It's no coincidence that I gave priority this month to a political thriller set largely at a federal government building, namely the Pentagon. You may question my taste in doing so, but I assure you it bears vanishingly little resemblance to recent events.
Tom Farrell (Kevin Costner), a lieutenant commander in the Navy, falls for Susan Atwell (Sean Young) at an inaugural ball and starts an intimate relationship, unaware that she's also sleeping with another new acquaintance of his, Secretary of Defense David Brice (Gene Hackman). Seeing Tom leave her home, albeit without enough light to recognize him, Brice infers Susan's infidelity and beats her -- accidentally to death. He decides to pin it on "Yuri," a rumored double agent from the KGB, because that would let national security handle the case instead of the police. Tom gets a pretty big role in the subsequent hunt for Yuri. All too aware that he's most likely to take the fall after the evidence comes in, he does what he can to delay that until he has enough of a case against Brice.
OK, that makes Brice sound like the main villain. I see him as just a jerk, particularly in matters of carnal passions. He retains enough principles that he would have turned himself in if not for his oily advisor, Scott Pritchard (Will Patton), who will do anything to avoid a public scandal. In the end, there are lines Brice won't cross. Pritchard also has two thuggish operatives of dubious integrity at his beck and call. The three of them do the real deliberate dirty work. What's worse, Tom and Pritchard were friends at school and still appear to be on good terms at first.
Only after viewing did I learn that this movie was adapted from the same literary source as The Big Clock. Looking back, I can agree on a few parallels, but it sure feels different. One factor is the move from business to politics. Another is the fact that Brice didn't commit first-degree murder. Then there's simple modernization. It's almost too brightly lit to qualify as a neo-noir.
On the subject of modernization, things get quite raunchy on screen in the first act, while Susan is still alive. I finally know that Hot Shots! Part Deux was parodying the limo scene, and not with as much exaggeration as you might expect. I almost regret that her death comes more than twice as late as the first one in Psycho. I'm unsure whether director Roger Donaldson meant for us to care deeply about Tom and Susan or just enjoy the steaminess.
What makes NWO unusual among thrillers is that, for the most part, nobody actually suspects Tom yet of being Yuri or even just Susan's other beau. People notice him doing things he probably shouldn't -- and yes, this is one of those movies where the protagonist does a lot of unruly and inconsiderate things in desperation -- but they attribute other motives to him. And half the few people who know he had anything to do with Susan give him the benefit of the doubt. This does not prevent a couple chase scenes, with stunts that worried insurance agents.
It's not the most exciting or innovative of thrillers, even for the time. Nor is it the most believable, as when an exhaustive one-team search of the Pentagon takes two hours. But I can see how the picture advanced Costner's career. It invites more thought than usual and makes for a worthy 114 minutes. You may or may not prefer it to the '48 film.
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