Wrong Is Right (1982)

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

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.

This is an unusual film in that the satire is razor sharp and doesn't age a bit, but the film doesn't work at all. There are a few decent gags, but the film is ragged and not terribly funny. The movie doesn't know whether its wants to be a comedy, a serious drama, a caper, or an action flick. And it doesn't do any of them that well, which is a shame because the film had a lot of potential. Instead Connery pretty much plays the lead role as a kind of pseudo-James Bond, or Mike Wallace on steroids. I'm not sure if the tone of the film was an artistic decision or a corporate one. You'd think they'd go the Kubrick route not The Pink Panther direction. But maybe the filmmakers were trying to avoid precisely that comparison. I'd love to ask Richard Brooks just that. An interesting and long-forgotten novelty, it's watchable solely for curiosity's sake. But heck, even a mediocre Connery movie is worth your time...except Highlander II.

Richard Brooks directed this seemingly forgotten satire that stars Sean Connery as successful TV newsman Patrick Hale, who is hot on the trail of a big news story involving stolen nuclear warheads hidden in suitcases and international terrorism, leading from the Pentagon to the White House, where President Lockwood(played by George Grizzard) and General Wombat(played by Robert Conrad) try desperately to keep a lid on things, while Hale suspects a cover-up, where it all ends atop the World Trade Center... Crazy satire seems like a combination of "Network" and "Dr. Strangelove", but falls well short of those classics. This may be prescient in some ways, but it little matters in misfired comedy. Interesting cast though!

I wish this movie was more readily available..it IS prophetic.I saw it nearly twenty years ago and have never forgotten it.Connery puts in one of his best performances as the cynical, jaded, journalist.I would urge all students of US foreign policy to rent-and analyze-this film