Background Info
on novels

Back

2002

Filmed
Running time	118 mins
UK Certificate	12

This review has been written some while after seeing the film.

The film as with the book starts off with the events in 1967 set in the Golan heights. The fighter sequence with the downing of the 3 aircraft is a bit lame. The pilot is more worried about a picture of his wife, than the battle going on around him (and in my book deserves to be shot down).

The book moves onto the present day, and Ryan working for CIA. There are concerns that a nuclear device is being assembled, bu they don't no who or why. For some strange reason, Ryan is sent to baby-sit Clarke whilst he visits the bomb making factory. Clarke gets caught, and Ryan gets involved in getting Clarke out of the mess. Clarke getting caught! Clarke in the film is a blundering fool, and if he had been anything like his character in the book, no-one would have known that he had visited the factory.

The plot moves to the stadium where the bomb is detonated, just after the President leaves, we have a strange interlude where a racist thug, at the docks is killed in revenge. It seems merely a plot device to get Ryan into a fight. Totally pointless, and a needless distraction.

The remainder of the film is focussed on the ensuing crisis, caused by the bomb, which the Americans believe has been launched by the USSR. It actually resembles the book quite closely, but the whole thing singularly fails to generate any real tension. Perhaps this is my perception, and is slightly skewed because I already know the outcome.

I can't quite work out whether the film was aiming to be an all action film or a spy thriller, it seems to fall between both, and never quite gels.

The other weakness of the film, is the change of the protagonists from Arab militants to Neo Nazis. It seems a strange selection as Nazism today does not seem that greater threat, there are plenty of other weird groups out there if you didn't want to upset the Arab world. Whilst I recognize that there are political tensions in this area I doubt whether a film would have made any real difference.

The character of Ryan is played by Ben Afflick, and he didn't do to bad a job of it. The Ryan we meet here is less experienced in the world, and has a lot to learn. Rather a lot too much time was spent on his affair with the future Mrs Ryan, which i think was put in to allow the rather pointless picnic scene at the end.

The film like the other Clancy adaptations, is rather weak in the plot areas, it tries to be a thriller, and an action film and fails on both points. If you forget about the book, and just accept it as a bit of mind candy, it isn't to bad. The film has a logical sequence, and works steadily towards the grand finale.

Worth seeing, but the book is far better.