Notes on…

In the Line of Fire(1993)

Dir. Directed by Wolfgang Petersen


Frank, The President sent his limo for you.
Good. I love public transportation.

• Yet more evidence, if you needed it, that the assassination of JFK really deranged a certain generation of Americans.

• I loved the "1990s diet logic" inherent in John Malkovich eating two chocolate bars in order to give himself a paunch as a genuine part of his disguise. Or perhaps, as he believed he would be killed within hours he was simply saying "fuck it" and leaving all that behind.

• Incidentally, this was clearly part of Malkovich's casting for Ripley's Game (2002) where he basically plays the same character with all the same tics.

• Just a few months later, this 90's Dad Thriller would be overshadowed by the (superior IMHO) The Fugitive starring Harrison Ford. Interesting how both these actors have been doing variants on "I'm too old for this!" for over three decades now.

• It tickled me that the music at the Franco-American ball is German and Italian.


Now that Eastwood has won his Oscar, there's an amusing notion making the rounds that the former cowboy actor is some sort of newly discovered Brando. In fact, Eastwood is what he has always been — a great movie star with an extremely limited range who by sheer force of personality has carved out an enduring niche in our popular culture. If he is an actor at all, it is on the iconic level, in the tradition of a star like John Wayne or Clark Gable, who simply amalgamated each new character into the larger whole of his star personality.

Hal Hinson (Washington Post)

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Synopsis: Veteran Secret Service agent Frank Horrigan is a man haunted by his failure to save President Kennedy while serving protection detail in Dallas. Thirty years later, a man calling himself "Booth" threatens the life of the current President, forcing Horrigan to come back to protection detail to confront the ghosts from his past.