Special Edition

If Clear And Present Danger suffers from anything it is that it is overlong. As much as I like the film and its plot, there are times when I find myself checking the running time again to see how much longer the film is. There are also an incredible number of characters on both sides of the fence to keep track of: Ryan (Ford), Greer (Jones), Clark (Defoe), Ritter (Czemy) , Escobedo (Sandoval) , NSA Director Cutter (Yulin), Felix Cortez (Almeida), Ryan’s wife (Archer), Moira (Mangnuson), FBI Director Jacobs (Tammi) and the list goes on.

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I am quite conflicted about this the second Jack Ryan film. There is no doubt I enjoy Harrison Ford’s Ryan more than I did Alec Baldwin’s. Of course, they really are not the same character at all. With Ford, Ryan has become more of an action hero. Sadly, I didn’t find this script as compelling as the other Ryan films. It is by far the worst adaptation of a Clancy novel to date. The complicated plot ends up being reduced to a simple game of revenge for the villain. Plot contrivances abound just to place Ryan into the heat of fire.
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In the 1980’s Tom Clancy was “the man”. One of the interviews on this disc accurately points out that if you were on an airplane in the 1980’s, for every ten people reading a book seven would be reading Tom Clancy. Hunt for Red October was by far his best work. The technical information was so accurate that Clancy was once questioned for several hours by the CIA to determine his source. The film, unlike many blockbuster efforts, does not disappoint. The script is relatively faithful to the book. There are major divergences, particularly the climax, but most serve to tighten the lengthy novel into a fast-paced film.
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