Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29366 in DVD
• Released on: 1997-04-30
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: Spanish, Georgian
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 128 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
Between his directorial duties on A Perfect World and The Bridges of Madison County, Clint Eastwood starred in this pulse-racing 1993 thriller. In the Line of Fire was directed by Wolfgang Petersen, the brilliant director of the World War II U-boat masterpiece Das Boot. Eastwood gives one of his best performances as Secret Service agent Frank Horrigan, who still feels responsible for the death of JFK 30 years earlier. Horrigan gets a shot at redemption when challenged by a psychotic but highly intelligent assassin (John Malkovich) who intends to kill the current U.S. president. Tension builds as this intellectual cat-and-mouse game reaches its climactic confrontation, but not before we've seen the killer at work, covering his trail with ruthless precision. Tightly scripted by Jeff Maguire, the film cuts Malkovich loose as one of the most memorable screen villains of the 1990s, and costars Rene Russo as Eastwood's sharp Secret Service colleague and romantic partner. --Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker
Clint Eastwood plays Frank Horrigan, a tired-looking middle-aged Secret Service agent who gets wind of a plot to kill the President and marshals his flagging powers in an attempt to stop the assassin (John Malkovich). It's a basic race against the clock: the good guy knows what the bad guy means to do; the villain's preparations and the hero's investigation run on separate tracks until they converge, like runaway trains, at the scene of the intended crime. The movie has a clear, simple thriller logic that's far more satisfying than the static variations-on-a-massacre construction of Eastwood's "Dirty Harry" pictures and spaghetti Westerns. And the heroics here are stirring, because the star's ravaged face and stiff, weary gestures tell us that everything Horrigan does costs him something, physically and emotionally. The director, Wolfgang Petersen, isn't a particularly imaginative or stylish filmmaker, but he delivers the goods, and in record time. Both Eastwood's performance and the movie itself have the quality of meat-and-potatoes genre-picture entertainment: nothing fancy, nothing unusual. The only hints of more exotic and unpredictable sensations come from Malkovich, who is threatening to become the most gloriously peculiar screen presence since the heyday of Alastair Sim. Also with Rene Russo. Screenplay by Jeff Maguire; music by Ennio Morricone. -Terrence Rafferty
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Eastwood Vs. Malkovich, with the President in the Middle...
Clint Eastwood, in his first film after completing his masterpiece, UNFORGIVEN, chose a winner with Wolfgang Petersen's suspenseful IN THE LINE OF FIRE. As 30-year veteran Secret Service agent Frank Horrigan, Eastwood had the misfortune of protecting President Kennedy, November 22, 1963, and the specter of not reacting quickly enough has never fully left him, through the subsequent years. At the other end of the spectrum is ex-CIA assassin Mitch Leary (brilliantly portrayed by John Malkovich), who had become 'excess baggage' for the intelligence community, due to budget cuts. After surviving a bungled attempt to kill him, Leary decides to vent his rage at his 'betrayal' by assassinating the President. In his research, he discovers that the only agent still active from the 1963 team is Horrigan, and, deciding they shared a kinship, he begins to tease Horrigan with clues about himself, and how he'll kill the President.

The film builds up a 'head of steam' from the very first scene, as Horrigan and his partner, Al D'Andrea (Dylan McDermott, long before television stardom in THE PRACTICE) take down a band of counterfeiters, and the edginess never lets up, as Leary, introducing himself as 'Booth', begins his series of fateful calls to Horrigan. Facing mounting opposition from the head of the Presidential Secret Service team (Gary Cole), as well as the White House Chief of Staff (future Senator Fred Dalton Thompson), Horrigan badgers, insults, and belittles everyone's work, knowing the potential assassin will find any crack in the security, and take advantage of it. Only his boss, Sam Campagna (FRAZIER star John Mahoney), his partner, D'Andrea, and fellow agent Lilly Raines (Rene Russo, in another star-making performance), take him seriously, with Raines soon falling in love with the cantankerous agent.

The plot is full of twists and turns, as Horrigan barely misses capturing Leary, twice, and Leary, at one point, actually saves Horrigan's life (while ending D'Andrea's). Strung so tightly that he starts making bad 'calls', Horrigan is finally removed from Presidential security...just as Leary is about to make his move...

IN THE LINE OF FIRE does for the Secret Service what BACKDRAFT did for firefighters, and television's NYPD BLUE did for policemen; it shows the organization not as a group of faceless supermen, but as dedicated people performing an essential service, protecting the lives of others. As Leary sneers to Horrigan, "I'm the offense, you're the defense," and that analogue truly describes the difficulty of their job; they must find the means to protect the President against whatever misdeed a perpetrator can concoct. While Clint Eastwood's Horrigan may be far more of a 'lone wolf' than the Agency would, in real life, tolerate, his dedication to his job reflects well on those unique individuals who would 'take a bullet' for the President.

It is an excellent suspense film, and a worthy addition to any Clint Eastwood collection!

Secret Service Gets Boost from Eastwood
This review refers to the Special Edition DVD(Columbia)......

He was there when Kennedy was assassinated. It still haunts him 30 years later. If he had moved a fraction of a second sooner he may have saved his beloved president, But a what cost to him? He is Frank Horrigan(Eastwood), an aging Secret Service Agent, trained to do whatever it takes to protect the President of the United States. Now he has a chance to redeem himself in his own eyes.
A psychotic, but very clever, would be presidental assassin is on the loose. He calls himself Booth(Malkovich), (Because Booth had so much more "panache" then Oswald). He taunts Horrigan about the day Kennedy is shot, through phone calls. Lets him know that he intends to assassinate the president,even if it means dying himself, and taking Frank with him.
Frank does everything he can to track down this killer and save the president. Most of the other agents feel Frank is too old to keep up the pace of the Presidental Campaign trail,but he feels he must persue this case.
A deadly cat and mouse game ensues, and we are kept on the edge of our seats throughout the movie,waiting to see what Booth's next move will be, and if Horrigan will be a part of it. It's thrilling and chilling.
Eastwood as always gives a brilliant performance as the aging agent,(He always seems to be an aging something lately,cop,thief, astrounaut,reporter, but he's sooooo good at it)and Malkovich is outstanding as the mysterious, chilling assassin. Also contributing greatly to the film are Rene Russo, as the field agent Horrigan takes a shine to and Dylan McDermott as his young partner, and we all know by now that it is not healthy to be Clint's partner in any film! Directed by the great Wolfgang Petersen( Das Boot, Air Force One), and scored by Ennio Morricone, you wont want to miss this thrill ride.
The DVD is top quality. It is in widescreen(Anamorphic),with the sound choices of 5.1 dolby or 2 channel surround. Either way you will be happy with the sound.For me sound is one of the more important features in an action film. Great picture and colors, lots and lots of special features, I checked out a couple of the featurettes, very entertaining and informative. I'm saving some for the next time I watch it. There are subtitiles in English and several other languages for those needing it. If you are a fan of Eastwood, Malkovitch, Petersen or are just in the mood for an action thriller this is a great one!
Would you take the bullet???? Laurie

more Clint stuff:
The Gauntlet/True Crime
Clint Eastwood Selection: Dirty Harry/The Outlaw Josey Wales/Unforgiven
Music for the Movies of Clint Eastwood

Great movie, mediocre DVD.
The movie rates 5 stars, but the quality of the DVD brings the total package down to 3. There are absolutely no extras on this DVD. It's my guess that this is a "first generation" DVD that the studio released before they had any idea what to do with the format other than slap the movie on a disc and ship it. I base that guess by the only thing that can remotely be called an "extra" is a commercial at the beginning of the film remarking about how great the "new" DVD format is. Most of the movie clips shown are at least 10 yrs old. In fact, I think "In the Line of Fire" is the NEWEST movie clip and it's 7yrs old.

The picture and sound are spectacular; but don't buy this DVD unless you're a diehard fan of Clint, John or Wolfgang. Consider renting it or buying it as part of the "Wolfgang Petersen Collection" (An outstanding package, by the way!) until a "Special Edition: In the Line of Fire" is released.