The year is 2008 and President Walter Emerson (Kevin Pollak) is stranded in a Colorado diner in the middle of a blizzard. Suddenly, news arrives that Iraq has invaded Kuwait, and threatens the rest of the Middle East with chemical and biological weapons. With most of the U.S. armed forces stuck in a tense military stand-off in Korea, the President decides he has only one option: he announces on television that he will launch a nuclear attack on Baghdad unless Iraq backs down. While the President's advisors try to figure out a diplomatic solution, the situation in the diner gets increasingly tense, and the global crisis escalates until global nuclear war is threatened. DETERRENCE is a tense military thriller with several unique twists and turns and an intelligent plot guaranteed to provoke debate. Director and former film critic Rod Lurie makes good use of a low budget thanks to imaginative direction and strong performances from the cast, including Timothy Hutton and Sheryl Lee Ralph as the President's advisors. While most thrillers are content to provide excitement, DETERRENCE combines tense political thrills with a subtle but strong position on global nuclear weapons.
Theatrical release: March 10, 2000 (NY/LA).
DETERRENCE is the feature film debut of director Rod Lurie, formerly a film critic for Los Angeles Magazine and KABC-Radio, who was educated at West Point. He served as a tactical missile operator in Germany after graduation.
Director Rod Lurie has a cameo as the news correspondent trapped in Baghdad.
This film was written over one weekend with Kevin Pollak specifically in mind to play the President, and filmed over a period of eighteen days.
DETERRENCE had its debut at the Toronto Film Festival in September, 1999.
This film was made on a budget of less than $1 million, and every actor took a pay cut to get the film made.
Rod Lurie's daughter plays Pres. Emerson's daughter, heard on the telephone.
Excerpt: "Mr. President, understand this. We have the power. We have the oil."--Iraqi Ambassador Omari
"I have the match."--President Emerson
DVD Features:
Region 1
Keep Case - Sensormatic
Single Side/Single Layer
Letterboxed - Anamorphic - 1.85:1
Audio:
Dolby Digital Surround - English
Additional Release Material:
Audio Commentary - Rod Lurie - Director
Original Theatrical Trailer
Interactive Features:
Scene Access
Interactive Menus
Director of Photography
Frank Perl: Director of Photography
Review 1:
"...A provocative if dubious political parable..."
Source: Movieline's Hollywood Life
p.37 03/2000
Review 2:
"...An engrossing cross between FAIL SAFE and MIRACLE MILE..."
Source: Box Office
p.151 11/01/1999
Review 3:
"...DETERRENCE is a crackling exercise in international gamesmanship....Hutton is marvelously alert..."
Source: Los Angeles Times
p.F14 03/10/2000
Review 4:
"...[With] dialogue of substance....We're absorbed in the urgent debate that it inspires....It's surprisingly good..."
Source: Chicago Sun-Times
p.25 03/17/2000
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