By Guy Wheatley
The Texarkana Gazette
This is not your father's Jack Ryan, and long-time Clancy fans are going
to suffer a bit of temporal vertigo. The Novel "The Sum of all Fears" was
published in July of 1996, and was the fifth in the Jack Ryan series. The
Berlin Wall had fallen a mere seven years earlier, and Boris Yeltsin was
still in the Russian White House. Jack Ryan had been through several adventures
and was, by this time in the novels, a man of some note as Deputy Director
of the C. I. A.
Moviegoers are introduced to a twenty-first century, 29-year-old Jack
Ryan. Young Jack (Ben Affleck) is a minor analyst at the C. I. A., and
has yet to propose to his future wife, Cathy (Bridget Moynahan). Ryan is
joined in this dimensional leap from the book to the screen by President
Fowler (James Cromwell) and John Clark (Liev Schreiber). A key element
that did not accompany Ryan, Fowler, and Clark is the eerie plausibility
that is the hallmark of all Clancy novels.
Despite the plethora of urban myths about college campus nuclear bombs,
the technically literate in the audience know how extremely unlikely such
a scenario is. Clancy tackled these problems head on in the novel. The
movie simply asks us to accept on faith that the terrorists are able to
make use of a misplaced Israeli nuclear bomb. With the movie already stretching
to two hours and four minutes, the additional footage required to bring
the novels technical explanations to the screen was apparently not considered
feasible by screenwriters Paul Attanasio and Akiva Goldsman.
The film follows the novel in the broad strokes. Terrorists find and
rebuild an Israeli nuclear weapon, smuggle it into the United States and
set it off at the Super Bowel. The detonation, in conjunction with an attack
on U.S. military assets by a bribed Russian base commander, brings the
two nations to the brink of an all out nuclear exchange. It is now up to
Ryan to bring both countries back from the brink.
Ryan's involvement requires an access to power that he had earned in
the novel. The film tries to side step the years required to be where he
was by having the Director of the C. I. A. Bill Cabot, (Morgan Freeman)
take a personal interest in Ryan. Cabot brings Ryan to a cabinet level
security counsel meeting. The scene is so similar to the briefing in "The
Hunt for Red October" that we half way expect to see Alec Baldwin and James
Earl Jones when the shot shifts back from the President. As in the earlier
film, Ryan steps on a few key toes and creates animosity between him and
most of the people in the room.
In the novel, this tension between equals created an energy that enhanced
the drama. In the film, the audience is left wondering why such a junior
official still has a job.
Despite the technical weaknesses, the film still manages to keep the
audience on the edge of its seat. The performances by Affleck and Freeman
are superb. The special effects are believable and convincing. The plausibility
of the main theme, a terrorist attack on the U. S., has forever been settled
by the events of September 11. It takes little imagination to feel the
apprehension of a major terrorist attack.
The real subject of both the film and the novel is the reaction by
the U.S. to the attack. There is the predictable knee jerk response from
hawks who want to start lobbing nukes at Russia, but even cooler heads
are drawn inexorably to the conclusion that there is no choice but to strike.
Both countries stumble like sleepwalkers in a waking nightmare. The terror
and suspense of this film is the reality that we face these fears daily
in the post September 11 world. Ryan must find the courage and moral strength
to face these fears and over come the self-destructive urges they create.
This movie doesn't provide the escapism we so often want from the industry.
It does get us to look at some tough questions. Americans should go see
this film, then think about it.
Rated PG-13
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