Neeson: 'K-19 is about courage, duty, humanity'

Liam Neeson has taken on the Russians in his latest movie, K-19: The Widowmaker.

The film, in which the Ballymena-born star appears alongside Harrison Ford, is based on the true story - hushed up at the time by the Moscow authorities and little known about in the West - of the ill-fated Soviet nuclear submarine which was sent to sea in l961.

The sub faced a devastating reactor meltdown - just at the height of the Cold War.

K-19 was the pride of the Soviet fleet but had massive in-built flaws. The original Captain, Mikhail Polenin (Neeson) refused to take the sub to sea until she was ready and was replaced by Captain Alexei Vostrikov (Ford). Polenin remained on board as the second in command.

When the film was screened for the survivors of the disaster, some of them greeted it with anger.

Some of the Russian seamen felt that their bravery had not been properly recognised and that some of the Hollywood-ised story was innacurate.

But as Neeson says: "K-19 isn't a film about war but about the courage it takes not to go to war. It is about military muscle, mind and heart and about a world in which technology is king and sacrifice in the name of national security is common.

"It exemplifies the duty a soldier feels towards his nation and his countrymen, and lays bare the burden of responsibility a leader feels for those under his command. And, finally, it is about how easily tragedies can occur in wartime or any time by accident, machine malfunction or by human error."

Neeson's character is the more sympathetic of the two: "Polenin was loved and trusted by his men and respected as the most experienced submarine skipper in the Soviet Navy. He was removed from command of K-19 when the Soviet leadership decides he isn't readying their flagship sub fast enough for her maiden voyage.

"In his place, the naval brass summoned Vostrikov, a strictly 'mission-oriented' officer with an iron will. Polenin had to act as a sort of buffer between the new captain and the crew."

The film, says Neeson, examines the heroism, courage and prowess of the Soviet submarine force in ways never seen before, in spite of the objections which accompanied the film's screening in Russia: "It is a fascinating tale of ordinary people who became heroes when faced with a tragic situation. Capturing the nobility of their sacrifice was always the primary motivation for everyone involved in making the film."

There are, he adds, "great human dynamics in the story. Under incredible stress, faced with death, these men summon a sense of duty and commitment to each other and to all humanity.

"It's a real human drama about people with enormous commitment to their country, and even more commitment to their profession, their peers and their fellow human-beings. It is, first and foremost, a human story of courage, duty and impossible decisions."

For Harrison Ford, one of the delights of starring in K-19: The Widowmaker was in getting to work with Liam Neeson. The two Hollywood A-Listers play the commanders of a doomed Soviet nuclear submarine which, during the Cold War, faced a reactor meltdown while on its maiden voyage in the Arctic.

"Liam's great!" says Ford, "He's a very capable, talented actor who devotes himself to the work with real discipline. He has a good head on his shoulders and a good heart. He's just a great person to work with."

Ford, who accompanied producer-director Kathryn Bigelow to Russia when she was trying to convince them that the telling of the story of K-19 was a good idea, is sympathetic with the Russians' reaction: "We were initially considered to be a bunch of Hollywood mockers, which is why they didn't trust us. And they had seen a very early version of the script, which didn't at all represent what I was hoping would be the final product.

"The other thing to remember is that they're submariners, they're not moviemakers. They're Russian. They're living a much different life. I think their immediate reaction was that we should be telling their stories with their characters as they understood it. And that's really not the purpose of a theatrical motion picture.

"We were always absolutely committed to telling the story of their devotion to duty, their heroism, their selflessness."

He met up with some of the survivors and was impressed at their devotion to one-another: "This was the ultimate moment in their lives and they had lived without being able to tell their story for such a long time. It was a military secret."

Ford was initially drawn to the film because it depicts the Russian experience during the Cold War for the first time: "There are no good guys versus bad guys in this story, no politics. Our goal was to have audiences come to an appreciation of those who served on K-19.

"As in any group, there were all kinds of people on board. But when threatened with a terrible situation, they came together with heroic and selfless behaviour. When the time came, they did their duty."