Men in Boats: Hunt for Red October

I've been watching the Horatio Hornblower movies [in 2005], a high-minded adventure series based on the books of C.S. Forester, written circa WWII (but about a much earlier time). In these movies, Hornblower is inevitably faced with a challenge which he overcomes, saving the day, his ship (Indefatigable), his father figure Captain, his reputation, his honor and so on and so forth. He is inevitably recognized as a true hero by aforementioned Captain and crew-mates. This is accompanied by slow moving boats blowing up other slow moving boats (the movies take place during the French Revolution).

I haven't read the books but if the movies are based, even approximately, on the books, then they must be the most unpretentiously sincere books on record. In "The Duchess and the Devil," when Horatio informs his Captain that he has given his word to return to a Spanish prison, my thought was, "Yeah, and in real life, honey, your Captain would throw you in the brig for wasting his time with such high falutin' nonsense." But not Horatio Hornblower--oh, no. The Captain understands the issue, the crew is informed, Horatio and his men return to the prison from which they are later released for their noble actions.

And here's my confession: I love this stuff.

I don't, I admit, get the whole slow moving boat thing, but manly men being courageous and honorable and self-sacrificing: that's just a whole lot of fun. And refreshing. I admit I prefer my manly men a bit more Kiplingesque (some ambiguity and wink wink thrown in--read Stalky & Co plus Kim for good examples). But it's all very appealing.

Manly men (and their accompanying attributes) are an important factor in movie-watching. Male-heavy casts like The Fugitive, The Hunt for Red October and Ocean's 11 exhibit plenty of manly behavior that is interesting in and of itself (aside from the plots).

Now, I know, and I won't dispute, that women can be honorable and self-sacrificing and courageous. What is so nice about manly movies--especially for some reason movies that involve men in boats--is that those qualities are taken for granted. It isn't the point of the movie that the men are brave and honorable and self-sacrificing. They just are. Tom Wolfe does a better job of explaining this unspoken assumption of certain attitudes/behavior in his book about the first astronauts: The Right Stuff.

This taking-for-grantedness can work with women, so long as nobody is making some big deal out of the fact that there's women involved. Poole of Deputy Gerard's team in The Fugitive is a good example of a woman who fits into the team without anyone going, "Look, it's a woman! Isn't she brave? Isn't she aggressive? Isn't she doing her job well?" The team teases her about her shoes but later they also tease Cosmo, so it isn't really a "female" moment.

And I think many women like to watch men acting manly. Take The Hunt for Red October. The Hunt for Red October is one of the best compare and contrast movies of male hierarchies on records. There are four male hierarchies (not counting the Pentagon meeting) in the movie, all on boats: Red October's hierarchy, headed by Captain Remius, that of the USS Enterprise headed by Rear Admiral Joshua Painter, Dallas' hierarchy headed by Captain Mancuso (played the incomparable Scott Glenn), and Konovalov's hierarchy, headed by Captain Tupolev.

Of the four, only the last is depicted negatively. Captain Tupolev is arrogant, hot-headed, disorganized. The remaining three, however, are depicted as positives, though very different.

The first hierarchy is strictly controlled and formal. It relies on the thoughtful but ultimately unquestioning loyalty of the officers towards genius Captain Ramius.

The Enterprise utilizes a bad cop/good cop method of leadership; the second-in-command takes a hard line with Alec Baldwin's character while his superior sits back and assesses the situation. The assessment, however, is accurate, and results in the second-in-command later passing on information to Alec Baldwin.

The remaining ship (submarine), Dallas, is a loosely run hierarchy in which the Captain can rely on the intelligent, individual decisions of his crew. He collects information, and his decisions alter with his increase in knowledge. He is the most flexible of the captains and therefore, rightly, the captain who contacts Red October. (Scott Glenn apparently channeled the personality and leadership style of a real captain, Captain Thomas B. Fargo.)

For a movie that provides only two female characters, The Hunt provides plenty of human interest moments (women being notoriously more interested in people than boats--I know I am!). And no matter what, I would argue that women like to see men behaving well. Even in supposedly chauvinistic settings.