Veteran Secret Service Agent Frank Horrigan (Clint Eastwood), who has spent the past thirty years second-guessing his actions on the day President Kennedy was assassinated, finds himself in a similar situation when the life of the current president, who is in the middle of a heated re-election campaigned, is threatened by a twisted, cunning psychopath named Mitch Leary (John Malkovich). His superiors think his age and guilt have compromised his effectiveness, but Horrigan’s experience and familiarity with Leary’s modus operandi make him the only person with a chance to save the president’s life.

CRITIQUE

Were it not for that little U-boat flick he made a few decades back, In the Line of Fire would be the best movie of director Wolfgang Petersen’s career. This movie is a prime example of how to take well-worn genre conventions and make them fresh by adding intelligence, wit, and sharp characterizations, three qualities most modern thrillers sorely lack.

Writer Jeff Maguire (who received an Oscar nomination for his work) toiled on this script for the better part of a decade, almost losing his house before producer Jeff Apple, who had hatched the idea more than twenty years before the movie finally went into production, finally sold the project. This is one of those instances in which a long gestation period really paid off, as Maguire was able to remove every ounce of fat from the story.

In fact, there’s not a superfluous scene or line of dialogue anywhere in sight. (He even found a way to answer critics who balked at the idea of a romance between Horrigan and the agent portrayed by Rene Russo: play it for its inherent humor.) Petersen (who had been seriously fumbling before Eastwood suggested him for this job) directs in a similar manner, wasting not a single shot. And Anne V. Coates’s world-class editing ties it all together into an incredibly lean, tight package.  

What really separates this movie from other of its ilk is the immensely entertaining and gripping cat-and-mouse game between Horrigan and Leary. Yes, this sort of scenario is by no means nothing new, but what makes this one special (and this is something the movie shares with The Fugitive, the summer of 1993’s other great thriller) is the resolve and determination of each man. (There’s still an almost primal force to a great story about a likeable, recognizable man trying to redeem himself; you put that man up against an antagonist who is his virtual equal and you rise above the norm.)

Leary spends a great deal of time trying to convince Horrigan they have more in common than the older man thinks, and in a way he’s right. They’re almost the flipsides of the same coin. Although they’re working toward vastly different goals, they’re driven by similar circumstances; it’s just that Horrigan went in one direction and Leary the other.

All of this is made even more dynamic by the performances, which themselves are a contrast in styles. Because of his more recent work (Eragon, anyone?), it’s easy to forget that Malkovich could take on this sort of role and underplay it, but he’s undeniably fantastic here. And Eastwood has simply never been better; nothing he did before or has done since has combined the loose and steely sides of his personality to such great effect.

This first-rate craftsmanship on every level has helped the movie not fall into the aging trap. I know it has only been fifteen years, but many movies from the same era don’t play half as well as they did when first released (just try to watch The Hand that Rocks the Cradle or Single White Female and not laugh until your jaw hurts).

In the Line of Fire hasn’t aged a day. It’s still just as entertaining and exciting as it was back in ’93, and I think on its own terms it can hold its own against such recent offerings as the Bourne flicks and Casino Royale. And to think that the people at Columbia released it with very little fanfare, having put all of their eggs into the Last Action Hero basket. Man, that was just silly.

THE VIDEO

The 2.40:1/1080p transfer is a mixture of the very good and the, well, not so very good. The former outweighs the latter, but the latter is often so egregious it would be unthinkable not to mention it. Darker interiors often look fantastic, with a warm, natural lighting scheme and excellent shadow delineation.

But exteriors and the odd brightly-lit interiors are very soft and indistinct, so much so they often don’t appear to be culled from the same master, or even the same movie. (I know each of those scenarios is an impossibility, but I think the description is certainly apt.) This is definitely the best the movie has ever looked on home video, but it’s not a huge upgrade over the transfer on the 2001 disc.

THE AUDIO

The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio (available in English, French, or Portuguese) effectively translates the movie’s theatrical mix, but at the same time is somewhat handcuffed by the nature of that mix. Despite being the first movie released with a Sony Dynamic Digital Sound audio track, In the Line of Fire doesn’t have a very active sound design. There are some directional and discrete effects during the crowd and action scenes, but for the most part the audio is firmly anchored to the screen.

That being said, dialogue is always clear and natural, and the low end, while not particularly deep or forceful, exhibits a realistic quality. A Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 track is also included. English, English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Dutch, Bahasa, and Korean subtitles are available.

THE EXTRAS

All of the extras from the 2001 Special Edition standard-def DVD have been ported over for this release.

The commentary by Wolfgang Petersen is, as is usually the case with one of Petersen’s tracks, dry and boring (the one for Das Boot is the exception to the rule), with the director simply going through the motions.

Behind the Scenes with the Secret Service (20 minutes) takes a look at the purpose and history of the titular organization.

How’d They Do That? (5 minutes) offers a brief look at the digital effects that were used to drop Eastwood into the backgrounds of film clips of President Kennedy.

Catching the Counterfeiters (5 minutes) is a bland featurette that takes a surface-level look at how counterfeiters operate and the methods law enforcement officials employ to stop them.

The Ultimate Sacrifice (20 minutes), which originally aired on Showtime around the time of the movie’s theatrical release, is a promotional making-of piece that combines fairly standard behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with a look at the history and day-to-day operations of the Secret Service. (If you’re thinking that much of what’s discussed here can also be found in the Behind the Scenes with... featurette mentioned above, you’re correct.) 

Rounding out the extras is a handful of deleted scenes (5 minutes).

FINAL THOUGHTS

I’m recommending this one largely (read: almost totally) on the strengths of the movie, but given the issues with the transfer, you still may want to play it safe and rent it first.