A small time arms dealer in South America to sell weapons to the revolutionaries, winds up negotiating the sale of an experimental plane to the nation's dictator.A small time arms dealer in South America to sell weapons to the revolutionaries, winds up negotiating the sale of an experimental plane to the nation's dictator.A small time arms dealer in South America to sell weapons to the revolutionaries, winds up negotiating the sale of an experimental plane to the nation's dictator.
Carmencristina Moreno
- Woman Singer
- (as Carmen Moreno)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaOne of only two films director William Friedkin wrote nothing about, positive or negative, in his memoir The Friedkin Connection (see also The Guardian (1990)).
- GoofsRay begins studying the specs of the Peacemaker on an inclined table (drafting table) facing a wall. In two consecutive scenes, the camera shots are from the side (since a wall is directly in front of Ray). In several following cuts, Ray is seen sitting at a kitchen table, allowing the camera to shoot Ray from the front. It is possible Ray moved all of the study materials from one table to the other, but it seems clear this was done to facilitate the frontal shot.
- Quotes
General Huddleston: [watching the Peacemaker malfunction] This is a great day for the Air Force, Senator.
Sen. Bryce: Why is that, General?
General Huddleston: Because the Navy ordered twenty of those disasters.
Navy Officers: Son of a bitch!
- Alternate versionsCBS edited 5 minutes from this film for its 1988 network television premiere.
- SoundtracksSomeone To Watch Over Me
Music by George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin
Sung by Nikka Costa
Courtesy of Renquet Records
Featured review
More on target than you'd expect
It seems like everyone's opinion on this movie is evenly divided. People either love it or hate it. Personally, I am not a Chevy Chase fan by any stretch of the imagination. But I like many of William Friedkin's films so I wanted to give this a chance and went in without too many preconceptions.
It obviously can't stand up to a comparison to DR. STRANGELOVE as a few here have done. However, it still remains a fairly on-target, unflattering satire of the weapons industry and by extrapolation, other mass production industries that love to sell the government and public crap product cosmetically hyped as the next great answer to all their fears and desires, product that ends up being useless or obsolete within a year (if it even works properly in the first place). There are some pretty funny scenes sprinkled throughout and I was pleasantly surprised through the whole film how much dark, subversively funny jabs Friedkin gets away with. Especially in a big studio movie.
There's one scene in particular that makes the film well worth seeing --Gregory Hines (I believe it was him) gets into a verbal altercation with another extremely hotheaded driver (a maniacal Tony Plana) (over a fender bender? it's been a while since I've seen it) -- the verbal sparring quickly escalates into a life-threatening situation and the emotional dynamics the two actors bring to the scene is scarily believable while remaining extremely funny. This scene alone provides a microcosmic metaphor for the provocations of nations going to war and perfectly illustrates the pointless absurdity of aggressive behaviour in general. Also of note, it's great to see the underrated Vince Edwards in a large supporting role as the ruthless air weapons manufacturer.
DEAL OF THE CENTURY is never less than amusing and has some extremely funny sequences -- much better than many of these IMDb reviews would lead you to believe.
It obviously can't stand up to a comparison to DR. STRANGELOVE as a few here have done. However, it still remains a fairly on-target, unflattering satire of the weapons industry and by extrapolation, other mass production industries that love to sell the government and public crap product cosmetically hyped as the next great answer to all their fears and desires, product that ends up being useless or obsolete within a year (if it even works properly in the first place). There are some pretty funny scenes sprinkled throughout and I was pleasantly surprised through the whole film how much dark, subversively funny jabs Friedkin gets away with. Especially in a big studio movie.
There's one scene in particular that makes the film well worth seeing --Gregory Hines (I believe it was him) gets into a verbal altercation with another extremely hotheaded driver (a maniacal Tony Plana) (over a fender bender? it's been a while since I've seen it) -- the verbal sparring quickly escalates into a life-threatening situation and the emotional dynamics the two actors bring to the scene is scarily believable while remaining extremely funny. This scene alone provides a microcosmic metaphor for the provocations of nations going to war and perfectly illustrates the pointless absurdity of aggressive behaviour in general. Also of note, it's great to see the underrated Vince Edwards in a large supporting role as the ruthless air weapons manufacturer.
DEAL OF THE CENTURY is never less than amusing and has some extremely funny sequences -- much better than many of these IMDb reviews would lead you to believe.
helpful•301
- chrisdfilm
- May 21, 2004
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Das Bombengeschäft
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $10,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $10,369,581
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $3,520,605
- Nov 6, 1983
- Gross worldwide
- $10,369,581
- Runtime1 hour 39 minutes
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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