CRIMSON TIDE is one of the best submarine thrillers since DAS BOOT. it is also one of the two Bruckheimer productions that
director Tony Scott did with actor Gene Hackman (the other film being ENEMY OF THE STATE). Hackman's character has a dog in
CRIMSON TIDE while he has a cat in ENEMY OF THE STATE. The ending scene (or almost near the end) for both Hackman characters
features him walking away with his pet. Denzel Washington (later cast in Tony Scott's MAN ON FIRE) plays off Hackman better
than Will Smith against Hackman (in ENEMY OF THE STATE). Hackman is a true actor. He loves playing cranky characters. He takes
center stage unless he has someone of equal acting power to play against. The commanding officer (Hackman) follows orders
while his XO (Denzel Washington) doesn't want the orders to be wrong and plays devil's advocate with the situation of launching
nuclear weapons if an incomplete Emergency Action Message might be the order to stand down. The situation leads to the Captain
being relieved of duty and mutiny follows as the control of the boat swings. I love how the military life on a sub is shown
and mix it in with a very energetic and tense submarine thriller from Tony Scott.
VIDEO: 2.35:1 (Anamorphic Widescreen)
Image detail is good. Colors and shadow details aren't bad either. I hear the transfer for this disc is an improvement
over the previous Non-Anamorphic DVD of CRIMSON TIDE.
AUDIO: English 5.1 Dolby Digital,
Subtitles: English
Dialogue is clear, but the surround action is thrilling.
SPECIAL FEATURES: Three deleted scenes don't amount to much. Two featurettes are included: All Access: ON The Set Of Crimson
Tide and The Making Of Crimson Tide. I wish more was done for the DVD like make an effort to get director Tony Scott do an
audio commentary for the film. They don't even include the original theatrical trailer (which is on the ENEMY OF THE STATE
EE which has it's original theatrical trailer included). The extras scream out for a better special edition than this DVD.
FINAL ANALYSIS: If you want a better transfer of CRIMSON TIDE, this is the DVD to buy. I just wished they put more effort
into the extras.
this review is (c)5-20-2006 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission (except for excerpts and a link
to the review). Look for additional content at http://enterlinemedia.livejournal.com and send all comments to lord_pragmagtic@hotmail.com
