further instructions, their actions are to be to launch missiles back at the Russians. This leads to a memorable cinematic confrontation between the two at the con of the sub where at a certain point, Hackman and Washington are screaming in each others faces, both threatening to have the other arrested and removed from the control room. Washington claims the missiles cannot be launched without his consent -- and Hackman demands Washington gives his consent or he be relived of duty and command. What ends up happening is that George Dzundza's character agrees with Washington in this instance, that Hackman cannot launch missiles unless they both agree, and ultimately, Dzundza's men arrest Hackman and lock him in his quarters.

Washington makes the announcement to the crew that he has taken over command of the Alabama because Hackman would not bring the sub to surface depth to reach the rest of the communication message regarding the Russian's intentions to attack...most of the men, including Gandolfini and Craven, are in favor of their Captain and resent Washington for taking over, and immediately begin plotting a scheme to regain the sub. Gandolfini goes to speak to Hackman in his quarters, where he orders Gandolfini to recruit a small group of men to retake the control room from Washington. The key is Viggo Mortensen, though, because he has the control codes for launching the nuclear missiles. Mortensen is faced with a hard choice, either play for Hackman, who is his official Captain, or believe Washington, who is telling him not to listen to Hackman who wants to fire nuclear missiles without any official orders. Another Akula Attack Sub approaches the Alabama and fires at them, as before, and now Washington needs to prove his commanding skills by dodging the torpedoes and then firing at the Russian sub to destroy them.

Yet another standoff takes place at the con of the sub, when Hackman is released by his men and a skeptical Mortensen and they surround Washington's men guarding the control room. Washington and his "followers" are put in the officer's mess, but again concoct a scheme to get back the sub, by coming up under the corridors of the ship. Meanwhile, Hackman wishes to launch the nuclear missiles but there seems to be a problem at the weapons desk -- Weps (Mortensen) decides not to side with Hackman. Hackman puts a gun to Mortensen's head to force him to open the safe containing the launcher gun for the nuclear weapons, but realizes he cannot kill him because he is the only one who knows the combination. Instead, Hackman threatens the life of a petty officer in the weapons room whom he will shoot if Mortensen does not open the safe for him. Forced with this, Mortensen complies.

But at this point, Washington and his followers are in control of the sub again, where Hackman arrives and punches him twice in the jaw demanding he release the missile key around his neck. The last moments of this scene are pretty nail-biting, as the radio officer (yes, the kid from A Bronx Tale) scrambles desperately to get the communication system up and running with only three minutes to spare, as Hackman threatens Washington that he and the radio operator only have three minutes before he takes total control and fires those missiles. Alas, the radio gets fixed just in time, and the Emergency Action Message comes through stating that indeed the Russians have surrendered and the war has been called off. Washington was proven right for waiting to get the message.

The final scene of the film adds, again, uncomfortably out-of-place snippets that take away from the feel of the original cut; Hackman, Washington and some other crew members from the sub are called to Naval Headquarters at Pearl Harbor, where they face a council for the mutiny actions onboard their submarine. As I said, some additional scenes were added here, mainly the brief meeting between crew members like Dzundza and Craven and the council, and the anticipation of Denzel and Gene before going into the council chambers....unnecessary, again, in my eyes, and detracts from the "flow" of the original cut. In the end, Hackman gets his early retirement, Washington gets his own command due to Hackman's recommendations and neither of them were held responsible for the mess they created on a nuclear submarine.

VIDEO SPECIFICATIONS:
WIDESCREEN 2:35:1 TRANSFER ENHANCED FOR 16X9 TELEVISIONS, DUAL LAYER FORMAT

The first thing you will notice when playing back this newly-minted version of Crimson Tide is the video quality improvements. Wow. What a difference. Now, don’t get wrong -- this is still far from reference-quality video...but compared to the previous non-anamorphic disc from Disney, this is definitely night and day and worth the purchase alone. Gone are the bleeding reds in the darkened sub scenes -- everything is clear and punctuated here....gone is that horrible digital breakup and pixelation that riddled the first release during scenes where Viggo Mortensen's character was speaking from the weapons control room. Look specifically during those scenes where Mortensen is in his control room and how bright blue the blazing colors from the lights around him are....utterly amazing compared to the other release. There is a softness to this transfer, and it could probably look better should it make it to a high definition format rerelease, but there is no doubt that this is the best Crimson Tide has looked -- and will look -- in standard definition DVD. Good job, Disney.

If there was one thing to gripe about, it has to be the layer change inserted in this new anamorphic transfer -- it looks horrible, placed where the Alabama is losing propulsion and sinking after the Akula attack, and it is annoyingly noticeable.

AUDIO SPECIFICATIONS:
ENGLISH DOLBY DIGITAL 5.1

I know, I know....as a fan of this film, I too was dying for a DTS track on this version. We didn’t get it. A DTS mix would have opened up this spectrum a great deal, if done right, because this (alleged) carry-over Dolby 5.1 track could still use some work. Not that it’s a slouch, but the mix is just not....how do I say this....aggressive enough for this material at hand. As on the first version, the disc's only choice is the Dolby Digital 5.1 track, and it's really hard to tell if this is the same mix as on Buena Vista's first release....from the very beginning, it seemed as though the speech the CNN reporter makes from the aircraft carrier sounds punchier and more alive, and even the roar of the plane taking off behind him which goes into the left surround channel sounded a bit more pronounced -- but from there, it was hard to tell differences from the old disc. The missile attacks still could have used a bit more ooooph as they sped over my shoulders into the surround channels, and the track just seemed a bit "soft" for an action blockbuster like this; perhaps other people will not receive the same experience based on their gear. One thing I did notice was that the sound effect defect that was present on the original disc -- and confirmed by countless members of home theater enthusiast sites for me -- after the Alabama is attacked the first time by the Akula and it sounds like some "buzzing" or "crackling" comes from the left surround channel has been fixed and is no longer present. Also, the "crackling, staticky" sounds made by the opening of the torpedo doors on the Russian sub from the original mix seems to have been cleared up here because that's no longer detectable -- at all. So perhaps this is some kind of "newly prepared" track after all, even though the packaging and Disney's press materials sent to me did not say so.

But in general, the track still does not seem all that "hot" to be honest; like it could have been turned up a couple of notches in the mastering stage. It's still not going to be a disc you reach for to wow people in your media room for a demo; however, the video improvements are substantial and very obvious from the first release and the packaging is very classy and worthy of such a great title.

And finally, fans get the extras they were looking for: deleted scenes not shown in theaters (the ones put back into this longer cut) can be watched, plus two featurettes: "All Access: On the Set of Crimson Tide" and "The Making of Crimson Tide"....the "All Access" featurette is a joke, simply following the camera around as the cast members joke with each other and George Dzundza makes an ass of himself along with other stars. The "Making Of" featurette has everything the fans could want.

[SilentBob]

Well since you have posted this in our other forum for dvd/movie reviews here


I shall close this thread and ask for other user input to be posted in the other thread