In the Line of Fire (Special Edition)

In the Line of Fire (Special Edition)
by Wolfgang Petersen

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DVD Reviews of In the Line of Fire (Special Edition)

DVD Review: Redemption?
Summary: 4 Stars

Rene Russo plays a gorgeous, younger Secret Service agent (Lilly Raines) whom Frank goes out of his way to irritate, beginning with their first encounter. (Frank: The secretaries keep getting prettier and prettier. Lilly: And the field agents get older and older.)

(In the Line of Fires storyline was surely inspired in large part by Stephen Sondheims 1990-91 musical theater masterpiece, Assassins. Failing even to make it to Broadway, Assassins was a commercial flop of historical proportions, but in this critics opinion, contains the greatest of all of Sondheims scores. Led by its own Booth as narrator, Assassins speculates that all presidential assassins were bound by the need to achieve a perverse form of greatness; that through killing a great man, they too would achieve a sort of second-hand greatness and immortality, even if it was only the immortality of men whose names would be cursed throughout history.)

Booth has obsessively studied the history of presidential assassins, particularly the Kennedy assassination. Thats what brings him and Frank together. Frank was one of JFKs bodyguards; indeed, he was Kennedys favorite. He had Kennedys ear. But when the time came, on that fateful, November morning in Dallas, Frank heard the first shot, but failed to react. That failure has tortured him ever since. Booth knows this, and in teasing, almost erotic telephone calls, relentlessly needles Frank about it. (Late at night, when the demons come, do you see the rifle coming out of that window, or do you see Kennedy's head being blown apart? If you'd reacted to that first shot, could you have gotten there in time to stop the big bullet? And if you had -- that could've been your head being blown apart. Do you wish you'd succeeded, Frank? Or is life too precious?)

In order to keep the cat-and-mouse game interesting, Booth gives Frank clues and assistance along the way.

The hammy Malkovich, who sounds like a decadent, tenured, postmodern professor of literature, earned a best supporting actor Oscar nomination. (Watching the President, I -- I couldn't help wondering why a man like you would risk his life to save a man like that. You have such a strange job -- I can't decide if it's heroic or absurd. Frank: Just how does it work? Booth: It doesn't work, Frank. God doesn't punish the wicked and reward the righteous. Everyone dies. Some die because they deserve to; others die simply because they come from Minneapolis. It's random and it's meaningless. Frank: Well, if none of this means anything... why kill the President? Booth: To punctuate the dreariness.)

By contrast, Eastwood drolly plays off his flinty, plainspoken characters age and infirmities. And watching Russo could break a mans heart, wondering, If only Hollywood directors had had the sense to make her a star when she was 25 or 30, instead of waiting until she was 38, to notice her. But as Brett Walters marvelous imdb.com bio shows, it turns out she had a life, B.H. (before Hollywood).

Jeff Maguires original script is so good, that it gets not only the big stuff  the diabolical bad guy and the red herrings that the heavy throws the heroes way -- but also the little things that so often make me wince during a thriller. He gives Eastwood and Russo dialogue they can work with, so that they can make us believe, without insulting our intelligence, that Lilly might just give an old rust bucket like Frank a whirl.

But amid all the action and clever small talk, Maguire provides a melancholy background music binding the characters, who recall a time when we had presidents worth taking a bullet for. (At the time, Bill Clinton was president, but I cant say if the melancholy referred to him personally.) No wonder, he was nominated for an Oscar (he lost out to Jane Campion, for the vastly overrated The Piano.)

Film editor Anne V. Coates was also nominated for an Oscar. Coates, who had won an Oscar for 1962s Lawrence of Arabia, lost out to Michael Kahn of Schindlers List.

Eastwood was already on a roll (as both actor and director  see Unforgiven, A Beautiful World, The Bridges of Madison County and Absolute Power) when he made In the Line of Fire, which started Russo on one (Get Shorty, Tin Cup, The Thomas Crown Affair).

Wolfgang Petersens deft direction keeps things moving, and is so unaffected and unobtrusive, that Im left with little to point to. Petersen and Maguire cleverly work Eastwoods personal fondness for playing the piano into the story.

Eastwood, Malkovich, and Russo are ably supported by a cast that includes Gary Cole, Fred Thompson, John Mahoney, Dylan McDermott and the District of Columbia.

Will Booth prevail, or will Frank redeem himself? That is the question.

Description of In the Line of Fire (Special Edition)