CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1994 Scott Renshaw
Starring: Harrison Ford, Willem Dafoe, Joaquim de Almeida, Henry Czerny, Donald Moffatt, Anne Archer. Screenplay: Donald Stewart, Steven Zaillian and John Milius. Director: Phillip Noyce.
Pyrotechnicians have had quite a showcase summer at the movies. It seems as though something has been blowing up around every corner--a freight jet in SPEED, the Seven Mile Bridge in TRUE LIES, half of Boston in BLOWN AWAY. There are also explosions in CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER, the latest adaptation of Tom Clancy's best-selling novels, but don't let them fool you into thinking that's all there is to it. CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER is the summer's sharpest thriller, less break-neck than SPEED but just as consistently tense, and is a quantum improvement over the disappointing PATRIOT GAMES.
Harrison Ford takes his second turn as Jack Ryan, an upright CIA man who finds himself in the middle of a huge government conspiracy. When an old friend of the President (Donald Moffatt) is murdered over double-dealings with a Columbian drug cartel, the Chief Executive makes it clear that a military response is in order. CIA Director of Operations Robert Ritter (Henry Czerny) hires ex- Company man Clark (Willem Dafoe) to lead commando missions to shut down the drug lords, prompting a counter-response from one of drug lord Escobedo (Miguel Sandoval) and his chief lietenant Cortez (Joaquim de Almeida). When Ryan takes over for his ailing boss (James Earl Jones), he begins to realize that something is rotten in the U.S. government, and sets out both to find the paper trail that leads to the top and to save the American soldiers stranded by another executive order.
I wasn't terribly optimistic about CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER after director Phillip Noyce's sluggish work on PATRIOT GAMES and the appalling SLIVER, but his work here positively crackles. He turns a showdown in a single barricaded street into a chase as exciting as 90% of cinematic car chases covering miles of ground, a chaotic and dynamic set piece. The level of tension is nearly perfect in scenes that ordinarily would be hum-drum, like a walk through an airport where Ryan is being shadowed by Clark, but we're often unsure where Clark is. And in one of DANGER's snappiest sequences, Ryan races to download evidence from Ritter's computer files before they are deleted. There are a few moments where Noyce goes overboard, like an inexplicable slow-motion shot of Escobedo in a batting cage, and a sequence at a funeral that plays far too much like the baptism sequence from THE GODFATHER. These are minor quibbles, however, in a film that comes off as one of the best espionage thrillers in a decade.
It might have been even better if Harrison Ford had managed to break out of his recent habit of playing every part in a slight daze. To his credit, he seems to have re-discovered Jack Ryan the desk jockey, looking comically uncomfortable traipsing through the jungle and providing a very reluctant heroism. But ever since PRESUMED INNOCENT in 1990, Ford has been doing variations on his overwhelmed Everyman, and as a result is beginning to look even older than his years. CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER asks very little from its cast as a whole, though, so Ford's lower-than-low-key Ryan doesn't seriously detract from the proceedings. Only James Earl Jones, spending most of his scenes in a hospital gown, truly energizes his role, though Willem Dafoe does out-charisma Ford in the supporting role of Clark.
But let's be real here: no one expected James Bond to be multi-faceted and tormented. CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER is thoroughly plot-driven from minute one, and its oddball screenwriting team of John (RED DAWN) Milius and Steven (SCHINDLER'S LIST) Zaillian (along with Donald Stewart) do an impressive job with a challenging adaptation. If political moralizing isn't your cup of tea, be forewarned: CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER has more than its share. It also has as much action as the bloated TRUE LIES, and nearly as many honest laughs. What THE FUGITIVE was to 1993, CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER is to 1994, a pulse-pounding late summer surprise with smarts.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 covert operations: 8.
-- Scott Renshaw Stanford University Office of the General Counsel
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