Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Frank Langella | ... | Gerald Bull | |
Alan Arkin | ... | Yossi | |
Kevin Spacey | ... | Price | |
Michael Kitchen | ... | Chris Cowley | |
Francesca Annis | ... | Sophie | |
Aharon Ipalé | ... | Maurouf | |
Zia Mohyeddin | ... | Hashim | |
Tony Goldwyn | ... | Duvall | |
James Fox | ... | Whittington | |
Rupert Graves | ... | Jones | |
Clive Owen | ... | Dov | |
Murray Melvin | ... | Shop Manager | |
Marianne Denicourt | ... | Monique | |
Alexandra Vandernoot | ... | Marie | |
Roger Hammond | ... | Mackler |
Dr Gerald Bull was a genius at designing and building superguns. (Very large long range guns capable of shooting more than 100 Miles.) When a plan by the CIA to export restricted material using him was exposed, the CIA denied all knowledge and he went to jail. He was later released to help Saddam Hussein build a new supergun capable of firing over 500 miles. Israel, upon learning of the supergun, fears it would be used against themselves. Written by Brian W Martz <B.Martz@Genie.com>
This movie sets out to tell the (more or less) true story of Canadian weapons designer Gerald Bull (Frank Langella), who dreams of building the world's most powerful artillery gun: hundreds of feet long and able to deliver a shell the size of a small building. The only problem? America and Great Britain don't want to finance his masterpiece and don't want Bull constructing one for anybody else. But Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is willing to pay for one, and able to get around the American embargo on selling weapons to Iraq by cleverly disguising the gun's parts as ordinary industrial equipment. But once Bull goes to work for Saddam, he sets himself as a target for international hit squads willing to do anything to keep such a weapon out of the wrong hands. He found himself playing cat-and-mouse, taking precautions to stay one step ahead of the world's intelligence agencies. This movie provides a pretty good reconstruction of the project, and the fact that the project was a quite chilling possibility gives the story much of its interest. Unlike the outlandish schemes of James Bond's usual adversaries, Bull's supergun was technically feasible and his customer, Saddam, was a very real threat to world peace. A decent way to pass the time for anybody looking for real life intelligence intrigue.