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Imagine the simpler times, when a movie like “The Sum of All Fears” could be enjoyed as an innocent “thriller.” During these dark times, we find it does not serve as a thriller but quite the opposite a confirmer. A movie around the detonation of a nuclear device in an American city does not feel so distant to today’s reality, and Buffet has also claimed it to be ‘inevitable’. “Black Sunday” was aimed at portraying these fears, while “The Sum of All Fears” adds gruesome details along with serving as a confirmation to one’s most haunting fears.
To be sure, Tom Clancy’s horrifying vision has been footnoted with the obligatory Hollywood happy ending, where a nuclear blast vaporizes much of Baltimore, but we are treated to an attractive young couple pledging love while sitting on a blanket in the sunshine on the President’s lawn because human nature can have some absurdly kind elements out of nowhere. While artificially holding on to the hope that war can be avoided, as soon as the credits roll, one thing is painfully clear much of the population will cease to exist at the expense of the few living through this cruel dystopia.
Sorry, but I can’t help you with this.
The term neo Nazi exists in it, for example, and is politically correct. It is better to conjure up monsters who do not antagonize listeners. The only audiences that can watch this film in Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iraq are likely to stay till the end without walking out. If a bomb ever goes off in a big city, it’s much more likely that the perpetrators will be True Believers people who are so certain about the next world that they think they have the right to kill us in this one.
In this drama, Ryan emerges as a kind of unofficial apprentice of Bill Cabot, a wise old CIA officer, played superbly by Morgan Freeman, who has his own “back channel” into Moscow precisely to avoid misunderstandings of the sort that happen. So, Ryan and Cabot travel to Moscow when a new president comes to power, and the new Soviet leader, played by Ciaran Hinds, is presented as a reasonable man who has to do a lot of unreasonable things such as invading Chechnya, just to silence the militarists in his government.
America is governed by President Fowler (a tall, Lincolnesque figure portrayed by James Cromwell), who is assisted by advisors played by some of the most memorable character actors of the films: Philip Baker Hall, Alan Bates, Bruce McGill, etc. After Baltimore is bombed, crucial scenes unfold aboard Air Force One. The president and his cabinet are not engaged in cool analytical discussions but rather in a state of chaos where they are all shouting at once. I, for one, am comforted by the thought that our leaders really might be upset at that moment. I guess anyone who can be that dispassionate about nuclear war is able to countenance one.
I will omit the frightening details of the special effects in the movie due to their ability to shock the viewer. There are also several parallel story lines, including one revolving around a particularly good example of a dirty tricks specialist named John Clark (Liev Schreiber), who I am pleased to see on our side. There’s also the typical annoyance of the man with the truth and the bureaucracy which prevents him from getting through.
These strengths are offset by some weaknesses, however. I find far-fetched Jack Ryan’s solo pursuits in a Baltimore that has just been bombed they’re all just a little too convenient for my liking. Surely, the villains that he sets out to capture wouldn’t just be hanging around the place where the crime was committed. The process of identifying the plutonium, locating the shipping manifest and invoice, and eventually piecing together the identity of the man that excavated the bomb, seems a bit over the done does it not? And I smile wearily at the necessity of supplying Jack with a girlfriend (Bridget Moynahan), who exists only so that she can: (1) Are unduly upset when he tries to attend some of their dates, Intervenes during official duties. (2) Never believes his excuses for not being there. (3) ‘Heroic’ in quotes. (4) ‘Concerned’ in quotes. (5) Smudged with blood and dirt. (6) The people who are portrayed in the bright nice ending. The ease with which we were treated to the character’s purpose most likely means our perception of her as a real human is keel, at best.
Such particulars do not doom the film. In the hands of director Phil Alden Robinson, writers Paul Attanasio and Daniel Pyne do an extraordinary job of increasing the level of suspense. They paint a picture of realism, and then they add the other stuff because, well, if someone ever makes this kind of movie without the softening effects usually associated with Hollywood, the viewers may abandon the theater with distress. In my opinion, my greatest fears that “The Sum of All Fears” will appear, in a post apocalyptic world, as a nostalgically hopeful piece of art.
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