Article Type: Movie Review
Article Date: June 17, 2002
Huh?
Somebody screwed up. When Harrison Ford quit playing Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan character in film, the powers that be naturally needed a replacement. So who would bring a mature dignity to the role? Who could embody the distinguished blend of family man and professional intelligence agent that is Jack Ryan? How about Morgan Freeman? Indeed, Freeman is in the latest interpretation of a Clancy novel, The Sum of All Fears, but the filmmakers goofed and put him in the wrong role!
You think I jest? You think Morgan Freeman cannot play an Irishman? Morgan Freeman could play heck out of anyone in The Sum of All Fears, and he does. You think the Irish couldn't produce a Black CIA agent? Please. Give those resourceful characters a pint and they can make anything happen. These are the guys that beat back England with swords and skirts. The real jest is from Paramount. Ben Affleck is playing Jack Ryan now, and that's a joke, at least for die-hard Jack Ryan fans.
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| Morgan Freeman as Cabot (left) speaks to Ryan played by Ben Affleck |
The Name is Ryan, Jack Ryan
It's a changing of the guard, and it's evident that Jack Ryan has become America's version of James Bond. Just as Sean Connery, Roger Moore, and others took turns carrying Bond's banner, Ryan the celluloid hero is something greater than his papyrus counterpart: a Hollywood franchise. Indeed, for all the awkwardness of it, Affleck's Ryan is flushing money into the pockets of the film's decision-makers faster than the shock wave of a nuclear explosion.
Clancy readers already know that Affleck is too young to be a convincing Ryan in the existing continuity of the films, which loosely follow the order of the books. The Sum of All Fears doesn't try to explain this, nor does it totally ignore the change as the Bond films did through the various incarnations of Bond, Moneypenny, M, and Q. What happens is that The Sum of All Fears behaves as if the other Ryan films don't exist. Affleck's Ryan is a new agent in the intelligence business. His girlfriend (and wife to be, if the continuity picks up from here), Cathy Muller, is also fresh into her career as a doctor. Bridget Moynahan plays Muller in a light role, but she's very healthy looking and between her and Affleck there's plenty of eye candy for the audience. There's no reference to any of Ryan's past heroics because in this timeline, they no longer exist. Other characters from the books are here, like Mary Pat Foley and William Cabot, though Cabot is very different from his source counterpart.
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| Ryan with Clark played by Liev Shreiber |
Super Sunday
The basic story from the book, however, manages to stay fairly close to the original. A nuclear device mounted on an Israeli A-4 Skyhawk in 1973 is lost when the aircraft is shot down. When it resurfaces nearly thirty years later, a group of Neo-Nazis is quick to purchase it, with the intention of detonating it in America at the Super Bowl football event. They've also arranged for simultaneous execution of a deceitful attack on American forces to entice America and Russia into war.
Complicating matters is the rumor that the Russian President, Nemerov, is losing control over his military and that he's becoming erratic. Ryan enters the scene because the CIA's director, William Cabot (Morgan Freeman) knows Ryan did a research paper on Nemerov and wants him on the CIA's Russian response team. Cabot in the novel is a hollow manager, practically a puppet for others in the government, but in the movie he's a good guy and played well by Freeman. Cabot mentors Ryan in the ways of diplomacy and guides his work in the CIA.
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| Ryan at the Russia desk |
The movie makes other alterations. Aside from dropping the usual subplots and details to contain the length of the movie, they changed the terrorists from Middle Eastern, Native American, and German to Neo-Nazi. Given some concern over political correctness, this is an understandable move. Gutless, but understandable. The various subplot omissions are a little more disappointing. In the movie Clear and Present Danger, the creators maintain the story of both Ryan and his counterpart in Columbia, nicely paralleling them until their paths intersect. It added some depth, the kind typical of a Clancy story. There are no threads like this in The Sum of All Fears, leaving it hollow in comparison.
Brave New World
It's clear The Sum of All Fears isn't going to defy the adage that the book is always better than the movie. If we take off our preconception glasses, how does the movie fare? Not bad, but not great either, and director Phil Alden Robinson is as clumsy as any other Hollywood type when it comes to portraying the military.
If you can accept the shift in the Ryan character, The Sum of All Fears is a passable espionage thriller. Affleck is his usual affable self in the role, and Freeman is highly competent as the calm and controlled Cabot. And the film proceeds along at a comfortable pace for a comfortable duration. The terrorist plot is sufficiently creepy. The Affleck Ryan is a kinder, gentler, and weaker Ryan. When presented an opportunity to participate in a spy operation, he refuses to shoot anyone and is reluctant to even carry a weapon, hardly the former US Marine of the Clancy novels. Some would argue this gives him a different dimension from the cavalcade of other action heroes, forcing him to rely more on his wits, intellect, and doctorate degree. It would be an easier argument to accept if Ryan didn't also have to resort to the tired fist fight later in the film, with a guy twice his size and strength.
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| Ryan with Cathy Muller played by Bridget Moynahan |
The two leads are surrounded by a well-stocked bullpen of supporting performers, though their one-dimensional roles waste their talent; Ron Rifkin, Bruce McGill, and James Cromwell have all made better appearances elsewhere. Liev Schreiber does a little better, giving the film much needed grit as CIA operative John Clark.
Director Robinson made The Sum of All Fears after taking a hiatus. His last movie direction was in 1992, and he appears somewhat mismatched for Clancy pictures, which have always competently mixed political intrigue with action. The highest points in the film are actually the humorous exchanges between Freeman and Affleck. The action scenes lack the power of previous Clancy movies, and even other action films. There is little here to compare to the remarkable scene in Clear and Present Danger where the American convoy is ambushed by rocket soldiers, or where a special forces team illuminates a target for an F/A-18's laser guided bomb.
COMBATSIM's readers will notice the remarkable disparity. There's some military influence on the film, but poor execution mars most of it. The opening scene of an Israeli A-4 cruising over the desert is lovely, but it's downhill from there. The film's previews hint of a nuclear bomb scene, and there is one, but it does surprisingly little damage. Electrical devices continue to function normally even after suffering what should have been an electromagnetic pulse. Thousands die at the blast's center, but there are few effects of radiation poisoning save for a few burned bodies, and Ryan, Muller, and the US President (James Cromwell) suffer no ill effects despite being near the blast.
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| Hello? Yeah, a nuclear bomb went off, but my phone is fine. |
The most painful error surrounds the scene where a corrupt Russian officer orders bombers to attack an American aircraft carrier, and they succeed in destroying it. I could maybe believe in a stealth fighter sneaking past American carrier defenses, but an entire squadron of what look like ungainly Russian Backfires getting past E-2C Hawkeyes and F-14s? I don't think so. It was at least interesting to see the carrier's point defense systems in action. Clancy's novel, of course, took a much more realistic approach to the carrier engagement.
Made for Mainstream
Although my ramblings make it sound like The Sum of All Fears is a terrible movie, it would be more accurate to say that it's simply a mainstream movie. The movie is successful for a reason. It addresses current events in a way that's more approachable and less gory than Black Hawk Down does. To its credit, it also accepts that for the cleanliness a guy like Affleck's Ryan keeps in his ethical outlook, the truth is that people like John Clark are performing dirty work for the government. It's a carry-over theme from Clear and Present Danger days, but one that never expires. It will be interesting to see if Affleck sticks to the Ryan role. The balance sheets certainly indicate he will. Harrison Ford would have fit better in the next books, Debt of Honor and especially Executive Orders, but like James Bond did, the Ryan character may begin heavily diverging from the books. And if you don't like Affleck as Ryan, there's always the next changing of the guard.
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