"The Sentinel" movie offends Agent Tim McCarthy

I see in the paper that Agent Tim McCarthy is deeply offended by the movie The Sentinel which for the first part of the movie is apparently modeled on his experience at the attempted assassination of President Regan.

Most agents from that period will recognize that the role played by Michael Douglas is based on McCarthy. Unfortunately, the rest of the movie goes on to characterize this lead player as a two-timing cheat who is having an affair with the First Lady.

For more on this, see: http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1621007/posts

Aside from that criticism, I would be interested in the opinions of people who have seen the movie. Am I correct in thinking it is an action packed thriller that is worth taking the time to see?

I haven't seen the movie yet, so this is a preliminary opinion.

I can understand why McCarthy would be upset if the movie was, in fact, saying he was guilty of the behavior of the character Douglas plays in the movie. But I tend to think that the Regan assassination attempt depiction is just a device used to give (fictional) context to the plot.

In the same vein, you could argue that EVERY Secret Service agent should have been offended by the movie "Air Force One" in which a traitorous Secret Service agent facilitates getting terrorists and their weapons on the airplane. This guy wasn't just immoral, he was a traitor!

However, I got over being offended when I realized that it was a kind of (indirect) complement to the efficiency of the Service to show that security was so good that ONLY by having a traitor on the inside could the terrorists get themselves and their weapons on the plane. It was a necessary device for forwarding the plot.

On the other hand I really disliked "To Live and Die in LA" because of its depiction of a dissolute, immoral agent who failed to work within the system. Most of the agents I knew were well settled family men, and even the bachelors had fairly conventional lifestyles. (We can probably all think of a couple of exceptions, but they still worked the job within the law.)

And, finally, "In The Line of Fire" was mainly silly - showing a 63 year old Clint Eastwood as the only agent who had what it takes to save the President from assassination, in the era of the mandatory age 55 retirement.

I'll probably post again after I see the Sentinel movie.

Clint Eastwood may have been a little overage for his role as a Secret Service agent in In The Line of Fire, and he's even older now but I'll bet he could still run most active duty agents into the ground.

It is well known that he loves to run. Did you ever notice that the chase scenes in Dirty Harry movies are mostly foot chases rather than car chases? The man LOVES to run!

If I'm not mistaken there was some agent who was a good personal friend of Clint, but I don't remember who it was.

Oh, poor Tim. Did he get his feelings hurt, what a shame.

This thread is temporarily locked to help prevent spam.

Mod 1

Reconfiguration of the message board has eliminated the earlier spam problem, so this topic has been unlocked and replies are now allowed.