Tom Clancy writes huge thousand-page novels that introduce many, many characters, explain every detail of their motivation, list every minute thought they might have, and describe every single action they take. There is violence in the novels, but the actual violence is a tiny part of the full narrative. Clancy's novels are bestsellers. Readers love the complexity and buy everything he writes.
For a movie version to be faithful to the tone and spirit of the novel, it would have to be many, many hours long. Probably a miniseries. If this were done--if a filmmaker really wanted a faithful adaptation of a Clancy novel--Harrison Ford would be an excellent Jack Ryan (the protagonist of most Clancy novels, including "A Clear and Present Danger".
However, Hollywood simply doesn't make 16-hour movies for theaters. So by necessity, a Clancy film grabs highlights of the book: some of the characters, the basic plot outline, etc. Then the standard Hollywood conventions are applied. It's gotta have chases and shootouts. The head good guy's gotta punch out the head bad guy. Characters are either good or evil. Motivations are simple, and are determined by whether a character is good or evil.
So the tough, pricipled desk jockey of the Clancy novels becomes the gunslingin', two-fisted James Bond wannabe of the big screen. And Harrison Ford, at age 52, belongs in this role as much as Roger Moore, at age 52, belonged in "Moonraker" or any of the later Bond films. You want to offer the poor guy some Geritol before his fight scenes.
Mr. Ford slogs through the movie looking like an unmade bed. With two fists, of course. But there was nothing remotely interesting about his Jack Ryan here. Perhaps Ryan was supposed to be serious. Instead, you get the impression he was narcoleptic.
The rest of the movie--plot, dialogue, acting, etc.--was about what you'd expect from a Hollywood "techno-thriller", but the decision to cast Mr. Ford in the leading role dragged the rest of the movie down with it.
For a movie version to be faithful to the tone and spirit of the novel, it would have to be many, many hours long. Probably a miniseries. If this were done--if a filmmaker really wanted a faithful adaptation of a Clancy novel--Harrison Ford would be an excellent Jack Ryan (the protagonist of most Clancy novels, including "A Clear and Present Danger".
However, Hollywood simply doesn't make 16-hour movies for theaters. So by necessity, a Clancy film grabs highlights of the book: some of the characters, the basic plot outline, etc. Then the standard Hollywood conventions are applied. It's gotta have chases and shootouts. The head good guy's gotta punch out the head bad guy. Characters are either good or evil. Motivations are simple, and are determined by whether a character is good or evil.
So the tough, pricipled desk jockey of the Clancy novels becomes the gunslingin', two-fisted James Bond wannabe of the big screen. And Harrison Ford, at age 52, belongs in this role as much as Roger Moore, at age 52, belonged in "Moonraker" or any of the later Bond films. You want to offer the poor guy some Geritol before his fight scenes.
Mr. Ford slogs through the movie looking like an unmade bed. With two fists, of course. But there was nothing remotely interesting about his Jack Ryan here. Perhaps Ryan was supposed to be serious. Instead, you get the impression he was narcoleptic.
The rest of the movie--plot, dialogue, acting, etc.--was about what you'd expect from a Hollywood "techno-thriller", but the decision to cast Mr. Ford in the leading role dragged the rest of the movie down with it.