the third installment in the cinematic series base on tom clancy cia analyst jack ryan and clear and present danger be a long but engross political action thriller that once again put harrison ford and the thinking man action film actor and in the role of ryan . this time around and ford investigate the murder of a close friend of the president ( donald moffatt ) by colombian drug cartel hit men . when his mentor ( james earl jones ) fall ill due to pancreatic cancer and ford be suddenly put in charge a deputy director of the cia . he continue his investigation of the murder and tie them in with one particular drug cartel leader ( miguel sandoval ) with whom the murder man have a little issue with ill get money and . but what ford doesn not know be that and on order from the revenge mind moffatt and his second deputy ( henry czerny ) and the president national security adviser ( harris yulin ) have order a rogue officer name clark ( willem dafoe ) in with a covert military team to put a huge dent in the cartel activity . dafoe and his team be successful at what they do and but the cartel retaliate with deadly result on ford friend in the fbi during a visit to bogota . and when ford find out about the operation and he find himself go down to colombia a second time to help spirit dafoe and the covert team out of harm way . ably direct and once more and by phillip noyce ( dead calm while patriot game ) and clear and present danger give ford another chance to prove his mettle in the action genre . the suspense and cia intrigue be all lay out exceptionally well by noyce and his first rate cadre of screenwriter and donald stewart and steven zaillian and and john milius . jones be at his usual best a the now die admiral greer and and anne archer return a ford wife . but a performance really worth note here be czerny a the unconsciously corrupt cia deputy director robert ritter . about a uncouth and connive a heavy a there have ever be in the movie and his performance be absolutely chilling and believable . it make the whole notion of our government go beyond reasonable bound even more credible than it already be . some will object to the film not pander to clancy right wing political point of view or his gung ho pro military stance and but that isn not necessarily what this movie be about . it do not condemn covert military action and but it do question the wisdom of send men into a war zone where the risk be extreme and the reason for such action be vague at best and and there be no clear exit strategy . such point be make extremely well in this film action format while and for those reason and it get the high mark .