Action thrillers don’t usually tend to find much love during awards season, but director Wolfgang Petersen’s In the Line of Fire was deservedly recognized by the biggest ceremony in town, which came after it secured instant classic status and recouped its $40 million budget four and a half times over at the box office.
The phenomenal 1993 tale of political intrigue and assassination attempts landed Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Editing, all of which were fully deserved. Leading man Clint Eastwood didn’t get a look-in, though, which is a shame when he weaponizes his baggage and screen persona to give one of his most underrated performances.
Haunted by his failure to prevent the murder of John F. Kennedy three decades previously, Eastwood’s jaded Secret Service veteran finds himself taunted by Oscar-nominated John Malkovich’s would-be killer, who makes it abundantly clear that he’s planning to replicate the 1963 tragedy while offering the disillusioned agent a chance to avoid repeating the mistakes of his past.
It’s top-notch stuff, and not a stretch to call In the Line of Fire one of the best politically-charged thrillers to ever come out of Hollywood, something Netflix subscribers are either rediscovering or experiencing for the very first time.
Per FlixPatrol, the cat-and-mouse game with the life of the most powerful man in the country on the line has dived in front of a bullet on the streaming service’s most-watched charts, 30 years on from first leaving jaws on the floor in theaters around the world.
Published: Feb 10, 2023 03:30 am