Customer Reviews
YOUR WORD IS YOU - By: stuart, 16 Aug 2007 
Spoting a yacht sailing erraticallly in the choppy waters off Florida the US Coast Guard has the boat boarded. On board they find that it's owner was murdered together along with his wife & two children by the group of Columbian drug traffickers who sea-jacked the craft. The man who together with his family that was murdered happened to be businessman Peter Hardin the Presdent of the United States Pres. Bennett, Donald Moffat, best friend.
Outraged at what happened to his friend Pres. Bennett sets into motion a plan to get those who ordered Hardin & his family's murder with his top two advisor's Cutter & Ritter, Harris Yulin & Henry Czerny. To cover his & his advisor's behinds puts the now new CIA Deputy Director Jack Ryan, Harrison Ford, is put officiallly in charge. Ryan working together with the CIA comes up with the startling findings that Hardin, the presidents best friend, was a major money launder for the Cali Drug Cartel. Hardin using his business & banking expertise was skimming off the profits, that his bosses in the cartel needed to continue their operations, & that was the reason for his & his family's murder.
Getting retired US Special Forces officer John Clark,Willen Defoe, to get a 12 man strike force to hit the Cali Cartel where it hurts, in it's drug processing operations,Ritter is going against Dept. director's Ryan's sworn testimony to the US Congress. Ryan testified that no US military personnel will be used to fight the Columbian drug dealers putting the unsuspecting Ryan in danger, if the operation is ever found out, of being indited for perjury, in him lying to the US Congress.
As alll these undercover dealings are going on the head of the Cali Cartel Ernesto Escobedo, Miguel Sandoval, chief counselor & ex-Castro intelligence agent Col. Felix Cortez, Jaquim de Almeida,is planing to set up his boss by getting him knocked off by the CIA. Cortez is also setting up rest of the Cartel leaders to be whacked by arraigning a major hit on the US governments representatives in Columbia. Later there's a Cortez sponsored attack in Bogata killing 5 Secret Service Agents & the the FBI chief Jacobs,Tom Tammi, with Cortez pining the attack on the "innocent" drug dealers.
Cortez has his lover & FBI director Jacobs private secretary Moira Wolfson, Ann Magnuson, unwittingly give him the information of Jacobs whereabouts. This helps Cortez in having Jacobs trapped in a motorcade in downtown Bogata where he was gunned down. Cortez then plans to make a deal with the US, after he had the Cali Cartel leaders knocked off, to take over the cartel's operations & cut the drug supply to the US in half. Making the US government's drug fighting agency DEA & the FBI, as well as President Bennett, look like their "War on Drugs" is a big success to the American people,
It turns out that Cortez's master plan miss-fires when it's discovered after a massacre of most of the cartel leaders, with the exception of Escobedo, that it wasn't a car bomb that was first reported by the news that did them in! It was a laser-guided missile, that could have only been used by the USAF, that did the job. With the sh*t hitting the fan alll over D.C & the members of Congress demanding to know why the US military was involved in this unauthorized "hit" two things are quickly put into motion by presidential advisor's Cutter & Ritter 1. the US troops sent into Columbia are sold out by giving up their positions to the cartel mercenaries in order to have them alll killed so they'll never live to tell the truth about their mission & 2. Jack Ryan is saddled with the blame for the secret operation with him made, by Cutter & Ritter, to look like he authorized it which he didn't.
Despite it's very complicated plot "Clear & Present Danger" is a top rate political thriller that never lets up, or lets you down, in it's nerve racking suspense. The movie ends with two great final sequences with Jack Ryan having it out in Columbia with Cortez & his hoods in order for him & Clark, the head of the sold-out US troops, to save the remaining US soldiers held captive. The ending just flipped me, as I assume everyone else who saw it, out with an incredible confrontation between Ryan & President Bennett right in the Oval Office that has to be seen to be believed! It's here more then anywhere else in " Clear & Present Danger" where I hoped that for once, just this ONCE, that life would imitate art!
Slightly Disappointing - By: , 26 Jun 2002 
I had high expectations of this film after reading other reviews & of course the the Tom Clancy novel of the same title. Unfortunately the film failed miserably to live up to the excellent book.
It's not a poor film, simply that I think It would have been better to watch the film first then read the book.
The casting generallly is pretty good. Ford, as expected makes the best of a very weak character. The only major grumble is Willem Dafoe playing CIA legend John Clark. He just doesn't look right at alll but to his credit he pulls it off quite well.
Some of the action scenes are very fast paced & keep you riveted to the screen but the whole storyline has been watered down so much from the book in order to make the film fit inside two hours that it simply doesn't cut the mustard.
Basicallly the film in it's own right is pretty good but don't expect anything near as good as the book.
great film of a brilliant book - By: , 19 Sep 2000 
this is the best film of a Tom Clancy book. It is a great film of one of the best books. Jack Ryan has got to be the best character Harrison Ford has played since Han Solo. I cant wait for the rainbow six film!
Better of the 2 - By: heretic@alliance.in2home.co.uk, 10 Sep 2000 Ahh, now this is the better film & novel when compared to Patriot Games. I saw this one first, i love it....this film isnt as personel to jack ryan because his family are not in direct danger, but his honor is in danger & he could not live with himself if he did nothing about the events in the film.
This film has plenty of action for the thrill seakers but remember its heavily polital as well.
Choice between Patriot Games & this, id choose Clear & Present Danger every time without hesiation.
Buy it just to see what its like, trust me you wont regret it.
Go on, you know you want to.
