European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 25, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse Pages Ltd Ltd a a is or sidelights Eastwood film on target with the by Joel Achenbach the Washington Post a a a a things arc slow and then things arc fast. That is the secret service Way. Waiting waiting waiting. Then exploiting Forward a mad dash a sprint at 11 Miles an hour the president glides away from the Texas school Book depository. A slow motorcade the wounds to the neck and the head come seconds apart a you May even know the exact interval 5.6 seconds because these details Are part of the lore. Only one secret service agent reacts. Clint Hill sprints Forward from the trailing car and grabs the bumper of the presidential Lino just As the Driver hits the Gas. The agent hauls himself onto the Back Hood and grabs Jackie s hand As she crawls crazily backward on the Hood in Pursuit goes the lore of some fragment of husbands Skull. He gets into the Back scat again and drapes his jacket Over the presidents head. These horrible moments happen so fast that the film or videotape must be shown in slow motion. Ronald Reagan turns in mid wave. His smile fades. There a a sound like firecrackers. People Are falling twisting pouncing piling onto one another and the Limo peels away. Agent Jerry Parr on top of Reagan in the Back seat risks the president and feels no in jury then secs blood come from the Mouth Roxy go hated a lung wound. He redirects the Limo to the Hospital where three minutes later the president collapses Zero blood pressure. He would have died if they had taken much longer the doctors say later. Slow. Then fast. That could have been your head blowing apart. It s a line in the new movie starring Clint. Eastwood. He plays an agent who suffers bitter memories of his failure to save the president that Day in Dallas. Clint says Quot everything would be a whole lot different if i was half As paranoid As i am with in the line of fire the secret service is finally Given the full Hollywood treatment Long Over due. Americans arc fascinated by the secret service by the whole notion of these professional paranoiac these men and women who Are trained to throw themselves in front of bullets to Quot cover and the secret service agent can be officially declared an american icon a an icon being someone we might define As the kind of figure that Clint Eastwood would portray in a movie. They Wear shades legend Rily if not always in fac dark suits and shiny shoes. They have wires in their ears and special buttons on their lapels and they talk into microphones in their sleeves so that it looks As if they re speaking into a watch like Dick Tracy. They done to smile. They spend so much time not smiling it s almost riveting. They know where your pressure Points Are and can Render you unconscious with a Finger. Quot stand still like you Don t want to be moved Quot says an agent one Day to a reporter. The reporter stands rigid. The agent Steps Forward and with the deft touch of two hands spins the reporter to one Side and propels him away nothing so ridiculous As a shove but every bit As effective. The agent knows How to shift a persons Center of Gravity. Roll the Ball As they say. Agents have to be simultaneously observant and a impressionable they cannot be distracted by the irrelevant detail the glamorous celebrity the political rhetoric. Titles done to carry weight with the secret service if someone pulls rank an agent will politely note that John Wilkes Booth claimed to be a senator As he talked his Way toward Lincoln. There was a time when the secret service ran in Casta Rock Clint Eastwood in the Une of fire. Secret service agent Tim Mccarthy foreground policeman Thomas Delahanty and press Secretary James Brady be wounded after the attempt on president Reagan s life in 1981. Tererence for adulterous reside offs. Those Days Are Long gone As Are the 300 agents seemed like enough to do the Job. Now there Are 2,000, including 145 women. Last year they had 1,550 invest nations of threats against prote tees. The Agency it turns out is Happy to get Good pub. Quot Well provide technical assistance for virtually any project provided it portrays us in a positive Light a a says agent Carl Meyer a secret service spokesman. All the better if its a Clint Eastwood movie. Quot i can to think of Many actors who could do a better portrayal than Clint Eastwood its the whole Clint Eastwood mystique Quot says Meyer. The making of in the Une of fire brought these Cret service and Hollywood into a far More intimate relationship than had Ever before existed. The secret service had Quot editorial control Quot says Meyer. That meant a line by line review of the script. The Agency also helped with wardrobes and the filming of motorcade and Campaign rallies a there Aren t any secrets leaked in the movie a says agent Gayle Moore a spokeswoman for the secret service. Quot the Bottom line is the filmmakers came to us and said we want this to be authentic we want this to be it someone a going to make a movie they Are going to make it with or without us so Why not become involved a not everyone in the secret service shared that philosophy. Traditionally the Agency has preferred to remain cloaked in silence and mystery. And there s no Way that anyone at the secret service could avoid the copycat Issue. No one can forget that John Hinckley was inspired by the fictitious Travis Bickle in Martin Scorsese s 1976 movie taxi Driver. Quot is there a possibility of contagion sure there is. Are we concerned about it extremely. Is there anything we can do about it no a says Meyer. The movie producers he says would t Budge from the Assassin based plot. A we wanted a different Story plot a he says. A but it was not something we could he and Moore note that the killer s use of a plastic gun that does t Register on a magnetometer is not realistic. The technology to make such a gun does no to exist they say. The movie for All its input from the secret service is hardly a documentary. In the first scene Clint blows away a couple of goons with classic one handed no look gunplay then Heads Over to his favorite Saloon to play Cool jazz on the piano and Knock Back a few highball. Perhaps the scene where he tills out the paperwork ended on the cutting room floor the Hollywood formulas keep firing away rat a Tat Tat there a the obligatory hot Young babe agent who is headed for Clintus embrace and May Reform some of his sexist notions there a the incredibly stupid presidential aide who wont cancel a risky event because a we re trailing 12 Points in the latest polls there a the hero s partner who like All partners in Hollywood Law enforcement dramas ought to have Short life expectancy branded on his forehead there a trembly handed dangling from High places. The most ludicrous scene is at the French embassy which serves no purpose other than to give Clint the Chance to scope out the obligatory hot Young babe agent who is wearing a tight Black dress and say a i was just wondering where you hide your Harf so where does she hide firearm and other gear Slinky or not women agents carry the same gear As the men. A a female agent could t dress like that a says Moore. Real secret service agents spend a lot of time just standing around waiting. They scan crowds looking for someone who is probably not there some Hazard that probably does t exist. A for All the Glamour and excitement there Are countless hours of standing alone in deserted hotel corridors outside a door behind which the president is sleeping. And there is the constant stress of never knowing which face in the crowd might be another Lee Harvey Oswald or Arthur Bremer or Sara Jane Moore a writes Dennis Mccarthy in his Memoir. Protecting the president the inside Story of a secret service agent. Mccarthy was the first agent to pounce on Hinckley that March Day in 1981 he a not to be confused with Tim Mccarthy who took a Bullet after turning toward Hinckley and spreading his arms in a classic. Example of what a secret service agent is supposed to do. His Book has a few marvelous details that Only an agent would know. He describes Nixon sobbing in a hallway after addressing the nation about watergate. He says . Haldeman Nixon a chief of staff was a a Power hungry egotist who would do everything in his Power to turn the secret service into his own private police he says Henry Kissinger wanted the agents to Cany his briefcase. Once Kissinger asked the agents to swim with him in shark infested Waters Quot if the Sharks come on this Beach my agents will fight them a Mccarthy answered. In the tins of Fite will open aug. 7 on the cafes i Cuit sunday july 25. 1993 \
