To paraphrase reporter Kent Brockman from The Simpsons; “every day citizens are shot in this city, until now none of them were important“.
The drug war has been underway for decades in the US with casualties on both sides. This time however, the bodies happened to be friends of the President. The Prez’ instant response is to order a full scale war on drug cartels, only on the down low. The government big wigs operate on a ‘need to know’ basis, and most apparently don’t need to know. Those that do know seem more than willing to use whatever means to achieve their goal, including sacrificing assets and selling out their own allies.
Enter Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford), a loyal American so noble and patriotic that he practically demands John Cougar Mellencamp writes a song about him. He is called in when the drug dealers react to the United States government’s early victories. Ryan continues on doggedly trying to get to the bottom of the issue, even as he he pursues answers to an operation that doesn’t officially exist.
I am on record for saying Harrison Ford isn’t a superstar, lacking the charisma and range, and being lucky that Spielberg and Lucas presented him not one, but two career roles
That said, the character of Jack Ryan is right in his wheelhouse, with his steely demeanour and determined actions playing to Ford’s strength.
Criss-crossing the North and South Americas, Ryan meets Willem Dafoe, a mercenary who knows nothing about the military unit in South America targeting drug dealers – despite the fact that he leads it – and then heads back to the US, where politicians jostle and sell each other out to either advance their situation or cover their own arses.
The drug dealers might be scumbags with flawed ideals, but at least they’re true to label.
The film suffers a little trying to blend both suspense and drama with action, as both aspects tends to cancel each other out at times, but Clear and Present Danger is as efficient as these films can be, with Jack Ryan essentially playing Jason Bourne if he were twenty years older.
The ironic thing is with the drug dealing cartels now being so very audacious and heavily armed, perhaps now is the time for these events to actually take place, with a full scale war on drugs seemingly inevitable at some point, but for now this fictionalised version is a pretty decent approximation of what might happen.
Final Rating – 7.5 / 10. Tries to serve too many masters spanning several genres, but makes a decent fist of most of them.
