In the Line of Fire 1993

     Frank Horrigan is a secret service agent and he was on duty when President Kennedy was killed in Dallas.  Mitch Leary starts to call Frank and he says he’s going to kill the current president.  Mitch is a former CIA assassin and he’s spent a lot of time studying Frank.  Mitch is angry because he was removed from the CIA and they are trying to have him killed.  Frank feels a lot of guilt that he couldn’t save Kennedy and he doesn’t want another death he might have stopped. 

     The other agents know Frank is getting these calls from Mitch but they don’t want to take the threats seriously.  They think Frank is going over the edge in checking and rechecking everything.  Frank is sure that Mitch is going to try to kill the president.  Some of the clothing and hairstyles, especially on the women are dated.  Malkovich has a gift for playing the bad guy!!  He knows how to be creepy and pull their strings to get people mad.  He could make you very uncomfortable if he showed up at your front door!!  3 ½* (I liked this movie)

 

128 min, Action directed by Wolfgang Petersen with Clint Eastwood, John Malkovich, Rene Russo, Dylan McDermott, Gary Cole, Fred Dalton Thompson, John Mahoney, Gregory Alan Williams, Jim Curley, Sally Hughes, Clyde Kusatsu, Steve Hytner.

Note:  Imdb 7.2 out of 10, 95% critic 79% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 3 ½*, Amazon 4.5* out of 5* with 1632 reviews, Metacritic 74 out of 100 with 16 critics 8.8 out of 10 with 76 reviews.

Special Note:  Clint Eastwood was 62 years old at the time of filming and he hung six stories above the ground on a ledge with a safety belt.  Malkovich lived in almost total seclusion for a month prior to filming.  He wanted to connect with Mitch’s sense of isolation.  This is the first time the Secret Service cooperated on the making of a film.  The character Frank Horrigan was inspired by Secret Service Agent Clint Hill.  He was with JFK in Dallas and he felt responsible for the President’s death.  The scenes with digital effects showing a younger Eastwood’s face in real-life footage of the JFK, Bush and Clinton campaign rallies cost 4 million dollars.  Eastwood and McDermott use Sig Sauer 9mm pistols, the standard weapon of the Secret Service.  In the opening scenes, Eastwood uses a Smith Wesson .44 Magnum revolver like his character Inspector Harry Callaghan in Dirty Harry of 1971.  There is another film with the same title from 1989.  Wolfgang Petersen also directed Das Boot about German submarines of 1981.