Sum Of All Fears...Horrible Beyond Words

myself | 6-1-02 | my favorite headache

[jude24]

I didnt think it was that bad.

We do need to remember that neo-nazis were responsible for the 2nd largest terrorist attack in American history (Mcveigh, OKC). So I dont object too awfully strongly to the use of neo-nazis as the bad guys.

All in all, the book was infinately better, though. I was hoping maybe they'd show more interesting shots of a post-nuclear explosion (that would be a useful film to make, eh?), but it totaled what-- a minute?

I thought the new Star Wars was a better current movie.

[Zebra]

No

[Mad Dawgg]

"Why don't the "outed" conservatives in Hollywood like Schwartzenegger, Selleck, Willis, Woods, etc., pool their money and resources and start a new studio?"

I would say that this is nearly impossible because the Hollywood Unions would quitely strangle the effort by underhanded means (Silent Boycotts, and whisper campaigns)

[My Favorite Headache]

Right wing????Who was right wing? The Neo-Nazi's? You weren't classifying them as right wing? Were you?>>>

Remember when the 2nd in command of getting this bomb (name slips my mind right now, but he was blown up in his car at the end), anyway he was talking about what a great time it was to be alive and how the right wing has come together etc....I was not taking a poke at it.

[Saturnalia]

In the book it isn't a nuke blast, it is a fizzle, basically a dirty bomb as the fission or the fusion failed to occur.
Half right. As I remember, the Isreali nuke was a pure fission weapon.
However, once the uranium had been extracted, the terrorists managed to create fission-fusion weapon, with the fission reaction setting off the fusion reaction.

Now the bomb DID fizzle as far as setting off the fusion reaction, but the fission reaction DID occur, toasting a good portion of denver in the process.

[Saturnalia]

If you think THAT is implausable, go read some Heinlein.
Everyone has multiple doctorates, usual military service and some other superhuman trait.

Oh and the women do all this while pregnant.

[T-Bird45]

We do need to remember that neo-nazis were responsible for the 2nd largest terrorist attack in American history (Mcveigh, OKC). So I dont object too awfully strongly to the use of neo-nazis as the bad guys.

What kind of left-field pseudo-thinking led you to that conclusion....McVeigh's bad hair cut????? McVeigh was simply a patsy without an original thought in his miserable existence.

As to the movie, I am a big Clancy fan that hates hearing and reading how the book plot has been subjected to the usual Hollyweird PC perversion of the story. OTOH, I did enjoy the trailer when I saw it at Star Wars-AOTC.

[E Rocc]

Lot`sa folks are forgetting other parts of the book like the IDF officer that murders a Palestian protester, the fact that Israeli planes would fly with nukes, and how the book ends,Jerusalem controlled by a tripart made up of Jews, Arabs, and Christians

That's how it began. The book ends with the Saudis executing the terrorists according to Islamic Law.

Clancy's books show that while he respects the Israelis, he sees that they have serious flaws and he also has a great deal of respect for the Saudis.

-Eric

[E Rocc]

Rush was just saying last week that Clancy is one of the few writers who actually IS involved in the production process of any of his works. I doubted it when Affleck was cast as Ryan.

I heard that Affleck spent some time with Clancy before he got the role and TC was actually impressed with him.

-Eric

[avenir]

I'm tired of hollywad deciding what is and is not good for us to see on screen - especially when political correctness is involved.

Maybe you should try some of the foreign and independent cinema being made, and avoid the "blockbusters". They are ALL about money, not purity of message. The indie films are all about breaking the blockbuster rules, as they know up front they'll be lucky to make a little profit.

And they are almost always more interesting, leaving at least something of an impression.

[another cricket]

The most likely scenario to actually pull something like this off, besides the fundamentalist muslims, are the wacko greens.

I wonder what they are going to do with Rainbow 6?

Hey I know! Let's make it the white farmers in Zimbabwe. Bitter over having their stolen land returned to its rightful owners who are of course growing wonderful organic crops and feeding the world.

a.cricket

[Wave Rider]

PING - You have to call a Spade a Spade if you don't it will Kick you in the A*S sooner than later!

[Hugin]

Ummm... am I the only one here on Free Republic who hated Arlington Road for the typical Tim Robbins evil right-wing kneejerk paranoia garbage that it is?

Nope. That was my reaction too. Plus they had to show a Boy Scout type organization as the Future Fascists of America.

The best movie on terrorism IMHO is still Black Sunday. Darn good book too, which Hollywood had the sense to keep the movie script faithful to.

[Young Werther]

What Galpal? Ryan is married to a Opthalmic Surgeon. Did I miss a divorce? Or is this Hollywood's way of injecting their moral values into what was a good storyline.

[6ppc]

Perfect! Thank you for taking your time to recite all the topics/subjects/themes in Clancy's book that the socialist slime in Hollywood refused to include.

Actually the first two items were included in the movie. Although it didn't come anywhere close to the book, much to my surprise I actually enjoyed it. Different genre, but it was much better than Attack of the Clones. It certainly could have been done better, but was not the disaster I was expecting.

[Hugin]

What Galpal? Ryan is married to a Opthalmic Surgeon. Did I miss a divorce? Or is this Hollywood's way of injecting their moral values into what was a good storyline.

I think it's Hollywood's attempt to draw younger audiences, just like casting Affleck as Jack Ryan. It seems the older action stars like Harrison Ford are not drawing young people to the theaters, so Hollywood is now trying to promote younger actors like Affleck and Matt Damon in action roles.

[Harrison Bergeron]

"I heard that Affleck spent some time with Clancy before he got the role and TC was actually impressed with him. "

I recall Clancy telling an interviewer that he tried to persuade Hollywood to use someone younger than Harrison Ford for that IRA movie because the Ryan character starts out in his twenties and ages gradually through the Clancy CIA novels. By anyones measure, Ford is now too old to be a believable Ryan.

[Hugin]

I disagree with you about Clancy being a lousy writer. Actually, anyone who sells millions of books is by defintion a good writer. It may not be great literature, but then popular fiction should be judged on the basis of whether people will fork over money and spend the time reading it. Writers like Clancy, King and Grishom are successful in doing so over and over, and that's not easy. It's like musicians who criticize three minute pop songs for being too simple. It may seem simple, but try writing a hit song with the same three chords that doesn't sound like all the other ones, and suddenly that's not so easy. Clancy's books do tend to drag for the first two or three hundred pages, but after that the different story lines start to come together and I can't put it down. It takes a good writer to do that.

I agree with you about Without Remorse being Clancy's best book though. Now that would make a great movie if the script actually followed the book. But who to cast as the young John Clark?

[Paleo Conservative]

I mean Ben Affleck aka Jack Ryan managed to outlive a nuclear blast and still use his cell phone and find his girlfriend at the same time!

What I don't understand is how his cell phone would have been able to work in the area affected by the nuclear blast. I would have thought that the EMP from the nuclear explosion would have knocked out all the cell phone towers plus most or the electronic devices in Baltimore.

[in the Arena]

Accepting the part as Doolittle was unbelievably hypocritical on Baldwins part. The guy's been showing up on Politically Incorrect spouting his liberal views...I believe he was even quoted saying that the Election of 2000 was as big a tragedy as 911...he's got eyes on public office..