Wrong Is Right (Blu-ray Review)
- Review Date: Apr 16, 2026
- Format: Blu-ray Disc
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Director
Richard BrooksRelease Date(s)
1982 (February 25, 2026)Studio(s)
Rastar/Columbia Pictures (Imprint Films/Via Vision Entertainment)- Film/Program Grade: C+
- Video Grade: A
- Audio Grade: A
- Extras Grade: F
Review
[Editor’s Note: This is a Region-Free Australian Blu-ray import.]
Movie satire is a tricky business. It can be inspired, as in Dr. Strangelove or Don’t Look Up, but when it misses its mark, the results can be a hodgepodge of well-intentioned skewering of people, norms, traditions, and institutions. Wrong Is Right is a satire of TV journalism, politics, and self-interest that involves a star reporter and a terrorist plot.
Set sometime in the undefined future, the film begins by showing massive American spy satellites monitoring the activities of countries all over the world. Well-known TV reporter Patrick Hale (Sean Connery) is in North Africa doing a feature story on King Awad (Ron Moody), an oil-rich theocratic ruler who has built a prosperous, thriving empire in the desert. When fellow reporter Sally Blake (Katharine Ross) is killed in a bomb blast and the king dies shortly afterwards, Hale realizes that there’s a connection.
Two atomic bombs packed in suitcases were to be purchased by King Awad, and now they’re eagerly sought by others. They include Rafeeq (Henry Silva), the leader of a heavily armed terrorist group; international arms dealer Helmut Unger (Hardy Kruger); Homer Hubbard (John Saxon), a clever and lethal CIA agent; and his boss (G.D. Spradlin). America’s President Lockwood (George Grizzard) must decide how to deal with the terrorist group, the activities of the CIA, and the machinations of his political opponent Mallory (Leslie Nielsen) as an election looms. Complicating matters, Lockwood gets conflicting signals from his vice president (Rosalind Cash) and overly hawkish General Wombat (Robert Conrad) about how to handle the crisis.
Director Richard Brooks has assembled an excellent cast in a film that never reaches its intended level of wit. It’s also fairly short on laughs. The script by Brooks, based on the novel The Better Angels by Charles McCarry, is staged with impressive production values but tends to meander from one episode to the next at often breakneck speed without making its point. It takes a while to get the characters and their roles straight.
As the reporter, Connery infuses the role with his 007 charm. He also delivers a memorable impassioned rant in which he defends news agencies paying for stories, citing numerous examples of exclusives acquired through cash. Connery brings integrity to Hale in contrast to the characters with shady motives who surround him, whether foreign enemies or those in Washington.
Some characters, like Conrad’s heavy-drinking, war-hungry general, are played too broadly. Kruger’s Helmut Unger is practically a live version of cartoon bad guys with his condescending manner and cocky self-assurance. Other actors are wasted in small roles. Dean Stockwell, Robert Webber, and Rosalind Cash have little to do or contribute. I was surprised that Leslie Nielsen, having shown his talent for comedy two years earlier in Airplane!, was reduced to playing a colorless Mallory.
Brooks gives the picture some flare with elaborately staged action sequences that break up the dialogue-heavy plot. It’s apparent from its well known cast and proliferation of action that Wrong Is Right was given a generous budget. But more of that budget should have been spent on tighter editing. At close to two hours, the film drags too often. Some of the best moments are in the last twenty minutes. By that point, however, viewers may have already tuned out. This is an example of a bookended movie—it starts well and ends well but what’s in between is problematic from a structural point of view. It makes the viewer become a co-writer in order to puzzle out the targets of its often-tepid satirical barbs. The script played out on screen looks like a work in progress, not a final draft.
Wrong Is Right was shot by director of photography Fred J. Koenekamp on 35mm film with Panaflex cameras and spherical lenses by Panavision, processed by Metrocolor, Culver City, California, and presented in the aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The Blu-ray from Imprint Films features an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. Clarity and contrast are excellent. Details are well delineated, such as insignia on uniforms, computer screens, clothing patterns, office paraphernalia, and weapons. Complexions are natural. Women’s puffy hairstyles reflect the 1980s fashion trend. Director Richard Brooks’ efforts to open up the film pay off with staged action sequences in the desert and numerous street scenes with crowds of extras.
The soundtrack is English 2.0 mono LPCM Stereo. English subtitles are an option. Dialogue is clear and distinct, even when mixed with ambient sound. Sound effects include gunfire, explosions, racing vehicles, phones ringing, and bodies being pummeled. The action scenes sound great in stereo, with gunfire coming from all directions. Connery, as Hale, provides off-screen narration to set the scenes. Artie Kane’s score offers rousing accompaniment to action sequences.
There are no bonus features on this Region-Free Blu-ray release from Imprint Films.
Wrong Is Right never achieves its intended satirical spark, though it does resonate with current events. Based on exaggerated truths about violence, TV journalism, and politics, it occasionally elicits smirks of recognition but never big laughs. Much of the humor is heavy-handed and falls with a thud. Sean Connery plays the reporter with an appropriate tongue-in-cheek attitude. The A-list supporting cast often struggle to make their metaphoric roles come to life.
- Dennis Seuling