Starring: Clint Eastwood, John Malkovich, Rene Russo, Dylan McDermott
Release Date: July 9, 1993
Running Time: 128 min
Genres: Drama, Thriller
Commentary In the Line of Fire is a thrilling movie starring Clint Eastwood as a Secret Service Agent trying to stop assassin Mitch Leary (John Malkovich) from killing the president. Both Eastwood and Malkovich do a great job. The movie is nonstop excitement and suspense.
Plot Summary
Frank Horrigan (Eastwood) is an aging Secret Service Agent with the job of protecting the president from would-be assassins. He'd been assigned to protect Kennedy during his fatal motorcade in Dallas in 1963 which led to Kennedy's assassination. Frank has regretted ever since his failure to protect Kennedy. Frank ends up talking to a man who calls himself "Booth" over the phone and identifies himself as an assassin who intends to kill the president.
Frank investigates, learns more and more about "Booth", and eventually tracks him down and stops him.
Social Relevance In the Line of Fire has a rather cynical message. It turns out that Leary had been a former CIA operator known as a "wet boy" and had since gone insane, becoming a psychotic killer. It also turns out that during the Kennedy administration, America had meant something to him as well as to Frank, who said it would've been just fine if he'd taken the bullet for JFK. The president in this movie is portrayed as being a republican collecting much money from his fundraising campaign. Frank is clearly dissilusioned with what's become of America and the presidency, though he still vows to protect the president.
Home
Title: In the Line of Fire 
