Director: Phillip Noyce
Cast: Harrison Ford, Anne Archer, Patrick Bergin, Sean Bean
Have I Seen It Before: Oh, sure. I can’t help but be a sucker for anything Jack Ryan related, as long as it comes from that era before Clancy started believing his own press, or worse yet, died.
Although, I do probably have deeper, more lasting memories of the score. As a young kid, I practically wore out the cassette I had of Horner’s music from this film, but then again all kids went through their phase where they listened to James Horner scores non-stop, right?
41-year-olds have the same thing, right?
Did I Like It: That last section covers a lot of ground for a proper review. The Horner score—one of his best—can propel through quite a bit. The story, too, has a simplicity to it that makes it easier to swallow than even The Hunt for Red October (1990) and Clear and Present Danger (1994). The less said about the later films in the series, the better, and definitely the less said about the doorstops books that never saw the light of the projection booth, the much, much better.
Ostensibly a sequel to Red October I can’t help but compare the apples and oranges of Baldwins and Fords*. Ford feels like the kind of guy that Clancy imagined when he was writing, but there’s something so anxious about Baldwin that gave Ryan an almost nebbish quality. That quality is all gone now.
Ultimately, this is a nice little thriller from that peak era of Harrison Ford’s peak thriller era in the 1990s. Although I’d probably watch The Fugitive (1993) or maybe Air Force One (1997)** before this. It’s the kind of movie that as a kid I imagined watching, because it was the kind of movie that grown ups watched.
*You won’t need to guess much where I stand on the eternal Anne Archer vs. the blink-and-you’ll-miss-her Gates McFadden debate.
**Could you imagine if Ford continued with the role? Things could have gotten real weird, real convoluted, and more than a little prophetic. Seriously, go read Executive Orders. No, wait. Don’t do that. Read the back of the book. You’ll get the idea.