An intelligent, dense political thriller in the middle of summer?
We visit Harrison Ford in Tom Clancy’s Clear And Present Danger…
This article contains spoilers for, you guessed it,Clear And Present Danger.
Christopher Nolan movies, whether you like them or not, treat you with that level of respect.
But when it comes to major thrillers, theres generally something about them where you feel youve been shortchanged.
Its why it puzzles me thatClear And Present Dangerdoesnt get a lot more love.
This is a political thriller, where corrupted people do unpleasant things.
In a weird way, Harrison Fords Jack Ryan here has a touch of Cinderella about him.
Hes an idealist, in a sea of characters where power has clearly taken hold.
Drugs, in this case, explored from different angles.
Ryan is fully ensconced in the CIA.
Theres shit that needs sorting out.
Considering hes the hero of the piece, his weaknesses are laid out for us, fairly brutally.
Ryan, in many respects, is out of his depth in the first half of the film.
And the film is not afraid to show it.
Lets go straight to the Oval Office, then.
Donald Moffats work here as President Bennett is excellent.
Yet hes eerily plausible.
This feels like a very real problem.
Sacrifice some troops, you get your political capital, basically.
It sounds eerily plausible.
Mind you, Moffats President is squeaky clean when you compare him to his staff.
Because like Ryan, Bennett too is being played.
Hes your job, sneers Henry Czernys Robert Ritter to Harris Yulins James Cutter at one point.
Clark takes the off-the-books mission, earning some successes before ultimately being sold out for his trouble.
A statement, unbeknownst to Ryan, that was false before he even breathed the words.
Watch your back, Jack, Greer warns Ryan from his hospital room.
Wise words, as it would turn out, and not ones that were heeded.
Yet its the man he contracts thats really pulling the strings: Cortez.
Cortez is cold, clever, and playing both Escobedo and the US government.
Given so much is packed in,Clear And Present Dangeralways gives itself space to explore things.
Yet this is still a summer blockbuster.
At least on paper.
So what makes the film even more surprising is just how light it is on action.
To be fair,Patriot Gamesset out a template of sorts for this.
Thus, the film ekes out tension from detail.
Even on a rewatch.
Yep, that might sound silly.
But thats what good direction does.
Director Phillip Noyce was no slouch at building tension into the preceding movie,Patriot Games.
But he really invests even more here in stillness, in dialogue, and in human characters.
That work pays off.
And then hes got his centrepiece action scene.
The assault on Ryans convoy in Columbia is outstanding.
The sequence doesnt drag, it doesnt go on for too long.
Its not the only action moment, mind.
Even then,Clear And Present Dangercan hardly be accused of playing things up for the trailer.
Again: its details.
Somebody has thought about things, and thought about how these moments should impact us.
And with that, we have to talk about Henry Czerny and Harrison Ford.
You dont have one of these, do you Jack?
Which, of course, happens.
Not that we get a whizzbang finale.Clear And Present Dangerplays by slightly different rules.
More recently, hes been a series regular inRevenge.
I dont say that lightly either.
But we also have to talk about Harrison Ford.
Yet its also his sheer generosity that deserves respect.
If Ryan need not be the centrepiece of a particular scene, he isnt.
And Ford is committed to that.
Clear And Present Dangerleads into a missing Jack Ryan film, of course.
That work did not go well, and attention soon switched toThe Sum Of All Fearsinstead.
And its a shame too that we never got to see Ryan thisoldagain.
Both subsequent reboots went much younger.
An experienced yet naive operator in the Washington system?
Well, it feels like we lost a more interesting movie.
It still rewards a concentrated watch.
I still need the tissues when Ryan gets the phone call about Greer, though…
