A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Pros:  Harrison Ford returns (one last time) to the Ryanverse. Cons:  The novel was too complex to adapt fully, and it shows. What can I say about 1994's Clear and Present Danger?  The third film in the Jack Ryan series (and the last one to star Harrison Ford) deals with America's war on drugs and also the abuse of power in high places. As in Clancy's original novel, the plot hinges on one crucial question: how far can a President go to achieve a laudable goal, even if the means cross moral, legal and international boundaries? As in the novel of the same name, the interception of an American-flagged yacht in the Caribbean results in the arrest of two Colombian sicarios (hit men) who have murdered the American owner (along with his entire family). The resulting FBI-CIA investigation reveals that Peter Hardin, the late yacht owner and personal friend of the U.S. President (Donald Moffat), had extensive ties to the Cali drug cartel. Hardin, as Jack Ryan (F...

(C) 1997 Paramount Pictures  Director Phillip Noyce’s 1997 suspense thriller “The Saint” is an entertaining but convoluted movie based on Leslie Charteris’ long-running book series and various radio, movie, and television spin-offs about a suave, Robin Hood-like criminal named Simon Templar.   Starring Val Kilmer, Elisabeth Shue, Rade Serbedzija, and Valery Nikolaev, “The Saint” pits the mysterious thief/master of disguises (Kilmer) against an ex-Soviet Communist Party boss/oil oligarch (Serbedzija) who wants to rebuild the former Soviet Union - with himself as absolute ruler. Screenwriters Jonathan Hensleigh and Wesley Strick begin this James Bond-like tale with The Saint’s origin story. In a prologue set in a nebulous “Yesterday,” a young boy named John Rossi  lives in a hellish orphanage somewhere in the Far East. After the ruthless headmaster punishes the orphans by storing all the food in a locked pantry, John - who calls himself Simon Templar after a ...