CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER (1994) **1/2 Fascinating case study of what "intellectual" conservatives think is "really" going on in the face of global repudiation of their long-held beliefs in the sanctity (and absence of sanctimoniousness) of the American government. Things are rotten all the way up to the President, Tom Clancy concedes, but the evil forces in government are nonetheless outsiders and so vulnerable to the powers and faith of authentic underling patriots. Also, the Cubans are largely at fault. It's probably no coincidence that the vilest, most cunning and throat-cutting bureaucrat of them all is named Bobby (though at least not "Kennedy"), or that upstanding and moral assassination troops are left battling the Cubans (now in Colombia) without air power. In fact the power of the tale relates to Clancy's apparent belief that he has something important to say-of course it's impossible to spend more than five minutes at any Beltway mixer without someone trying to give (trade or sell) you inside information on some scandal or another. The big problem, of course, is that most of them are on to something. Harrison Ford dodders along as the hero; it's not that he has no range at all, but that he merely moves slightly in any direction. Here he moves slightly awkward and can barely conceal his eagerness for that moment when he gets to tell off the President. As in all of his roles, perhaps because of the deposits rendered by all of his roles, he's likeable enough and you can't help but wish him well. Beyond that it's still generally the same cast and crew as Patriot Games, but with more enthusiasm and better execution, and more executions. Willem Dafoe is great as the seedy CIA guy, utterly convincing especially when his hair is most obviously dyed. The scene where the diplomatic convoy is jammed sausage style in a side street is unquestionably Phillip Noyce's best moment...and one can hardly fault Clancy for not making the philosophical jump to explain that the President wasn't jamming the convoy in similar style only because he thought he didn't have to. Dean Jones was better in The Love Bug, but nonethess appropriately cast in something like this.
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