Clear and Present Danger (1994)

Excellent adaptation.

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

President Bennett's friends are murdered by Columbian Cali cartel drug lord Escobedo. He seeks revenge by declaring them Clear and Present Danger. Presidential Adviser James Cutter and Bob Ritter sends John Clark (Willem Dafoe) and his team to direct bombs on the targets. It's a secret mission that neither Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford) nor his mentor Jim Greer know about. Greer is sick with cancer. Ryan is appointed Deputy Director of Intelligence and sent down to Bogota. Meanwhile Escobedo has intelligence operative Félix Cortez who has inside info in the White House and plans of his own.It's an intriguing political espionage mixed with some well executed action scenes. The ambush in Bogota is terrific action. Joaquim de Almeida is a great villain. He has a great depth which is perfect for his double dealing. It's a well made Tom Clancy spy movie.

Well, this movie is really surprising because it's really the first time that I see a Hollywood blockbuster adapting without filtering a bestseller in which the famous writer really depicts the pool of sharks at Washington DC and especially in the white house. In short, what triggers a more energetic politic against drug cartels is just the assassination of POTUS friends. This kind of personal revenge is indeed a special way to uphold national interest. As Nixon, POTUS feels he is not bounded by laws or frontiers as he authorizes guerrilla in other country. And he is so cynical that he doesn't order it clearly and when bad news arrive, he would like to put the blame to innocent mans (here, Admiral Greer). This aspect of revealing Washington life would be the trademark in later Clancy novels, always coupled with an armed conflict. Here, i must say that the drug cartel isn't a « prestigious » adversary but a rather boring, dull one. In that, the movie equals the book because I remember to be among the weakest Clancy ever wrote. However, Harrison as the white, honorable hero is always perfect and Dafoe as an experimented veteran is an excellent partner.

Clear And Present Danger is a spy action thriller that is based on the novel of Tom Clancy of the same title.It features Harrison Ford in the title role as Jack Ryan with James Earl Jones,who portrays as Vice-Admiral James Greer together with supporting cast that includes Willem Dafoe,Miguel Sandoval,Belita Moreno and Joaquim de Almeida.it was directed by Philip Noyce,who also was at helm in other Jack Ryan films such as The Hunt For Red October and Patriot Games.The film's setting happens when Jack Ryan has been appointed as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) acting Deputy Director.He later discovers that he is being kept in the dark by some of his CIA colleagues in the agency about a covert war operation against the drug lords at Colombia.Later,it was also revealed that the President's wealthy friend is well-connected to the said Colombian drug cartel.When the national security adviser and the CIA deputy director were captured in Colombia,the President's men decided to abandon their force.In the end,it was up to Jack Ryan and another operative to rescue them on their won risking his career and life. This is the second time that Harrison Ford will portray Jack Ryan after Patriot Games and he brings earnestness and freshness to the role.Aside from that,it the story provides complex political intrigue,interesting plot and lots of tension that it is fun to sit through as it is exciting and entertaining from beginning to end.Despite some confusion that it may provide in the political ideologies and beliefs that the characters in it adhere to including the President,what stands out here though is the moral dilemma that Jack Ryan as it brings his humanistic side of saving lives in danger which could probably considered the overall theme of this action thriller.

Well, Harrison Ford (who plays character John Ryan) was a pretty good actor and was in a good spot to be in as Acting Director of Intelligence, this Washington job for him was going to be at a major challenge.It starts off early in the movie when Panamian boaters were smuggling a boat towards probably Columbia when the Coast Guard stopped them and forced them to a search.Then, the President of the United States (played by Donald Moffat) is informed about this and blames the Cali Cartel in Colombia for a growing threat of widespread drug-related violence that could spread to the United States, in his briefing.Then, even though there are verbal warnings about not allowing a guerrilla war involving any of the U.S. military to curb the threat of the Cail Cartel, the wheels of this secret small-scale war start to move in toward such an action. One sniper who is good is picked to join with a U.S. paramilitary army to go on what was supposed to be a secret mission to take some of the teeth out of the Colombia's Cali cartel. Then, someone from the outside goes on...the order is confirmed by Jim Greer (played by James Earl Jones), who has to stay on the outside, fighting a terminal stage of pancreatic cancer.The first part of the guerrilla war shows the paramilitary band being parachuted into Colombian territory, and then taking out a supply plane by explosives, and then, going deeper into the Columbian jungle to take out one of the Cali cartel's drug factories also by explosives. No casualties.But Miguel Sandoval (played by Ernesto Escobedo), a Cali leader, swears revenge for this. After a security convoy with John Ryan inside goes into the heart of Bogota to try to meet up with Ernesto, the convoy is greeted by Cali insurgents who fire gunshots and rocket propelled grenades at the convoy. They take out 2 convoy cars, and when American security personnel in the surviving convoy cars fire back, they do kill about 10 Cali insurgents but most of them are killed by the insurgents, and John Ryan, fortunately, survives the guerrilla attack.When John Ryan comes back to the states, a secret order is placed on the American guerrilla soldiers--to use a cellulose-encased laser guided bomb on one of the mansions who have ties to Escobedo. With spectacular special effects, the bomb does its work demolishing the house, but it was not a surgical strike--scores of people were killed even though the target was a yellow jeep parked in front of the mansion.And you think the movie ends just like that...but then, focus lies on Greer finally succumbing to death by cancer, and you see the funeral scene where he is given full military honors, and about the same time this was happening---the American guerrillas do abort a mission to take out 200 Colombian mercenaries and about to get out, they were still attacked by surprise by them. One dies, several of them are captured as POWs, and the sniper who was supposed to take the enemy out could not shoot any of them, and decides to hide in the bush.John Ryan realizes too late about the surprise attack, and decides to take a big risk to get them out. He goes overseas into the Colombian jungle himself, with help of a Colombian insider, and was able to find the lone sniper almost exactly where the surprise attack happened, and the sniper blames Ryan for causing the paramilitary fiasco, and quickly says to the sniper--"It's my fault!" Then, more wheels are turning as the mission goes into trying to find the POWs, but John Ryan faces several hurdles in trying to rescue them. He has to get through the dangerous Felix Cortez, which he does, with the help of Ernesto Escobedo. Then Ernesto was going to kill off John but was saved by the sniper. Then blaming Ryan for the killing of Ernesto, Felix orders the surviving armed bodyguards to search and kill John, but John and the insider, along with the sniper, was able to free the several prisoners (which were located at the Lindo Coffee Factory), and go up to the roof where an awaiting helicopter was going to move them to safety. All three make it up there even though Felix Cortez and his armed bodyguards were targeting them for death as they ran to the chopper, but the sniper and the insider was able to kill some of the armed gang members off. The sniper was even able to kill the most ruthless Cortez just before the helicopter moved away from danger.Then, back at home, John laments the botched paramilitary mission to the President at the Oval Office and is about to angrily rant at him for not knowing about the scores of American dead for a war that most people should not need to know. Then, with his rant frustrated and not allowed by the President, he decides to testify towards the Senate Oversight Committee about that "lost" paramilitary war to get back some redemption that he can earn--even though he cannot get all of it.