AN ASSASSIN ON THE LOOSE. A PRESIDENT IN DANGER. ONLY ONE MAN STANDS BETWEEN THEM.

The original trailer for this film was an exercise in poor taste and preview audiences reacted harshly against it. It had the date “November 22, 1963” written in large letters, followed by John Malkovich’s character talking about killing the president. A clock was ticking in the background, changing “1963” to “1993” – cut to Clint Eastwood’s character saying “That’s not going to happen”. The tackiness hid the fact that this is an intelligent, exciting and sensitive film about an old man’s last chance to leave with dignity.

An aging Secret Service agent
Aging Secret Service agent Frank Horrigan (Eastwood) is contacted by a man called Booth (Malkovich) who matches every profile of someone preparing to kill the president. Booth tells Frank that he likes the agent’s panache, but it’s soon clear that he’s fascinated by how Frank was just inches from President Kennedy on the day he was shot in Dallas, but still didn’t react swiftly enough.

That experience still haunts Frank, who’s not at the top of his game anymore… but as the Secret Service realizes that Booth must be taken seriously as a threat, they keep Frank around, believing he might be useful.

Full of tense moments
In some ways, this is a companion piece to Unforgiven, the Western Eastwood made the year before, which dealt with similar themes. Both films have an aging star prepared to show the downsides to growing older; some of the story’s action-filled parts has the protagonist struggling to keep up with the challenges of a job that he used to handle with little effort just a few (or was it ten, twenty?) years ago. But Eastwood also makes it clear that without the experience of men and women over a certain age, society wouldn’t function properly; even the insane killer has enough sense to be in awe of the elderly agent and what he learned from 1963.

Jeff Maguire’s script is cleverly structured, injecting generous doses of tension.

Parts of the story are formulaic (and even hard to believe), but Wolfgang Petersen is a very skilled director who knows how to milk as much excitement out of a thriller as possible; along with Das Boot (1981) this is his finest effort. Jeff Maguire’s script is cleverly structured, injecting generous doses of tension; John Bailey’s cinematography offers beautiful views of Washington D.C., and the cast is top-notch. Eastwood crafts a perfect performance as an agent who will always be a grunting Dirty Harry, but who’s also ready to show a vulnerable side to a lady he likes; Russo’s character is reminiscent of the one she played in Lethal Weapon 3 (1992), a part she knows well.

As for Malkovich, he’s a brilliant actor who makes this lunatic figure memorable, even if he’s constantly running the risk of turning him into an overblown clown. Still, who can resist his performance in that scene where he rescues Frank from falling to his death?

The Bodyguard attracted big audiences the previous year. The idea of somebody being prepared to sacrifice their life for someone who’s not family is fascinating. The emotional part of this story is our hero’s desire to vindicate his reputation and erase a record he’s ashamed of. Watching Frank talk to Lilly about his shame, bottom lip trembling, strikes a chord, perhaps lending the film more depth than it initially aspired to.

In the Line of Fire 1993-U.S. 128 min. Color. Widescreen. Directed by Wolfgang Petersen. Screenplay: Jeff Maguire. Cinematography: John Bailey. Cast: Clint Eastwood (Frank Horrigan), John Malkovich (Mitch Leary), Rene Russo (Lilly Raines), Dylan McDermott, Gary Cole, Fred Dalton Thompson, John Mahoney, Tobin Bell, John Heard. 

Trivia: Digitally manipulated footage from George Bush and Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaigns is used in some scenes. At one point, Maguire’s script was considered for a TV project starring Tom Selleck. Robert De Niro was considered for the part of Leary.

Last word: “So Clint just got on the phone and said, ‘Let me call Jack [Nicholson, for the part of the villain]. And in a couple of seconds he says, ‘Hi Jack, it’s Clint.’ And I’m sitting there thinking, a couple of weeks ago I was talking to Andy from Chase Manhattan, and now I’m listening to Jack talk to Clint.” (Maguire, in 1993, The New York Times)