: Study Questions: Week Fourteen

The Cold War Ends, But the Memory Lingers On

The Hunt for Red October (1990) and In the Line of Fire (1993).

The sudden and unexpected demise of the Cold War which followed the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1989 had some interesting influences on American culture. The threat of nuclear war with the "evil empire" gave way to new fears of external threats such as international terrorism and regional conflicts (such as the one now unfolding in the former Yugoslavia). At the same time, there evolved what CIA Director William Casey described as "the good old days of the Cold War." This new mood can be seen in both of this week's films.The Hunt for Red October , based on Tom Clancey's best-selling techno-thriller, went into production when the Soviet submarine fleet still posed a threat to America. When it was released, the Cold War was over, and the political themes had lost their historical immediacy. The meeting of the Russian sub commander (Sean Connery) and his American adversary (Alec Baldwin) suggests a new partnership between the United States and its cold war enemy rather than a victory for democracy over Soviet communism as it had been in Clancy's novel. At the same time, however, the thrill of the chase which ends in the peaceful meeting in Maine's Penobscot Bay has a pleasantly nostalgic quality in its evocation of a time when a united America employed its technical skills and military prowess in the service of protecting peace and freedom.

In the Line of Fire pits its hero, Tom Horrigan (Clint Eastwood), against a homegrown enemy, Mitch Leary (John Malkovitch), but the action is dominated by the memory of a time when the United States was "different" -- and better. In the years before the assaination of John F. Kennedy, the film implies, the country was a place where idealistic young men asked what they could do for their country and were attracted to careers defending the President and American values. In the years that followed the idealism faded leaving some regretting their lost opportunities (Horrigan) and others, betrayed by their superiors, turned into dangerous killers (Leary). Horrigan's desperate desire to protect the President from Leary is also a quest for his own redemption, a chance to recover a lost past.

1. How do the central characters in The Hunt for Red October seem less stereotypical than those in the typical thriller?

2. Which seems more important: the political theme, the thrilling chase sequences, or the focus on complex technology? What, in your opinion, makes Hunt a film for men? Or is it?

3. Why does the Russian commander (Sean Connery) decide to take his sub to the United States? In what way do his motives echo themes of earlier films in this course? Why do you know?

4. When the sub's Executive Officer (Sam Niel) describes the ranch he hopes to have in Montana, what do you know is going to happen to him? Why do you know?

5. In what ways do the American CIA operative (Alec Baldwin) and the Russian Captain have more in common with each other than with the systems they serve? Consider their attidudes toward bureauracy, family, etc.

6. How do the attitudes toward human intelligence and advanced technology differ from those found in Dr. Strangelove and Go Tell the Spartans?

7. What similarities can be seen in the characters of Tom Horrigan (Clint Eastwood) and Capt. Ramius (Sean Connery)?

8. How does the basic plot of In the Line of Fire – Frank Horrigan's attempt to redeem a personal failure – reflect the film's central political theme – the contrast between the America of the early 1960s and the America of the early 1990s?

9. When Frank Horrigan refers to Lily Raines as a new secretary, does he insult her or demean himself or both? How does the event tend to reveal his underlying insecurities and disappointments? Consider the entire scene, especially his relationship to the new generation of superiors he must deal with. In what ways are Frank and Lily embodiments of two opposing generations?

10.How do the repeated phone calls from Mitch tend to turn them into mirror images of one another? Why does the assassin, Mitch Leary, keep calling Horrigan? What is the significance of describing himself as "Booth" and "Oswald"? What are the political implications of his claim that "the world can be a cruel place to an honest man"? In what ways are they, as the killer says, "honest and capable men who were betrayed by the people we trusted?" How was Horrigan exploited? What did he do to protect a Kennedy secret? What does it mean to be betrayed? Does the comment imply that after Kennedy's death the entire system betrayed its loyal idealists?

11. In what ways might you argue that the film treats the death of President Kennedy as the end of a better America, a place that had room for "honest men"? Is it just the President's death that has been responsible, or is it symbolic of many other social and political forces?

12. What is the symbolic significance of the view of twilight view Washington Frank and Lily see as they eat ice cream on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial? How is this reference to Frank Capra's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington related to the themes of Eastwood's film?

13. How do the images of Horrigan sick with the flu and crying as he recounts the fateful day in Dallas call into question the familiar Eastwood hero and suggest the need for a new form of American heroism. How does his realization that he needs the help of Lily and others further emphasize the same theme?

14. In what ways are the President and the new generation of Secret Service agents examples of a diminished federal government and a diminished America (compared, that is, to the Camelot era)?

15. How would you interpret the final scene at the Lincoln Memorial? Does he have a future with Lily? In what ways does their possible marriage symbolize a reconciliation of the generations they represent? Is the final scene, which is so lush and romantic, to be taken as a mark of redemption or as merely the fantasy of an aging man? Why, in your estimation, did Eastwood leave the meaning in question?