Two leads doing some of their best work

I’ve always felt summer of 1993 sticks out as the summer Hollywood got few things wrong. Almost every week was an example of a blockbuster that was unquestionably thrilling but that also knew you didn’t have to sacrifice dialogue, performance, and smarts to do so. “In the Line of Fire” has those things in spades. It’s damn near flawless.


It’s also some of Clint Eastwood and John Malkovich’s best work. They play hero and villain here, the former a Secret Service agent named Frank Horrigan pulled back into field work when a twisted gunman starts making threats to the president. He calls himself Booth, and wants a challenge, looking to Frank to provide it.


Horrigan’s claim to fame is not a proud one. He was on the detail the day JFK was shot and since then he’s never been able to live it down. Now pretty much known as a dinosaur and a burn-out in the office, he looks for redemption, huffing to keep up with the presidential limo while young agents razz him about his age at every step.


This movie goes in lockstep with a lot of Eastwood’s 90’s output- more thoughtful, poignant films that examine heroism and violence from the POV of their aging leads. We get the gruff nobility here but that also comes with the regrets of things not done, the questioning of courage, and the ravages of age on the body.


The idea of putting Frank there on that fateful day in 1963 is one of the film’s masterstrokes. Eastwood is edited into photos and Zapruder film. We see how close Horrigan was to JFK. Could he have done something had he reacted quicker? Did he even want to react? Was another man’s life worth risking his?


That the answers to these questions remain enigmas for Horrigan adds to Booth’s brilliance. He seizes on them and uses them to burrow into the head of his opponent. Here’s a movie where even phone calls are suspenseful, the two men escalating their cat and mouse game with back and forth mocking taunts and truths too hard to take.


Malkovich is brilliant. In movies like “Dangerous Liasons” he already showed how great a snake he can be but here’s evidence he can even make his voice slither through a phone with tantalizing dread. He’s smart,controlled, determined, and so lacking in a kind of specific reason for doing what he’s doing that it in essence makes him almost more evil.


There’s not enough wonderful things said about this villain. He’s one of the very best of the 90’s. Crafty and formidable, this guy has thought of everything from his disguises, how best to infiltrate the president’s inner sanctum, how to stay off the grid, how to sneak in an undetectable gun. The plastic gun is ingenious, and so is he.


Another nice addition here is Rene Russo, playing fellow service member and Eastwood love interest Lilly Raines. Attaining some recognition after “Lethal Weapon 3”, she more than holds her own against another hero “too old for this shit” and her repartee with Eastwood is often witty, smart, and enjoyably flirtatious.


The film also wisely foregoes big, pointless action set pieces for more contained suspense. Director Wolfgang Petersen stages rallys and political events, putting everyone on edge in basically trying to suss out a needle in a haystack. And what’s worse? Barely knowing what that needle even looks like. It gives you even more respect for Secret Service members.


There are also two pretty nice action sequences: one that kinda tips its hat to predictability early (Dylan McDermott is a day away from retirement), but the second one is masterful in its tension, cinematographer John Baily zeroing in on Eastwood and Malkovich’s eyes in the split second is chilling, as is the elevator scene that follows.


Petersen also makes great use of Washington, Air Force One, and the Zapruder film. The Lincoln Memorial becomes a spot for lovers and Eastwood’s insertion into the old photographs and films is as believable and helpful in our understanding of him. Above all, this is a film with two great, compelling characters at its center. Funny how so many thrillers are never able to create even that many.