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Jack Ryan films
Jack Ryan is a character developed by Tom Clancy. There is a TV series on Prime which covers the early years; however many of you may be more familiar with the films: "Patriot Games." Clear and Present Danger," and "The Sum of All Fears." The first two are available on Prime; the third is available on IMDb. "The Sum of All Fears" is the first chronologically. It was directed by Phil Alden Robinson, and it has an amazing cast. In 1973 during the wat between Israel and Arab States an Israeli jet is shot down and crashes in the Sinai. It was carrying a nuclear bomb. Many years later the bomb is discovered and sold to a Neo Nazi group who plan to use to provoke a nuclear between the US and Russia. A young CIA analyst, Jack Ryan (Ben Afleck) becomes involved when his profile of the new Soviet leader, Nemerov (Ciaan Hinds) comes to the notice of the CIA director, William Cabot (Morgan Freeman). I really liked this film, until the ending. This has a stellar cast" James Cromwell, Bruce McGill, Phllip Baker Hall, Alan Bates, Liev Schreiber, and Ron Rifkin among others. This is still well worth watching if you are partial to spy thrillers.
Of these three films, my favorite is "The Patriot Game." An older Jack Ryan, Harrison Ford, is a teacher at the Naval Academy married with a daughter. He is in London giving a speech. As he exits the speech, he sees an attempted assassination of a member of the British Royal family, Minister of State for Northern Ireland. He thwarts the attempt, saves the Minister, and kills one of the assassins, the brother of Sean Miller (Sean Bean) who is captured by Scotland Yard. Miller vows vengence at the trial. He later escapes. To complicate matters the group responsible is a violent breakaway faction of the IRA. The Sean Bean character is not realistic, his desire for revenge is over the top, and his group allows this need for revenge to dominate their operations. Still this is well acted with excellent action scenes. Phillip Noyce directed this and the sequel.
"Clear and Present Danger" is an an attempt look at the War on Drugs. Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford) has become a senior analyst at the CIA. An assassination of a prominent American businessman and friend of the president along with his family on his boat is discovered by the Coast Guard. The President (Donald Moffat) is outraged and he puts in motion a plan to insert an unsanctioned secret military unit selected and led by Tom Clark (Willem Dafoe). Meanwhile, Jack Ryan has discovered that the president's friend was in business with the Cali Cartel. There is $650 million of the Cartel's money in secret accounts. Problems escalate until Ryan has to go to Colombia to bring the remnants of the team out. The banal corruption of the top leadership seemed unrealistic to me, but considering recent presidential behavior, perhaps I should reassess my thinking.
So what we have is a mini binge. Clancy is a huge popular author for a reason, and these films afford solid if somewhat guilty pleasures.
Enjoy or not as you see fit.
The Hunt for Red October is the best Jack Ryan film and Alex Baldwin was the best Ryan (in my humble opinion, of course). It's also the film that launched the sequels. Why did you choose to leave this film out of your capsule? Did a miss something? That is always a possibility with me.
I have read most of the Ryan books. Baldwin captured the impulsive nature of Ryan in a way that Ford never did. He also seemed more instinctive and intellectual than Ford which were a big part of the books.
BTW, Baldwin turned down the second Ryan picture (Clear and Present Danger?). He was offered the chance to play Stanley Kowalski in Streetcar Named Desire on Broadway and took it. This was a conflict with the CPD schedule and the producers offered the part to Ford.
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