Deal of the Century (1983)

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.

Director:

William Friedkin

Writers:

Paul Brickman, Bernard Edelman (book)

Stars:

Chevy Chase, Sigourney Weaver, Gregory Hines

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Chevy Chase	...	Eddie Muntz
Sigourney Weaver	...	Catherine DeVoto
Gregory Hines	...	Ray Kasternak
Vince Edwards	...	Frank Stryker
William Marquez	...	Gen. Cordosa
Eduardo Ricard	...	Col. Salgado
Richard Herd	...	Lyle
Graham Jarvis	...	Babers
Wallace Shawn	...	Harold DeVoto
Randi Brooks	...	Ms. Della Rosa
Ebbe Roe Smith	...	Bob
Richard Libertini	...	Masaggi
J.W. Smith	...	Will
Carmencristina Moreno	...	Woman Singer (as Carmen Moreno)
Charles Levin	...	Dr. Rechtin

Storyline

Arms dealers from several companies vie to sell the most expensive and highest tech weapons to a South American dictator. There are complications; understanding the exact nature of how 'gifts' are used to grease the wheels of a sale, a religious conversion from one of the salesman and a romance that begins to grow between two competitors, not to mention the imminient financial collapse of one of the companies if they don't make this sale.

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Plot Keywords:

dictator | arms dealer | helicopter | used car salesman | explosion | 

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Taglines:

Chevy Chase and his partners are arms dealers. They sell second-rate weapons to third world nations. But they're not out to stick it to anyone.

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 November 1983 (USA)

Also Known As:

Das Bombengeschäft

Filming Locations:

Santa Barbara, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$10,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$3,520,605, 6 November 1983, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$10,369,581

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros.,Dream Quest Images

Technical Specs

Runtime:

99 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Chevy Chase's character's full name is Edward T. Muntz, which is seen on his business card. He's only referred to as Eddie, Ed (briefly by Vince Edwards' character) or Mr. Muntz throughout the film.

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Goofs

Ray's confrontation with the Chicano Man appears out of sequence. In the previous scene, Ray has already unloaded the flame thrower from his car, and is seen to be cleaning it.

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Quotes

Dr. Rechtin: Well, because of the demo today, we washed it down last night. The water must've fogged the electronics.
Frank Stryker: Well, first it's the air conditioning; now it's the water. I mean: are you guys pulling my tit or what?
Bob: Washing it was sheer stupidity!
Luckup Computer Tech: Should do great tomorrow.
Frank Stryker: TOMORROW?
Luckup Computer Tech: After it dries.
Frank Stryker: There is no tomorrow, you assholes! Haven't ya ever heard of RAIN?

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Alternate Versions

CBS edited 5 minutes from this film for its 1988 network television premiere.

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Connections

Features All in the Family (1971)

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Soundtracks

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
Written by Haven Gillespie and J. Fred Coots
Performed by The Chipmunks
Courtesy of RCA Records and Bagdasarian Productions

User Reviews

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.