I remember reading the book "Without Remorse" as a teenager. I was famously oblivious at that age, and had no idea of the Great Clancy's political reputation. To me, his Jack Ryan and John Clark sagas were just great character dramas on the epic tapestry of modern global affairs.
Even as an ardent liberal, I cheered along with every r…
I remember reading the book "Without Remorse" as a teenager. I was famously oblivious at that age, and had no idea of the Great Clancy's political reputation. To me, his Jack Ryan and John Clark sagas were just great character dramas on the epic tapestry of modern global affairs.
Even as an ardent liberal, I cheered along with every right-wing manifesto disguised as a "political thriller" in Ryan's presidency, or culture-war diatribe disguised as an "action yarn" in John Clark's secret agent career.
It was only years (and years) later that I realized the political--and indeed, post-Trump, geopolitical--import behind the books. (Full disclosure: I only started disliking the series circa "Bear and the Dragon", in 2000. I think it's no coincidence that Clancy's dearest domestic political fantasies started taking on (partial) real life around then. When you start fulfilling your passion, it's unsurprising for your muse, and ability to write compellingly, to go downhill.)
So it's kind of disappointing to hear that not only is the cinematic version of "Without Remorse" a bad movie that basically ignores its original plot, it's a giant missed opportunity as well.
Read through a right-wing culture war lens, the book "Without Remorse" is dang-near a masterpiece of every conservative lament of how "America went to hell", particularly in its inner cities. It is kind of emblematic that the villain is a black middle-class man moonlighting as a drug lord, and that one of its side villains is a pot-smoking pencilneck who hates military guys with "big d*cks".
The movie "Without Remorse" could have been a clever subversion of the book's subtext, starring Michael B. Jordan, a modern African-American icon, as John Clark, and involving the more complicated Putin-era Russians (arch-enemies of liberals) rather than Soviet-era Russians and Vietnamese (perceived friends of liberals, in the minds of Clancy and those like him at least).
Instead it seems the Hollywood machine behind this decided to go all generic and predictable with their thing they call "Without Remorse". Missed opportunity, in this Clancy afficionado's (not necessarily fan's, at least not anymore) mind.
I remember reading the book "Without Remorse" as a teenager. I was famously oblivious at that age, and had no idea of the Great Clancy's political reputation. To me, his Jack Ryan and John Clark sagas were just great character dramas on the epic tapestry of modern global affairs.
Even as an ardent liberal, I cheered along with every right-wing manifesto disguised as a "political thriller" in Ryan's presidency, or culture-war diatribe disguised as an "action yarn" in John Clark's secret agent career.
It was only years (and years) later that I realized the political--and indeed, post-Trump, geopolitical--import behind the books. (Full disclosure: I only started disliking the series circa "Bear and the Dragon", in 2000. I think it's no coincidence that Clancy's dearest domestic political fantasies started taking on (partial) real life around then. When you start fulfilling your passion, it's unsurprising for your muse, and ability to write compellingly, to go downhill.)
So it's kind of disappointing to hear that not only is the cinematic version of "Without Remorse" a bad movie that basically ignores its original plot, it's a giant missed opportunity as well.
Read through a right-wing culture war lens, the book "Without Remorse" is dang-near a masterpiece of every conservative lament of how "America went to hell", particularly in its inner cities. It is kind of emblematic that the villain is a black middle-class man moonlighting as a drug lord, and that one of its side villains is a pot-smoking pencilneck who hates military guys with "big d*cks".
The movie "Without Remorse" could have been a clever subversion of the book's subtext, starring Michael B. Jordan, a modern African-American icon, as John Clark, and involving the more complicated Putin-era Russians (arch-enemies of liberals) rather than Soviet-era Russians and Vietnamese (perceived friends of liberals, in the minds of Clancy and those like him at least).
Instead it seems the Hollywood machine behind this decided to go all generic and predictable with their thing they call "Without Remorse". Missed opportunity, in this Clancy afficionado's (not necessarily fan's, at least not anymore) mind.