O Homem com a Lente Mortal

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.

My wife and I viewed this movie this weekend....having NO idea what the plot would be as we bought the video in a bundle at a garage sale. We were absolutely stunned as the plot unfolded to the similarities contained in the 9/11 tragedy. We even heard Bin Laden's name mentioned! I have written one other review for IMDB.... I have no idea whether you will print this comment or not....but I HAD to mention it. This movie will NOW chill the marrow of your bones. It was meant to be a comedy. Thank you for letting me release this... I had to say SOMETHING to somebody! God bless America!

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.

This is not Richard Brooks at his best as a movie-maker, but it is a powerful political film, with a great script (written by Brooks)which was wrongly (wrong is right?) dismissed as a "satire" and "comedy" in the early eighties. It is now seen in a very different light, as the whole plot seems to describe the events around the 9/11 attack and the war against terror, Afghanistan and Iraq. Brooks was the last American "cinema author": he wrote, produced and directed many of his works, including several world-class classics. This deserves to be seen as Brook's political testament, and one to be seriously considered and discussed. Why has this movie not been aggressively distributed right after 9/11? The answer might be in the story itself, which is now mixing story and history.

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".