In the Line of Fire [Blu-ray]

Director: Wolfgang Petersen Wolfgang Petersen

Overview

Clint Eastwood delivers one of his finest performances, as a secret service agent haunted by his past in Wolfgang Petersen's taut thriller In the Line of Fire. Eastwood plays Frank Horrigan, a secret service agent who keeps thinking back to November 22, 1963, when, as an agent hand-picked by President Kennedy, he became one of the few agents to have lost a president to an assassin. Decades later, psychotic Mitch Leary (John Malkovich) is stalking another president (Jim Curley) running for re-election. He has spent long hours studying the psyche of Frank Horrigan, and he taunts Horrigan (feeling that there is a bond between them), telling him of his plans to kill the president. After his conversation with Leary, Horrigan makes sure he is assigned to presidential protection duty. Horrigan has no intention of failing his president this time around, and he is more than willing to take a bullet. But everything goes Leary's way -- he is smart and cagey and the president's aides refuse to alter the itinerary. As the election draws closer, Horrigan's chances to catch Leary look to be less and less a possibility, and he begins to doubt his own abilities -- both now and in the past, when Kennedy was murdered.

Product Details

Release Date:	07/01/2008
UPC:	0043396258754
Original Release:	1993
Rating:	R
Source:	SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMT
Region Code:	A
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	2:08:00
Sales rank:	25,215

Special Features

Commentary by director Wolfgang Petersen; Feautrettes: "Showtime Special: Behind the scenes with the secret service," "How'd The Do That?," "Catching the Counterfeiters"; Documentary "The Ultimate Sacrifice"; Deleted scenes

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Clint Eastwood	Frank Herrigan
John Malkovich	Mitch Leary
Rene Russo	Lilly Raines,Lilly Raines
Dylan McDermott	Al D'Andrea
Gary Cole	Bill Watts
Fred Dalton Thompson	Harry Sargent
John Mahoney	Sam Campagna
Jim Curley	President
Sally Hughes	First Lady
Clyde Kusatsu	Jack Okura
John Heard	Prof. Riger
Patrika Darbo	Pam Magnus
Steve Hytner	Tony Carducci
Tobin Bell	Mendoza
Bob Schott	Jimmy Hendrickson
Juan A. Riojas	Raul
Elsa Raven	Leary's Landlady
Arthur Senzy	Paramedic
Mary Van Arsdel	Sally
Ryan Cutrona	LAPD Brass
Lawrence Lowe	FBI Technician
Brian Libby	FBI Supervisor
Eric Bruskotter	Young Agent
Patrick Caddell	Political Speaker
Alan Toy	Walter Wickland
Carl Ciarfalio	CIA Agent Collins
Walt MacPherson	Hunter
Robert Peters	Hunter
Tyde Kierney	Police Captain Howard
Gregory Alan Williams	Matt Wilder
Joshua Malina	Agent Chavez
Janet Hirshenson	Actor
Jane Jenkins	Actor
Tony Peck	FBI Official
William Schilling	Sanford Riggs
Michael Kirk	Computer Technician/Bates
Richard Camphuis	Party Fat Cat
Robert Beuth	Man at Bank
Susan Hoffman	Woman at Bank
Donna Hamilton	Reporter at Dulles
Cylk Cozart	Agent Cozart
Aaron Lacey	Police Officer
Ennio Morricone	Composer

Technical Credits

Jeff Maguire

Wolfgang Petersen	Director,Executive Producer
Jeff Maguire	Screenwriter
Jeff Apple	Producer
Rocky Gehr	Special Effects
Bruno George	Special Effects
Janet Hirshenson	Casting
Jane Jenkins	Casting
Gail Katz	Executive Producer,Producer
John Nelson	Special Effects
David Valdes	Executive Producer,Producer
Buddy Van Horn	Stunts
Robert J. Rosenthal	Producer
Christopher Assells	Sound Effects
Karen Baker Landers	Sound Effects
Willie D. Burton	Sound Effects
Richard L. Hill	Special Effects

Editorial Reviews

Clint Eastwood modified his taciturn tough-guy image to play a vulnerable, tormented Secret Service agent in this well-written, proficient 1993 thriller directed by Wolfgang Petersen (The Perfect Storm). In the Line of Fire casts Clint as Frank Horrigan, a veteran agent still haunted by his failure to protect President John F. Kennedy in 1963 and fearful that he won't be equal to a similar challenge to the current president's safety. That fear is exploited by professional assassin Mitch Leary (John Malkovich in one of his best screen characterizations), who plans to kill the prez and calls Frank periodically to taunt him. Rene Russo is excellent as a crisply efficient female agent, but it's the onscreen duel between Eastwood and Malkovich that provides Fire's sizzle. Clint makes Frank Horrigan a fully rounded character, displaying humor, imagination, determination, and painful awareness of his own limitations. Malkovich, likewise, plays Leary in three dimensions. His deliciously psychopathic villain -- a brilliant but ruthless killer with a twisted sense of humor -- is in the mold of Anthony Hopkins's Hannibal Lecter (The Silence of the Lambs). This well-made thriller tingles with carefully calibrated suspense, but it's those lead performances that distinguish it from ordinary entries in this genre. The DVD Special Edition includes a commentary by Petersen, a Showtime-produced documentary on the Secret Service, deleted scenes, trailers, and TV spots.

Barnes & Noble - Ed Hulse

Among the American films of German director Wolfgang Peterson, who achieved his international breakthrough with the submarine drama Das Boot (1981), In the Line of Fire may be the most respected and successful. The movie fulfills all the expectations that one might have for an action thriller. Much of the film's success owes to the performances of leads Clint Eastwood and John Malkovich. Eastwood turns in another variation of the loner role that he pioneered in Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars, but this is an older, mellower Eastwood, who adds more dimensions to his traditionally limited characters. His performance here is in the same weathered vein as his Oscar-winning work in Unforgiven. Malkovich, well-versed in playing demented geniuses, is equally convincing in the more extravagant role of the diabolical, chameleon-like, would-be assassin.

All Movie Guide