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List Price: $29.99 | | Label: Paramount Studio
Salesrank: 202861
Released: August 29, 2000 |
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| Used Price: $999.99 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Deterrence offers a welcome throwback to such sweaty-palmed chamber pieces as Fail-Safe and Twelve Angry Men, and in his debut as writer-director, Rod Lurie, a West Point graduate and former film critic, has crafted a taut, one-set drama that would have been ideal for live television. With its provocative what-if scenario and a sharp cast confined to a claustrophobic space, this movie's more clever than coherent, but it grabs your attention for 103 briskly paced minutes.
The year is 2008, and U.S. President Walter Emerson (Kevin Pollak) has something to prove. He wasn't elected (he took office upon the death of the previous president), and he needs a pivotal boost in a current primary election. While he and his entourage are trapped under heavy snowfall in a tiny Colorado diner, Emerson must decide whether to unleash a nuclear arsenal on the son of Saddam Hussein, who has invaded Kuwait and taken hundreds of American lives. With his chief of staff (Timothy Hutton), top advisers, and a cluster of terrified diners, Emerson sorts through his options as tensions come to a boil.
This all works well on the surface, and Deterrence gains depth by depicting a president who is potentially as evil as his unseen enemy. But the film is almost fatally vague (clearly Lurie wants viewers to bring their own interpretation to these events) and ends with a twist that's too contrived to be dramatically satisfying. Until that point, however, Deterrence will certainly keep you engaged. --Jeff Shannon
Deterrence Reviews:
very pleased 
2009-11-06 - product came as discribe - it was in excellent condition -- very much like new -- very happy with their service
good, slow building suspense 
2009-09-30 - Two things you need to know before watching Deterrence-
- One, PLEASE give the movie a chance. I know the first 30 minutes of film are really boring and feel almost pointless except for everyone in the diner getting to know one another. Keep waiting, and after 30 minutes the story will build into something almost guaranteed to keep your interest.
- The entire movie takes place inside the diner. If it bothers you that an entire setting sticks to one secluded diner in a small town somewhere in Colorado (and I admit, it bothers me) I hope you're able to look past this and just accept the movie anyway.
Alright, Deterrence is about the president of the United States stuck in a diner, and he has to make some life-changing and dramatic decisions concerning Iraq and nuclear missiles.
There's just an incredible amount of twists that are both shocking and ones that make you sit and wonder if they could ever really happen. Actually the film made me wonder just how much secretive information any given president could be keeping to himself. It makes you wonder at least.
There is one exceptionally violent part of the movie that will probably shock you once it happens involving an action scene and guns. I won't spoil exactly what it is- I want you to find out about it without me spoiling it.
Deterrence is all about building suspense and wondering what's going to happen when the president has some tough choices to make all the while stuck inside a small Colorado diner because of a heavy snowstorm taking place outside. All the key cabinet members and military advisors are with the president helping him make these tough decisions, and a nice little bit of additional story is that the people that actually work at the diner sometimes chip in and give their advice too.
What will happen with Iraq and the nuclear missiles that both the Americans and Iraqis have? Will they be launched? You have to find out for yourself because I don't wanna spoil it. Great movie.
Nuke Hard or... How We Will Learn to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb 
2009-06-01 - As incredible as it may seem, 'Deterrence' attempts to make the case for destroying Baghdad by detonating a multi-megaton nuclear bomb. Made before 9/11 and before George W Bush became our president, it is possible that the purpose of the movie was to make the case to the movie-viewing masses for strenghtening the role of America as the world's policeman and ruthless implementer of the Neoconservative agenda as the same was done via think tank discussions, memos and manifestos targeted at the decision makers.
Imagine this: Iraq invades Kuwait, again, and the US president who happens to be Jewish, after consulting with Israel's PM, announces that he would drop a multi-megaton nuke on Baghdad unless Iraq capitulates and Iraq's leader checks himself in at the nearest waterboarding center. Iraq threatens to nuke a couple dozen 'free world' locations, including Beijing, Tokyo and Pensacola, FL (it's true) but, it turns out, the American nukes they bought from the French were all duds. Well... the prez, while fully knowing that the Iraqi nukes posed no danger to anyone, nukes Baghdad anyway to show the world that, when America is threatened, America will use its nukes. All smiles, end of story but not before a patriotic American who fully supports the 'nuke everyone hard' policy but uses shockingly insensitive language is admonished by the President and hopefully learns a lesson that such language can't be tolerated.
Just in case this didn't register: the US president drops a nuke on the capital city of a country that he know it posed no danger to the US, killing millions, to 'send a message' to the rest of the world.
Nice.
[...]
Refreshing!
2008-11-15 - I gave this movie a well deserved 5 stars as it proves that you certainly do not need big names and a big budget to make an intelligent, first class movie. I stumbled accross it by chance about a year ago whilst at home in the evening watching T.V. I'd never heard of it before which is most unusual seeing I consider myself to be a huge movie fanatic. It's like when you watch a horror movie and you never quite get to see the killers face, far more scary. Same principal here as you never go face to face with the enemy, or see any dramatic special effects which often are way over the top and don't look very realistic. Instead, you are left with your imagination of the true horror of what could quite possibly happen. The twist at the end is perhaps a bit far fetched, but who cares, I loved it. Fast paced, tense, gripping, unpredictable and all set in a diner - Bizzare!
Movie
2007-11-30 - Arrived promptly.Thank you. Fantastic movie. Bunch of liberal critics gave it bad reviews as it puts forth a cold hard option in stopping war. I hope it is an option we never use!
