K-19 feels like an underrated Kathryn Bigelow film. She once again dives into the pressures of the armed services and war and she has a fantastic cast including Harrison Ford, Liam Neeson, and Peter Sarsgaard.

Set at the height of the Cold War in 1961, when Mutually Assured Destruction seemed to be moments away from happening, the nuclear arms race heated up the world’s oceans, as American and Soviet forces deployed submarines carrying nuclear weapons to within striking distance of their target.

In the Soviet Union, the K-19 seems cursed before it even leaves drydock. There have been deaths in her construction, and after a series of failed drills, her current captain Polenin (Neeson) is demoted to Executive Officer, and a much tougher captain, one that will carry the party line is brought in to oversee her last weeks in drydock and her first mission to test fire a missile. Captain Vostrikov (Ford) is that captain.

With a new nuclear officer on board fresh from the academy, Vadim (Sargaard), Vostrikov runs drills on a daily basis pushing the crew to the edge of their breaking point, testing the submarine, pushing it to the limits, even as it reveals the faults of the builders, and he seems to constantly put the crew in jeopardy, but he has a reason for each and everything he does. He hopes to unite the crew in their mission.

But is he pushing too hard? There are hints and suggestions of mutiny. And that is before the nuclear power station begins to overheat and malfunction, threatening to blow up the entire boat, unless there’s a way to save the sub and her crew.

While it’s unusual to see Ford attempting to affect an accent of any nature, it’s even more troubling seeing him being almost antagonistic in the film, he clashes with his crew, specifically Polenin, but he’s not a villain, he’s simply doing what is expected of him, and his fighting to whip the crew into the shape he wants them in, and knows will be able to accomplish the task set for them by the Party.

Bigelow is a fantastic director, and she gets some great stuff on camera, and none of the computer-generated visual effects last long enough to detract from the film. This is countered by some very beautiful camera work of the cast on what looks like an actual working sub out in the ocean.

The claustrophobic nature of submarines, the casting, the story, it’s hard to think of a bad submarine movie, and this one is not it. It’s really engaging, and has some great character moments, all highlighted with a score by Klaus Badlet.

A solid film, produced in conjunction with Paramount Pictures and National Geographic Films. Definitely worth checking out if you haven’t seen it.