The following was originally written on Facebook when I was writing about my favorite movies released in the U.S. in 1987.
While I have always said my movie education came from my father – when I was 13 and our family moved to California, he bought a videodisc player, and would bring home an old movie he had bought almost every week to show us – the other part of my movie education started when I became a teenager and went to see movies on my own, or with friends. 1987 and 1988 were the years I remember going most often to the movies, either at Hughes Auditorium at Gonzaga, or, during the summer, going to the movies in theaters when I was back home in Walnut Creek. This was all the newer movies, of course (I’ve mentioned how my father, for the most part, wasn’t a fan of pop culture after 1960 or so), but seeing these, I feel, was an integral part of my taking those tentative steps towards growing up (not the only ones, of course). As much as I enjoyed movies like Silverado, for example, I knew there were certain conventions they followed. So when I went to see Roger Donaldson’s No Way Out one August weekend, I had no idea it was going to be a Hollywood movie that actually dared to pull the rug out from underneath the audience at the end. In addition, I still think the rest of the movie still holds up very well.
Adapted by Robert Garland from the novel The Big Clock by Kenneth Fearing (which had already been filmed in 1948 by John Farrow), the movie updates the original setting (a big city media empire) to Washington D.C.. Lt. Commander Tom Farrell (Kevin Costner) gets assigned there to work for Secretary of State David Brice (Gene Hackman) as his liaison with the intelligence community, specifically the CIA – though Farrell’s old friend Scott Pritchard (Will Patton) is Brice’s chief of staff, Farrell actually got the job after performing a daring rescue on his ship. As it happens, both Farrell and Brice share the same girlfriend, Susan Atwell (Sean Young), whom Farrell met at the presidential inauguration ball. Farrell knows this, but all Brice knows is Atwell is seeing someone else. One night, after she and Farrell have been away for the weekend, Brice confronts her at her home, they get into a fight, and he accidentally kills her. Filled with guilt, Brice goes over to visit Pritchard and confesses what he did. Pritchard, looking to protect his boss, has other ideas. He convinces Brice to blame the crime on “Yuri” – the CIA code name for the Soviet spy they’re convinced has been a sleeper agent inside the U.S. – and to have the Criminal Investigative Division (CID), which works out of the Pentagon, to take over the investigation. Farrell is put in charge of all of this (so the Secretary has a fall guy if necessary), meaning he’s investigating a crime where, thanks to all of the circumstantial evidence (including a faded Polaroid print Pritchard found, from a picture Atwell had taken of Farrell), he’s the primary suspect.
It must be acknowledged, of course, while Patton does a terrific job as Pritchard, he’s playing a villainous gay character, which is a tired stereotype (the fact that part came not only from Fearing’s novel, but was also implied – as much as could be in a Hays Code era movie – in George McCready’s performance in the movie version doesn’t entirely mitigate that, of course). Other than the twist ending, the other memorable scene of the movie for many was the sex scene Atwell and Farrell have in a limo, and the fact Atwell is killed later made some critics categorize Donaldson’s movie as yet another “Fuck and die” movie, as many thrillers in the 80’s were borrowing a page from slasher films of the 70’s and punishing women for having sex by killing them. I’ve mentioned before how I also don’t like movies that utilize that type of plotline, although, in this case, I would argue in “Fuck and die” movies, you’re being encouraged to root for the woman to die for having sex, whereas here, you’re supposed to feel shocked and upset about it happening.
Having said all of that, Donaldson and Garland have made another movie where every little detail pay off later, and not just that Polaroid; details Farrell didn’t even think of, like the gift Brice got from a foreign minister that he gave Atwell (which is what Farrell eventually uses to try and implicate Brice), end up being important later. Not only that, but the movie shifts from romantic comedy/drama to thriller mode without breaking a sweat. Moving the setting of the novel (and the original movie) from a media empire to the government also works, as it raises the stakes of Farrell’s attempts to clear his name. Speaking of which, the movie would fit in to Hitchcock’s thrillers, and not just because of the way it blends comedy (the flirtatious banter between Farrell and Atwell when they first meet) with suspense (the chase scene between Farrell and two agents “associated” with special forces – one of them played by Marshall Bell – as he races them to protect a witness (Iman) from them; that chase sequence, as with the whole movie, is shot well by John Alcott – his last movie before he died; it’s dedicated to him – and edited well by William Hoy and Neil Travis). It also follows one of Hitchcock’s favorite plots of an innocent man trying to clear their name, but adds a couple of twists to it, one being the innocent man is in charge of the investigation, and the other, the major one, is the “innocent” man, as it happens, isn’t so innocent after all.
I mentioned before how Costner had been cut out of THE BIG CHILL, but gave performances I liked in Testament and Silverado. His breakout movie, The Untouchables, had come out two months earlier, and I’m not a big fan of that movie (though I’ve come to like it more than I did at first glance, it’s still more shiny surface than anything else for me) or of Costner’s performance as Elliot Ness there. Having said that, I do believe it was that movie, and that performance, that helped make his performance as Farrell work so well here. It helped create an image of an “all-American” hero, and Costner plays into that again with his portrayal of Farrell, which is crucial to the movie working as well as it does, especially when that final twist comes up. Even the one scene that may tip the movie’s hand – when Farrell calls someone from a phone booth in the Pentagon – can be explained away, thanks to Costner’s performance and determination. Hackman has played this type of role before, but he plays it very well. I’ve mentioned how I like Patton’s work here, and he’s especially good in a scene where he realizes something about the plot. Young has great chemistry with Costner. There’s also good work from George Dzundza as a co-worker and friend of Farrell’s, who becomes an innocent victim of the machinations of the plot, and Jason Bernard as the head of CID. Maurice Jarre’s score also keeps the suspense ratcheted up. Even if the Cold War machinations that drive the plot date the movie somewhat, No Way Out still stands as one of the best thrillers I’ve ever seen, and the way the movie changes everything around with that twist ending makes it stick in the mind long afterwards.
