It's hard to think of a more iconic actor than Harrison Ford. And it's equally hard to think of a less interesting character than Jack Ryan, the protagonist of countless espionage thrillers. And yet, America loves Harrison Ford in this role. “How dare YOU, sir?” he barks angrily at the president, who is corrupt and venal. But he still calls him “sir”, because he respects the office. Yeah, that's…
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It's hard to think of a more iconic actor than Harrison Ford. And it's equally hard to think of a less interesting character than Jack Ryan, the protagonist of countless espionage thrillers. And yet, America loves Harrison Ford in this role. “How dare YOU, sir?” he barks angrily at the president, who is corrupt and venal. But he still calls him “sir”, because he respects the office. Yeah, that's what this character is like. The plot of ‘Clear & Present Danger' is convoluted and not entirely plausible, but the movie is well-made. At any given moment, you know what Jack Ryan is up to, what clandestine information he's working to uncover and who's trying to blow him up. Your efforts as a viewer here are aided by the movie's relentless binary of good and evil. The bad guys are always bad, and can be counted on to do bad things, and the good guys are always good and noble-hearted. One wonders if there are actually this many high-ranking CIA officers who are quite so devoted to honestly following the rules.
We have come to the end of our Harrison Ford season of the Ten Movies podcast and - in so coming - have learned many truths about Mr. Ford, America, and ourselves. We have learned what makes Harrison Ford a relatable everyman in his action hero roles - specifically, an air of befuddlement. The Rock and Jason Statham could never. For the rest of our findings - and for The Definitive Ranking of…
3 yrs ago · 34:20
Though some of his other roles are more iconic, ‘Blade Runner' is perhaps Harrison Ford's most celebrated movie, at least in the world of genre films. Which, of course, made his career and has since gone on to entirely swallow contemporary cinema. But unlike Star Wars or Indiana Jones, Blade Runner is not a beloved franchise suitable for additional revenue generation in the form of lunchboxes and…
3 yrs ago · 43:22
This is an odd duck in the Harrison Ford canon. Instead of his usual decent everyman hero, here he plays a deranged libertarian inventor who becomes increasingly unmoored from reality - endangered a young River Phoenix and the rest of his hapless family in the process. Brian and Hemal had mixed feelings about ‘The Mosquito Coast'. It's a movie with a strong point of view. And it's some of the…
3 yrs ago · 33:46
Harrison Ford had it all - a beautiful wife, a flourishing medical career and a big chunky beard. But then a sinister one-armed man murdered his wife and the bumbling cop blamed him and he had no choice but to become The Fugitive. Being The Fugitive is a tough business. He spends most of the movie running around Chicago being resourceful - forging documents, stealing other documents, and looking…
3 yrs ago · 31:35
