By Dan Skip Allen

I’ve said this a lot in many of the reviews I’ve written, but it’s worth saying again. I grew up in the 80s, and I have seen a lot of things happen in that decade as a kid/ teenager. I’m not that into politics, but in the 80s, it was hard to avoid what was going on in the world. Especially when it involved long gas lines, tearing down walls, or baking defense systems after one of my favorite movies. Politics aside, even I wanted to stop the cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union as a young man. The meeting between Reagan and Gorbachev in Iceland was a very big step in the right direction towards this. “The Brink of War” is a very good depiction of how close these two global powers came to starting World War III.

Ronald Reagan (Jeff Daniel’s, Newsroom, is at an impasse with Mikael Gorbachev (Jared Harris). They have a lot of things that are dividing them regarding their discussions to reduce nuclear weapons. They have a meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland, to try and reason with each other. On one side, it’s human decently, and the other is power and the world’s perception of how strong they are. Two global powers are trying to fight for what they believe in. Whether the other global leader believes in it or not. The teams of each of the leaders play a big part in what happens, but it’s the two men who ultimately decide the fate of their nations. History will show what actually happened.

The director, Michael Russell Gunn, infused a lot into this 2 hr long movie. The first is the vast differences between the two leaders and their nations.The second is how the CIA/KGB doesn’t get along in the basement, and their bathroom privileges show that. The third is fundamental idealism. These people think differently than our people. The assistants for each side are trying to convince their leaders that what they are trying to do is futile. The other side won’t go for it, but one man, George Shultz (JK Simmons), has an idea that could change the course of history. That’s the main message that this film is selling. Dialogue is better than violence, guns, bombs, and so forth.

The supporting cast is pretty good including a Big Bang Theory alum John Ross Bowie, a couple of reporters, Aya Cash and Guy Burnett, but the two that made an impact on me were Hope Davis as Nancy Reagan and Branka Katic as Raisa Gorbachev.  These two women played a role in what their husbands did and how they acted toward the other leader. The wives are a sounding board for their husbands. You know the saying “Behind each great man there is always a great woman”. That analogy is true in this case. The supporting cast in this movie is pretty good, but it’s the two stars, Daniels and Harris, that shine for the most part.

Two technical things I noticed about the way the director chose to show this film were certainly interesting to me. There was a close-up cinematography inside the old house that was chosen to be the meeting place between these two men. It was rumored to be a haunted house, so that added to the nature of the place. The landscape of the country was also used in between tense deliberations between the leaders. This country was beautifully depicted. Sometimes, it was bright and colorful, and other times, it was dark and gloomy, which represented the various moods of the situations that were going on in the film. 

Another dichotomy regarding the difference in the story was the score by Austin Wintory. There were times when the music was somber and downtrodden when the story was going in a bad way and other times when the music was more upbeat when the story was going in a positive direction. The difference in the score was very noticeable. The score accentuated this film perfectly well. That’s what music is supposed to do. 

I don’t usually let my own political beliefs get in the way of how I review movies. Especially one with a specific angle like this one had. It’s ironic, though, that I actually agree with the message in this film. A quote from a Russian proverb used in the movie sums up my thoughts completely: “Trust But Verify”. That’s how I feel regarding political situations, politicians, and government scenarios. Even as a little kid, I knew this was what the country and the world needed. As time has gone by, history has proved me right, and everything that happened in Iceland to be right. That’s not always the case, but I’m glad I watched this film to get a better perspective on this time in my and America’s past.

🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 stars