WhileGene Hackmanstayed busy throughout his acting career, he seemingly worked nonstop in the late 1980s, especially in 1988, when he had five films in theatrical release. Whether Hackman appeared in good films during this period, like thegreat 1987 thrillerNo Way Out, or bad films, likeSuperman IV: The Quest for Peace, didn’t seem to matter to the actor, who later admitted that his incessant work schedule was grounded in his loneliness.
One ofHackman’s most underrated performancesis featured in the 1989 political action thriller filmThe Package, in which he plays Johnny Gallagher, a Green Beret sergeant who is given the seemingly menial task of escorting a disgraced sergeant, played by Tommy Lee Jones, from West Berlin to the United States for a court-martial trial. However, after the prisoner escapes his custody, Gallagher becomes immersed in a conspiracy that threatens to trigger World War III.
The Packageis one of the last Cold War thriller films to be released prior to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. In terms of Hackman’s career,The Packageis historically significant in terms of his pairing with the younger Jones, whose compelling performance in the film embodies the ambiguity, disarming clarity, and emotional honestythat defines Hackman’s career.
‘The Package’ Is an Elaborate Political Action Thriller
The Package
While mostpolitical assassination thriller filmsfocus primarily on the relationship between the assassin and the target, the climatic confrontation inThe Packageis preceded by an elaborate chain of events in which nothing is as it initially appears. The conspiracy inThe Packagebegins at a chalet in West Berlin, where a group of high-ranking American and Soviet generals plot to sabotage a pending mutual nuclear disarmament agreement between the two countries, in the belief that nuclear deterrence is necessary to prevent World War III.
Early in the film, a dissenting United States general is assassinated outside the chalet. While patrolling the chalet, Gene Hackman’s character, Sergeant Johnny Gallagher, engages in a shootout with the assassins and is blamed for allowing the assassins to slip through the perimeter. As punishment, Gallagher is assigned to escort Tommy Lee Jones’ character, Walter Henke, to the United States for a court-martial trial. However, Gallagher is attacked in an airport washroom by undercover agents who free Henke, who then travels to Chicago, where the nuclear disarmament treaty is supposed to be signed.
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After discovering that Henke is actually Thomas Boyette, a covert specialist, Gallagher becomes convinced that Boyette is in Chicago to performa political assassination. However,the identity of the intended target or targets inThe Packageisn’t apparent until the film’s climatic scene, in which the full reveal of the conspiratorial plot makes its intricate design seem frighteningly and logically clear.
Gene Hackman and Tommy Lee Jones Are Excellent in ‘The Package’
The Packagemarks Gene Hackman’s first and only screen pairing with Tommy Lee Jones, who reunited with the director ofThe Package, Andrew Davis, in the1993 action thriller filmThe Fugitive, for which Jones won a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award. InThe Package, Hackman and Jones are able to communicate with each other solely with their eyes, with which they reveal the grim predicament of two lifelong soldiers who have reconciled themselves to being expendable cogs within the impenetrable military-industrial complex.
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When Hackman left acting in 2004, Jones inherited his mantle as being arguably the greatest living communicator among actors, as well as possessing Hackman’s uncanny ability to improve good films and survive bad ones. Withthe announcement of Hackman’s deathat the age of 95, following Clint Eastwood’s potential retirement, the 78-year-old Jones has become the last of a dying breed.
Roger Ebert Liked ‘The Package’
The 1989 release ofThe Packagewas followed in Gene Hackman’s career by the dismal 1990 comedy filmLoose Cannons, arguably the worst feature starring vehicle of his career, and preceded by the 1988 crime thriller filmMississippi Burning, for whichHackman received his fourth Academy Award nomination. At the time of its theatrical release,The Package, which grossed approximately $10.6 million at the domestic box office, was dismissed as being an outdated relic ofthe dying Cold War eraand an uninspired entry in his career.The most prominent critical supporter ofThe Packagein 1989 was Roger Ebert, who praised the film’s clever plot construction and Hackman’s commanding performance. InEbert’s three-star reviewofThe Package, Ebert wrote:
“The Package is like one of those thrillers where you keep having to turn back to an earlier chapter to see if you missed something. It turns out you haven’t. The movie’s plot is so intricate that it seems there have to be loose ends, but there aren’t any. After it’s over, you re-run the events in your head, seeing at last how all the pieces fit together. Untangling the conspiracy is one of the story’s pleasures.”
