O Homem com a Lente Mortal

Wrong Is Right (1982)

Plot In A Paragraph: The theft of two suitcase sized nuclear weapons, and their sale to a terrorist group, leads TV Newsman Patrick Hale (Connery) on an international chase to track them down, and uncover the twisting maze of apparent involvement of US Government agencies.

This is a movie that does not know what it wants to be. It's more than a bit of a mess. It tries to be a political satire, nuclear disaster movie, a paranoid thriller and it fails at being any.

It's not without its moments Leslie Nielsen advising the president by saying "Hit them hard, hit them with everything you got!! Just don't hit those oil wells" and seeing Connery take off his toupee and toss it to one side is another highlight. How many leading men would have the balls to do that?? Connery was never bothered by his hair, and whilst he never wore one away from the cameras, he wore hair pieces in some movies and didn't in others. An admirable trait, that he is that comfortable with himself.

Where it succeeds is being eerily accurate about future events. Islamic terrorism, media bias, reality television and government conspiracy. Connery remains as watchable as always but these are two of his worse hours. Released about 20 years to soon, the movie totally went over the heads of the audiences and flopped so badly in America, the studio changed the title in other markets to The Man With The Deadly Lens and ordered new artwork to make it look more like a Bond movie.

Wrong Is Right grossed $3 million at the domestic box office.

What you're about to read is confidential. Well actually it's not, its show-business. This sorely forgotten 80s feature "Wrong is Right" is a scathingly windswept satirical pot-shot on the political scene and the influence of the media's technology manipulation on portraying that. Sean Connery plays Patrick Hale an international TV commentator who gets caught up in the thick of it, when he takes on a story involving spies, nuclear bombs, suicidal terrorists, arm-dealers, the CIA and an American president on an election campaign. It's very smarting, but bombastically all over-the-place and knotty. Where it's humour is sharp, cynical and to the point, if gloomy in its resolution of who's really using who. The cast is a strong one to boot. Connery cruises through the role, but it's an outstanding support cast which steals the show. John Saxon, Henry Silva, Robert Conrad, G.D. Spradlin, George Grizzard (who's perfectly cast as the president of America), Katherine Ross, Hardy Kruger, Leslie Nelson and Dean Stockwell add to the biting entertainment. Director Richard Brooks hectically keeps this circus of conspiracies ticking along, adding numerous big-scale actions to this intrusively whirlwind crusade.

"If it's good for America, it can't be wrong".

Reporter Sean Connery is hot on the trail of a terrorist seeking nuclear weapons. He's tracked by the CIA and other governmental agencies as well as various media outlets. Everyone manipulates everyone and in the end you're left wondering if there is anyone we can trust either in government or in the media.

When first released the film was a seemingly over the top spoof of the media and the governments uneasy relationship. No one could believe that this film was even remotely connected to reality and so they ignored it. I saw this film in a completely empty theater back in 1982. I was all alone and my laughter filled the theater. I thought it was a wicked spoof that took things, like the British Whoops Apocalypse, to a possible but uncomfortable conclusion.

After a run on cable this film dropped off the face of the earth and I didn't see it again until 1991 when I rented it during the first Iraq War. The film suddenly was very relevant and despite the fact that the jokes were funny, I couldn't laugh very much because what happened in the film was mirrored by reality.

Now, 22 years later, film comes out on DVD as the world is even closer to the type of things that happen in the film. Its still funny, and even more uncomfortable.

If you can take a film thats a black comedy that has slightly dated in some ways, but remains right on target with whats going on in the world see this film. Its simply a funny movie thats going to make you see things a little bit differently.

Times might be right for a critical reassessment of Wrong Is Right. Made during the Reagan era a lot of history has happened subsequently and Richard Brooks may have been a prophet just as Paddy Chayefsky was in Network. The topper may be the election of our current president.

Sean Connery whose international stardom didn't quite guarantee the box office returns for Wrong Is Right that the producers hoped for plays a cynical newscaster an observer on the scene of some history making events.

All starting with the spiritual revelations of Ron Moody playing the monarch of a desert middle eastern kingdom who gets some mystical revelations about starting a holy war. To do so he purchases a pair of suitcase nukes from arms dealer Hardy Kruger and makes alliance with a Mid Eastern terrorist Henry Silva.

There's a presidential election involved as incumbent George Grizzard tries to show himself as tough as the office demands, especially those demands voiced by former President Leslie Nielsen who is trying to do a Grover Cleveland and return to the White House.

The Twin Towers of New York actually play a role here so a faithful remake isn't possible. The end is right out of Duck Soup. Besides those mentioned I enjoyed Rosalind Cash as the Vice President, G.D. Spradlin as the harassed CIA head, and Robert Conrad with the Dickensian name of General Wombat.

He and Connery share the climax in an ending superb and sublime.

This one is a sleeper, check it out.

Just a few hours ago I caught this film on a cable TV channel and hurried to the IMDB to find out the year of release -- 1982. The concept of presidential "plausible deniability" was before the Iran Contra hearings. What came even more to mind as I watched Sean Connery, a favorite actor of mine since the mid-1960s, was the Gulf War of the early 1990s and what is happening in the Balkans right now.