‘PRESENT’ PERFECT

We don’t usually take film comment articles personally, but we felt obliged to respond to Peter Rainer’s “On and On and On They Go . . .” (Feb. 19).

As the producers of “Clear and Present Danger,” we can assure you that we did not expand our running time as a result of either “epic egos,” “epic budgets” or in an attempt to make a “puny subject” seem important.

Tom Clancy novels tend to be jammed with technical detail, plots, subplots and more subplots and they generally run close to 700 pages in length. Most critics seemed to agree that our screenwriters managed an extraordinary feat by making a coherent and exciting screenplay from this massive novel. Moreover, audiences seemed delighted with the production as well as the work of our director, Phillip Noyce, our star Harrison Ford, and our entire cast.

The scenes which Rainer metaphorically equates with circus clowns piling into a VW bug were not intended as “subplots,” but are clearly the fabric of the story itself, which deals with illegal drug interdiction in South America by our armed forces.

As for being “mindless,” your film critic, Kenneth Turan, includes it in his Ten Best List for 1994 as “the most satisfying adventure movie of the year” and commended the film as being “notable for its pleasantly complex storyline.”

As for its length, if Mr. Rainer has the time we’d be delighted to show him the first cut of this film, which ran some 30 minutes longer.

MACE NEUFELD

BOB REHME

Hollywood