Deadline (1987 film)

Deadline

Deadline DVD Cover under the title Witness in the War Zone
Directed by Nathaniel Gutman
Produced by Elisabeth Wolters-Alfs
Written by Hanan Peled
Starring Christopher Walken
Music by Hans Jansen
Jacques Zwart
Cinematography Thomas Mauch
Amnon Salomon
Edited by Peter Przygodda
Running time
 100 min.
Country Germany
Language English
Box office $141,211 (USA)

Deadline is a 1987 war/drama film about a journalist amidst the Lebanese civil war who is set up and fed false information. The film was directed by Nathaniel Gutman. Christopher Walken stars as main role, "ace reporter" Don Stevens. It was shot in Israel and Christopher Walken won the Magnolia Award for "Best Actor" in Shanghai International TV Festival. It was released in some countries under the title Witness in the War Zone.

Plot

Ace Reporter Don Stevens (Christopher Walken) is an American journalist who goes to Beirut, Lebanon during the civil war. He stays in a hotel with English journalist Mike Jessop. He is promised an interview with a top PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) leader Palestinian Yassin Abu-Riadd (Amos Lavi). However, this proves to be a set-up and he is duped into interviewing an imposter who claims the PLO are prepared to negotiate peacefully. Outraged by this deception, Stevens becomes determined to find out the truth. In this quest he is helped by a Scandinavian doctor, Linda, who it emerges is Yassin's estranged girlfriend. Along the way, Stevens is hindered by everyone around him: The PLO threaten him, the Phalangists arrest him and the Israelis ignore him. Tricked and beaten, he gradually uncovers a murder plot, double agents, the bombing of the Phalangists headquarters and, most terrifying of all, a plan to massacre hundreds of civilians. In a story that takes the lid off events in Lebanon, Don Stevens becomes a reluctant hero, and in doing so, gets the scoop of a lifetime.

See also

Sabra and Shatila massacre

External links