User reviews

I enjoyed this movie because I can vaguely remember the circumstances surrounding his death and the noticeable lack of attention paid to it in Canada. The story is interesting and the character study is fascinating. I thought that Frank Langella was right for the role. Not only is he relatively unknown by Hollywood standards, he is also Canadian. This is a case where a man's dream to build the biggest and best arms overrides his sense of morality.He was willing to sell his technology to anyone regardless of how it would be used. He wasn't interested in profit - it was all in the interest of personal aggrandizement. The movie probably could have been better (at least in the glitzy Hollywood sense) but the story is told in a fairly straightforward and interesting manner allowing the viewer to decide for him/herself about ends versus means.

Another good example of how a tv movie can, perhaps within bland and low-cost production values, be more interesting and truthful than the standard Hollywood film.

Another respondent has described how well the film captures the creative moment within engineering, and that's all true. I think Langella's performance was also an excellent representation of a buccaneering businessman, drawing about him intelligent people he trusts and inspiring them, although occasionally haranguing them.

Good scenes .. Gerald Bull dining on the grave of a famous German artilleryman. The Israeli spy chief walking morosely around the Baghdad arms fair looking at all the hardware he would one day have to face. The nods and winks of the British establishment as they turn a blind eye to the production of Saddam's supergun.

Yes it clunks here and there. But fine acting and a literate script. More absorbing than most films which cost 10 times as much.

Seven out of ten.

Interesting fact based spy film with supposed allies backstabbing each other, each with their own agenda for using an engineer's gigantic gun he is developing. The long range implications for Middle East Countries is factored against the region's importance as an oil producer. Profit and greed is offset by the scientific drive of one man, who's vision is well beyond the present, possibly offering him the immortal recognition he desires. This is well acted, fast paced, and intriguing. There is even an open ended conclusion that begs discussion. The miniatures and computer renderings of the big guns are superbly done, and the film is relevant even with all the time that has passed. - MERK

Just a quibble to correct Jonathan from Hoboken's identification of Gerry Bull as an America. He was Canadian (you can even see him brandishing his Canadian passport in the final airport scene with Price (Spacey) near the end.) Gerry Bull was an inconvenient Canadian, in that he thought too big for a Canadian, and, like many other Canadians of talent and vision, eventually had to leave the country to achieve what he wanted. He was a brilliant supersonic aerodynamics engineer, who had contributed to the Avro Arrow program, and had run HARP (High Altitude Research Program) which had been, ahem, aimed at achieving spaceflight using guns, a la Jules Verne. It had operated the original 'supergun' in the Caribbean, with battleship guns put end to end. Bull gave up on Canada when Canada gave up on him, and that's when he became the international long-range artillery guy, selling his expertise to whoever paid - Israel, South Africa, Iraq. I figure if Israel could knock out Saddam's Osirak nuclear plant with an air strike, it wouldn't be past them to knock off the guy about to give Saddam a supergun with which to shell Tel Aviv.

The movie, though heavy on the CIA-is-the-root-of-all-evil conspiracy theories, was entertaining and not that bad, especially as a made-for-TV job, with, I thought, pretty good casting (I always like Michael Kitchen).

This movie sets out to tell the (more or less) true story of Canadian weapons designer Gerald Bull (Frank Langella), who dreams of building the world's most powerful artillery gun: hundreds of feet long and able to deliver a shell the size of a small building. The only problem? America and Great Britain don't want to finance his masterpiece and don't want Bull constructing one for anybody else. But Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is willing to pay for one, and able to get around the American embargo on selling weapons to Iraq by cleverly disguising the gun's parts as ordinary industrial equipment. But once Bull goes to work for Saddam, he sets himself as a target for international hit squads willing to do anything to keep such a weapon out of the wrong hands. He found himself playing cat-and-mouse, taking precautions to stay one step ahead of the world's intelligence agencies. This movie provides a pretty good reconstruction of the project, and the fact that the project was a quite chilling possibility gives the story much of its interest. Unlike the outlandish schemes of James Bond's usual adversaries, Bull's supergun was technically feasible and his customer, Saddam, was a very real threat to world peace. A decent way to pass the time for anybody looking for real life intelligence intrigue.

Frank Langella stars as Dr Gerald Bull who wishes to sell a giant "doomsday"gun to a non US friendly third world nation. Obviously this doesnt sit well with a few people.. An OK movie but Langella seems lost in the role, a bit miscast, and the story doesnt hold interest like it should 6 of 10

I first saw this as an HBO made for TV movie. It didn't make much of an impression at the time but I revisited it just to see who is in it. Kevin Spacey plays one of the few likable characters I've ever see him play. Even better, Spacey is workking again with Alan Arkin. Frank Langella is excellent in everything and this is no exception. Zia Mohyeddin, the great character actor has to say almost nothing to convey his Iraqi military officer as someone who is extremely dangerous. Tony Goldwyn plays the typical bureaucrat everyone loves to hate, Michael Kitchen. Francesca Annis, Aharon Ipalé, James Fox. This is a great cast!

What is missing with this movie is a point. All I get from it is how blind to reality Gerald Bull must have been. It tells a good espionage story. It tries to find controversy like who financed the Iraqi military and why but that's nothing anyone who knows history doesnt know. US sided with Iraq during their war with Iran seeing Iraq as the lesser of two evils. After that war ended, they turned into an enemy when the invasion of Kuwait occurred. Simple. What does this story have to do with that? Almost nothing. The only point I get is Bull wanting to make a gun that would never work, a gun he can't build because the parts will never be delivered ( a man known for building guns, sends a known associate of his to convince foreign countries that these giant metal pieces are not gun related??? Did they really do something that stupid?), inserts himself into the Middle East conflict with no protection and you can guess the result of that.

It is good seeing the actors though especially the scenes Spacey has with Arkin. Both actors play characters well outside their usual casting.

Another excellent made-for-TV movie. This is as good a spy thriller as I have seen in a long time. The icing on the cake is, it also happens to be true!

This movie is short on action, short on special effects, explosions, car chases and the likes; this is a movie with a great script (true life is the best writer I have ever known), it is intelligently made, well directed and acted. All of the protagonists are excellent, but special mention is due to Alan Arkin in my opinion, whose portrayal of a cynical spy is Oscar worthy. James Fox has a cameo as the Head of MI6, he is also perfect in his role and seems to be amusing himself greatly while playing it.

It would be very interesting to learn the whole truth about this story one day...

I've read a book about the super gun ,and the man behind it.(Can't remember if it was fiction or biography)But I find they portray of him in this film,extremely naive. They go to great lengths to portray him as a big child,who just wanna realize his dream, of building the biggest gun ever.

If it was meant as a kid movie that might have worked out well. But since this a movie for adult about real events(though I'm sure they've taken huge liberties with the truth)And he has worked with agency's all over the world,he seem quite willfully ignorant of the threat they are to him. He just goes on and on, about how wonderfully it will be that his invention works.

He seem to have no conception of how dangerous it will be, that Saddam wanna brag and show off a model of this doomsday cannon, on a international public arms convention. Even though he knows the people after him are quite serious about stopping him. The fact that America in the movie, think they can decate Israel is kind of amusing. Everyone with half a brain,knows it's the otherway around

As an engineer's son, I have never seen a better portrayal of an engineer's enthusiasm for new problems and new challenges. In one unforgettable scene, Frank Langella brought to the screen for the first time in my opinion what can only be called, "the-joy-of-development."

Too often films that deal with invention focus on that moment when the problem comes together and is solved. What they fail to recognize is the first step, when the men and women are looking at the challenge ahead has even more emotional potential. Thankfully the writers and actors in this film did not forget this human truth.

The cast is excellent. The script is uneven, but the only reason this is obvious is because instead of staying mildly good throughout, like most made for cable films, this movie is mildly good with occasional scenes of brilliance.

If you are an engineer or just have one as a friend or member of the family, see this film. It's a wonder.

Some of the dialogue and scenes were a bit over the top (eg 1. "This -draws circle- is our 'current gun'. This -draws huge circle- is going to be our next gun." 2. PhD and employees working late suddenly discovering lining a barrel etc ...).

Alan Arkin and Kevin Spacey play subdued roles.

Ratings 1 Deliberately botched (for the "it's so bad it's good" crowd) 2 I don't want to see it 3 I didn't finish and or FF'd through it 4 Bad 5 I don't get it 6 Good 7 Great but with a major flaw 8 Great 9 Noir with moral 10 Inspiring with moral.

One reviewer claimed that the idea of a Supergun was impractical due to the huge flame that could easily be observed from satellites, and that such a gun would take days to clean out and reload.

This is not correct.

A supergun can work, and is no more impractical than a fixed airbase or missile launch site.

The German superguns did work, and many rounds were fired both in testing and operationally - at Luxembourg.

Iran would have had difficulty destroying a firing site. Its ground attack capability was not good, and the gun itself would be a small target. Flames could not be seen from space, even if Iran did have a satellite over Iraq at the time of firing.

It would also have been an ideal weapon with which to launch projectiles against the state of Israel.

The only reason I watched this film, was because my favorite actor Kevin Spacey was in it. The film was a disappointment, but Spacey had some good moments, despite the fact that he was clearly miscast.

This was also the case for Frank Langella as the inventor, who is so obsessed by his inventions that he gets himself in danger.

Tony Goldwyn(GHOST, TARZAN) too wasn't the man for the part of tough CIA-boss. The only exceptions were Edward Fox(however, this was a case of type-casting)and Alan Arkin. The story too was very uneven and it seemed as though it wasn't finished at all. The actors do what they can, but they too can't make THIS material work. 5/10

The only thing I can add is that as a Canadian, I continue to be disappointed in our Government protection of our fellow citizens. RIP Gerald Bull and William Sampson and all of you have been left behind.

I found this to be very interesting. It was straight Forward and nothing added or omitted made it even better. The acting was good and the story made you wonder: would you do the same thing? After watching this, I was reminded that so many of the nations that hate us, we have helped create. As it said at the end "It is estimated that almost $3 million dollars of taxpayer money was sent to Iraq to arm them". The United States creates these monsters and then ends up having to face them. We did the same thing in Afghanstan in the name of National Pride. By arming the rebels who eventually became the Taliban, It became the mistake that came back and bite us on the ass. Now our Troops are paying for it. I really liked this movie.

There is nothing good in this movie, at all! People reffering to themselves as gingerbread men, and wanting to fire "superguns" and filming iraq in nevada and just murdering the good name of Kevin Spacey in this... Its just bad!

Kevin was misplaced, he wasn't supposed to be in this movie, at all!