• No Way Out

7/18/25 (Fri)

Roger Donaldson’s 1987 film is the third official adaption of The Big Clock, the first of which I saw just a few weeks back. He takes significant liberties with the text – for one thing, there’s no longer a clock – but achieves a solid thriller.

The setting is ably switched to the Secretary of Defense, making the stakes much higher. The Secretary is the one here with the mistress who he unknowingly shares with a newly hired intelligence officer working directly for him. The script is much more logical (other than a ridiculous coda), introducing and developing characters of some depth. It excises the humor of the earlier version but maintains a nice tension throughout.

The director seems simply to be doing a job, giving in to audience-friendly (as he sees them) techniques rather than deliver anything too hard-hitting. The chase scenes, for instance, are a bit much and could have been cut. The slow motion bits were also hackneyed, especially the clumsily executed fall from the staircase. And why is the intelligence officer standing outside the mistress’ house in full view of the Secretary as the latter comes to visit? Though he remains carefully in silhouette, he can’t be much of an intelligence guy if he’s letting the Secretary know that there’s a rival. The older film was much more adept in that scene. The shooting of the concerned employee was also predictable, par for the course. It felt sometimes like painting by number. In contrast, the gay angle was nicely restrained for a change and made the final scene shocking but entirely logical.

Kevin Costner is as bland as ever; I never understood the appeal. Gene Hackman is excellent as the manipulative Defense Secretary who is himself manipulated by his assistant, an appropriately oily Will Patton. Sean Young was terrific as the mistress.

There is an entirely unnecessary and rather silly story involving a Soviet spy that bookends the main plot, which is told in flashback. It is badly conceived, poorly written, and directed as though the director was in a rush to get home. I’m going to pretend it didn’t exist.