#247: In the Line of Fire

Release Date: July 9th, 1993

Format: Streaming (Tubi)

Written by: Jeff Maguire

Directed by: Wolfgang Petersen

4 Stars

Wolfgang Petersen’s 1993 film In the Line of Fire is an exercise in fundamentals. No need to re-invent the wheel if you’ve got a perfect wheel already.

The script, from writer Jeff Maguire, conjures up a serviceable plot and some stock characters: Clint Eastwood gets to play the old grizzled vet, a Secret Service agent still haunted by the assassination of President Kennedy, who is called back into action because there is a psychopath on the loose. The psychopath is played with relish by John Malkovich, sneering and menacing his way to a Best Supporting Actor nomination.

There’s also a young rookie agent that Eastwood gets to intimidate. There’s a female agent half his age that can’t resist his gruff charm. There are bureaucrats and superiors who doubt the old guy and think he should retire.

It’s cliche movie-stuff that we’ve seen over and over and over in dozens of different action and suspense films over the years.

But. It. Does. Not. Matter.

I dare you to watch the first twenty minutes of In the Line of Fire and turn it off. Unless you are indifferent to movies, it can’t be done. 

Petersen has such a sure hand with his pacing and photography. It’s a straightforward film visually, but effective. He creates suspense without drawing attention to the fact that he’s doing it. 

Additionally, his performers are just great here. Eastwood’s performance is part Man with No Name, part Dirty Harry, and part William Munny. Simply put, he’s a movie star, even if he is the old dog who can’t learn new tricks.  

Kudos to Petersen for trusting Malkovich to paint whatever he wanted on the film’s canvas. It’s the type of role that could easily devolve into silliness, but Malkovich never lets it. He’s a lot of fun whenever he’s on screen, playing an assassin whose radical intellectualism serves as the perfect foil to Eastwood’s meat-and-potatoes traditionalism.

Sure, In the Line of Fire is a cat-and-mouse suspense flick that we’ve seen versions of before, but when it’s this great, who cares?