Word: horrigan
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...still feel uncomfortable watching it. Part of me doesn?t want to know Frank Horrigan, what his past is, who at the office he has the hots for. I still want him to save the President, but I don?t want to meet him until afterward. Lift the curtain and the wizard grows smaller. Lift the mirrored sunglasses and yank out the earpiece, and the Secret Service man loses his invincibility. He is no longer a wall between peril and the President, he?s a guy in a gray suit with a lousy home life. And that makes me nervous...
Eastwood plays Frank Horrigan, a Secret Service man who still agonizes over his failure to stop John F. Kennedy '40's assassination. We're given the impression that in the 60s Frank was the "best and the brightest" of the agents, but now he's a 90s man who shows his compassion by playing the piano in bars on his off nights. Frank is a very human hero, a man who gets exhausted while running alongside the President's limo and groans about having a cold...
Maybe Rains knows that Horrigan has the face of a movie star, or maybe she is attracted to his suave piano playing in bars. It doesn't really matter, because their romance ends up looking like something from a summer beach movie rather than a serious relationship. The connection between the two characters would have worked just as well with a simple friendship, but apparently the creative team felt there had to be some cheese to go along with Eastwood's cracker-like demeanor...
...much more interesting aspect of the film relates to Horrigan's connection with the assassin played by John Malkovich. Malkovich's character is friendly to Eastwood's and becomes a haunting specter as he digs under Frank's skin, reminding Horrigan of his past "failure" to save Kennedy...
...true mastermind, Malkovich's character seems to be the cleverest person on the screen, which forces us to see Horrigan as someone definitely past his prime. Booth is a deep villain who sees meaning to what he's doing and attacks Eastwood's character psychologically. As a source of suspense, Malkovich's character is limitless, especially with the phone close-ups and chase scenes designed by director Wolfgang Peterson...