PATRIOT GAMES
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1992 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: RED OCTOBER fans may be a little disappointed at this surprisingly humdrum and downbeat political thriller. This is more like a watchable police procedural and generates just about as much excitement. This film does not generate the excitement of the previous Clancy film, but does generate at least a very low interest in what happens next. Rating: high +1.
A Tom Clancy novel lies somewhere between a James Bond thriller and a textbook on American defense and intelligence systems. Clancy gives a lot of technical details but makes it enjoyable by putting it into the context of a good spy story. Technophiles may be a bit disappointed by the technical content of the film PATRIOT GAMES. We do see a bit of how the CIA operates, but it is much less the thrust of the film than it is in THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER. Harrison Ford plays Jack Ryan as older, more bitter and introspective, and certainly less exuberant than Alec Baldwin played him in THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER.
The story--which curiously begins much slower in Peter Iliff and Donald Stewart's screenplay than it does in the original novel--starts with Jack Ryan foiling an attack by Irish terrorists in London. In the screenplay's one concrete improvement on the novel, the victim of the attack was only a distant member of the Royal Family and so spares us the indignity of having the Queen of England fawning all over Jack Ryan. In both stories, however, the terrorists decide they now have a vendetta against Ryan personally and are quite willing to punish the whole Ryan family. Jack uses the facilities of the CIA to protect his family and end the career of the particularly faction of Irish terrorists.
It is no secret at this point that Tom Clancy was less than totally pleased with the screen treatment of his novel. He legally had his name removed from the film, and only in the last week or so before the release agreed to have it put back. The advertising I saw does not mention his name at all and simply says "From the best-selling novel." In fact, as film adaptations go, the film is reasonably faithful to the novel, though some fair-sized liberties were taken. About midway into the film Ryan makes one of his famous deductions and concludes something that in the novel Ryan was told in a briefing very early. Worth noting is one interesting touch in the film--intentional or not. In British spy films the Americans are allies, of course, but very often characterized as boorish cowboys. In this film, the Americans are cleancut and bright, but interrogating the terrorists are two of the most greasy-looking, weasely Britons they could cast in the role. Touche'!
PATRIOT GAMES is directed by Philip Noyce, who also directed an exceptionally good thriller, DEAD CALM. The music by James Horner is notable: he makes extensive use of two pieces of music by other composers. He uses the "Gayne Ballet Suite" by Khatchaturian, previously used in the jogging sequences of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY to give the emotion of the tedium of space flight. More interesting is that Horner used the end credit song from the film HARRY'S GAME for the end title music here. (And if you want to see a *really* good thriller about the tensions in Northern Ireland, see if you can find the rest of HARRY'S GAME someplace.)
PATRIOT GAMES caps off this Irish Spring, joining THE PLAYBOYS and FAR AND AWAY. It is not the thriller Clancy fans wanted; it may not even be a good adaptation of the book. But there are moments when it does show some taste and style. I give it a high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
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