Several years ago, Ethan Hawke said something interesting in an interview with Marc Maron. He admitted to having a lot of anxiety when he was cast in Training Day because he said that whenever he watched movies with Denzel Washington, he felt like his co-stars were blown out of the water by him. One exception that Hawke mentioned is Gene Hackman, who said the two played brilliantly off of each other in Tony Scott’s Crimson Tide, partly due to the fact that they were playing adversaries. Indeed, such was the power of Gene Hackman, who tragically passed away this week. While his career is loaded with classics, including The French Connection, The Conversation, The Royal Tenenbaums and so many more, one of his biggest box office hits was Crimson Tide, a movie that’s long overdue for a deep dive here on JoBlo!

When asked why he wanted to do Crimson Tide,...