CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER (1994) - Movie Review

Director: Phillip Noyce
Starring: Harrison Ford, Willem Dafoe, Anne Archer, Joaquim de Almeida, Henry Czerny, Donald Moffat, Raymond Cruz, Harris Yulin, Miguel Sandoval, Thora Birch, Ann Magnuson, James Earl Jones
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Writer: Donald E. Stewart, Steven Zaillian, John Milius
Runtime: 141 min
Rated: PG-13 for some intense action/violence and language
Buy This Movie: Blu-ray (Amazon), 4K Ultra HD (Amazon), DVD (Amazon), Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV

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Synopsis:

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.

Review:

"Clear and Present Danger" is, at least in my humble opinion, the best adaptation of a Tom Clancy novel ever made. "Patriot Games" helmer Phillip Noyce returns to direct from a script by Oscar-nominee John Milius ("Apocalypse Now", "Conan the Barbarian") and Oscar winners Steven Zaillian ("Schindler's List", "Gangs of New York") and Donald E. Stewart ("Missing", "The Hunt for Red October"). The result is a far more engrossing and rousing thriller that effortlessly blends blockbuster filmmaking and thought-provoking ideas.

The focus here is on the abuse of political and military power, as well as the so-called War on Drugs, and the movie raises some very real issues. Ryan faces not only a dangerous cartel and its shadowy intelligence officer, but also insidious enemies within Washington's halls of power. The implications of how governments wield power are hair-raising, which gives the movie a ripped-from-the-headlines feel, especially in today's post-WikiLeaks world.

Compared to "Patriot Games", the previous installment, everything here is bigger and better. There's more action, and Noyce directs some amazing set pieces that are perfectly shot and edited, including an explosive car ambush that is easily the movie's highlight, and probably one of the best action sequences ever filmed. The sound is a remarkably immersive delight and it earned the film two Oscar nominations for Sound and Sound Effects Editing.

The cast is first class, with Ford once again excellent in the lead, and great supporting turns from Willem Dafoe, Donald Moffat, Joaquim de Almeida and Raymond Cruz. The writing is incredibly effective, condensing a large and complicated book while also balancing action, suspense and politcal intrigue into a solidly entertaining spectacle populated with rich, complex characters. Even James Horner's score is much more polished and thematically rich.

While Philip Noyce's "Patriot Games" was mostly a warm-up exercise in the Tom Clancy universe, "Clear and Present Danger" is the definitive brainy edge-of-your-seat techno-thriller experience, and it still holds up today.

SCORE: 8/10