In the Line of Fire
                               
Director: Wolfgang Petersen
Year: 1993
Rating: 7.0
I think I last saw this when it first came out and my memory being what it is, I didn't remember all that much. It is just so professionally well done under the eye of director Wolfgang Petersen (Das Boot). A score from Morricone, a solid if very conventional script and a brilliant cast of actors. Even a small one-minute role goes to an actor like John Heard. Throw in Gary Cole, Fred Thompson, John Mahoney as well. Malkovich as the assassin wanting to kill the President is mesmerizing in his calmness and Clint Eastwood is the Secret Service agent intent on stopping him and finding redemption for not stopping Kennedy's assassination. He is wonderfully personable and prickly especially in his flirtatious exchanges with a fellow agent played by Rene Russo.



Of course, their growing fondness for one another is the weakest part of the film.  Eastwood was 63 when he appeared in this film and looks every day of that. He is perfect for the role of an aging agent reaching the end of the line - but did they have to put in a romance. Sure, it is Client Eastwood who currently at 93 has a girlfriend over 30 years younger. But still it felt awkward. The role was initially intended for De Niro but he was busy. He is 13 years younger than Eastwood and it would have been a different film.  It feels sad that Eastwood is so old. I grew up with his films as many of us have and you know we will be reading his obit at some point. I started watching him in Rawhide the Western TV series - Rowdy Yates. Who at that point would have guessed what an astonishing career he was going to have both in front of the camera and behind it.



Eastwood is Frank Horrigan, a Secret Service agent since the early 1960's. He was there in Dallas on that fateful day. Not far from where John F. Kennedy was in the back seat of an open car. He heard the first shot but didn't react thinking it was a fire cracker. Then came the second shot. And he has beaten himself up for all these years. Could he have saved Kennedy if he jumped in after the first shot. The assassin tells him no. Horrigan has just cracked a counterfeiting ring when he is asked to investigate a potential threat to the President. The Service got a call from a landlady saying that one of her tenants has material in his room that is scaring her  - about killing the President. Horrigan investigates - probably another crank - but what he sees scares him as well. But the assassin is watching and thrilled when he sees Horrigan. A worthy challenger.



He calls Horrigan. Tells him he is going to kill the President and tries to develop a symbiotic relationship with him as they make their moves. The game takes a few twists and turns. The assassin is a master of disguise and as they learn as professional a killer as they come. And Horrigan is old, his knees hurt, his fellow agents think he is past his prime. And the assassin keeps calling Horrigan and in his soothing mellifluous voice tells him he is a legend, it wasn't your fault that Kennedy was killed and you will never catch me.