Year of Eastwood #3

In the Line of Fire (1993)

Starring: Eastwood, Renee Russo,
and John Malkovich
Directed by Wolfgang Petersen

In this taut thriller, Clint plays an aging Secret Service Agent, haunted by the memories of his failure to protect President John F. Kennedy from assassination in Dallas. Now 30 years later, Clint must track down a former CIA loon determined to make his own mark by killing the current president. Wikipedia defines “taut” as tight. It’s a term I’ve heard used to describe movies, but it's not exactly a word that gets much use in everyday coversation. But this movie is taut. It’s got murder, roof-top chases, and some really interesting interplay between Eastwood and Malkovich.

The key to a really good thriller is always the quality of the villain and here Malkovich is pretty damn creepy and he gets to use a lot of disguises - although it pretty much looks like John Malkovich in a wig or John Malkovich with a fake nose. He’s so convincing that I didn’t once wonder if there were a bunch of people in an office somewhere about to jump into his head.

One of the reasons I find Eastwood’s movies so interesting is because he’s been so successful for so long that we’ve really been able to watch his characters progress from a steely-eyed, grimacing drifter to a steely-eyed, grimacing old grump. Seriously, in Clint’s movies of the last 15 years, his characters have softened a bit and he doesn’t shy away from showing that age has slowed him down. In one scene, after Clint talks his way back into the Presidential security detail, he has to run along side the motorcade. Clint is huffing and puffing and sweating buckets and he takes a lot of ribbing from the other Agents. Renee Russo is the young, hot shot Agent who zings Clint a few times about him being as old as dirt - but of course in the end, she can’t resist Clint’s stoic charm.

An interesting side note, watching this movie today - a small role in the film that really stands out is Frank Thompson as the weasely Chief of Staff. Thompson has been getting a lot of press lately as the ultra-conservative hope of the Republican Party for the actual President of the United States. Let’s hope this movie is the closest he’ll ever get to the White House.

In the Line of Fire really is an excellent film. Soon I will begin discussing the signature films over Clint's career, and this one may tend to get lost in the shuffle, but it deserves to be considered one of his best.