In my continuation of the theme of 250th Anniversary of the United States of America this year, I will discuss the movie The Brink of War starring Jeff Daniels as President Ronald Reagan, Jared Harris as Mikhail Gorbachev and J K Simmons as George Schultz the Secretary of State under Ronald Reagan. It was a thorough account of the famous negotiated talks between the two biggest leaders of power in the world at the time. This movie originally came out into theaters on August 14, 2026. It was later made available on streaming services on September 1 of this year to Amazon Prime, Fandango and other services. This movie was released by Angel Studios. Angel has their own streaming service and this was the platform I chose to watch the movie last night.
The Brink of War was directed by Michael Russell Gunn who is known for being a producer in Hollywood. Mr. Gunn has also produced and helped write the acclaimed tv series Designed Survivor that premiered on ABC starring Kiefer Sutherland showing the behind the scenes of what happens in the United States government during the President’s State of the Union speeches and what could happen in what if scenarios. Finally, he has also worked as a producer on the TV show Billions on Showtime and has had many years of experience in Hollywood.
His just released directorial debut film that discusses the 1986 Cold War, The Brink of War was his first time behind a feature film as a director and producer for the big screen in his directorial debut that discusses about the 1986 Cold War Reykjavik Summit between the 2 world leaders. Because of his extensive work dealing with Presidential historical moments, I believe Mr. Gunn did a good job bringing the famous story most historians know about the famous Cold War negotiations between the United States President Reagan and General Secretary for the Soviet Union Gorbachev in Reykjavik, Iceland. A historical fact is the movie was really played out in the actual house used by those famous leaders. I would assume the actors and film crews there must have had goosebumps knowing they were filming at the actual spot and in the very house used back in the 1980s.
The acting in this movie was very good. It was written, directed and the cinematography was well captured and made me feel like I was actually there in that most historical set of days for the talks on Human Rights, Nuclear disarmament, the famous Star Wars or strategic arms and ABM treaty.
J K Simmons as George Schultz was surprisingly strong and well portrayed and I felt Schultz was just as intelligent and powerful as the two mighty leaders of Reagan and Gorbachev and his foreign minister counterpart.
My only negative take away by the Angel Studios film was the unnecessary bad language for a faith based and family film company. I was happy to see that Angel has offered a version of the movie that has removed the bad language for the family to watch and not be concerned of the language and adult topics if a younger audience that is watching alongside their parents.
This movie takes us through all the various levels of talk and how we were at the brink of war. This summit was not long after Reagan’s assassination attempt back in 1981. The subplot characters of Nancy Reagan played by Hope Davis and Raisa Gorbachev the wife of Mikhail Gorbachev were described in an interesting way. I was not aware of their places in these important talks. I was only 14 years old when all of this transpired and a little young to remember all of this was going on back then.
My take on The Brink of War is that it is a good movie that people should watch at least one time. It might not be a movie that is 100% accurate but it is at least 95% in the storytelling. The fact they were able to use the actual location for the filming of this very important and historic event should tell you how they were trying to get it right and be accurate as possible. I give this movie a 4.5 out of 5 stars.