Despite the apparent critical and commercial successes of films like The Hunt for the Red October, Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger, Tom Clancy wasn't particularly satisfied with the way Hollywood has adapted his books. So, it is easy to understand why he tried his hand at writing for screen directly. One of such efforts was OP Center, 1995 television film directed by Lewis Teague. Clancy not only wrote the story for this project, but also took more direct control as executive producer.
The plot of the film deals with OP Center - government body that is supposed to co ordinate activities of American military, law enforcement and intelligence agencies in times of crisis. US President (played by Ken Wood) thinks little of this institution, convinced that it doesn't have any purpose in post-Cold War world. Paul Hood (played by Harry Hamlin), former anti-war activist who was appointed at the helm of OP Center in order to supervise its final days, would soon learn better. On Hood's very first day on the job group of former KGB agents manages to steal nuclear warhead from Ukrainian missile silo. Their intention is to sell the warheads to various dangerous characters in the Middle East. As the crisis escalate and American military and intelligence unsuccessfully try to halt the shipment of dangerous cargo, Hood is convinced that the enemy receives information from Washington. And the only source of leaks seems to be the White House.
Clancy's books, with their complicated, almost Byzantine, plots and lot of technical details seem more suitable for the medium of television, either in form of three-hour television films, four-hour mini-series or season-long drama shows. This medium allows more time for character and plot exposition, resulting in stories that are easier to understand to the average viewer. OP Center has exactly something like that - complex plot and plenty of various characters. The latter are given large amount of exposition, which indicates that OP Center could have easily been something of a pilot for drama show or series of television films. At times this character exposition goes too far, giving the impression of OP Center being more of a soap opera than spy thriller. Fortunately, those moments are brief and for the most part OP Center functions as entertaining and at times even educational film. There are even some interesting moments in which fictional reality of OP Center resembles real world - like in the case of President being portrayed as philanderer. But this is the only link between this film and reality that could have been amusing to the viewers. Other resemblances are much more sinister, making this television film more serious today than seven years ago.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on November 18th 2002)
==
Blog in Croatian https://draxblog.com
Blog in English https://draxreview.wordpress.com/
Cent profile https://beta.cent.co/@drax
Minds profile https://www.minds.com/drax_rp_nc
Uptrennd profile https://www.uptrennd.com/user/MTYzNA
Brave browser: https://brave.com/dra011
BTC donations: 1EWxiMiP6iiG9rger3NuUSd6HByaxQWafG
ETH donations: 0xB305F144323b99e6f8b1d66f5D7DE78B498C32A7
Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/65398-op-center?language=en-US
Critic: AA