The Sum of All Fears Review

by Harry Caul (harry_caulx AT yahoo DOT com)
June 15th, 2002

The Sum of All Fears
(For more reviews: http://www.iscriptdb.com)

Starring: Ben Affleck, Morgan Freeman, Bridget Moynahan, Liev Schreiber, Alan Bates Directed by: Phil Alden Robinson
Written by: Akiva Goldsman, Paul Attanasio, Daniel Pyne
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Release year: 2000

Rating: 6 out of 10

The sum of all our fears is fragile and unfortunately we get to witness it.

This movie was effective in taking all of my fears since September 11, and bringing them to the surface for two horrifying hours. The scenario was chilling, and felt very real. Whether or not that’s the result of good storytelling I’m not yet sure. As for artistic and cinematic impressions I might have had, they are secondary right now as I write this. I’m still recovering.

During the course of watching this film I forgot how bad of an actor Ben Affleck was, and how brilliant Morgan Freeman can conduct himself as an actor. I was numbed by this movie. Even the lackluster special effects were momentarily extinguished from my mind.
Ben Affleck takes on the role of Jack Ryan, a creation by the talented Tom Clancy, and made famous by Harrison Ford. Morgan Freeman takes on the role of Bill Cabot, Ryan’s superior. The basic plot is this: an American made nuke lost by the Israelis during their war with Egypt and Syria ends up in the hands of European neo-Nazi fascist terrorists. After what looks like Russian involvement in possible terror attacks, is soon identified as the neo-Nazi wish to strengthen themselves by getting the United States and Russia to obliterate themselves. So they blow up the bomb at the Super Bowl in hopes of killing the President who is in attendance. Did anyone, even the filmmakers, ever stop to think that had both countries got into a full scale nuclear war there would have been no earth left to take over? Herein is the domino that falls and brings the rest of the story down.

Before and during this realization Jack Ryan is hot on the trail of the missing bomb, which takes him into Russia. There is a change of leadership in Russia, and American advisers feel the new Russian President is a threat. What is clear is that he has lost control of parts of his military.

The filmmakers grabbed onto our fears as Americans and had a strangle hold on them until the very end, and never once even considered whether or not they should have done that to begin with. This review may itself be exactly the kind of response they were aiming for, and if so they must have hit their mark. Are we in the near or distant future going to look back on this and consider it prophetic? I hope to God not.

-- The Spectator

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In June of 1908, on the very last page of The New York Dramatic Mirror, Frank "The Spectator" Woods became this countries first "movie critic." In honor of his work, and the many others who have followed, we name this column.

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