Name: Retro Film Review: The Peacemaker (1997)
Item: The Peacemaker
Rating: 50
Author: @drax

(source:tmdb.org)

"First kittens are thrown to the water" is the popular proverb in this part of the world. Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen had probably heard of it while producing The Peacemaker, 1997 action thriller directed by Mimi Leder. That film was first major production of their new Dreamworks SKG studio and quite a disappointment compared with its future titles .

The plot deals with the issue that seems to be more relevant today than in 1990s - nuclear arms proliferation and sad fact that the end of Cold War didn't turn world into a safer place. In case of former Soviet Union it left former superpower with thousands of nuclear warheads and tens of thousands of underpaid, desperate or ruthless people with access to them. One of those is General Alexander Kodoroff (played by Aleksandr Baluyev) who steals couple of nuclear warheads and offers them to the highest bidder. The highest bidder happens to be Dušan Gavrić (played by Marcel Iures), Bosnian Serb diplomat whose family had been killed by Bosnian Muslim snipers in war-divided Sarajevo. Instead of blaming his neighbours, like most people in this part of world do, Gavrić blames the West and wants to make it pay by detonating the bomb in New York. Nuclear weapons specialist Dr. Julia Kelly (played by Nicole Kidman) and US Special Forces Colonel Thomas Devoe (played by George Clooney) try to prevent that horrible plan.

The Peacemaker wasn't disappointment only for Dreamworks SKG. Originally, it was supposed to tell the Croatian truth about late Balkan unpleasantness in exchange for enjoying the benefits of Croatian locations, extras and studio facilities. However, before the project had been officially green-lit, the war ended and Spielberg became aware of some of allegedly anti-Semitic remarks in Croatian President's history books. The production moved to Macedonia, but Branko Lustig, one of the producers and Croatian native, managed to keep many of Croatian supporting crew and cast, including Goran Višnjić of ER fame (whose small role of border guard turned out to be his big Hollywood break). The explicitly anti-Serbian stance of the film was toned down and the chief villain was transformed from conventional Serb nationalist into idealistic but dangerous Yugo nostalgic, thus improving film's chances on Serbian market.

On the other hand, The Peacemaker didn't disappoint in terms of being sufficiently entertaining and well-directed action film. Mimi Leder, being one of the rare Hollywood women directors specialised in this sort of genre, showed great skill in staging elaborate and spectacular action scenes - they fill much of 124 minutes of film's running time and make the audience forget about many of plot holes, implausibilities and character inconsistencies (Iran as the most convenient place to smuggle nuclear weapons to West; lunatic who wants to nuke Manhattan and save innocent passer-bys in the same time etc.). Romanian actor Marcel Iures is very effective in the complex role of idealistic villain (although the film went too far in trying to make audience understand his grievances) and much better than Kidman and Clooney in the roles that would hardly be among the more memorable in their filmographies. Armin Mueller-Stahl, on the other hand, is completely wasted in unnecessary role of former Soviet spymaster. The Peacemaker might be disappointment, but it is watchable enough to forget that some great things are born with whimpers rather than bangs.

RATING: 5/10 (++)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.films.reviews on December 5th 2003)