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 |
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. Written by John Vogel <jlvogel@comcast.net>
Deal of the Century is for those with an appreciation of the absurd. A dry, dark comedy, and an ironic portrayal of 1980s American (Reaganite) values. The film is a humorous, critical portrait of the hypocrisy behind Ronald Reagan's deadly cold war shenanigans. Its a political comedy -- very well directed by William Friedkin (The French Connection, The Exorcist). It is also well performed and photographed. Chevy Chase is perfectly cast as a cynical arms dealer. And the late, great, Gregory Hines, as his partner, disenchanted with the arms business and suddenly filled with pathos, desperately and hilariously turns from heavy-weapons to Jesus. It is not a perfectly plotted or written film, but it strives to intelligently portray its era.