Search - Clear and Present Danger on DVD

MPAA Rating: PG-13 Movie Release: 1994 DVD Release: 10/21/1998 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV Edition: Dual Layered,Special Collection Audio Tracks: English, French Subtitles: English, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 2 hrs 21 mins Studio: Paramount Total Copies: 4 Genres: Action, Thriller, Action Thriller, Political Thriller See Also: Clear and Present Danger, Clear and Present Danger [Special Collector's Edition], Clear and Present Danger [Blu-ray], Clear and Present Danger [Circuit City Exclusive] [Checkpoint], Clear and Present Danger [Collector's Edition] [Blu-ray]

This is the third film based on Tom Clancy's high-tech espionage potboilers starring CIA deputy director Jack Ryan. Harrison Ford, returning to the Ryan role after his first go-round in 1992's Patriot Games, is assigned to a delicate anti-drug investigation after a close friend of the President (a Reaganesque Donald Moffat) is murdered by a Colombian drug cartel. When Ryan discovers that the President's wealthy friend was in league with the cartel, the President's devious national security adviser (Harris Yulin) and an ambitious CIA deputy director (Henry Czerny) send a secret paramilitary force into Colombia to wipe out the drug lords. The force is captured and then abandoned by the President's lackeys. It falls to Ryan to enter Colombia and rescue them, aided only by a renegade operative named Clark (Willem Dafoe), with both his life and career on the line. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

Harrison Ford - Jack Ryan
Willem Dafoe - Clark
Anne Archer - Cathy Ryan
Joaquim de Almeida - Felix Cortez
Henry Czerny - Robert Ritter

Clear and Present Danger was a problematic laserdisc, this reviewer going through three copies to find one without defects on one side or another. The DVD avoids those problems and is a very clean presentation, with a good clear image and beautifully mixed and balanced sound, which even allows one to appreciate (through TV speakers) the subtle use of a portion of Khachaturian's Gayane ballet in one scene. There is a language selection, subtitles if one wants them, and a trailer, but no other special features. Coupled with the somewhat high list price, the purchase is a bit of a stretch given the absence of any bonus features. On the other hand, the movie is a good thriller, successfully linking action spread across an entire hemisphere, and utilizing superb stunt work and second-unit shooting featuring combat planes, cruise missiles, aircraft careers, Coast Guard cutters, and lots and lots of close-quarter fighting. All of this action takes place between the games of turnabout and deceit played around Harrison Ford's acting CIA director, Jack Ryan, and the various White House functionaries, right up to Donald Moffat's somewhat incompetent President (who resembles George Bush). The story, involving an escalating war between the United States and a Colombian drug cartel responsible for the murder of a friend of the President, is more complex than most yarns of this kind and more serious, although it's also a good deal stripped down from author Tom Clancy's original work. Clancy, incidentally, didn't like this movie or Harrison Ford's portrayal of Jack Ryan. His performance seems fine to this reviewer, and Willem Dafoe, Harris Yulin, Anne Archer, and others are superb. Sharp-eyed viewers will also spot Benjamin Bratt in a good supporting role. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide