Clear and Present Danger
As I’m writing this review, this is not the first time I’m watching “Patriot Games” and “Clear and Present Danger” essentially back-to-back over the years (this is actually the third time in four years I’ve done so). This was first time I had done so after having watched John McTiernan’s “The Hunt for Red October,” however, and that kind of changed how I view both of Phillip Noyce’s Jack Ryan films starring Harrison Ford. I still greatly appreciate both of them, but “Clear and Present Danger” feels like the stronger film for the first time for me.
My reason for coming to this film in 1994 was always more Harrison Ford than Jack Ryan; I have never read a word of Tom Clancy’s novels, and I doubt I ever will. Now, I do not know that I would say Ford is the best Ryan- I can very much see the argument for “Red October’s” Alec Baldwin being better- but I think he has a great handle on the character in “Clear and Present Danger.” I think a big part of that comes from now having seen “Red October,” and how this film reflects parts of why McTiernan’s film was great. It wasn’t wholly about Ryan; he just happened to find himself in the middle of the situation. It also gives Ford great material to work with, as well.
The film begins with a US Coast Guard patrol chasing down a yacht in the Caribbean. It is an American ship, but being piloted by two Columbians; the actual owners of the boat have been brutally murdered. The killers performed a hit for Ernesto Escobedo (Miguel Sandoval), a drug kingpin in Columbia who is advised by Felix Cortez (Joaquim de Almeida). The murdered party is an American businessman who happened to be friends with the sitting President (Donald Moffat). James Greer (James Earl Jones), the Deputy Director of Intelligence at the CIA, brings Jack Ryan (Ford) with him to the White House. Behind closed doors, that’s when the shit hits the fan.
Just in that above paragraph, you can see that the focus is less on Ryan, and more the scenario that is unfolding. As with “Red October,” Ryan is just a part of a larger geopolitical mess that is unfolding; in this case, it is the war on drugs, and the presidency using clandestine military operations to run an illegal war. This fits more perfectly into the Clancy model than “Patriot Games” did as a film. I think a big part of why it works better is not only because Noyce is more comfortable with the material’s shadier elements here, as well as Ford understanding more what Ryan should be like as a character. The screenplay by Donald E. Stewart, Steven Zaillian and John Milius has a clearer thematic and moral compass than its predecessor, and the cast Noyce has collected for this one- Moffat, Sandoval, de Almeida, Henry Czerny as fellow CIA head Ritter (with whom Ryan has a gripping showdown at their respective computers), Harris Yulin as advisor Cutter, and Willem Dafoe as the mysterious Clark- is just right for the ambiguous moral landscape of this story. I’ll always enjoy “Patriot Games” more for a lot of reasons, but this one just hit different now, and I’m on board with this being a better Ryan film.
