Patriot Games (1992, R)

The ending was what practically caused Tom Clancy to disown the motion picture adaptation of his own novel.  Clancy's 1987 best seller hit, Patriot Games, was reformated into the sequel to the 1990 movie hit the Hunt for Red October, which remains one of the best Cold War thrillers/submarine movies I've seen.  Upon reading the script, Clancy was immediately dissatisfied and disowned his own movie, refusing to have any involvement in it whatsoever.

The movie opens in London, England, where Professor Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford), formerly an analyst for the CIA, gets involved in a shootout where Irish terrorist members attempt to member a cousin of the Royal House in Ireland's so called war against Britain.  Ryan intercepts, grabs a gun, and shoots down most of the terrorists while taking a bullet himself.  The survivor, Sean Miller (Sean Bean), swears revenge on Ryan, as one of the terrorists killed by Ryan ends up being Miller's "baby brother".  Miller is taken into custody, but it shouldn't come as a surprise that he escapes with help from his pals, and becomes motivated by revenge to kill Ryan at all costs.

Harrison Ford replaces Alec Baldwin.  Ford is over ten years older then the actual character of Jack Ryan, but I suppose the filmmakers wanted to make an ample opportunity in reshaping this as a star vehicle for Ford.  In that sense, I like Harrison Ford as an actor; I just think that Baldwin is better suited for the role.  If Baldwin had kept in the lead, I don't know how much different this movie would have turned out.

Phillip Noyce directs the first half of Patriot Games in very nice fashion similar to Clancy's novel.  The opening shootout in London is quite well done, everything is quite eerie and tense, and here is an action movie that reveals the motivations for both the good guy and the bad guy.  Ryan is motivated to protect his family; Miller wants to avenge his baby brother's death.  There's some depth added, but we all know that the good guy always wins in the end.

If the first half goes well, then the second half drops in level considerably for Clancy, but hardly anything for us.  Clancy's novels deal with conspiracy, politics, intensity, covert operations, nuclear bombs...what else?  Do they involve two men wielding Uzi's fighting to the death on two flaming boats going at high speeds on the ocean during a storm?  I don't think so.

Patriot Games is simply marred by the fact that the script isn't written well and, that for Clancy fans, the ending will come in with too much of a wallop. But the movie is boosted by strong performances, reasonable direction, and convincing characters.  Does that make Patriot Games worthwhile?  For Clancy, I would think surely not.  For us though, I would think yes.

                               *** ½ /5