‘Brink of War’: Reagan’s push for religious freedom in the USSR

Jeff Daniels and Jared Harris bring to life one of the Cold War’s most consequential encounters in “The Brink of War,” a historical drama about the Reykjavik Summit and former President Ronald Reagan facing off against Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev in high-stakes negotiations over nuclear weapons, human rights, the Strategic Defense Initiative and religious freedom.

The Angel Studios film, written and directed by Michael Russell Gunn, follows the 1986 Reykjavik Summit, where Reagan and Gorbachev met in Iceland for two days of negotiations. While their meeting failed to produce an immediate agreement, it helped lay the groundwork for the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty the following year and, eventually, the end of the Cold War.

Daniels (“The Newsroom,” “Dumb and Dumber”) portrays Reagan opposite Harris (“Chernobyl,” “Mad Men”) as Gorbachev, with J.K. Simmons (“Spider-Man”) as Secretary of State George Shultz, Hope Davis as Nancy Reagan and Branka Katic as Raisa Gorbachev. The PG-rated film is now playing in theaters.

In an interview with The Christian Post, Daniels said his portrayal of Reagan highlighted the former president’s ability to hold firmly to his convictions, rooted in his faith, while still seeking to understand the worldview of his Soviet counterpart.

“You got to find where you meet in the middle,” the 71-year-old actor said.

In the film, the two men spar over the topic of religious freedom: Reagan challenges Gorbachev over the Soviet Union’s restrictions on religious expression, but Daniels said the president’s approach wasn’t to condemn but to understand him.

“He was more kind of questioning Gorbachev about it instead of just pounding on him or telling him that he was wrong,” Daniels said. “He really wanted to understand why and have him defend it, which he does.”

“Gorbachev does a really great job of defending why they are the way they are,” he said. “And I think [director] Michael [Gunn] did a great job of kind of writing both sides of that. … Reagan was very much into the religious freedom of all people.”

The film specifically depicts Reagan raising the plight of Soviet refuseniks, many of them Jews, who were denied permission to emigrate from the Soviet Union, as part of his concern that human rights remain on the negotiating table.

Gunn said that aspect of Reagan’s worldview was essential to the story because the president viewed religious liberty as a crucial part of human freedom.

“The religious freedom that Reagan specifically embodied was about all different kinds of religions,” Gunn told CP. “In the film, we depict his question about refuseniks within the Jewish faith and I think that it was really important for me to make sure that both sides got equal weight.”

For Reagan, Gunn said, religious freedom “encompassed everything.”

“It encompassed freedom of travel. It encompassed safety for families,” he said. “And I think that it was something that is quite profound in his belief and also something that we should carry today in terms of our belief in caring for one another.”

Gunn said the Reykjavík Summit — one of five such meetings held between the leaders from 1985-1988 — took place over roughly 30 hours and offered an opportunity to demonstrate how disagreement doesn’t have to end dialogue.

One exchange in the film finds Gorbachev telling Reagan that Jesus was “the first socialist,” a claim that initially leaves Reagan struggling to understand what his counterpart means.

“That causes them to go at it because Reagan has this moment of not understanding what he means,” Gunn said. “And I think that that is the kind of conversation that we can use in our daily life to talk to our families, talk to our neighbors and our friends, and figure out a way to bridge our differences.”

The filmmaker said his goal was to illustrate what can happen when people with fundamentally different ideologies remain willing to speak to one another.

For Harris, bringing Gorbachev to the screen was personal, as his memories of Reagan and the Cold War differ considerably from those of many Americans. A native of Britain, the actor said he experienced the era from Europe, where anxiety over a potential conflict between the U.S. and USSR was palpable.

“We had a completely different point of view. We were more scared of Ronald Reagan,” Harris claimed. 

In his opinion, Harris said Reagan’s posture toward the Soviet Union was particularly unsettling for Europeans, whom he said felt as if they were “in the middle of it.”

“The posture that Reagan was taking and building up the American military and deliberately provoking the Soviet Union was very scary if you were in the middle of it, and Europe was in the middle of it,” he said.

The arrival of Gorbachev as general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party in March 1985 offered, in his view, a sense of hope.

“The old-school leaders in the Soviet Union weren’t interested in having a conversation,” he said. “So when Gorbachev came along, it was a relief that there was someone here who was trying to reset the relationship.”

“I remember it very well,” Harris said of the Reykjavik Summit. “I remember them watching the news, the announcement that this was happening, which was kind of last-minute and being glued to the news.”

In an era before 24-hour cable news and social media, Harris recalled making time to watch the limited television coverage available.

“Back then you could only get [news] for half an hour a day,” he said. “You make an appointment to sit and watch the news to see if anything had come out of it because we were invested in a success.”

The Reykjavik talks ultimately broke down largely over Reagan’s refusal to abandon his proposed Strategic Defense Initiative, a missile defense system strongly opposed by Gorbachev. Yet the meeting is widely viewed as an important step toward the nuclear arms agreement reached the following year. The film highlights how these negotiations were made alongside disputes over human rights and the ability of Soviet citizens to travel freely.

Harris said the film’s discussion of religious freedom also carries a broader warning about governments dictating belief.

“The idea that there’s a tyranny, implied tyranny, in a country which has no religion is equally as bad as a country that has one state religion,” Harris said, adding that true religious freedom exists “when you allow everybody to pursue their faith.”

“The Brink of War” comes two years after another film brought Reagan’s life and faith to the big screen. The 2024 biographical drama “Reagan,” starring Dennis Quaid, traced the former president’s life while also emphasizing the role faith played in Reagan’s worldview and leadership.

Quaid previously told CP how Reagan’s faith was a guiding principle in his life and decision-making, and even impacted the gracious way he dealt with political adversaries.

“My faith is all there is; it’s the touchstone, the principles by which we live,” Quaid said. “Reagan was both a Democrat and a Republican, but he lived his life and was governed by principles.”

“Having a dialogue is really what it’s about,” he said. “I think that’s what we need to get back to in this country.”