"The Brink of War" – A Movie Review

While the latest installment in the Spider Man movie franchise, "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" is still topping the box office charts over three weeks after its initial release, for those who have an interest in history or possess a more intellectual inclination, "The Brink of War" is currently showing in movie theaters nationwide. With "The Brink of War" coming in seventh over the weekend in box office results. It is a film that is focused on how, "President Reagan races to save a nuclear deal with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev as pressure mounts all around him."

Rated PG, "The Brink of War" features Jeff Daniels in the title role of President Ronald Reagan as Reagan and Gorbachev meet in a haunted house in Reykjavik, Iceland in 1986 to discuss nuclear arms reductions. As according to local legend in Iceland, the "White Lady" haunts the home that was built in 1909. The home was actually prefabricated in Norway before being shipped to Iceland and erected there for the French consul. It was in this house that Reagan and Gorbachev met between October 11th and 12th of 1986 the meetings of which constitute the subject of the film.

While in the movie, "The Brink of War", Reagan and Gorbachev, after trading barbs with each other concerning one another's respective countries, they are able to reach an agreement. In real life, the talks concluded without the two world leaders reaching an accord. Nevertheless, the meetings in Reykjavik are credited with facilitating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty which was later signed on December 08th, 1987. And Gorbachev later told Reagan's Secretary of State, George Shultz, that the Reykjavik meetings were the turning point in the Cold War, "because for the first time the two leaders talked directly, over an extended period in a real conversation, about key issues."

The Cold War ended in 1991, five years after the meetings in Reykjavik. With the Cold War being a tense political and economic rivalry between The United States of America and the Soviet Union. It began in March of 1947, after the end of World War II in 1945, when President Harry S. Truman promised economic and military aid to any country threatened by communism. As the USA was seen as the leader of the capitalist and democratic nations. While the Soviet Union was viewed as the leader of the communist nations.

Mikhail Gorbachev was the last leader of the Soviet Union. With Gorbachev introducing policies such as Glasnost and Perestroika that gave the Russian people more freedoms including the ability to start some small private businesses. In the film, "The Brink of War", Gorbachev is very convincingly portrayed by the British actor, Jared Harris. In a testament to the British school of acting, it is hard to believe while watching the movie that Gorbachev is portrayed by someone who isn't a native Russian. For Harris perfectly masters the accent and mannerisms of Gorbachev.

"The Brink of War" also marks the directorial debut of Michael Russell Gunn, an American writer and film director of Asian descent who attended Boston University. With Gunn being inspired to produce the film after meeting with Reagan's Secretary of State, Shultz. With Shultz even providing Michael Russell Gunn with the declassified transcript of the conversations that took place during the meetings in Reykjavik.

Worth viewing, "The Brink of War" has a running time of an hour and fifty-seven minutes. With the majority of the film being shot onsite in Iceland, the movie also features some very interesting scenery of the Land of Fire and Ice.

Luisa Reyes is a Tuscaloosa attorney, poet, reporter, vocalist, piano instructor, and columnist who writes on current affairs, politics, and the arts.