The Peacemaker (1997)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Mimi Leder

Writers (WGA):

Leslie Cockburn (article) &
Andrew Cockburn (article) ...

Release Date:

26 September 1997 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Thriller

Tagline:

This is not a test.

Plot:

A US Army colonel and a civilian woman supervising him must track down stolen Russian nuclear weapons before they're used by terrorists.

Plot Keywords:

Russia | Nuclear Weapons | Train Crash | Nuclear Explosion | New York

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

George Clooney	...	Lt. Col. Thomas Devoe
Nicole Kidman	...	Dr. Julia Kelly
Marcel Iures	...	Dusan Gavrich
Aleksandr Baluyev	...	General Aleksandr Kodoroff (as Alexander Baluev)
Rene Medvesek	...	Vlado Mirich
Gary Werntz	...	Terry Hamilton
Randall Batinkoff	...	Ken
Jim Haynie	...	General Garnett
Alexander Strobele	...	Dietrich Schuhmacher
Holt McCallany	...	Mark Appleton
Michael Boatman	...	CPN Beach
Joan Copeland	...	Senator Helen Bevens
Carlos Gómez	...	Santiago
Armin Mueller-Stahl	...	Dimitri Vertikoff
Slavko Juraga	...	Stevo

MPAA:

Rated R for strong violence and some language.

Runtime:

124 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Russian | Serbo-Croatian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Brazil:12 | Iceland:16 | Philippines:PG-13 | New Zealand:M | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Belgium:KT | Finland:K-16 | France:U | Germany:16 (w) | Mexico:B | Netherlands:16 | Norway:15 | Peru:14 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:NC-16 | South Korea:15 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:R (Certificate #35519)

Filming Locations:

Bratislava, Slovakia

Company:

DreamWorks SKG

Trivia:

The first film released by Dreamworks SKG.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The Pakistani colonel loads a nuclear bomb while general Kodoroff is watching - but the word KROJACH (KPOJA4) on one of the woven banners is in Serbian Cyrillic. This means that the scene was shot in the former Yugoslavia, even though it is set somewhere in Russia.

Quotes:

Thomas Devoe: Doctor, you can run your charts and your theories all you want. In the field, this is how it works: the good guys, that's us, we chase the bad guys. And they don't wear black hats. They are, however, all alike: they demand power, and respect, and they're willing to pay top dollar to get it. And that is our highly motivated buyer.
Julia Kelly: What about other motivations?
Thomas Devoe: Not important to me.
Julia Kelly: Whether it's important to you or not, there are people out there who don't care about money, who don't give a damn about respect. People who believe the killing of innocent men and women is justified. For them it is about rage, frustration, hatred... they feel pain and they're determined to share it with the world.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Navy NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service: Kill Ari: Part 2 (#3.2)" (2005)

Soundtrack:

NOCTURNE IN F MINOR, OP. 55 NO.1

underrated/over-criticized

Some movies stick in your consciousness. This is one of them. Although the script is not that original in its major components, Mimi Leder made a very strong visual statement here. The train hi-jacking sequence is about as good as anything on film. Although many reviewers here see the movie as one long cliché, the anti-hero is really protesting Western militarism and the ubiquitous arms industry. He's suffered a great personal loss at the hands of the "let's sell guns to everybody" group. The "Peacekeepers" ignore the slaughter going on around them. Blowing up the U.N. and a sizable chunk of Manhattan may not be the best answer, but in the context of the film it makes sense. In many ways the film is much more subtle than just "good guys/bad guys." Look again and watch for the nuances.