"In the Line of Fire" is a taut thriller, featuring performances by two different types of great actors.
Clint Eastwood is the seasoned star of action vehicles, working his screen image in a way that makes it seem impossible that anyone else could have played crusty Secret Service Agent Frank Horrigan. (Yet several other actors were considered for the part before him, including Robert Redford.) Eastwood, who is now in his late 80s, was a virile 63 when this picture was released, and still believable as the love interest of younger co-star Rene Russo.
The biggest plot hole – if one can call it that – is that everybody wants Frank off the case because he is, as his boss says, "too old for this sh*t". Even his girlfriend seems only to want to keep him around because she feels sorry for him. Nobody except for the wiretapping technicians seems to recognize the fact that since the self- proclaimed assassin keeps calling Frank, his presence somewhere in the vicinity is indispensable to protecting the president.
In one of his more accessible and memorable screen performances, veteran actor John Malkovich plays Mitch, a villain whose intensity makes you believe he is capable of anything. Although he has been in over sixty movies and TV productions, most moviegoers have probably seen Malkovich rarely, usually in supporting or even cameo roles. He is almost anonymous despite having appeared in such popular movies as "Con Air" (1997) and the eponymous cult film "Being John Malkovich" (1999).
There is a scene in which Mitch meets two hunters who see too much, and right before he kills them Mitch confesses that he plans to assassinate the president. "Why would you want to do that?" asks one of the hunters in stunned horror. It does not matter what these men think of the president, who is portrayed as a vapid chameleon. This movie belongs to a quaint time when the idea of assassinating any president of the United States struck the overwhelming majority of Americans as plain wrong even if you thought the occupant of the White House was an execrable son of a bitch.
Clint Eastwood is the seasoned star of action vehicles, working his screen image in a way that makes it seem impossible that anyone else could have played crusty Secret Service Agent Frank Horrigan. (Yet several other actors were considered for the part before him, including Robert Redford.) Eastwood, who is now in his late 80s, was a virile 63 when this picture was released, and still believable as the love interest of younger co-star Rene Russo.
The biggest plot hole – if one can call it that – is that everybody wants Frank off the case because he is, as his boss says, "too old for this sh*t". Even his girlfriend seems only to want to keep him around because she feels sorry for him. Nobody except for the wiretapping technicians seems to recognize the fact that since the self- proclaimed assassin keeps calling Frank, his presence somewhere in the vicinity is indispensable to protecting the president.
In one of his more accessible and memorable screen performances, veteran actor John Malkovich plays Mitch, a villain whose intensity makes you believe he is capable of anything. Although he has been in over sixty movies and TV productions, most moviegoers have probably seen Malkovich rarely, usually in supporting or even cameo roles. He is almost anonymous despite having appeared in such popular movies as "Con Air" (1997) and the eponymous cult film "Being John Malkovich" (1999).
There is a scene in which Mitch meets two hunters who see too much, and right before he kills them Mitch confesses that he plans to assassinate the president. "Why would you want to do that?" asks one of the hunters in stunned horror. It does not matter what these men think of the president, who is portrayed as a vapid chameleon. This movie belongs to a quaint time when the idea of assassinating any president of the United States struck the overwhelming majority of Americans as plain wrong even if you thought the occupant of the White House was an execrable son of a bitch.