Continuity mistake: During the briefing Alexei Vostrikov was receiving from the Generals, he has three stars on his shoulders, but for the most of the rest of the movie he only has two stars on his shoulders.
K-19: The Widowmaker (2002)
Directed by: Kathryn Bigelow
Starring: Liam Neeson, Harrison Ford, Christian Camargo, Peter Stebbings, Roman Podhora, Sam Spruell
Factual error: Many shots of the submarine in drydock show Halifax, Nova Scotia's MacKay and MacDonald bridges in the background.
Visible crew/equipment: In the scene at the end in the cemetery, you can clearly see the reflections of the boom mic and camera in the shiny brim of one of the guy's hats.
Trivia: When this film was made, many of the original, Russian crew members involved in this historic incident were very upset about the submarine crew being portrayed as drunkards. Oddly enough, one of the promotional items given out at premieres and to executives was a silver K-19 vodka flask.
Trivia: The 'American' destroyer seen from far away in several shots is actually the decommissioned destroyer HMCS Terra Nova.
Trivia: There was never a mutiny aboard the real "K-19" as depicted in the film. In real life, the captain ordered all firearms to be thrown overboard, to avoid a mutiny.
Captain Alexei Vostrikov: We will not fail.
Vadim Radtchenko: Hiroshima. 1.4 megatons.
Suslov: In American propaganda you will see how everyone has a car, nice clothes, a nice apartment. But you will never see the truth behind this lie. You will not see police dogs attacking strikers and demonstrators for civil rights. You will not see the beggars on the streets, the homeless, the negro-shantytowns in the south. You will not see the warmongers who threaten the world with nuclear holocaust.
Question: Why attempt Russian accents in a film that is purely Russian? The star, Harrison Ford, doesn't even pretend to be Russian. Why should anyone else?
Question: In the film there is a painting of a ship. Seems like a modern painting. I was wondering if anyone knows the artist of the painting?
Question: When they fire the test missile it appears to come out of the sail. That would be incorrect, no? (00:49:30)
Answer: The movie is correct on this. The early Soviet ballistic missile subs like this one had the missile launcher in the sail, carrying 3 missiles. Missile tubes integrated into the hull, and the ability to fire while completely submerged, didn't come til later.
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Answer: Harrison Ford does attempt a Russian accent in this film. It's a very slight, very bad attempt but he's definitely trying. Audiences come to expect accents in films such as these for a heightened sense of immersion. Hearing American accents from supposedly Russian characters can sometimes be jarring to an audience, even if the characters are speaking English. This of course isn't always the case and plenty of films have actors speaking in their natural accents while they are playing foreign characters. The director of this film chose to have his actors speak with Russian accents, with extremely poor results pretty much all around.
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