If there is one movie that could successfully be converted into a play, “The Brink of War” is it. The film opens the way it ends and everything in between is a history lesson not just for Americans and Russians, but for the world.
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The production’s authenticity unfolds inside Höfði House, the very building where President Ronald Reagan and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, sat across from each other in October 1986 in Reykjavik, Iceland, staring down nuclear brinkmanship in the middle of the Cold War.
In retrospect, Iceland was the perfect venue for a Cold War meeting. History and filmmaking rarely get such a tailored stage.
Writer and director Michael Russell Gunn did the arduous work of digging through and reviewing declassified transcripts from the meeting and drawing upon interviews with the late Secretary of State George Shultz to produce a compelling screenplay with a tight plot. In his feature film directorial debut, he transforms that research into a gripping, dialogue driven drama where diplomacy, nuclear strategy and powerful personalities collide under penetrating pressure.
Reagan’s steady moral presence hangs over the film and you can’t help but remember why Reagan is sorely missed. Portraying America’s 40th president is no easy task, but Jeff Daniels delivers a strong performance pairing Reagan’s trademark charm with steely conviction that is both heartfelt and believable.
J.K. Simmons delivers a splendid portrayal of Secretary of State George Shultz, conveying the wisdom, authority and presence that made Shultz such a formidable statesman despite being considerably shorter than the real man. Jared Harris is thoroughly believable as Gorbachev, delivering a layered performance enhanced by the Soviet leader’s unmistakable birthmark on his forehead.
Angel Studios is making movies other studios would not dare to even consider. The film delivers a polished, almost airbrushed fragment of history that is unfamiliar territory for most Americans. The Brink of War recreates the anxiety of the Cold War with straightforward candor wrapped in an unflinching narrative that unfolds by the minute.
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Reagan was trying to do something very diplomatically unique as this high-stakes meeting came surprisingly close to a sweeping nuclear-arms agreement that would have gotten rid of all nuclear weapons.
What initially plays out as a routine diplomatic meeting in Iceland would prove to be anything but. Though few realized it at the time, it set in motion the events that would be the final chapter of the Cold War and arguably one of the more perilous chapters in American history that began to draw to a close.
Reykjavik was the first domino that would eventually topple the Soviet Union, the Berlin Wall and the Warsaw Pact in a very fast and historic fashion no one at that time would ever have imagined.
Years later at Stanford, George Shultz recalled asking Mikhail Gorbachev what the Cold War’s turning point had been. Gorbachev’s answer was immediate: “Reykjavik.”
Angel Studios has been constructing a library of historical films like Cabrini, Bonhoeffer, Young Washington and now The Brink of War that treat the historical record as drama and performance rather than a mandated, overdue homework assignment.
You don’t have to be a history buff, a Cold War or Reagan-era enthusiast, to enjoy this film.
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The Brink of War opens nationally on Friday, August 14.
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