Under
what circumstances would an American president order a nuclear
bomb against a military target in the year 2008? This question
is posed in the film Deterrence, directed and
written by Rod Lurie, a former West Pointer. The film begins
in a diner in snowbound Aztec, Colorado, and short cuts are
utilized to juxtapose the conversation involving diner patrons
against news broadcasts just after voters in a presidential
primary have endorsed incumbent President Walter Emerson (played
by Kevin Pollak) as his party's nominee. However, it turns
out that Iraq has invaded Kuwait. The president and his entourage
enter the diner as a command post from which to deal with
the situation. Iraq threatens to use nuclear weapons, capable
of hitting targets around the world, if the United States
will not concede Kuwait, and President Emerson is seriously
considering dropping a nuclear bomb on Baghdad to retaliate.
In short, Iraq's leader (Saddam Hussein's son Udai) is trying
to deter the United States from the nuclear option, President
Emerson is trying compellance to get Iraq to withdraw from
Kuwait, and neither side will back down. Since poker-face
Emerson is seriously considering the nuclear option, those
in the diner react in different ways. A chessplaying couple
calls their children on a cellphone, which secret service
bodyguards confiscate. A redneck complainer first urges the
president to be tough, but later pleads for reconsideration
when he realizes that an Iraqi missile may be aimed at the
diner, which is near NORAD headquarters. The proprietor of
the diner shoots the officer holding the briefcase containing
the nuclear codes but is shot dead by two secret service agents.
Emerson's Chief of Staff (played by Timothy Hutton) and National
Security Advisor (played by Sheryl Lee Ralph) try to persuade
him to use negotiations, but to no avail. Even Emerson's wife
refuses to provide emotional support, saying over the phone,
"I'm not your Eva Braun." Ultimately, when the president is
assured that Iraqi missiles were manufactured in the United
States but secretly sold by the French to Iraq, he orders
an airplane to drop a nuclear bomb (inexplicably instead of
launching a missile with a nuclear warhead) on Baghdad, knowing
that the sale was a scam to give Iraq nondetonatable missiles.
After Baghdad is nuked (presumably as a warning to China),
Emerson inexplicably decides to withdraw from the presidential
race, and the crazy film ends. With too many idiocies to list
here, Deterrence is a pathetic effort to update
Dr. Strangelove (1964) and Fail-Safe
(1964). MH
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