In A Nutshell
When the acting CIA Director and Ryan’s mentor, played by James Earl Jones who was also in The Hunt For Red October and Patriot Games, becomes bed-ridden with cancer, Jack Ryan is appointed as acting CIA Deputy Director. His first task is to investigate the brutal murder of a businessman and friend of the President. Ryan discovers that this ‘friend’ of the President held many secretive relationships with Columbian drug cartels, and worse yet, he was stealing millions of dollars from them. Meanwhile, some not so intrepid CIA officers have authorized and dispatched paramilitary forces to Columbia to wreck some havoc on several drug lords in an attempt to cover up the aforementioned killing. William Dafoe, by the way, plays the leader of these forces. When Ryan finds out that these forces were deployed and eventually abandoned, he takes matters into his own hands to expose the truth and do what’s right, risking both life and career along the way.
There’s little wonder why this movie was as well received as it was nearly fifteen years ago; the cast and acting are great and the story is well scripted and very thrilling. This is one of my favorite Harrison Ford movies because he plays a powerful underdog character here, with such a determination for the truth and with a powerful sense of integrity.
Light On Extras, Strong On Quality
One common theme with the four Jack Ryan films that Paramount is releasing this week on Blu-ray is the lack of extra features. Just like Patriot Games, The Hunt For Red October, and The Sum of All Fears, Clear And Present Danger doesn’t have much to offer in the way of extra features. A thirty minute feature in SD entitled “Behind The Danger,” and the trailer in HD is all you’ll find here. I did enjoy this thirty minute feature, however, being a fan of the film, and it was neat to hear some recent, although probably still at least a couple of years old, interviews with Harrison Ford.
Another common theme with these releases however, is the impressive visual and audio quality. Clear And Present Danger offers viewers a great visual presentation. The wide variety of environments in this film caters to these great visuals, too. The bright and relatively colorless office scenes are contrasted nicely with the dense vegetation and open skies of Columbia. In both cases the film looks great on Blu-ray with just a few minor problems with darker scenes and that compressed video look. The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track is great, too, giving the dialogue super audibility and giving the action scenes a considerable punch.