DEADLINES

Alex Randall has a dream to be a foreign war correspondent dispatching front-page stories from the front lines. Though he?s never had any experience, he hops on the first plane to Lebanon in 1983 after the U.S. Marine barracks are bombed. Faking his way into the country and into his dream job, Randall is both aggressive and na?ve ? he gets a couple good scoops (beginner?s luck?), but is played like a pawn in a much bigger game of misinformation. Worse yet, he gets involved with Julia, a mysterious photojournalist who also happens to be the mistress of a powerful Lebanese minister who may be stealing U.S. weapons. Randall, and the audience, get a lesson in how information may work behind the scenes: jaded reporters are pooled at one hotel, are fed false information and taken on meaningless tours for stories; finding a good driver is a life and death situation, and the competition to get the story is intense. Burning Beirut is the background for Randall?s trial by fire.