The Beast (1988)
(The Beast of War)
Country: US
Technical: col 111m
Director: Kevin Reynolds
Cast: George Dzundza, Jason Patric, Steven Bauer
Synopsis:
In 1981 a Russian tank in Afghanistan gets separated from the column after a raid on a partisan village, and there follows a battle for survival with the Mujhaideen in pursuit and the bigoted commander gunning for his intellectual humanist driver and Afghan interpreter.
Review:
Once you get past the premise of Russian soldiers speaking English with American accents, this is a remarkable film to come out of Hollywood: an uncompromisingly bleak war film which avoids political point scoring and benefits enormously from its unity of action, Israeli locations and gritty performances from the cast. There are few sops to a mainstream audience, much less a female one, with the opening slaughter enough to put off any but the strongest stomachs, and no easy triumphalism at the film's conclusion. The subtext of a battle of biblical proportions between David and Goliath is nicely sustained, and the tank is almost a character unto itself, albeit one with a hole for a heart.
(The Beast of War)
Country: US
Technical: col 111m
Director: Kevin Reynolds
Cast: George Dzundza, Jason Patric, Steven Bauer
Synopsis:
In 1981 a Russian tank in Afghanistan gets separated from the column after a raid on a partisan village, and there follows a battle for survival with the Mujhaideen in pursuit and the bigoted commander gunning for his intellectual humanist driver and Afghan interpreter.
Review:
Once you get past the premise of Russian soldiers speaking English with American accents, this is a remarkable film to come out of Hollywood: an uncompromisingly bleak war film which avoids political point scoring and benefits enormously from its unity of action, Israeli locations and gritty performances from the cast. There are few sops to a mainstream audience, much less a female one, with the opening slaughter enough to put off any but the strongest stomachs, and no easy triumphalism at the film's conclusion. The subtext of a battle of biblical proportions between David and Goliath is nicely sustained, and the tank is almost a character unto itself, albeit one with a hole for a heart.
(The Beast of War)
Country: US
Technical: col 111m
Director: Kevin Reynolds
Cast: George Dzundza, Jason Patric, Steven Bauer
Synopsis:
In 1981 a Russian tank in Afghanistan gets separated from the column after a raid on a partisan village, and there follows a battle for survival with the Mujhaideen in pursuit and the bigoted commander gunning for his intellectual humanist driver and Afghan interpreter.
Review:
Once you get past the premise of Russian soldiers speaking English with American accents, this is a remarkable film to come out of Hollywood: an uncompromisingly bleak war film which avoids political point scoring and benefits enormously from its unity of action, Israeli locations and gritty performances from the cast. There are few sops to a mainstream audience, much less a female one, with the opening slaughter enough to put off any but the strongest stomachs, and no easy triumphalism at the film's conclusion. The subtext of a battle of biblical proportions between David and Goliath is nicely sustained, and the tank is almost a character unto itself, albeit one with a hole for a heart.