European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 14, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Cold War film overrides push for peace i l by William h. Honan Nev York times a in the five and a half years since Tom Clancy s thriller the Hunt for red october became a Best seller the cd d War has lost much of its icy terror. Clancy s novel which sold 5 million copies was the first mass Market novel to exploit the nightmarish world of ballistic missile submarines and killer subs zooming through the Mccan c Depths flinging smart torpedoes and various newfangled decoys and countermeasures at one another in a deadly game that might to called Chicken at sea but How do you make a move out of a Story concocted at the height of the cold War for release at a time when Fik Hail Gorbachev and George Bush seem to be pushing the world toward real peace7 no problem said John Mctiernan. The director of the film it opened in new York City this month with Sean Connery As a defection minded russian submarine skipper and Alec Baldwin As a Cia analyst who is willing to Trust the soviet commander a message at the beginning of the film Quot Mctiernan said tells the audience that these events took place before Gorbachev came to Power also we added a few lines in which we gently tried to hint that this incident or some incident like it might have been part of what shocked the soviet Hierarchy into  he cited the final scene in which Baldwin remarks Quot there will be hell to pay in Moscow when the dust settles from All of this Quot and Connery replies Quot perhaps some Good will come of it Quot a live seen audience research from Advance screenings that shows that audiences pick up on this Quot Mctiernan said Quot also right at the beginning As we see the soviet typhoon class nuclear sub embarking from its base Sean Connery says it s  what he Means it it s time for change time to take a desperate Chance for peace Quot audiences understand that. They understand that the film is about can they get where they re going in time can they meet somebody who will Trust them will somebody take a Chance for peace it sounds Sloppy but those questions always enter into what s happening in the  the Story is that of the Captain of the soviet ballistic missile submarine red october who decides along with his fellow officers to defect to the United states by steaming the super secret submarine into an american Harbor he is then pursued by both soviet and american forces unsure of his intentions. Mctiernan said to film it he practically went into the construction business. The director gained plenty of experience with special effects in his last film die hard in which he said he had Quot blown up a whole  for this film he said a 500-foot-Long mock up of a russian ballistic missile submarine was fashioned by welding two huge steel barges together upside Down. That Cost More than $1 million and meant Mctiernan had to take orders from a Lloyd s of London insurance Man every time the a seaworthy vessel put to sea for filming. Quot we took some liberties with the mock up Quot Mctiernan said. Quot a real soviet sub sits so Low in the water when surfaced that All you can see is a very Small portion a like the tip of an iceberg. It looks like a very Small boat. So we had a much larger portion of the boat appear above water so you could get an idea of How big she  one of the most difficult scenes to shoot he said was one in which 100 members of the red october Crew had to be shown abandoning ship Quot we set out off the California coast before Dawn so the sky would be overcast Quot he recalled. We had the mock up of the red october plus a Fleet of wave making boats boats with High pressure hoses to blow water into the air and All sorts of equipment and. Of course the Lloyd s Man was there so that if the Waves exceeded the specifications of the mock up he would say that s it. You re shut Down Quot half of the actors portraying the Crew of the russian sub he said were coast guardsmen and trained lifeguards but since he wanted convincing russian faces in the Crew the other half were recruited from a group of recent russian pentecostal immigrants Many of whom were inexperienced swimmers. Quot we wound up Quot he said Quot having one lifeguard next to each russian and we prayed there would be no Accident. Fortunately we were very Lucky. No actually we were not Lucky. We were cautious and  Mctiernan said he also had two 50-foot stages built to represent the interiors of a russian and an american submarine. These were suspended in huge hydraulically operated Gimbal like giant ships compasses so that they could simulate the Tilting of submarines As they swim the Ocean Depths. Quot i experimented with just Tilting the camera which is what they did in the old films Quot he said. Quot you d see Tyrone Power or whoever leaning desperately against a Bulkhead and up to about 10 degrees of inclination it works. But beyond 10 degrees there Are things in the actor s body posture that give the audience visual cues that make them say aha they re just Tilting the camera. This is phony Quot the reality is that submarines Are very often flying around like air planes. They re banking a Good Deal More than commercial airliners do. So we built these special stages to simulate that. They weigh dozens and dozens of tons and the operators got so Good at controlling them they could Lay the whole stage Over on its Side and bring it Down on the Shell of an egg without cracking  the . Navy he said cooperated in every Way possible and even put several nuclear submarines at his disposal so he could film them Manue vering off los Angeles. The Luck did not hold when the Navy subs were involved with filming the los Angeles class Houston was heading Home to san Diego after taking part in a red october scene when it snagged a tugboat Tow Cable and Sank the tug. One or two shots in the movie Are from film the Navy made however. Mctiernan explained most of the underwater sequences were made by using computer controlled models in a tank employing the technology developed for space movies. Quot the problem Quot he said Quot is that underwater visibility is War never so great that you can see the whole length of a real submarine when  that also ruled out seeing one submerged submarine chasing another in a combat situation. Then too he said the Navy would never let two of its submarines get so close together that even parts of them could be filmed in the same shot. One Surprise in the film for those who read the Clancy novel is that the cast includes two Black actors James Earl Jones plays adm. James Greer the Cia s director of naval intelligence and Courtney b Vance plays Jones the inventive sonar operator on the american los Angeles class nuclear attack submarine Dallas. Neither character in the Clancy novel is Black and indeed Black admirals in the Navy Are about As common As Shore Birds on the seas. Was Mctiernan practising Colo Blind casting or was he perhaps seeking to paint an idealized portrait of t t. Navy Quot no Admiral Greer is not Black in the Book. Mctiernan acknowledged Quot but who is there m the ensemble of american stars More like Greer than James Earl Jones with that combination of sternness rectitude and warmth Quot Quot furthermore Quot he said Quot in a Way the film is about immigration and integration. It s about a group o. People trying to get to  the first person of authority the russians come upon is the Captain of the Dallas a Man named Mancuso obviously the descendant of immigrants Quot As a matter of fact the chairman of Paramount pictures Frank Mancuso. Wanted me to change 3 he thought people in the Industry would think o Page 14 a a a the stars and stripes wednesday