Hunter Killer

“The U.S. military is much more diverse than Hunter Killer suggests.”

Title: Hunter Killer (2018)
Director: Donovan Marsh 👨🏼🇿🇦
Writers: Screenplay by Arne L. Schmidt 👨🏼🇺🇸 and Jamie Moss 👨🏼🇺🇸🇨🇦 based on the novel by George Wallace 👨🏼🇺🇸 and Don Keith 👨🏼🇺🇸

Reviewed by Dara Khan 👨🏽🇺🇸🌈♿

Technical: 2/5

Although it steals liberally from John McTiernan’s classic slow-burn thriller The Hunt For Red October (1990), Hunter Killer is a submarine movie that can’t slow down for anything, whether it’s underwater naval tactics or character development. But this action movie is all bones and no meat—only a few moments of personality shine through rote setpieces, choppy editing, and square-jawed veneration of military prowess. It’s telling that a film marketed as being about submarines only achieves lift during a daring land raid to rescue a foreign head of state. If anything, Hunter Killer serves as proof that the submarine thriller as a genre has foundered among more recent studio pictures.

Gender: 1/5
Does it pass the Bechdel Test? NOPE

Statistics from the United States Department of Defense (USDOD) show that women represent 14% of senior enlisted personnel in the armed forces. You wouldn’t know it from Hunter Killer, however, which features only one woman with a major speaking role in Linda Cardellini’s Jayne Norquist, a liaison from the National Security Agency.

In addition, Caroline Goodall plays the U.S. president in the fiction of this world, but she appears for scant minutes only to get blustered at by Gary Oldman’s hawkish and hotheaded Charles Donnegan, the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staffs. Near the end of the film, a lone female crewmember of the titular sub appears for brief lines of inconsequential dialogue. That’s about it. This is a film with dozens upon dozens of male actors, so the imbalance feels deeply noticeable, almost intentional.

Race: 2/5

Hunter Killer fares only slightly better in racial representation. Common plays a small but meaningful role as the commander who persuades President Dover (Goodall) to sign off on a daring rescue mission, and a scattered few roles for men of color exist under the command of Gerard Butler’s grizzled Captain Glass aboard the submarine USS Arkansas. But again, USDOD reports that 29%, or almost a third, of enlisted service members who hold a master’s degree or higher are Black. That reality is just not reflected in the film. Amid dozens of white characters, only two Black characters can be found, neither with much dialogue at all.

Bonus for Age +0.50

Perhaps it’s a reflection of military command structures and the general trend of adults aging into positions of state and military power, but most of the principal decision-making characters in this film are in their 40s and 50s, with Gary Oldman being 60 at the time of the film’s release. Gerard Butler was nearly 50 at the time, and Michael Nyqvist, who plays a canny Russian sub commander, was 56 when he passed away from lung cancer in 2017, a year before Hunter Killer hit theaters. The film is partially dedicated to him.

Mediaversity Grade: F 1.83/5

I love a chunky action thriller, but as a fan of American action cinema and also a person of color, I’ve had to accept that diversity has been an uphill battle for this genre. Military stories in particular have long gotten away with total homogeneity, and this recent entry from director Donovan Marsh is no different. The U.S. military is much more diverse than Hunter Killer suggests.

Like Hunter Killer? Try these other titles featuring the U.S. military.

Grade: FLiOctober 26, 2018Great for: Age