--- name: "Rod Lurie" canonical: "https://film.one/person/rod-lurie" fi1m_id: "rod-lurie" imdb_id: "nm0527109" tmdb_id: 21526 wikidata_id: "Q432655" roles: ["Director"] born: "15 May 1962" reviewed_on_fi1m: 2 average_fi1m_score: 52 average_as: "director" average_over: 2 updated: "2026-09-24T09:59:57.266099+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Rod Lurie ## Identity Rod Lurie - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/rod-lurie - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** rod-lurie - **IMDb ID:** nm0527109 - **TMDB ID:** 21526 - **Wikidata ID:** Q432655 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Lurie, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q432655, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0527109/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/21526 Director. Born 15 May 1962 in Israel. ## Details - **Work:** Director - **Born:** 15 May 1962, Israel - **Active:** 2011–present - **Also known as:** Rob Lurie, רוד לוריא - **Average Fi1m score:** 52, as director, over 2 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 2010s 52 (1), 2020s 52 (1) - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Lurie, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q432655, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0527109/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/21526 ## Streaming the US now - **AMC+:** [*Hell on Wheels*](https://film.one/tv/hell-on-wheels.md) (52) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Rod Lurie > Rod Lurie makes tense dramas about people under institutional pressure. We value his seriousness, but his weakness for moral speeches can make watching people face difficult choices feel more dutiful than it should. Lurie often lets dialogue scenes run in long takes, panning between speakers rather than relying on brisk cutting. He is interested in people being pressed to defend a decision, and he can make that pressure tell. We find him less persuasive when the defence becomes a lecture. His first feature, *Deterrence* (1999), put a nuclear crisis at the centre of a political thriller; *The Contender* (2000) followed with a vice-presidential nominee facing scandal. The performances in the latter give the dilemmas force, though the speeches can labour the point. *The Last Castle* (2001) moved into a military prison, while *Nothing But the Truth* (2008) built a thriller around a journalist's protection of a source. The source-protection story is particularly well suited to his interest in professional ethics: keeping quiet can itself become the difficult choice. Across his work, his recurring collaborators include producer Marc Frydman and cinematographer Alik Sakharov. We are more interested in the strain these situations put on people than in another explanation of the principles involved. *Hell on Wheels* (2011) offers only patchy pleasures, despite its railway Western setting and lively supporting cast. We grew impatient with the solemn dialogue, which made the uneven pace harder to forgive. Lurie directed three episodes between 2012 and 2015, and it would be unfair to treat a judgement on the whole series as a verdict on those instalments. Still, this is not where we would send someone looking for a persuasive introduction to his direction. There is enough life in the supporting performances to make the heaviness elsewhere frustrating. *The Outpost* (2019) takes his interest in pressure into combat, where his immersive staging has a more immediate purpose. The battle scenes are forceful, though the character development is thinner than it needs to be. That is a different frustration from the speeches, and a useful change of emphasis. Try it for the combat, rather than for a rounded account of everyone caught in it. ## Biography Rod Lurie is an Israeli-born American film director, screenwriter and former film critic. Born on 15 May 1962 in Israel, he graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1984 and served in the US Army before entering journalism. He worked as an entertainment reporter and film critic for publications including the New York Daily News, Premiere and Los Angeles Magazine, and hosted a radio film review show. Lurie began directing with the feature *Deterrence* (1999). His credits include *The Contender* (2000), *The Last Castle* (2001), *Nothing But the Truth* (2008), *Straw Dogs* (2011) and *The Outpost* (2020). He has directed episodes of series including *Hell on Wheels* (2011), *Commander in Chief* (2005) and *American Odyssey* (2015). *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (2) - *Lucky Strike* (2026), Fi1m 52, Writer, Producer, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/lucky-strike.md) - *Hell on Wheels* (2011), Fi1m 52, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/hell-on-wheels.md) ## Complete filmography (23) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Lucky Strike* (2026), Director, Writer, Producer — Fi1m 52, [page](https://film.one/film/lucky-strike.md) - *The Senior* (2025), Director - *The Outpost* (2020), Director - *Black Butterfly* (2017), Executive Producer - *Killing Reagan* (2016), Director - *American Odyssey* (2015), series, Director - *Hell on Wheels* (2011), series, Director — Fi1m 52, [page](https://film.one/tv/hell-on-wheels.md) - *Straw Dogs* (2011), as Logger · Director, Screenplay - *Nothing But the Truth* (2008), as Larry · Director, Producer, Writer - *What Doesn't Kill You* (2008), Producer - *Resurrecting the Champ* (2007), as Toby Eagleburger · Director, Producer - *I'm Paige Wilson* (2007), Director, Writer - *Commander in Chief* (2005), series, Director, Executive Producer, Writer, Creator - *Line of Fire* (2003), series, Director, Executive Producer, Writer, Creator - *The Angel of death* (2003), Director - *Scenes of the Crime* (2002), Producer - *The Search for John Gissing* (2001), Executive Producer - *The Last Castle* (2001), Director - *The Contender* (2000), Director, Writer - *Deterrence* (2000), Director, Writer - *Monsters of God*, Director, Writer - *The Horseman*, Director, Writer - *West Pointer*, Director, Writer, Producer ## Gallery - ![Rod Lurie at the premiere of Nothing But the Truth, Toronto Film Festival 2008 (2007)](https://film.one/media/person/3771298/gallery-c38de14c55e0.jpg) Rod Lurie at the premiere of Nothing But the Truth, Toronto Film Festival 2008 (2007) — GabboT, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/39/Nothing_But_the_Truth02_%286920504620%29.jpg/1280px-Nothing_But_the_Truth02_%286920504620%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Rod Lurie at the premiere of Nothing But the Truth, Toronto Film Festival 2008](https://film.one/media/person/3771298/gallery-cae23affa514.jpg) Rod Lurie at the premiere of Nothing But the Truth, Toronto Film Festival 2008 — GabboT, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6b/Rod_Lurie_at_the_2008_TIFF_premiere_of_Nothing_But_the_Truth_%286920504512%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Rod Lurie](https://film.one/media/person/3771298/gallery-98fec046a486.jpg) Rod Lurie — Karen Seto / ???? from Toronto, Canada, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/Rod_Lurie_crop.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/rod-lurie