Harrison Ford is back as Jack Ryan, the world's oldest boy scout, in Clear and Present Danger, the latest movie adaptation of a Tom Clancy bestseller. As loyal as Clancy's legion of technology-obsessed fans are, however, the movie may not earn top classification with them — it's thrown out most of the novel's techno-babble and underplayed Clancy's right-wing politics. In some ways, Clear and Present Danger is surprisingly dove-like, especially in its presentation of a vicious Colombian drug lord who comes across as a more sympathetic character than members of the U.S. government.
Wall-to-wall hypocrisy is the linchpin to Clear and Present Danger, with Ford playing the only honest man within an intelligence system that's so busy selling everyone out that the CIA could open a stall on Wall Street. Ford's high-level investigation into the murder of a friend of the president (Donald Moffat) leads him to Bogota and promptly sets him up as the fall guy for a clandestine war being conducted by his own people in the jungles of Colombia. Granted, it seems odd that such a seasoned spy could be caught off guard by the notion that the president is capable of lying. Maybe he didn't work for the Company during the Nixon years.
In some ways, Clear and Present Danger is the best of the Jack Ryan movies. Its plot logistics aren't as confusing as those in Hunt for Red October, and unlike Patriot Games, this film offers some real thrills. Unfortunately, it's way too long and during its last third, the story falls apart at the seams.
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