User reviews

I saw this movie back in the day on VHS. I remember that I enjoyed it. I liked how they showed these political legends as real humans and remember the frank and sometimes crude language that was used. This was odd because most movies about these characters, at least at that time, glossed over them being real humans and seemed to want to portray them as nothing but their iconic public images.

Another movie kind of like this that would be a good companion piece, that is also not out on DVD is Executive Action with Burt Lancaster and Robert Ryan.

I am going strictly from memory and it was probably in the late 80's that I saw this but I remember it being a pretty interesting film.

This movie has a "crazy credit" that says something to the effect that: Some scenes contain dialogue that has been invented for dramatic purposes, but not the scenes you think.

In other words, this low budget movie* used research not only based on public statements but also some of the private conversations that became available via the Freedom of Information Act.

So you hear these iconic figures making statements that are somewhat cynical. They recognized the limitations of real world politics and, in some cases, their own foibles.

*Actors do not look very much like the famous persons they portray, and settings are often so obviously a hotel room rather than, say, the White House or whatever, that you can almost here the hotel manager banging on the door and yelling, "Check time was 11 a.m.!"