Right I've reviewed one Clint Eastwood film, so here is another and I've gone for In The Line of Fire, which was made back in 1993 and was well received by the critics at the time, which sees Eastwood play an aging secret service agent who is caught up in a conspiracy to prevent the murder of the president. So so so, let's do the usual and give it a look....
So the film begins with veteran secret service agent, Frank Horrigan (Eastwood) and rookie agent, Al D'Andrea (Dylan McDermott) meet with a counterfeting group, lead by Mendoza (Tobin Bell) and Frank and Al are working undercover. Mendoza however has uncovered the fact that Al is a secret service agent and has him tied and gagged, and he urges Frank to shoot Al in order for them to carry on doing business. Frank pulls the trigger of the gun against Al's head which just clicks, and then afterward Frank shoots Mendoza's men and arrests him, and rescues Al, after which they go to a bar and share a drink, where Al feels he isn't cut out for the job, but Frank reassures that he will make a good agent. Later on Frank responds to a complaint received about an absent tenant, and he finds inside the apartment a collage of photos from different assassinations in history, and Time magazine with the president's head circled. Frank later returns with Al, having secured a search warrant, they enter the tenant's apartment again to find all the photos have gone except one, which is of Frank as a younger man, on the day of JFK's assassination. Frank remains the only active agent since the time of John F. Kennedy's assassination and he felt guilty over his failure to react to the bullets at the time, which lead to his drinking problem and his family leaving him.
Soon after Frank receives a call from a man, who calls himself Booth (John Malkovich), named after Abraham Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth, and he tells Frank he intends to kill the president. Frank after this call requests to be put on protective detail for the president, despite his age, which certainly catches up with him as he struggles run along the president's limo with the other agents. Frank meanwhile also develops a relationship with a female agent, Lilly Raines (Rene Russo) who is in turns both annoyed at him and attracted to him. Booth continues his calls to Frank, even though he is aware they are tapped and traced, and after one call, Frank chases Booth on the streets, who bumps into a car and leaves a fingerprint on the car, which Frank has impounded. The fingerprint is analysed and a match is given, but the agents reveal that it is classified information and they can't reveal the identity of Booth.
Frank eventually leaves protection detail as while suffering the flu, at a rally, he mistakes a burst balloon as a gunshot and as a result the president is humliated on television. Frank however remains in charge of Booth's investigation and soon finds a lead, which reveals Booth's real identity as Mitch Leary, who was a former government assassin, who apparently suffered a mental breakdown and felt betrayed by the government that trained him. Leary in the meantime has created a composite zip gun, which won't be detected by metal detectors, which he intends to use to assassinate the president. Leary tests out the gun near a river, where two hunters approach him, one of whom tests it out and asks if he would be interested in purchasing the gun, but Leary tells he needs it to carry out the assassination, after which he kills both men. Leary plans to assassinate the president at a campaign dinner, in which he has made a large contribution and he has disguised himself as a businessman. And it is up to Frank to try and piece together Leary's moves and to stop Leary from carrying out his promise to kill the president.
There is no doubt that In The Line of Fire is a very entertaining and suspensful thriller, and it seems apt that it was made 30 years after John F. Kennedy's assassination. The idea of the only active veteran secret service agent being haunted by his failure to react to trying to rescue makes a fine dramatic premise and how he is at odds with Leary's ends. Yet the similarity between both men is evident as they were both discredited by the government that trained them, although the only difference is Frank is a decent man, whereas Leary is a psycho. But its the relationship between the two men is what makes the film work so well, as Leary admires Frank for his courage and his honesty and Frank uses his task to capture Leary as redemption for his failure to save JFK's fate.
So moving onto the performance paragraph(s) the cast are all great, and Clint Eastwood once again delivers an excellent performance as Frank Horrigan, the veteran secret service agent, who is stubborn as a mule (or agent mule even!) and his nature regularly get's him into trouble with his superiors, yet doing all he can to try and prevent history from repeating itself. Eastwood as you would expect, who has a fine line in playing gruff tough guys, but he also plays Frank with a world weary charm, and he get's plenty of witty dialogue, of which I will mention a few, starting with when he first talks to Leary on the phone who tells him of his plan, and Frank says "Oh you shouldn't have said that, its a federal offence to threaten to kill the president, even if you don't mean it!". And one of Eastwood's funniest scenes in the film is when Frank and Lilly make out in a hotel room, and they take off their uniforms, dropping guns, handcuffs, and magazine clips, and as they kiss on the bed, the phone rings and Lilly is summoned away. This leaves Frank frustrated and he sighs and says "Shit! Now I've gotta put all that shit back on, goddamnit!". Also the moments where he flirts with Lilly are also amusing, particularly at the presidential dinner where Lilly is in a dress, and he looks down at her, and she asks what he is looking at and he says "Oh I was just wondering where you keep your firearm. Don't tell me, I can guess!". Also his scenes with Malkovich are some of the highlights of the film, and in the scenes they share good exchanges, and later on after (PLOT SPOILER!!!) Leary kills Frank's partner, Al, he taunts Frank by asking him "do you have the guts to take a bullet, Frank?" to which Frank angrily replies "well I'm gonna be thinking about that when I'm pissing on your grave!". Also Clint has another funny moment after his first day back on protective duty, as he runs exhausted along with the president's limo, he later sleeps in his office, and a couple of paramedics rush in to check him out, as they heard there was a cardiac case, and Frank says "I'm on my break here! Oh, I get it, who's the wise guy?!".
John Malkovich is also great as the pscyhopathic assassin, Leary, and his soft spoken tone is quite chilling at times, as he plays Leary with a creepy and icy coolness which is unsettling. Malkovich has several highlights in the film particularly his telephone calls with Clint, as Leary and Frank talk to one another, and Leary forces Frank to engage in his cat and mouse games. The one scene that stands out in their conversations is where Frank finally learns of Leary's identity and he turns the tables on Leary by taunting him, telling him how he found out that he killed his best friend, which enrages Leary and continues to tell Frank "Have any idea what I've done for king and country???! Some pretty fucking horrible things! I don't even remember who I was before they sunk their claws into me!". Malkovich has two other creepy scenes, the first being where he speaks to a bank clerk in one of his business trips, and he makes up that he came from Mineapolis, only to find the clerk says she's from there as well, and he later turns up on her doorstep and kills her and her roommate. Also the scene where Leary tests out his composite zip gun by a river, and two hunters come up having heard the noise of the gun, Leary let's one of them try it out, who asks if he is interested in selling the gun, but Leary says "No I need, to assassinate the president" and both men laugh, but soon see how serious he is, and the man asks "why do you wan't to do that, mister?" and Leary replies "why did you kill that bird, asshole?" after which he proceeds to shoot both men dead.
Rene Russo is also pretty good (and very pretty) in her role as Frank's love interest and her opening scene provides her with her best line, where she meets Frank and he says "oh, the secretaries just get prettier around here!" and Lilly replies with "and the field agents just get older!" (this line was ad-libbed by Clint himself). Dylan McDermott also does well with his role as the rookie agent Al, who suffers the trauma at the beginning of being tied up and nearly suffocated by the counterfeiters, only to be rescued by Frank. McDermott has some good moments in the film, particularly in the scene where he reveals to Frank he is going to retire from being an agent as he has nightmares about being on the boat, and Frank persaudes him not to. John Mahoney (who was famous for playing Frasier Crane's dad in the hit TV comedy, Frasier) also puts in a good turn as Frank's friend and secret service director, who shares a nice scene with Frank who says to him regarding protective duty "face it, Frank, you're too old for this shit!". And in smaller roles Gary Cole is also good as Frank's secret service superior, who is quite arrogant in nature and it prompts a good line from Frank who says "you know, Bill there was a time I was almost as arrogant as you!". And finally Fred Dalton Thompson is also very good as the Whitehouse chief of staff who is very wary of Frank as well, but changes his tune near the end after Frank successfully saves the day.
Moving onto the film's score by Ennio Morricone, which is great and it echoes his score for The Untouchables, and it has plenty of suspenseful and dramatic passages in it, and if you close your eyes you could almost imagine you were watching The Untouchables. Direction wise, Wolfgang Petersen (who directed the classic film Das Boot) does an excellent job here and he cranks up the suspense really well, and he stages the action and chase scenes with aplomb throughout.
Flaw wise, does In the Line of fire have any???? Well yes its not perfect, as you would have to say that Leary's disguises aren't exactly foolproof and they don't exactly make him look unrecognisible, especially in the scene where you see him change into the businessman near the end, its like... wow what a disguise... not! The film's climax is also pretty over the top, with Leary grabbing Frank and taking him up an elevator, and its surprising that none of the secret service agents would be able to take Leary out before he managed to even get out of the building! I also wondered how they never searched the contents of Leary's key ring when he passes through the metal detector, although it goes off, he just picks it up after he goes through. So you could definitely argue that the security in the film certainly isn't as watertight as it should have been.
But anyway all that aside In The Line of Fire still remains one of Clint Eastwood's most enjoyable films in recent years and a really good crime thriller in its own right, which well worth checking out.
And I will leave it there.
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