I'm sure you remember where you were on 9/11. I had arrived to school right after the first tower collapsed. The newscast was reporting the event live and everybody stood silent, hypnotized by the television. I saw the second tower collapse right before my eyes. It was a culturally defining moment that gave the Occidental world the enemy it's been craving so hard since World War II: terrorist movement Al-Qaedea and its supporting regime in Afghanistan, the Talibans. I'm sure you won't remember where you were when you watched JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT though. Because 9/11 was the dawn of a new era in shitty patriotic fiction that would turn anything into laughable propaganda, including intellectual property that was written beforehand.
Jack Ryan is an iconic Tom Clancy character, and JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT is considered the fifth movie in the series, although it's an original screenplay and not a novel adaptation. It's a prequel of some sort, where Jack Ryan (this time portrayed by the very situational Chris Pine) is thrown to the wolves during the first case of his career as a CIA operative. It involves a plot lead by a Russian businessman (hilariously played by Kenneth Branagh, who also happen to have directed the freakin' movie) that involves crashing the American economy, and....and...*dunh dunh duuuuuunh* terrorism. No, this is not a groundbreaking movie.
JACK RYAN: SHAWDOW RECRUIT is a propaganda movie. I'm not saying this to be clever, it's in the league of early Communism-era of Russian filmmaking of thinly veiled political agenda. The movie takes itself seriously enough to let us know it's not being ironic or pulpy, and it's bad enough at its job to remain oddly enjoyable. The level of confusion between staying true to Tom Clancy's cold war obsessions and discussing what it perceives to be pertinent (the ever-looming terrorist threat on America) is amazing. JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT is the embodiment of every irrational fear created by 9/11. I'm aware that the character existed before the events, but what I'm saying is that this particular movie (once again, this is an original screenplay) couldn't have existed without it.
How does one ends up watching mildly amusing xenophobic garbage like JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT? Well, it starts with Josie not being home and running out of writing inspiration at about 9 PM. Then I ask myself: ''Ben, what would be the best possible way to finish the evening?'' The answer to this question is always: ''with a movie,'' because I need material for this blog, so I hit Netflix with a vengeance because I'm too dumb to know which movie torrent sites I need to hit for quality entertainment. But I don't regret watching JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT. I know it seems like I do, but I don't. I felt like watching paid programming for CIA recruitment, who used an iconic Tom Clancy character in order to validate the jobs of the brave people who are paid to see conspiracies everywhere.
JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT is artificial, deliberate and unwittingly racist like only an American political thriller can be. In this movie, a very poorly rendered Russian businessman wants to blow them up and tear down their economy because I don't know. Seriously, it's never explained exactly why Kenneth Branagh's character hates America so much. The viewer just has to take for granted that he's simply evil, because he's Russian. Of course, there's a direct correlation between these two things, right? Right? Anyway, JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT is a fun movie to pick apart, because it's easy and mildly soothing to remind yourself that you're a human being with a functioning mind. That said, I'm happy it didn't cost me money.
JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT is artificial, deliberate and unwittingly racist like only an American political thriller can be. In this movie, a very poorly rendered Russian businessman wants to blow them up and tear down their economy because I don't know. Seriously, it's never explained exactly why Kenneth Branagh's character hates America so much. The viewer just has to take for granted that he's simply evil, because he's Russian. Of course, there's a direct correlation between these two things, right? Right? Anyway, JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT is a fun movie to pick apart, because it's easy and mildly soothing to remind yourself that you're a human being with a functioning mind. That said, I'm happy it didn't cost me money.