Clear and Present Danger (1994)
February 1, 2024 4:59 PM - Subscribe
CIA Analyst Jack Ryan is drawn into an illegal war fought by the US government against a Colombian drug cartel.
Agent Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford) becomes acting deputy director of the CIA when Admiral Greer (James Earl Jones) is diagnosed with cancer. When an American businessman, and friend of the president, is murdered on a yacht, Ryan starts discovering links between the man and drug dealers. As CIA agent John Clark (Willem Dafoe) is sent to Colombia to kill drug kingpins in retaliation, Ryan must fight through multiple cover-ups to figure out what happened and who's responsible.
Janet Maslin: Also figuring prominently in "Clear and Present Danger" is a tawny, physically imposing Willem Dafoe as Clark, the mysterious C.I.A. field operative who figures prominently elsewhere in the Clancy canon. The ambiguity of Clark's character suits Mr. Dafoe intriguingly, since it goes so far beyond the ordinary villainy to which he has often been confined. Scenes between Mr. Dafoe and Mr. Ford have a special edginess, since one of them has been so deeply misled about what the other is up to.
There also happen to be a few women in "Clear and Present Danger," but their roles (Hope Lange as a Senator, Ann Magnuson as a hapless pawn in the drug cartel's game) are small. The role that's not small enough is that of Cathy Ryan, the wise, smiling, insufferable wife played again by Anne Archer. Only Cathy seems out of sync with the tough, muscular manner of this story. Cathy doesn't quite ask Jack whether he's remembered his galoshes when he goes off on a dangerous C.I.A. mission, but she comes close.
Rita Kempley: There's a little bit of Mr. Smith in Ford's Jack Ryan and there's a little bit of Capra in the techno-thriller as written and rewritten by Donald Stewart, Steven Zaillian and John Milius. Unfortunately, this calls for an overblown denouement in which an outraged Ryan gives hell to the chief. This exchange of "how dare yous" aside, the film is more adult in terms of real issues certainly than "True Lies."
Noyce, who also directed "Patriot Games," manages to keep the complex story lines from snarling even though he relies heavily on crosscutting. The technique, which he uses ingeniously here, enlivens scenes that are technologically driven and potentially deadly.
W.E. Linde: The scene then goes for a gut punch. Unknown to Ryan, the military operation has already been compromised by a cartel intelligence operative, who made a treacherous bargain with Cutter: in exchange for assassinating his cartel boss and scaling back drug shipments, the national security advisor agreed to abandon not only the operation but the Special Forces team as well. As the president completes Greer’s eulogy and the military band strikes up a somber rendition of America the Beautiful, the scene transitions to the soldiers caught in a brutal ambush by cartel militants.
The back and forth is haunting. Contrasted in real-time is the lip service the president gives about valor, sacrifice, and service while at the same time the brutal consequences of actions he ultimately set in motion are culminating in the deaths of American troops who are no longer needed. Perhaps more relevant is that President Bennett was kept purposefully ignorant of the military operation, an apparent parallel to the Iran-Contra scandal during the Reagan Administration, where the details of illegal weapons deliveries to Iran and funding for Contra rebels in Nicaragua were presumably kept from the president to politically shield him. Bennett had no real idea about the men whose lives were being squandered now. All he knew was that he had met a political objective, and the brutal consequences of his decisions were for someone else to deal with.
Trailer
Agent Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford) becomes acting deputy director of the CIA when Admiral Greer (James Earl Jones) is diagnosed with cancer. When an American businessman, and friend of the president, is murdered on a yacht, Ryan starts discovering links between the man and drug dealers. As CIA agent John Clark (Willem Dafoe) is sent to Colombia to kill drug kingpins in retaliation, Ryan must fight through multiple cover-ups to figure out what happened and who's responsible.
Janet Maslin: Also figuring prominently in "Clear and Present Danger" is a tawny, physically imposing Willem Dafoe as Clark, the mysterious C.I.A. field operative who figures prominently elsewhere in the Clancy canon. The ambiguity of Clark's character suits Mr. Dafoe intriguingly, since it goes so far beyond the ordinary villainy to which he has often been confined. Scenes between Mr. Dafoe and Mr. Ford have a special edginess, since one of them has been so deeply misled about what the other is up to.
There also happen to be a few women in "Clear and Present Danger," but their roles (Hope Lange as a Senator, Ann Magnuson as a hapless pawn in the drug cartel's game) are small. The role that's not small enough is that of Cathy Ryan, the wise, smiling, insufferable wife played again by Anne Archer. Only Cathy seems out of sync with the tough, muscular manner of this story. Cathy doesn't quite ask Jack whether he's remembered his galoshes when he goes off on a dangerous C.I.A. mission, but she comes close.
Rita Kempley: There's a little bit of Mr. Smith in Ford's Jack Ryan and there's a little bit of Capra in the techno-thriller as written and rewritten by Donald Stewart, Steven Zaillian and John Milius. Unfortunately, this calls for an overblown denouement in which an outraged Ryan gives hell to the chief. This exchange of "how dare yous" aside, the film is more adult in terms of real issues certainly than "True Lies."
Noyce, who also directed "Patriot Games," manages to keep the complex story lines from snarling even though he relies heavily on crosscutting. The technique, which he uses ingeniously here, enlivens scenes that are technologically driven and potentially deadly.
W.E. Linde: The scene then goes for a gut punch. Unknown to Ryan, the military operation has already been compromised by a cartel intelligence operative, who made a treacherous bargain with Cutter: in exchange for assassinating his cartel boss and scaling back drug shipments, the national security advisor agreed to abandon not only the operation but the Special Forces team as well. As the president completes Greer’s eulogy and the military band strikes up a somber rendition of America the Beautiful, the scene transitions to the soldiers caught in a brutal ambush by cartel militants.
The back and forth is haunting. Contrasted in real-time is the lip service the president gives about valor, sacrifice, and service while at the same time the brutal consequences of actions he ultimately set in motion are culminating in the deaths of American troops who are no longer needed. Perhaps more relevant is that President Bennett was kept purposefully ignorant of the military operation, an apparent parallel to the Iran-Contra scandal during the Reagan Administration, where the details of illegal weapons deliveries to Iran and funding for Contra rebels in Nicaragua were presumably kept from the president to politically shield him. Bennett had no real idea about the men whose lives were being squandered now. All he knew was that he had met a political objective, and the brutal consequences of his decisions were for someone else to deal with.
Trailer
CaPD is excellent overall. It actually holds its own up against the source material. Willem is perfect as Clark. Harrison's perfomance is weak, IMO. He was in his "the character does something awesome and then pauses when he realizes he just did something awesome" phase by then.
posted by Stuka at 5:43 PM on February 1
posted by Stuka at 5:43 PM on February 1
Recently watched both this and Patriot Games recently and was surprised CaPD is generally considered the stronger of the two. It was good enough, but it dragged quite a bit more, and felt somewhat less realistic. Characters seemed to teleport to Colombia. And why did Ryan, the Deputy Director of Intelligence for the CIA, need to go himself? Was there not a field agent available?
Anyways, still a pretty good movie. It still feels grounded in reality in a way that many action/thriller movies are not, even if some bits feel a bit heightened.
posted by TurnKey at 8:46 PM on February 1 [1 favorite]
Anyways, still a pretty good movie. It still feels grounded in reality in a way that many action/thriller movies are not, even if some bits feel a bit heightened.
posted by TurnKey at 8:46 PM on February 1 [1 favorite]
For those who have seen the movie and read the book (I have only seen the movie..) is the plot point where Ryan is racing to find evidence on Ritter's computer while Ritter races to delete the documents handled any better in the book?
I get that computer intrusion can be difficult to effectively dramatize on film but it is handled so, so badly in this movie that I always find myself wondering whether the other "techno" parts of this "techno-thriller" (such as the ones that deal with subjects about which I am not knowledgeable) are just as laughable as the hacking depiction.
Anyway.. IMHO -- except for the hacking scene it is mostly watchable but it's not an especially good film.
posted by Nerd of the North at 2:37 AM on February 2
I get that computer intrusion can be difficult to effectively dramatize on film but it is handled so, so badly in this movie that I always find myself wondering whether the other "techno" parts of this "techno-thriller" (such as the ones that deal with subjects about which I am not knowledgeable) are just as laughable as the hacking depiction.
Anyway.. IMHO -- except for the hacking scene it is mostly watchable but it's not an especially good film.
posted by Nerd of the North at 2:37 AM on February 2
a tawny, physically imposing Willem Dafoe
*blinks* I realize that physically imposing doesn't automatically mean "big", and Dafoe is pretty scary, but it is such a weird descriptive term for a guy who is clearly not that big and doesn't seem interested in hiding that fact. And tawny? Like describing his hair?
Anyway regarding the movie, I don't think I am capable of revisiting the Jack Ryan movies. 1994 was 30 years, which is wow a long time, but the uhhh geopolitical climate in 94 feels like a million years ago. I mean the conflict all seems so quaint compared to today.
Actually I tried to reread the books about five years ago and I just couldn't do it. I don't know, they seem so anchored to a specific time.
posted by Literaryhero at 5:13 AM on February 2
*blinks* I realize that physically imposing doesn't automatically mean "big", and Dafoe is pretty scary, but it is such a weird descriptive term for a guy who is clearly not that big and doesn't seem interested in hiding that fact. And tawny? Like describing his hair?
Anyway regarding the movie, I don't think I am capable of revisiting the Jack Ryan movies. 1994 was 30 years, which is wow a long time, but the uhhh geopolitical climate in 94 feels like a million years ago. I mean the conflict all seems so quaint compared to today.
Actually I tried to reread the books about five years ago and I just couldn't do it. I don't know, they seem so anchored to a specific time.
posted by Literaryhero at 5:13 AM on February 2
I also think Dafoe was perfect for Clark, there's something lethal about him in this. Lethal but rational, unlike say the character Michael B Jordan was given to work with more recently, when he was just a psychopathic killing machine. Tawny is such a weird descriptor though. Tawny like a port?
posted by biffa at 8:41 AM on February 2 [2 favorites]
posted by biffa at 8:41 AM on February 2 [2 favorites]
And why did Ryan, the Deputy Director of Intelligence for the CIA, need to go himself? Was there not a field agent available?
Because the president told him to go. It's OUR MONEY, after all.
For some reason, I don't know why, but Joaquim de Almeida's character's voice on the answering machine, "Pick up the phone, Moira...." is just burned into my mind. Maybe it's because that recording plays a significant role in the film, or maybe it's just the delivery. I don't know which.
I get that computer intrusion can be difficult to effectively dramatize on film but it is handled so, so badly in this movie that I always find myself wondering whether the other "techno" parts of this "techno-thriller" (such as the ones that deal with subjects about which I am not knowledgeable) are just as laughable as the hacking depiction.
As a lay person, it worked just fine, tbh. The joke about nailing Ritter's password in about two seconds after the build up of "here's ALL this material" was also pretty good, too.
I definitely liked Patriot Games better, but I still enjoy this film. I keep flirting with getting the 4K Jack Ryan collection, primarily for these two films, though Hunt for Red October is also a fun movie. One thing that joins these two films is the readiness of the state to view actors in the field as just that, roles that can be extinguished as needed. Be it the individuals being killed in the special teams strike in Patriot or the casual manner in which Ritter simply sells out Clark's squad when the administration is going to be exposed with egg on its face.
posted by Atreides at 9:08 AM on February 2
Because the president told him to go. It's OUR MONEY, after all.
For some reason, I don't know why, but Joaquim de Almeida's character's voice on the answering machine, "Pick up the phone, Moira...." is just burned into my mind. Maybe it's because that recording plays a significant role in the film, or maybe it's just the delivery. I don't know which.
I get that computer intrusion can be difficult to effectively dramatize on film but it is handled so, so badly in this movie that I always find myself wondering whether the other "techno" parts of this "techno-thriller" (such as the ones that deal with subjects about which I am not knowledgeable) are just as laughable as the hacking depiction.
As a lay person, it worked just fine, tbh. The joke about nailing Ritter's password in about two seconds after the build up of "here's ALL this material" was also pretty good, too.
I definitely liked Patriot Games better, but I still enjoy this film. I keep flirting with getting the 4K Jack Ryan collection, primarily for these two films, though Hunt for Red October is also a fun movie. One thing that joins these two films is the readiness of the state to view actors in the field as just that, roles that can be extinguished as needed. Be it the individuals being killed in the special teams strike in Patriot or the casual manner in which Ritter simply sells out Clark's squad when the administration is going to be exposed with egg on its face.
posted by Atreides at 9:08 AM on February 2
I think I prefer Hunt for RO overall, but as a middle aged British white man I am psychologically conditioned to be pro-Connery. Baldwin is underrated as young Ryan, and was probably better than Pine or Affleck. Obviously Ford looks way more proto-presidential.
posted by biffa at 9:28 AM on February 2 [1 favorite]
posted by biffa at 9:28 AM on February 2 [1 favorite]
Actually I tried to reread the books about five years ago and I just couldn't do it
In 1996 or 1997, I was working at a place that had a take-a-book, leave-a-book shelf. I had just rewatched The Hunt for Red October on video and found it a cracking good watch, and I noticed we had the novel on the shelf. I snagged the copy and read it; the prose is what one might call workmanlike, but I also noticed among the books there was also the rest of Tom Clancy’s work: fat paperbacks all.
To my annoyance, I found myself engaged in Jack Ryan’s story arc; on the other hard, Clancy doing his best to Show His Work on descriptions of surface-to-air missiles and the like did nothing for me. Unlike reading Charles Portis or Mignon McGlaughlin or Jack Vance, there was absolutely nothing to encourage one to linger or savour the prose.
Reader, that is when I learned I can read four thousand pages in a week.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:45 AM on February 4 [2 favorites]
In 1996 or 1997, I was working at a place that had a take-a-book, leave-a-book shelf. I had just rewatched The Hunt for Red October on video and found it a cracking good watch, and I noticed we had the novel on the shelf. I snagged the copy and read it; the prose is what one might call workmanlike, but I also noticed among the books there was also the rest of Tom Clancy’s work: fat paperbacks all.
To my annoyance, I found myself engaged in Jack Ryan’s story arc; on the other hard, Clancy doing his best to Show His Work on descriptions of surface-to-air missiles and the like did nothing for me. Unlike reading Charles Portis or Mignon McGlaughlin or Jack Vance, there was absolutely nothing to encourage one to linger or savour the prose.
Reader, that is when I learned I can read four thousand pages in a week.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:45 AM on February 4 [2 favorites]
Actually I tried to reread the books about five years ago and I just couldn't do it. I don't know, they seem so anchored to a specific time.
They belong in a museum!
posted by kirkaracha at 11:27 AM on February 5 [1 favorite]
They belong in a museum!
posted by kirkaracha at 11:27 AM on February 5 [1 favorite]
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