May (Web-only) 2002

ARTICLE TOOLS

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This weekend, the new Tom Clancy thriller The Sum of All Fears will open nationwide. Fears portrays the early CIA adventures of young Jack Ryan (Ben Affleck), a hero portrayed in his later years by Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford in The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, and Clear and Present Danger. In this episode, Ryan faces his toughest challenge—a terrorist threat to detonate a nuclear bomb at the Super Bowl.

When stories about this film reached the entertainment press last fall, many voiced doubts regarding Affleck's ability to meet the standard set by Baldwin and Ford in the earlier episodes. But there were more urgent and troubling questions. Many were dismayed that a studio would go forward with a film about such large-scale terrorist violence while audiences are still tending the wounds of September 11. Some critics declared that the days of glorified big-screen terrorism were over—a fact quickly discredited as films like Big Trouble arrived with bombs intact. Now that the World Trade Center disaster has made terrorism a daily possibility in American life, isn't it inappropriate for this type of story to be packaged as entertainment?

Let me know what you think. Is this a subject that can be meaningfully addressed by a major motion picture? What will distinguish a good film about nuclear holocaust from a bad one? And if you see the movie, I would welcome your thoughts on it. Is it capitalizing on recent waves of patriotism, or exploiting the headlines? Or is it leading us to a deeper understanding of the world we live in?

In last week's Film Forum, I offered my own thoughts on Insomnia, the new thriller from director Christopher Nolan (my complete review is at Looking Closer). Over the weekend, ...