In the Line of Fire (1993) Columbia Pictures/Action-Thriller RT: 128 minutes Rated R (language, violence) Director: Wolfgang Petersen Screenplay: Jeff Maguire Music: Ennio Morricone Cinematography: John Bailey Release date: July 9, 1993 (US) Cast: Clint Eastwood, John Malkovich, Rene Russo, Dylan McDermott, Gary Cole, Fred Dalton Thompson, John Mahoney, Gregory Alan Williams, Jim Curley, Tobin Bell, Clyde Kusatsu, Steve Hytner, Patrika Darbo, John Heard, Joshua Malina, Steve Railsback. Box Office: $102.3M (US)/$187.3M (World)
Rating: ****
Clint Eastwood always gets off at least one great quotable line in his movies. In the action-thriller In the Line of Fire, it’s “That’s not going to happen.” He says it during a phone conversation with potential Presidential assassin Mitch Leary played by John Malkovich (Dangerous Liaisons) at his crazy best. When the psycho threatens to kill the Commander-in-Chief, Secret Service agent Frank Horrigan (that’s Clint) sets him straight with those five words. He then proceeds to make good on his promise.
As far as I’m concerned, Eastwood can do almost no wrong, the sole exceptions being White Hunter, Black Heart and The Bridges of Madison County. Pretty much everything is right with In the Line of Fire. And why wouldn’t it be? Eastwood gets to play a gun-carrying hero that any sane person would think twice about messing with. He goes up against a loathsome nut job. He gets into it with his superiors at work. He romances a woman half his age. And did I mention he’s a total bad ass? I don’t have to; it’s a given! Unlike most of his movies in the past 25 years, the actor doesn’t pull double duty as director. He turns the reins over to Wolfgang Petersen, the German filmmaker responsible for such nail-biting flicks as Das Boot (1981) and Air Force One (1997). It all equals one of the best action-thrillers of the 90s!
In the Line of Fire kicks off with a bang as Horrigan and his new partner Al D’Andrea (McDermott, The Cowboy Way) bust a counterfeiting ring. The operation does not go smoothly. The ringleader identifies the younger man as an undercover agent and tries to make Horrigan execute him. That doesn’t happen; it was never going to.
Later, Horrigan and D’Andrea go to investigate a possible threat against the President. They find something rather disturbing in the yet-unknown man’s apartment. On the wall is a collage of newspaper articles on famous assassinations. He’s particularly obsessed with the JFK assassination. Horrigan was on Presidential detail that terrible day in Dallas. He still feels tremendous guilt over not protecting Kennedy from the assassin’s bullet.
Horrigan receives a phone call from the tenant who identifies himself as “Booth” (as in John Wilkes). Realizing what’s about to happen, the agent requests to be placed on protective detail despite the fact he’s nearing the age of retirement. He immediately clashes with Bill Watts (Cole, The Brady Bunch Movie), the arrogant young agent in charge AND the President’s Chief of Staff Harry Sargent (Thompson, Die Hard 2) who’s more concerned with protecting his boss’ image during the last weeks of his re-election campaign.
Meanwhile, Mitch Leary meticulously plans how he’s going to kill the President. It’s a simple yet detailed plan that will put him in very close proximity to his target. The guy may be a wacko, but he’s also a genius model-builder. He builds a gun out of wood in order to get it past the metal detectors. Will Horrigan be able to stop him before he achieves his objective? In the midst of all that’s going on, Horrigan finds the time to start a relationship with fellow agent Lilly Raines (Russo, Lethal Weapon 3), one of the few people on his side. The aforementioned superiors think he’s overreacting and want him gone. To coin Eastwood’s trademark phrase, that’s not going to happen.
In the Line of Fire is a hell of a great movie. I saw it twice at theaters during the hot summer of ’93, the first time at a crowded screening where the audience responded with great enthusiasm. Eastwood may have been in his 60s at the time, but age didn’t seem to be slowing him down all that much.
This is one of those action movies that don’t rely on unbelievable stunts and wild car chases to keep the viewers’ hearts racing. It has a fair amount of action, especially in the climactic scenes at L.A.’s Bonaventure Hotel. In the Line of Fire relies more on suspense than anything else. Why does Mitch want to kill the President? Who is he? Why is his true identity classified top-secret by the FBI? Petersen keeps the audience on the edge of their seats without trying to blow them out of the theater with loud explosions and destruction of property.
It’s also interesting to observe the relationship between Horrigan and Leary. The villain knows just what buttons to push when it comes to his pursuer. Malkovich delivers a frightening performance as Leary, one that earned him a Best Supporting Actor nomination at that year’s Oscars. The screenplay by Jeff Maguire also received a well-deserved Oscar nomination that year. He tells a great story, that’s for sure.
In the Line of Fire is tight and taut, the two most essential components of an effective action-thriller. It also serves as proof that some actors keep getting better with age. If Clint Eastwood was a bottle of wine, he’d fetch a huge price at a wine auction. He’s what I call vintage and classic.
