Deal of the Century
| Deal of the Century | |
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Theatrical release poster by John Alvin
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| Directed by | William Friedkin |
| Produced by | Bud Yorkin |
| Written by | Paul Brickman |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Arthur B. Rubinstein |
| Cinematography | Richard H. Kline |
| Edited by |
Jere Huggins Ned Humphreys Bud S. Smith |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
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Release date
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Running time
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99 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $10,369,581 (USA) |
Deal of the Century is a 1983 American comedy film directed by William Friedkin and starring Chevy Chase, Gregory Hines, and Sigourney Weaver.
The film follows the adventures of several arms dealers that compete to sell weapons to a South American dictator.
Eddie Muntz (Chase) is a small-time American arms dealer who talks his way into a job with a large defense corporation selling high-tech military unmanned aerial vehicles to a South American dictator (William Marquez). Muntz arrives in war-torn and impoverished "San Miguel" to sell weapons to both its leader and the rebels seeking his ouster.
In the middle of a sales pitch to the rebels, Muntz is caught in a firefight and is shot in the foot. Hobbling in a rundown hotel days later, Muntz meets Harold DeVoto (Wallace Shawn), a sales rep for the American defense contractor, Luckup.
Muntz peddles small arms (assault rifles, anti-personnel mines, and machine-pistols disguised as cassette tape players), whereas Luckup's product is more sophisticated—the Peacemaker UAV, a military dream that operates without pilots or airbases. But the military junta of San Miguel strings DeVoto along, driving the man to suicide. Muntz successfully takes over the deal and wins a contract worth millions.
On returning to America, he is angrily confronted at gunpoint by Catherine (Sigourney Weaver), Harold's widow. Demanding the contract, Catherine shoots Muntz instead, reopening the wound on his foot. Waking up in the hospital, Muntz is told by Frank Stryker (Vince Edwards), a Luckup executive, that San Miguel reneged on the deal after a distastrous and highly publicized demonstration of the Peacemaker.
Muntz nevertheless decides to help Luckup re-sign San Miguel. He is joined by his partner, Ray Kasternak (Gregory Hines), an ex-fighter pilot now undergoing a religious crisis of conscience, and also by Catherine. Muntz's efforts are complicated by tensions with Luckup, Ray's religious conversion, "The Peacemaker's" many technical glitches, and his own growing moral reservations.
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